Groundswell Winning In A World Transformed By Social Technologies By Charlene Li (Forrester Research) and Josh Bernoff

Groundswell Winning In A World Transformed By Social Technologies By Charlene Li (Forrester Research) and Josh Bernoff

Groundswell is about social technologies. According to the authors on page 9, Groundswell is,
"A social trend in which people use technologies to get the things they need from each other, rather than from traditional institutions like corporations."

Using Wikipedia instead of the Encyclopedia Britannica would be an example of Groundswell. Going to a free technical support forum on the internet instead of reading the manual for your camera would be Groundswell as well.

This book is a practical book about how corporations have succeeded in using "groundswell" in their business transactions. For example, Proctor & Gamble created an online community called beinggirl about growing up for teenagers to sell feminine products like tampons. All of the examples are from corporations. There are over 25 different cases in this book. It is a nuts and bolts book.

There is no theory in this book. It gives a working model on you can market, participate, strategize, and profit in the the groundswell environment. To give a better context of what this means, Charlene Li is the vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research in Web 2.0 and Social Computing. Josh Bernoff is the Vice President and Principal Analyst for Technographics. I am not sure what Technographics is...

The business model includes charts, graphs, and other indicators of ROI (Return on Investment). I don't particularly understand it. It sounds like consultant, analyst, or MBA talk. Pieces of this book are way over my head. But then it is printed by Harvard Business Press, and c2008, Forrester Research.

The parts of this book which were understandable were the lists of action steps they created to use groundswell. For example, on P. 114, they have a very interesting list of what it takes to succeed in building a corporate blog.

Despite being a complicated business book, the book is not dry. The writing is quite lively. I especially liked the section on the AFOL (Adult Friends of Lego) and http://www.lugnet.com/ International Lego Users Network. The image of an adult building a lego star wars star destroyer comes to mind. It is the epitome of geekiness.

There was one corporate example that bothered me a little bit. Best Buy has an internal corporate network for its sales and marketing people called Blue Shirt Nation. In the history of World War II, the falange or Spanish Fascists were called Blue Shirts. It is a corporate gaff which most people would not pick up.

The authors claim that the Groundswell will permanently change the corporate landscape. I agree with this. Collaborative tools and systems thinking are quickly moving into every aspect of everyday life. I see the world speeding up and many things becoming on demand. It is both disconcerting and exhilarating.

The book has bibliographic notes, a case index with a variety of companies, and a subject index. here are numerous charts and graphs throughout the book. I don't understand many of these because I am not an MBA. The book has a website at groundswell.forrester.com