CPSquare+Opening+Thoughts

1. Results from our //Online Communities in Business 2004 study// were attention getting:
http://www.sageway.com/ocib.html > > Seeing those numbers > > plus > > personal experience watching businesses not commit resources to collaboration initiatives > > (expertise networks, communities of practice, customer and/or partner advisory networks) > > because results not demonstrable beyond anecdotes, makes measurement and analysis both intriguing and critical for me.
 * Most organizations can’t measure return on investment (72%)
 * Many people still don’t understand what online community is (72%)
 * The discipline of creating and managing communities is poorly defined (59%)

2. There are a host of ways people prove value from communities of practice but indications that the science is not necessarily improving.
While not specifically COP's Bill Johnston blog post including Joe Cothrel's list: http://redplasticmonkey.wordpress.com/2007/05/08/online-community-roi/ Publicly available stats (compiled by Joe) - Community users remain customers 50% longer than non-community users. (AT&T, 2002) - 43% of support forums visits are in lieu of opening up a support case. (Cisco, 2004). - Community users spend 54% more than non-community users (EBay, 2006) - In customer support, live interaction costs 87% more per transaction on average than forums and other web self-service options. (ASP, 2002) - Cost per interaction in customers support averages $12 via the contact center versus $0.25 via self-service options. (Forrester, 2006) - Community users visit nine times more often than non-community users (McKInsey, 2000). - Community users have four times as many page views as non-community users (McKInsey, 2000). - 56% percent of online community members log in once a day or more (Annenberg, 2007) - Customers report good experiences in forums more than twice as often as they do via calls or mail. (Jupiter, 2006) From the Forum One OC ROI Survey (April 2007): - Only 22% of respondents had clear ROI Model - 42% had staff of 1-5 people - 49% Report Monthly to Mgmt - Establishing ROI Model was a priority for most respondents in the near term
 * Session 3: Online Community ROI**

**3. Benefits of Applying a Network Lens**
Some of you may have attended "Net Work" author Patti Anklam's presentation on this topic.

and understanding how work and knowledge sharing really takes place through connections and networks.
 * McKInsey-- value created through interactions**

e.g. Raytheon-- teaching high performers to manage social capital.

Understanding growing through using network analysis to reveal work flows and knowledge sharing.

e.g Rob Cross's Communities of Practice paper. Joe Cothrel & I contributed context questions to his survey instrument and get a footnote.

My slideshare including an energy map from a global expertise network. New set of measures. Density, - Number of individuals with a given type of tie expressed as a percentage Cohesion- Average of shortest paths between every pair of people in the network (Cross & Parker p157)

Advantage that can see changes in connections through pre and post interventions plus gather qualitative feedback through the survey plus try quantifying benefits e.g. time saved, defect reduction, etc

4. Tools Emerging to Dynamically and Publicly Reveal COP's and their Thinking
e.g Prediction Markets- Qualcomm, Financial services company.

Platforms for expertise and knowledge sharing.

IBM Atlas. Trampoline.