IT is fascinating, it has actually shrunk the world to a global village where it is easy to know more about more people than ever before. Thanks to some upcoming and some established social networking web sites that serve a simple purpose - getting people together. By nature we all love to be in touch, we love to express thoughts, we show off our coolest pictures, we invite friends to check out our cool videos. Be it YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and several others, past couple of years have provided a terrific way to really know the person behind a face you put across a name. Add to it the numerous blogging opportunities that can really add another deeper dimension to what you want to know about somebody. Social networking opportunities actually driving the advent of Web 2.0 technologies are now leveraged beyond the boundaries of homes.
In the corporate world the embrace of Web 2.0 technologies is yet to be really noticed, however, casual usage of such means to network with distant teams and colleagues has already started to pick up. This is forcing big IT vendors to re-think their product design strategies to provide Web2.0 enabling technologies as part of the bundle. This is eventually in the hope that one day we will be better 'networked' at work as well. Funny though it may sound, it is a reality in several organizations. Chances are you interact with somebody on such forums more often than you meet her at the Company cafeteria. What about folks who are working with you remotely....?
Welcome to the world of offshorization. From where this blog is authored, offshorization is a commonly known phenomena - to put it mildly. The use of social computing technologies is leveraged in the IT Offshorization world by savvy customer managers who want to learn more about their offshore vendors' teams. They go beyond the long distance tele-conferences and video conferences that discuss project status and mostly business. For instance when a project team in Mumbai posts its cool Quarterly Party video on YouTube their manager at the customer's end 8000 miles apart gets to know the team in an environment she has never seen. With growing time constraints at the work place it is hard to dig in such details about your team through calls and emails. It is this "connect and share" experience on a platform that is mutually neutral puts everybody at instant ease. Ideas, thoughts, feelings let themselves out more easily. You know elements of different personalities of the people that not only matter to your business, but you as an individual. No matter where they are in this global village.
Are you an IT Director/Manager with teams working remotely? How much do you know about your teams beyond their IT capabilities and skills? Chances are many of your team members are already on Facebook, Flickr, or on Orkut. If not ask them to show up on your favorite site. Share your thoughts, share your videos, reach out! Try it with your team and see.
