I am often puzzled by the way organizations and agencies tackle social media, as if conversational marketing and Enterprise 2.0 were living in separate worlds, addressing totally different issues, pursuing irreconcilable goals. Do they?

Of course, when considering the ‘media’ part of Social Media, open Innovation, co-creation, social CRM, have very few to deal with Facebook campaigns or multi-millions views viral videos. But the ‘social’ part, a word which deeply unsettles more than a few from my Enterprise 2.0 colleagues, tells us a completely different story, made up of conversations, insights, and exchange of knowledge. More than ever, I see a whole continuum taking place in the Social Territory, setting the customer’s experience at the center of business and harnessing all those conversations to get things done in a better way and gain decisive competitive advantages. Social Learning, which involves leveraging knowledge gained through informal networked flows, appears to be the necessary link between Social Media and Social Business.

More on that in the presentation below:

OK, so here’s the deal – if learning is work and work is learning, why is organizational learning controlled by a learning management systems (LMS) that isn’t connected to the work being done in the enterprise? Learning is no longer what you do before you go to work, never having to learn anything else in order to do your job. In the 21st century networked economy, learning and working are becoming one.

As Robert Kelley showed over a 20 year study of knowledge workers, we need to keep learning in order to get our jobs done – “What percentage of the knowledge you need to do your job is stored in your own mind?”

1986 ~ 75%.
1997 ~ 20%
2006 ~ 10%

In a networked economy, social learning is how we get things done. Training, based on solid documentation of processes and procedures, works well at lower levels of complexity and we can develop best practices. As complexity increases, we need more tacit knowledge, which cannot be documented. Conversation is a prime medium for the sharing of tacit knowledge and is the foundation for collaborative work. We need to communicate in order to collaborate. This is why organizations need to manage what matters – collaboration.

The LMS framework is being challenged for its supremacy over organizational learning much as heliocentricity showed European civilization that we were not the centre of the galaxy. Jane Hart says that, “what is needed is an organisational system that SUPPORTS and ENABLES this informal approach to learning.” That system is one where the LMS is nothing more than a node in the network, which means that the LMS has to play nice with others (which most do not). The centre of universe has shifted for training & development professionals and they can ignore this shift, as the Catholic church did, or they can become part of the Learning Reformation.

Is it me or does it seem that most vendors in the LMS/LCMS market still believe that with some smoke and mirrors, you won’t realize that social media actually must be integrated into social learning for it to exist? Or do they just drop the word, “social media”, and rather say, “social learning and web 2.0″?

After all, many have a blog, wiki, rss feed, a Facebook like page, with profile, inc. an image, friends can connect and see comments – sort of like a Twitter and the end user can tweet within the LMS”. See, it is social learning. Not!!!

Brief Background

Tim Berner-Lee, Founder of the World Wide Web and coined the term “Web 2.0″

”Web 2.0 is of course a piece of jargon, nobody even knows what it means. If Web 2.0 for you is blogs and wikis, then that is people to people. But that was what the Web was supposed to be all along. And in fact, you know, this ‘Web 2.0,’ it means using the standards which have been produced by all these people working on Web 1.0.” — Tim Berner-Lee

It’s all about Hype

Web 2.0 is still being hyped in the market, as the upcoming Web 2.0 expo clearly shows and some argue that social media some grew up within the web 2.0 process.

Nevertheless, social media has overtaken its Web 2.0 buzz, now standing and expanding on its own. The expo? Features social media solutions.  When people scour the job markets, employers post seeking social media experts. Social media covers over 15 categories and grows as more offerings slide in there.  With APIs and mashups, who knows where it can go.

Social Learning & Social Media

Can one exist with out another? The answer is no.  Social Learning = Learning, Collaboration & Communication. To achieve this and move forward, social media must be integrated into the platform or mechanism.

I often see vendors in the e-learning space that believe that social learning is similar to what I listed at the beginning of this article.  While some vendors in the LMS/LCMS space will argue that they offer similar “real life” social media offerings in their solution, the key here is “similar”.

Real life social media, is just that – real time, real life. Open sharing of information, collaboration and communication.  Does this exist in your system? Can you tweet in real time in your LMS and people outside of your system see your tweet? Then, people outside of the LMS tweet and you (as the end user) can see the tweet in real time in the LMS?  This goes beyond just your “friends” within the system, and extends to the outside real world.

