Project update 2: getting organised

Here's the second update on this Membership Project. We've spend the last three weeks finding out more on what people are saying about social media and organisations, and developing project plans, as reflected in the project timeline.

Social media and organisations

• A consistent theme is that it's people who matter, and relationships, with the need to consider new roles emerging. Tools alone won't create a collaboration culture.
• We need to rethink organisations as networks, and recognise that people are organising without organisations as Clay Shirky told us. It's happening in schools too. Will we see the end of management as we know it?
• More guides to social media are published or updated, including one on the stealthy introduction of new tools to old, large organisations.
• Contact with PR and communications people provided some reality checks on how far social media is likely to be adopted, perhaps because of the World 1 view in many places. It would help if more chief executives blogged.
• The Economist warned that social networking sites may not be viable businesses in their current form, which suggests conventional online walled gardens may not be a good bet for organisations.

Project plans

Because of the open, collaborative nature of the project - explained here - we expected a messy start. However, by mid-March we had broad agreement on the way forward, and that has now been translated into a set of work packages you can see in the left sidebar for a Guide, products and services, research, and a toolkit.

There's a summary of project plans here, with next steps being to identify a core group of collaborators, develop a workshop game and other products ready for the NCVO membership conference on April 22.

If you would like to join in, drop a comment here or even better register on the site and contribute. Here's how, plus some questions and answers.

David Wilcox