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Society of American Florists -
SAF Wikinomics Task Force
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Written by Renato Cruz Sogueco
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Thursday, 26 February 2009 14:40 |
At the last Society of American Florists (SAF) volunteer meetings in September 2008, SAF's Technology and Member Services Committee recommended SAF create a "Wikinomics" Task Force to oversee the development of SAF's next member Web site(s) using guiding principles from the book Wikinomics by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams. This group is composed mostly of volunteer leaders who finished their Council or Committee terms and was formed October/November. Members represents the floral industry's retail and wholesale segments. SAF is still looking to find a member grower to fill out the team. All members of the Task Force are required to read Wikinomics. Current members include:
Maris Angolia of Karin's Florist in Vienna, VA
Bob Aykens of Memorial Florists & Greenhouses, Inc., in Appleton, WI
Erlene LeBorge of Rosemont Floral in Portland, ME
Alan Tanouye of Vans, Inc., in Alsip, IL
Kevin Priest of Cleveland Plant and Flower Company in Parma, OH
Renato Sogueco, SAF staff
Shelley Estersohn, SAF staff
Lisa Sidletsky, SAF staff
 (Re)introduction to Wikinomics
According to Tapscott, Wikinomics is based on four ideas: Openness, Peering, Sharing, and Acting Globally. The use of mass collaboration in a business environment, in recent history, can be seen as an extension of the trend in business to outsource: externalize formerly internal business functions to other business entities. The difference however is that instead of an organized business body brought into being specifically for a unique function, mass collaboration relies on free individual agents to come together and cooperate to improve a given operation or solve a problem. This kind of outsourcing is also referred to as crowdsourcing, to reflect this difference. This can be incentivized by a reward system, though it is not required.
Wikinomics Task Force First Meeting
The group had its first meeting in December. They first discussed their impressions of the book, what they learned and later talked about how to apply principles to SAF's member engagement strategy.
"The book Wikinomics got me to check out Facebook, FlowerChat and some other things that I probably never would have been tuned in to," said Kevin regarding his initial impressions after reading Wikinomics. "I feel much more enlightened that I was just a month ago."
Alan added, "One of the things that struck me is this whole idea of thousands of people being able to create products and direct change, rather than a top-down approach, seems very appropriate to association work. SAF is going through its strategic process. If there were opportunities for large numbers of people to participate in that process, helping to identify products and services that would be valuable, it would be helpful, and groundbreaking, for the association.
"Only so many people can serve on a committee, board or council. If we were to open a platform where any member retailer, for example, could participate in certain projects ...that's an opportunity."
Task Force Recommendations
- Develop a new Website open to all participants to the floral industry, regardless of SAF membership. "It would be a way of interesting people in SAF," says Maris. Make sure there is a "Join SAF" button on every page.
- Rather than determine elements to be placed behind a "walled, members-only garden" at the beginning of the process, launch the Website promoting the Website as an open forum promoting mass collaboration, says Kevin. SAF can monitor conversation and begin to formulate ways to provide member only features.
- Create an area of the Website to feature discussion on general consumer topics and plant topics to spark conversation. "One of the ideas in the book is that, in a mass situation, groups will form naturally," says Alan. "If groups tend to organize and are self-determining, then we need to have a mechanism which facilitates that."
- Feed Website content using SAF resources. "Link to the breaking news stories on the SAF website and allow people to comment or add information about them," says Kevin.
- Heavily promote Website users to post floral related news stories. "Encourage users to "build a rep" by enabling them and other users to easily check out all the users submissions, forum posts, comments, etc., says Renato. The group discussed the touchy subject of moderation: "Some of the best boards out there are not moderated ¬-- they're self-policing. Users rate the posts as relevant, not relevant, etc.," says Renato. Kevin recommends, "Be sure to include a disclaimer that the webmaster reserves right to edit or delete comments that are slanderous, profane or inappropriate." Erlene adds, "We also need a disclaimer that the views expressed here are not necessarily the views of SAF."
- Launch a function to share photos - pro and amateur design contests and allow comment?
- Tag all news items and Website submissions as consumer, grower, wholesaler, retailer, etc., related to allow RSS feeds for those particular tags. The practical application later would be for all news for a retailer to be at the top of the news lists when a retailer logs into the Website.
SAF's Wikinomics Task Force development Website can be found at http://www.saftechnology.org
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Last Updated on Wednesday, 11 March 2009 20:03 |
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