I know of only one LMS that does this, just one.  The others who offer the “similar”, offer just that “similar”, but not the full open sharing of information.  A counter argument for not offering the “real life” experience is the fear or someone saying something, or security issues, but for most companies, it is really the former. After all, if you are enabling your employees to read their internet emails, surf the web or even Tweet during company time, security is not the concern.

One vendor created a “filter” system so the administrator would type in words that were unacceptable, thus when the end user typed them, in real time, they appeared as *** or not at all. Sadly, they do not offer it as an open sharing of information – internal to external system, rather just for end users in the LMS, when writing on a blog, wiki, etc.  At least it is a start.

A filter system could be created tied to any open sharing of information – internal LMS to real world and back again and work.

Hello?

End users want the ability to open only one window and have everything contained within it.  If you could have your real time Twitter, Linkedin feeds, Facebook and some other social media capability, and your end user did not have to open any other screens, what is the likelihood, that your system would increase in sales?

An Emerging Trend in Social Media: Geolocating

While it has been around for awhile, you are really starting to see traction on it.  You sign up an account online, select some options, and you are able to see where your friends are in real time on a map or as it says “location”.

Download the solution’s app to your smart phone or tablet, and now on the go – you can see in real time where all your friends are located (those who signed up for the service). The social media solution utilizes your built in GPS with your smart phone, tablet or ties it into your IP address via your laptop, netbook, etc, regardless if you are at home or in the coffee shop.

Social Media LMS or Virtual Communities or Portals – Ultimate Learning Experience

I want the ultimate learning experience, so not only do I want to select and have friends follow me within my LMS and chat with them or have them read my feeds, but I want to know where they are and vice versa, so if we want to meet up we can.  We want to take that next level of collaboration and communication. We wish to expand on another social media form – “events” – see meetup.com as an example;  and intertwine them.

So, what can we do?  Add geolocating as part of our social learning services.  Now, I want an even greater experience, so  I will add a virtual world.

Toss in scheduled webinars, real time livecasting, real time video streaming, avatars that have the face image of your end user and not Sigmund the Sea Monster,  communicate in real time – with mini video screens between learners – beyond just texting, and while you are at it… track it..everything, full analytical data. Yeah, you can toss in e-commerce, APIs, Mashups, and add any social media you can think of – slideshare presentations?  You bet.  App Sharing? Simple.

How far are we away from such a real world application?  Not that far away, especially as technology, access speed (for the end user) and the on-going growth of social learning continues.  5 years? Easily.

New term:  Social Learning 3D  – Learning, Communication, Collaboration, 3D experience

Your LMS is your hub, a virtual learning community truly exists – to/from your LMS.  Eliminating a piece here or there and a patchwork of odds and ends.

It would require a lot of capabilities in one solution to tap into various learners’ tastes, wants and companies training goals; something LMS/LCMS vendors always seem to be one step behind.  It would be something someone hasn’t seen before, which for most vendors is unacceptable, but it could be done.

Now where did I put my Ipad?

Maintenant, où j'ai mis mon iPad?

Craig Weiss has been in the e-learning (web based) space since it began in the nineties. He has an extensive background in all aspects of e-learning, including LMS/LCMSs, learning communities, emerging technology and social learning/social media.  He has been identified as one of the new voices in social learning.  Craig is an analyst with Brandon Hall and provides independent consulting services to companies worldwide.  His blog is www.elearninfo.com.

The last few days in Hong Kong have been incredible -- I saw some great sights, participated in some interesting activities and backed all of it up with some great food. Talking of food, I very quickly realised that its kinda tough to get by without using chopsticks in Hong Kong. Now I'm sure that some upmarket restaurants offer forks and knives for food. Food for me however, spells 'cheap and streetside'. The only cutlery I got at these places were chopsticks and soup spoons. Thankfully I know how to use chopsticks, so I had no trouble. Its interesting how I learnt to use chopsticks though. At one point I decided that eating with chopsticks was cool, since I'd seen some of my friends do it and it was kind of a distinctive thing to do. So I read up a "how-to" for using chopsticks, which since I had no opportunity to use, I forgot in a few days. So when I actually did get the opportunity to use chopsticks, I fumbled for the first ten minutes and actually messed up my shirt! It took me about an hour to finish my meal, but by the end I had found an inelegant way that worked for me. As time passed and I visited more oriental restaurants, I gradually perfected the art -- often I'd get little tips and hints from my friends and that helped me get better. Now, I can eat a complete meal with chopsticks and pretty quickly too!

