links for 2008-09-24

  • A thoughtful analysis of the potential limits of SharePoint as a platform for collaboration in enterprises. I suspect that SharePoint is becoming the "safe" choice for a lot of organizations interested in elements of social networking and Enterprise 2.0. This post offers some insights into the risks of that default strategy for enterprises that become more sophisticated in their approach to collaboration over time.
  • Funny bit of video suggesting where viral marketing efforts might take us if we aren't careful. Enough truth in it to be scary
  • An interesting and insightful analysis to remind us that GIGO (Garbage In, Garbage Out) is still a relevant bit of advice to keep in mind as information systems become more sophisticated and more tightly embedded in organizational decision making. No matter how clever the model, if management wants to get a particular answer they can find a way to do so.

Neologism of the Day: Qualifiction

Paul Myers and I were colleagues back in Boston back in the early 1990s. Thanks to the wonders of Twitter, LinkedIn, and RSS we reconnected and I came across his excellent blog and found this little gem this afternoon. I suspect that your politics might influence exactly how funny you find this, but I think everyone ought to be able to appreciate it at some level.

A teaser on the front page of this week’s Simmons Voice, the college newspaper, declares "Student questions Palin’s qualifictions [sic]." That last word was a typo – obviously the intended word was "qualification" – but when you think about it, "qualifiction" is a dandy word for false or misleading credentials. On resumes, people commonly stretch the truth of their experience by taking more credit for some accomplishment than they probably deserve. But lies presented as truths are, in a sense, fictions. Thus a new word for the week – "qualifiction: the outright misrepresentations of job titles, degrees, or achievements that are presented to bolster one’s suitability for a job." Pass it on!

Neologism of the Day: Qualifiction
professormyers@professormyers.com
Thu, 18 Sep 2008 21:58:41 GMT

links for 2008-09-17

Learning from the failures of others; billion-dollar lessons for next to nothing

Billion-Dollar Lessons: What You Can Learn from the Most Inexcusable Business Failures of the Last 25 Years, Carroll, Paul B. and Chunka Mui

Progress in science and engineering proceeds from the dispassionate analysis of failure. We learn more when we screw up than when we succeed. However, since Waterman and Peters In Search of Excellence,