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One manifestation of the culture of participation is "user-generated content", the idea that a site's users will contribute content that makes the site increasingly valuable to a target community. But the truth of the matter is embodied in something called the 99:9:1 rule:

Executives are increasingly using blogs for stakeholder communications. A baseline.com article contains both useful tips as well as links to representative executive blogs. Most important, the article remind aspiring executive bloggers that a serious investment is required to reap the rewards: "Blogs are not a “build it and they will come” messaging vehicle. They take commitment, authenticity, and time to cultivate into a respected communications conduit." The NG team recommends that executives unable to commit to this level of effort consider commissioning "thought leaders" to contribute to a company blog.

The presidential candidates are trying to engage NG's culture of participation through presence on popular online community sites. Here's what's happening with the three major presidential candidates:

"Crowdsourcing" is often applied gathering information from online communities, but it is also a way of putting those communities to work. Presidential candidates are using crowdsourcing applications that put volunteers to work in their own homes calling potential voters around the country. Clinton's "Call Center" landing page shows a typical app's workflow step-by-step.  Obama's landing page for a similar app has a different engagement style.

Google Docs has been an free, albeit awkward, way for teams to collaborate via shared documents. Now Google ups the ante by introducing Google Sites. Google Sites is basically an enterprise wiki that supposedly integrates with the company's shared documents and email capabilities. The NG team will be reporting on how well this works for our projects in the future. But for now I'll leave you with this comment from CIO Insight on Google's potentially disruptive impact on traditional organizational dynamics:

"The wisdom of the crowds" is a popular Web 2.0 concept, but in a provocative Slate article/podcast titled "The Wisdom of the Chaperones", Chris Wilson cites studies of Wikipedia, Digg,  and other popular crowd-sourced sites to argue that all is not what it seems.  It's worth reading/listening, but here's the practical takeaway for successful NG implementation.

Attractive websites require intelligent and constantly fresh content, which many enterprises cannot quickly generate from the communities they are trying to engage or from their own employees. So using editors and writers, contracting with thought leaders as frequent contributors, and other similar investments should be evaluated. The chatter of the crowd is sometimes just no substitute for the work of professionals.

A CIO Insight article chides the over half of surveyed execs lacking hands-on experience with Web 2.0 applications, "you aren’t putting enough thought into your job."

"Workers across your company aren’t waiting for you to try these applications, they’re using them already. The incoming generation of Web natives—the young people who will replace the retiring baby boomers by the millions—expects a work environment that reflects their reality. That’s where they’ll be most productive, too."

The author's suggestion - "spend a little time mucking around" - may work for some, but more aggressive approaches include seminars, workshops, executive boot camps, and coaching. Peer-oriented pilot projects can be particularly effective.

An element of NG's culture of participation is "crowdsourcing", outsourcing by open call a task traditionally performed by a specialist. It is a way to leverage the mass collaboration potential of online communities. The Fort Myers News-Press used this technique last fall to investigate large and unexplained increases in a local municipality's property tax assessments.; On the Media reports:

Listen to an insightful 10 minutes on the workplace dynamics among Boomer, Gen-X and Gen-Y employees; and how this ties to NG tools like instant messaging and online collaboration, in a podcast interview with Tammy Erickson, author of the Harvard Business' Across the Ages blog.

<p>The virtual universe of Second Life is suffering not only from virtual bank defaults, <a href="http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/01/22/second_life/" target="_blank">says APR Marketplace</a>, but also from a lack of business confidence:</p>
<blockquote>

"In Defense of Gen Y Workers", by a 21-year old editorial assistant at CIO Magazine, provides good insight on how younger works expect to have Internet NG tools to perform their best. As this paragraph illustrates, her tone sometimes borders on the snarky but her points are well taken.

I grew up turning in my homework assignments online and using online chat rooms as study groups with fellow classmates. And it worked for me. It worked real well. I love the Internet, online communication and Facebook because these technologies allow me to do what I do best: multitask. Since I’ve been trained by and with these new technologies, I am—face it—better suited for the new work environment than you old folk. Even you old folk are beginning to realize that collaboration is a better way to leverage information to produce services, products, whatever. But while you think of collaboration theoretically, I live it and breathe it. And, unlike you, change doesn’t bother me. I love it.

Software maker Symantec released its 2007 Green Data Center Report in late November. An innovative approach to disseminating this material was releasing an Executive Summary in the form of a podcast interview with a Symantec executive.  Podcast interviews with authors from magazine and book publishers are increasingly common; similar podcasts accompanying corporate white papers are a newer trend.  Access both the podcast and the full report.

This article in Slate e-zine By Chad Lorenz describes the growing generational divide between users hanging on to email and ones migrating towards an IM/social networks mix. Writes the author:

". . . e-mail is looking obsolete. According to a 2005 Pew study, almost half of Web-using teenagers prefer to chat with friends via instant messaging rather than e-mail. Last year, comScore reported that teen e-mail use was down 8 percent, compared with a 6 percent increase in e-mailing for users of all ages. As mobile phones and sites like Twitter and Facebook have become more popular, those old Yahoo! and Hotmail accounts increasingly lie dormant."

The conversations occurring within online communities can be a powerful source of enterprise insight, but sorting through those torrents of data can be a real challenge.  A new generation of business intelligence tools, designed to mine those online discussions, could provide a solution. Companies offering these tools and services include VML's Seer, Nielsen's BuzzMetrics, Visible Technologies' TruCast, and Networked Insights' Customer Insight Platform. A Wall Street Journal article tells how Adidas and Sprint use some of these tools to improve products and services.