People learn iteratively, over time

Now why am I telling you this story? I think my story about learning how to use chopsticks is quite representative of how we learn. Information that we can't apply immediately at our job fades away into irrelevance and soon enough recall of this information is close to zilch! We remember learning that we can apply immediately and the things that we remember the most are the ones that we learn when performing a job i.e. in a performance context. Most importantly, we learn iteratively and over time. Malcolm Gladwell, in his book, Outliers - The Story of Success, explains how strong amateurs accumulate about 2,000 hours of practice by adulthood. Future music teachers build up about 4,000 hours. Really good students amass about 8,000 hours and “elite performers” invest about 10,000 hours of practice. If we take even the point of reaching competence from the absolute novice state, that's about 2000-4000 hours of work! That's got to take several iterations of learning. One of the reasons I support social media and bite-sized learning, is because it gives learning professionals the ability to help learners across this iterative learning journey.

You learn iteratively too, irrespective of your 'learning style'

One of the objections that I've heard from trainers about social media very often is, "But that's not my learning style..." or "I don't learn that way..." or "Have you considered that it may not be someone learning style to learn this way?" I have a tendency to snap back at these objections, but as I think this through more pragmatically, there are a few things I'm realising:

We're all social learners

Some of us may take time to realise this. If we look back at our experience, there will have been several occasions when we would have asked a question on a discussion forum or looked up Wikipedia or searched on Google. If we haven't done either of these, we've at least learnt something over a coffee table conversation or over drinks or while working alongside someone. In fact I can bet that most of us learnt how to do our jobs more as a consequence of such informal activities than as a consequence of some heavyweight training. You ARE a social learner, regardless of what you think!

We need to 'learn to learn'

One of the key developments of this age is the amount of information that's out there in the wired world. Its fascinating how much relevant information even a poorly constructed Google search can throw up. The ability to stay connected with friends and colleagues through social and professional networking tools such as Facebook and Linkedin gives us the ability to leverage weak ties in a manner we never even imagined before. Add to that the plethora of other social media; Wikipedia, Twitter, Yahoo! Answers, Digg, blogs, etc and there's a wealth of intelligence to exploit. People who don't leverage this phenomenon are missing out on something really big. If you truly don't learn this way, then you must learn to learn this way. Otherwise my guess is the world will soon pass you by and you'll be of decreasing value to your organisation.

Social media is 'more facilitative than facilitation'

If as learning professionals we choose to stay fixed to just one mode of learning then we're holding our organisations back. I say this for both instructor led training and elearning. In fact I feel its important that every formal learning experience includes a larger mix of informal learning opportunities as compared to formal ones. That's where the real value is and that's how we support the iterative nature of learning. In fact after working for a firm that practices Agile, I'll go to the extent of saying that "A single mode of education sans informal learning, is the waterfall of the learning world." Purely formal learning opportunities attempt to help learners solve tomorrow's problems with yesterday's wisdom. Most importantly they adhere to a design that's decided in advance as against being just-in-time, and designed to purpose. Informal learning on the other hand, is contextual and flexible.

Here's where you can start your informal learning journey

Learning professionals need informal learning too and believe it or not, there's help to be had in all sorts of places. I'll list some of my favorite places to learn. Please feel free to add more in the comments section - I'm sure there are heaps.

Blogs

elearning Learning is a collaborative effort started by Tony Karrer and is a collection of blog posts and articles all around eLearning. You can subscribe using your email ID to get free article recaps.

Tom Kulhmann's blog for some reason isn't aggregated on eLearning Learning. That said, its a great resource for people to learn simple, yet effective ways to rapidly produce high quality learning. I've learnt heaps from Tom's blog. He's a true guru.

Online Communities

There are various communities online that you can use to connect with other practitioners and to get help, share ideas, have discussions and what not. Here are some that I find really useful.
The Learning and Skills Group is a UK based community on Ning, that's really active and has about 1800 members on it. Its invitation only, but I guess you can talk to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it to get on the group.
There are a few Indian groups that are really active too, and very useful:

• KCommunity is a community of Knowledge Management professionals in India and is a very active group that does a lot of social stuff.
• Instructional Designers Community of India (IDCI) has a lot of members from the learning community, though I must say I have serious criticism for some of its leaership. (YMMV)
• The Learning Solutions group also has some interesting discussions, though the traffic isn't comparable to other groups. Some really interesting members on the group though.

