The deployment of Social Networking Services in the corporate realm. -
An exploratory analysis of potential socio-technical design parameters and their implications

Summary of the dissertation by Alexander Richter

Social Networking Services (SNS) are a new form of application in the field of computer supported collaborative work (CSCW) that provide their users with functions for identity management (usually in a form of a profile) and allow furthermore to keep in touch with other users (and thus the administration of one’s contacts).
Platforms, with the above and other functions such as expert search and exchange with other users, have already been used increasingly since the mid-2000s on the World Wide Web (WWW) and have in recent years consistently experienced high media interest. Due to the huge success of the platforms first companies began to consider whether it would be possible to adapt SNS for intranet use, especially since other types of social software like wikis and weblogs have already been successfully introduced in many companies to facili-tate collaboration and knowledge work of the employees.
It seems quite clear that, when using SNS in a company, other conditions must be consid-ered as with the famous WWW platforms. For example, other usage scenarios can be assumed and there are other demands on data protection.
It is therefore necessary to adapt the SNS to the specific businesses needs.
This is where the present work applies. The aim is to identify the specific challenges of socio-technical system design in terms of successful adaptation, introduction and use of SNS in companies to support knowledge and innovation management.
Before this aim can be achieved different questions arise due to the novelty of SNS. Thus, it is unclear which types of functions are deployed in SNS and how SNS as a whole differ from other comparable systems. Another question is, what experiences can be derived from the use of SNS in the WWW as well as from the use of systems, which have similar func-tionalities as SNS (generally subsumed as groupware).
The dissertation in hand aims to find answers to these questions. It is the result of research work supervised by Prof. Dr. Michael Koch at the Bundeswehr University Munich. With the help of case studies from four SNS deployed in three companies socio-technical design parameters of corporate SNS are identified and compared with experiences from the use of other systems.
The results mark a basis for deepening and comparing the identified design parameters with surveys in other companies and can be important starting points for the orientation of scholars as well as practitioners.