CGT581 Case study leaders

If you look at the syllabus, you’ll see 6 sessions in need of case study leaders:

Feb. 16 – Social media for communication

Feb 23 – Social media for cooperation

March 2 – Social media for collaboration 1

March 30 – Social media for connection

April 6 – Leadership 2.0

April 13 – Privacy, security, information assurance

You need to post a comment below and pick one topic for which you want to be case study leader.

Here’s what’s expected of a case study leader:

• Bring to class, present, and help the class discuss, about 3-4 case studies that illustrate the actual use of social media by a real organization. The case studies should fit the topic, and they should emphasize the use of various social media tools. It is possible for a case study to focus on the use of one tool: i.e. wikis.
• The case studies should help students understand the use and application of specific tools to solve certain kinds of organizational problems (the kinds are determined by the topic of the day).

I’ve got some useful links saved up in my delicious account, which you may use, or you can find your own.

CGT581 Final Project

It’s time to start thinking about your final project for this class. In fact, by next Tuesday, I’d like you to propose a topic for your final project.

I see a few options for final projects in this class – but if you have other ideas, please bring them on!

Option 1: Improve a work process

Identify a work process that could be improved with the use of social media. Describe the process, the participants, the types of tasks they perform, the type of organization, work culture, etc. Then, write a proposal for social media implementation. Explain what social media tools this group should use in their work, and how. Support your recommendations with arguments and citations. Create a plan for how to evaluate if social media is working well for this group, so in the future, you can fine tune the implementation based on the feedback you would get. Write in APA style, but format like a business report.

Option 2: Research project proposal (and pilot)

Write a proposal for an original research project you would conduct, on a topic related to social media and productivity and/or social media in organizations. The proposal should be complete, just like a proposal for a thesis or dissertation. It should include an introduction, review of literature, research question(s), methodology & instruments, and timeline for execution. If at all possible, pilot the study by collecting a few data points. Write in APA style, format like APA manuscript.

Option 3: In-depth review of literature

If you’re not yet sure what interests you, or would like to gain in-depth knowledge in one narrow area, write an extensive review of existing literature and research in an area of your choice. Please ask for help choosing or narrowing down the topic. Your review of existing literature should be extensive, and include relevant theoretical perspectives, academic research, business reports & research, as well as sources about the preferred research methods used to investigate the topic.

Off the top of my head, here are some examples of broad areas you may choose to investigate:

• the relationship between organizational culture and social media adoption; the impact of social media adoption on organizational culture and/or organizational structure;
• new modes of organizing facilitated by social media (Shirky’s book Here Comes Everybody is an excellent starting point in this direction)
• informal patterns of collaboration and cooperation facilitated by social media (i.e. using social media for productivity, outside the requirements of a formal institution – i.e. ad-hoc collaborative learning among students?)

How to submit your topic proposal:

Depending on how public or private you want to go with this (your choice) you can write a comment below, explaining your idea for your final project, or you can send me an email. Either way, if you have questions or need help, let me know and we’ll discuss. It would be nice to end up with a list of topics in the comments of this post, so you can see what everyone else is doing.

As always, let me know if you have questions.