With the birth of social media, enterprise social networking, micro-blogging, and all things Web Two-Dot-Ugh came this crazy idea that we were somehow "flattening the hierarchy" and recreating leadership.
This theory was abundant at the Web 2.0 Expo last week in San Francisco, where Web lovers of all stripes came to talk about the way the Web is changing our idea of the world and, particularly, who runs it.
"Technology was very important, and now I think it's swinging toward humanity," said John Maeda, president of the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in a talk entitled "Open Source Administration."
"That's why social media is so meaningful today. We want to be human again. It's a wonderful problem to have."
Maeda went on to describe the way he runs his (pardon me, not his, "everyone's!") university, which he considers a "social media campus" as exemplified by the screens placed across campus where students and faculty can post images or text for free -- and download any of the shots as screensavers.
He also has a blog and invites students to participate. Tuesday is "Anonymous Day," when students can post comments on the blog without revealing their name. "I found it's no longer my blog. It's the community's blog," Maeda gushed.
"With this kind of mechanism we're able to erode the idea of leadership in the 20th century. You all represent this new thing. This weirdness where suddenly you can talk to anybody now -- one of my VP's sons just Friended me on Facebook. It's strange but all possible!"
What's stranger, still, is that anyone buys into this hogwash.
I can't think of how many times I've heard vendor pitches suggesting that their social media products are "flattening the hierarchy" in the enterprise. Don't also forget that Web 2.0 is changing leadership, not just in the office, but in America. You know Barack Obama? Yeah, he's my Facebook Friend and, thereby, not the boss of me.
Has everyone gone mad?
OK. Sure. Things are a little different now. I've now been granted this unprecedented right to Poke my boss on Facebook. I can possibly even be a part of a conversation with our CEO on Twitter, or on our internal wiki. But does this really "erode the idea of leadership"?
Maybe there's a new accountability factor. Maybe it humanizes people in a way, connecting tech-savvy execs with the staff they would otherwise not come to know. And maybe that's a good thing.
But none of this changes who the leaders are or that they're in charge. When our execs sign off Twitter and retire to those boardrooms to determine who is next to get axed, we're still on the outside, in our cubes, disconnected. Online and off, the hierarchy remains intact.
All things considered, then, does the Web really "change" leadership, or does it just give it a friendlier guise?
? Nicole Ferraro, Site Editor, Internet Evolution
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