Thank you for your thoughful comment. As you know, my doctoral research examines the introduction of work-based collaborative learning environments that were designed by Learning practitioners to support learning programs (a different purpose to work-based projects, I acknowledge).

We have so much to do to prepare our culture and climate for social media:
Reward and recognition for sharing
Educating the responsibilities associaed with sharing in these spaces – transparency, accountability, reputatation
Trust
Giving people time to search, retrieve, critically analyse, synthesise and share the useful knowledge
(and more)

From a learning and development perspective, our practice will evolve. We will need to work where work happens, to help people learn and perform using these online social spaces. And, we will need to train peple in how to use and leverage these technology mediums to improve performance and output.

Finally, a lesson from Habermas. Systems have historically been developed by people who do not know the indiviual organisation, the workfow of individuals or how individuals prefer to work and perform. These systems need to be flexible to enable individuals to personalise features, functions and interface to meet the challenges of the organic nature of working and learning.

There is another important point that will help bring this subject from into focus for Organisational Learning people. It relates to enterprises and their needs, and response to change and environment.

So a key organisational need right now is retention of intellectual property and tacit knowledge.

And we have an evolving culture of using technology based social platforms for exchange, eg Facebook, Twitter and the like.

And organisations wish to harness these behaviours (they have no choice, its when not if) in a way that addresses their needs (retaining tacit knowledge etc..).

Major technology vendors, with their deep (R & D) pockets want to help (and profit) from all of this.

So we can all think what we like and do what we like but ultimately, from an organisational learning perspective, the corporate agenda and the response from the major technology companies/partners and innovators in enterprise systems will determine how we work, collaborate and communicate (social standpoint) when we are on the enterprise payroll.

And, this will be an exciting evolution. Imagine no email….

Many observers liken all this to the evolution of the internet from and scarcely used informal medium, regarded with suspicion, to where it is today in all its guises.

Of course ITC Learning have an angle because we provide tools and systems that are integrated directly into these enterprise systems (eg Lotus Connect from IBM) to power enterprise social learning.

ie You can do this today, take a tangible step down the “social” track, in a genuinely strategic manner, rather than dabble or talk about it (which is what seems to be happening pretty much everywhere, particularly in OD).

If you or any of your readers would like to discuss this, I believe we have a reasonable perspective, some good ideas, and some starting positions, so please feel free to contact me or anyone at ITC Learning via our website enquiry at http://www.itclearning.com.au .

Thanks for your insights Alison, enjoyable and interseting as always.