Twitter Hashtags

Its amazing how much information you can find through Twitter. Its difficult to keep up, but not if you combine search and hashtags. Here are some of the hashtags I tend to follow on Twitter. You name a luminary in the field of social media/ elearning and that person's tweeting, so I'm not going to list individuals here.
#elearning
#e20
#socialmedia

In addition (how can I miss this?) #lrnchat is an online chat that happens every Thursday night 8:30-10pm EST over the social messaging service Twitter. I've put these up on iCal as recurring events, every Friday morning (India), so I never miss them!

Other Resources
Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies (a.k.a C4LPT) of Jane Hart fame, offers a range of free resources about learning and about social media.

ScreenR is screencasting for Twitter! You can use the free screencasting application, under the constraint that you say what you want to say, in 5 minutes. You can find heaps of tutorials created by the huge community and you can create your own with almost zero effort!

Lastly, the recently launched Learning Solutions Magazine, and the very recent LearnTrends virtual conference are a great source of absolutely amazing knowledge about organisational learning.

Sumeet Moghe has 9 years of experience in Training and Development and has a passion for devising and talking about new training methods. Sumeet works with ThoughtWorks Technologies Pvt Ltd, India and heads Workplace Learning for ThoughtWorks Globally. In the last couple of years, Sumeet has been particularly interested in observing the synergy between Agile and Learner Centered Training methods, built around the values of Respect, Communication, Feedback, Courage and Simplicity. At ThoughtWorks, he has had the opportunity of seeing these in practice and actually inventing a few practices of his own. Sumeet is deeply passionate in bringing Agile principles to non-computer science arenas as well and has taken a step by applying these to the fields of Workplace Learning, Enterprise 2.0 and team collaboration.

Social learning — namely, the use of social media in the workplace to foster learning, collaboration, networking, knowledge sharing, and communications — has taken on a kind of religious fervor among learning practitioners during the past couple years.  And not without good reason: It often creates more powerful and enduring learning experiences; it helps people establish and leverage social connections to accelerate the distribution and sharing of experiences, content and guidance; and it allows learners to be more productive, learn faster and work smarter.

One of the reasons many learning and development professionals are struggling to secure budget and resources for their social learning proposals is the inability to articulate the value proposition.  What does “good” look like and what are the influencers that create this “goodness”?

Does it all add up? Value Creation from social learning is more likely to take place when the business context and the learning ecosystem are “optimal.”

The Business Context: What sort of influencers in the business context will encourage and help maintain an optimal learning ecosystem?

The (Learning) Ecosystem: What sort of influencers in the learning ecosystem will create an effective social learning system?

Value Creation: What sort of value creation comes from an optimal business context and learning ecosystem?

Assessing the Social Learning Influencers

Organizations are either actively considering or have recently started deploying social media to enable social learning.  Such companies are slowing coming to realize that key to their success is an optimal business context and learning ecosystem.

How “healthy” is your business context and learning ecosystem ?

Is social learning creating value in your organization ?

Would you like to assess the influencers of social learning and determine how to create more value?

You are invited to participate in a study and use a diagnostic tool at no cost.  There is no obligation to buy additional products or services.

The diagnostic tool kit has two parts.  The first part is an online survey that captures information about the business context.  Each organization participating in the study is required to complete one business context survey.  The second part is an online survey for employees.  The online survey has 50 questions and will take about 15 minutes to complete.  All responses are anonymous and results are not traceable back to individuals.

Participating organizations are required to permit the researchers to publish and speak about the study findings.  The researchers will protect the privacy of the organizations and its employees by making it impossible for anyone to trace back the findings to the organization or any of its employees.

Participating organizations will receive a report of the findings from their employees and will be able to compare such findings to the aggregate findings of the entire pool of participating organizations.

Please contact Eric Davidove should you have questions about the study or want to register your organization to participate in the study.

Eric Davidove, Ph.D : I've spent the past 22 years inventing learning and change enablement strategies and programs for Fortune 100 and 500 enterprises that have delivered great business benefits, and leading teams to develop and deliver them.  I recently introduced social learning to British Telecom and helped create Dare2Share, an award winning and very successful platform for social learning, knowledge management and collaboration.  My most recent article for the CLO magazine (March 2010 issue) is about measuring the value of networked learning.  I am dedicated to helping companies and institutions to create efficient and effective learning programs, extract value from social media, and leverage web-based delivery technologies
I have worked across many industries and geographies, with diverse teams, with proven results.  Please look at my blog : Daretoshare .