Inspiration Overload

Why we care to share

Humans are sharing more content, with more people, more quickly than ever before. Our reasons for doing so generally fall into at least one of these five categories, the study found.

1. We share to bring valuable and entertaining content to others
2. We share to define ourselves to others, and to receive social validation
3. We share to strengthen and nourish our relationships with one another
4. We share for self-fulfillment—“We enjoy getting credit for it”
5. We share to advocate for causes we believe in, and less commonly, brands we want to support

While we’ve spoken about collaboration and teamwork for decades, the truth is that most corporate cultures are still not really about sharing. Which makes the very concept of an enterprise social object had to imagine. This is exacerbated by the continuing existence of blame cultures, which contribute to the fear of transparency and the pushback against sharing. It goes against human nature to help arm those who would attack you.

Een fraaie gedachtengang over de rol van sociale objecten en de verschillen tussen privé objecten en gedeelde objecten in organisaties.

Microsoft staff creates ‘challenges’ in the software, and encourages users to play to learn.  As users unlock challenges (see screenshot above) they can earn up to a max of 300 points per product,  and can choose to share their scoring with their Facebook friends on the Fan page.  Don’t think there’s any social captial here? well if people can brag about their fictitious mafia wars scores, we should expect them to tout their real-world workplace proficiencies.