social networking « Feral Jundi

Monday, August 17, 2009

PMC 2.0: Company Spotlight– ‘Strategic Social’

Filed under: Industry Talk,PMC 2.0,Technology — Tags: Industry Talk, PMC 2.0, social networking, Strategic Social, Technology — Matt @ 2:25 AM

Here you go PMC’s…….and served on a social network platter. lol. One thing that I should remind companies is that if you trust your payroll to be done online, and have your contractors and employees sign in on that thing and do their work, then you can do social networking. You could also set up an external social networking site for friends, family and the public as well. There are a number of ways to do this, and these would be the guys to talk to. –Matt

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Strategic Social is committed to one uncompromising vision: “Leveraging the Social Web for National Security.” Our founders and partners are committed leaders from the Defense, Diplomatic, Intelligence and Technology industries. We have decades of experience working with the United States Government to enhance mission effectiveness at the tactical, strategic and policy levels. We are veterans, we are technologists, and we are business leaders.

Strategic Social’s business is focused on three key practices:

• Custom Technology Solutions – developing customized platforms and applications with Real-Time capability brought to targeted data.

• Strategy, Research and Analysis – providing leading edge strategy and analysis enabling government agencies to understand, learn to use and benefit from social media and web 2.0 solutions and technologies.

• Technology Services – providing systems integration and social media management to government agencies.

Leveraging our extensive experience, knowledge, and contacts from both the government and Silicon Valley, we work side-by-side with our clients to educate, improve and transform their capabilities. Working within the technology innovation hubs of Silicon Valley, Los Angeles, New York City and other centers, we constantly identify new solutions and technologies to advance our clients’ interests. The Strategic Social team can help lead you through this complex world of new technology and deliver practical, measurable results that dramatically improve your strategy, operations and real-world missions.

We are uniquely focused on the intersection of the Social Web and National Security, a concept that fuses two very different camps – camps that at times may fundamentally disagree on key concepts. While the community of social web thought leaders, developers and users value transparency, the national security community is often engaged in conflicts and threats which prevent them from being direct about their capabilities, ongoing operations, intelligence and sources. Yet, both camps share common interests and we hope to highlight, promote and serve those interests here.

The team at Strategic Social is led by CEO and Founder, Matt Bigge and Director of Business Development, Matt Tirman. We surround ourselves with thought leaders and advisors such as Dr. Mark Drapeau, Eric Alterman, David Gessel, Michael Jones, Brian Solis, Tom Gilley and Lana Atwell.

If your organization needs an experienced, committed partner, please contact the Strategic Social team at info@strategicsocial.com.

Solutions

Strategic Social’s goal is to enhance the mission effectiveness of our clients through Real-Time Communication, Collaboration and Command Visibility (RTC3). We enable RTC3 through our three practice areas:

• Custom Technology Solutions (CTS): The current IT environment is characterized by static, manually assembled data that lacks cross-functional visibility. The Social Web, while allowing for enhanced collaboration, user generated content and the harnessing of collective intelligence, users face an information overload. Strategic Social recognizes the immense challenge our National Security community faces and the need for more Signal and less Noise. To assist our clients, our CTS practice develops customized platforms and applications with Real-Time capability brought to targeted data. In turn, these tools are open to Third Party application integration. Our goal is to provide the end user with the right information in Real-Time with solutions that are both Past and Future proof.

• Strategy, Research and Analysis (SRA) – We provide leading edge strategy and analysis enabling government agencies to understand, learn to use and benefit from Social Media and Web 2.0 solutions and technologies. Our SRA practice provides full spectrum analysis ranging from capabilities assessments, development of social media roadmaps, as well as legal and regulatory solutions. A typical engagement begins with a baseline assessment including benchmarking against both federal and commercial best practices. We then work with our clients to ensure that the social media solution is fully integrated with your organization’s strategy and aligned to any communications and public affairs plans in order to maximize mission effectiveness.

• Technology Services (TS): Our team of leading Social Media Technologists and Social Media Marketing experts provides systems integration and social media management expertise to our clients. We are experts in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Social Media Marketing (SMM).

Website here.

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Friday, May 22, 2009

Publications: Social Networking and National Security: How to Harness Web 2.0 to Protect the Country, by James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.

Filed under: Publications — Tags: James Carafano Ph.D., national security, Publications, social networking, Web 2.0 — Matt @ 12:32 AM

Wow, maybe Dr. Carafano is reading FJ? Because I read through this thing and thought that this was right up there with all the MyPMC.com stuff that I have been talking about. So bravo for building that snowmobile!

A couple of things I want to add to this thing, just to put a sprinkling of salt on this dish. Millennials (Generation Y), smart phones, and Boyd’s good ol’ Destruction and Creation paper to be more specific.

Gen Y will have a huge impact on this country and the way we do business, and they already have had a big impact with the election of President Obama. They are also one of this country’s main brains and braun in today’s work force.

According to this article, there are three (suggested) core elements that drive the ambitions of Generation Y in the workplace :

Impact–Making a difference is a strong motivational force behind Gen Y’s efforts. Though salary and benefits continue to dominate the no. 1 and 2 on the importance list, making an impact ranks no 3.

