What is happening behind the firewall? The emerging role of social software in IBM

Authors

Brian O'Donovan*
Center for Advanced Studies, IBM Ireland

Gabriela Avram*
Interaction Design Centre, University of Limerick

Liam Bannon
Interaction Design Centre, University of Limerick

Abstract

The use of social software in enterprise (business) contexts - the so-called "Enterprise 2.0" (McAfee) is an emerging phenomenon. Inspired by the various uses of social software tools "out in the wild", companies are now building social software tools for customers (and for their own use), addressing the main concerns (confidentiality, security) and harvesting the benefits.

The current paper proposal is aimed at uncovering some of the social practices constructed around social software tools built and used internally by IBM - a company with a long lived collaboration culture and extensive experience in building collaboration tools.