Communication–The instant communication framework Gen Y developed through extensive computer usage has lead to a need for more professional feedback than that of past generations. Communication platforms such as SMS, e-mail, video chat, microblogging and blogging have engendered a mindset that necessitates constant communication with others. That mindset has carried over into the workplace.

Flexibility–The divide between work and life is continually growing narrower as more people shift from the bricks-and-mortar to a remote workplace. The rate of remote office workers has increased significantly in the past two years, according to WorldWideWeb.

In order to answer the needs of this kind of workforce, you must embrace the tools in which they depend upon. The benefit will be incredible, if these Network Scientists and social networking engineers can come up with the right framework for this crowd.

I have already made my case for how PMC’s/Countries could use this technology, and guess what, today’s contractor workforce are all Millennial Combat vets with iPods and laptops and Myspace/Facebook accounts. Embrace this stuff, or be left in it’s wake.

Next, smart phones. I mention this, because most everyone will have a smart phone here where they will be able to access their social networks, and they already do. And because each person is like a walking sensor in whatever environment they are in, to not take advantage of this is stupid. Emails, SMS, word processing, GPS, pictures and film, etc. are all possible on today’s smart phone. Language software, internet surfing, youtube, you name it, and it is on a smart phone. The more smart phones that flood the telecom market, the cheaper they get, and the impact of such a thing is that the Millennials will be even more connected and inspired by their environments. I say inspired, because if that individual wants to make a difference, it will require stimulus that is outside of their bubble or system. Closed systems suck, and smart phones are a way for people to maintain their connection online. It allows them to venture out into the world and not worry about missing communications, and if you take the time to watch today’s society in let’s say a mall, you will soon see what I am talking about. Everyone has smart phones or is wanting to get one, and it will have an impact.

Wait until the smart phone wave hits places like Afghanistan and Iraq. These phones are like a internet cafe in your pocket, and that is a very powerful tool for anyone out there. From the insurgent learning to make rockets from a Youtube video on a iPhone, to the English student trying to learn the language through a class on the phone, to a doctor looking up crucial information about a procedure–smart phones and all the open source applications that come with, will catch like fire in these countries and have an impact.

Finally, the wonderful paper called Destruction and Creation, written by Col. John Boyd, should get more mention when we talk about social networks. The concepts define exactly why closed systems are not good, and to me, a social network is an excellent tool to open up a system and get external influence. Think about it a little, and you start to understand why social networks are so powerful. If I was to take this to a grand strategy level, social networks will help us to not be isolated mentally compared to our enemies. –Matt

Edit: Dr. Carafano has just visited the site. (see comments section below)

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Social Networking and National Security: How to Harness Web 2.0 to Protect the Country

May 18, 2009

by James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.

Backgrounder #2273

Computers have changed how Americans do almost everything. Soon they may alter national security. There is much more on the information superhighway these days than information. There is a traffic jam of conversation facilitated by e-mail, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr, Digg, Wikipedia, LinkedIn, Twitter, and other social networking tools (often collectively called Web 2.0) that facilitate discussion, debate, and the exchange of ideas on a global scale.[1] This unprecedented capacity to listen and respond is inexorably restructuring the ways in which information is created and used.

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Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Building Snowmobiles: Social Networking and War–MySomalia.com and MyPMC.com

Filed under: Building Snowmobiles,Kaizen,Somalia,Technology — Tags: A-Space, facebook, Myspace, PMC, PSC, security contractors, social networking, Socialcast, Somalia, UN — Matt @ 5:10 PM

This is a two part article with one focused on using social networking for Somalia state and nation building. Part 2 is dedicated to using social networking as a tool for business and Kaizen for PMC’s and PSC’s. This was probably my most challenging and thought provocative topic, and it’s hard to say if I really hit on something of value or not. So to me, this is pure building snowmobiles, and certainly unexplored territory. I also want to warn you, that some of these concepts are kind of out there, but still something to chew on around the water cooler. Let me know what you think. –Matt

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(Part 1)

MySomalia.com

I have been thinking about Somalia for a bit after my discussion with Eeben Barlow and after a little research, I have stumbled upon a concept that I think should be looked at. It is a combination of social networking and private military, all with the goal of building the state and a nation.

I think the Somalia government, with it’s new President, should create a MySomalia.com and attract the millions of Somalis world wide, that give money to their families in Somalia anyways. This diaspora of Somalis, could be tapped into as a funding source, and an activist force for the country. The model for such a thing would be MyBO.com (President Obama’s campaign social network site, that made him 200 million dollars in funding, and rallied millions of supporters)

And to take advantage of the power of tribes in Somalia, you could put an option in the profile building pages of MySomalia.com on what tribe you came from. That way other Somalis could identify their tribes or groups, but do it all under the mechanism of the main group of MySomalia.com. That actually would help enforce the idea of nation, but still allow the freedom to express what tribe you came from. The key to success with a site like this is a strong architecture and a strong brand, and letting your supporters do the rest. It would be really interesting to watch how Somalis and friends of Somalis would help that country, if given this kind of social networking tool.

I point to Noah Shactman’s comment he made on Wired about Obama’s social networking site, and why it worked so well. I think PMCs and Governments would be wise to look hard at the potential of social networks. I know NASA, FBI, CIA, and numerous other private firms are all using social networking sites to exchange ideas and rally the people within those organizations.

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