Innovation + Responsibility

It is no secret to anyone who knows me that my latest obsession these days is Facebook.  I admit it, I was a late adopter, but there is nothing like the zeal of a convert, and converted I am.

 
I have actually been a reluctant recruit to the world of social networking.

*I joined Friendster in its early days and found it, well, useless. Except for the occasional reminder of a long lost friend's birthday (which was useful when I wanted to seem clever and thoughtful and send that friend a birthday note even though we hadn't spoken in years), Friendster seemed not to serve much of a purpose.
*Then there's LinkedIn. I have been a mostly passive user of LinkedIn. It seemed like one of those things everyone was joining when I got to business school - I was getting invitations constantly so I decided to join. Since then I have been like an ungracious party guest - accepting invitations but never extending my own.  I consciously skipped the whole MySpaceI was too young for it (though admittedly I am now right in the sweet spot)! 
*I am starting to get more and more Doostang invitations - these I mostly ignore because (1) I can't remember my sign-in name from when I joined it about a year and a half ago, and (2) well, what kind of name is Doostang anyway?

thing - I always thought I was too old for it and then, lo and behold, it turns out

 
So when my boss sent me an IM a month or so ago and suggested I join Facebook, well, how could I say no?  If I thought I was too old for MySpace, I knew I was too old for Facebook.  But my boss is even older than I am - and anyway he's my boss. So on I went.  And I have been mildly obsessed with it ever since. While I don't entirely understand why I love it so much, what about it makes me want to hang out on there, I can tell you that after about two months (and 103 friends - yes Facebook can also be a popularity contest!) I am not even close to being sick of it.  In fact, I find myself thinking of new Facebook applications almost every day. I keep thinking that it's too bad I'm not an engineer - I could spend a lot of my time building apps to run in Facebook.

 
One of the reasons I get so excited about Facebook is that I believe it can have great and powerful implications for our planet.  The "causes" application, for example, which allows you to recruit people to join causes that are important to you (and these causes have a fundraising function).  I added the causes application because I noticed one of my friends had added it.  From there several of my friends added it after seeing it on my profile. And I am sure it went on and on from there.  Now people are inviting me to join their cause (so far I have joined Creative Commons).
 

Or the "I Am Green" application, which allows you to "measure" your eco responsibility and share that publicly with your friends. It also encourages you to set goals for future eco behaviors and to recruit friends to follow your lead. Every day I notice more and more people adding this application. 

 
Given the fact that the Sun Microsytems network on Facebook has more than 2000 people in it - and it is growing daily - I get excited (admittedly I am a bit of a dork) just thinking about the potential power of the platform to reach and engage our employees around our corporate responsibility initiatives.  I have a vision, I tell you. I call it Sunbook. Originial, eh?

 
When we release our Web-based 2007 CSR report on October 4, I plan to announce it to the Sun Microsystems network on Facebook. If even half of the Sun folks on Facebook take a look at the report when we launch it, that would be  reach four times as many employees as looked at it after the initial launch of our 2006 report.

 
What if the Sun Foundation used Facebook to recruit volunteers to a cause? Our mission is to eliminate the digital divide, so why not add this platform to the set of vehicles the Foundation uses to recruit and energize volunteers throughout our global employee network?  Perhaps for next year's Global Giving Drive and/or Worldwide Volunteer Week we will be able to use Facebook as a way to increase involvement.

 
I get positively dizzy when I think about the possibilities Facebook presents for our OpenWork program.  When 55 percent of your employees do not work from an assigned location, issues of culture and connection are sure to present themselves.  I believe Facebook offers incredible opportunities for Sun to keep people connected, no matter where in the world they are working on any given day.  Picture this:

I am working out of our offices in New York City for the day. I sign into Facebook and in the "status" section of my OpenWork app I enter in my OpenWork info for the day - where I am, the office number, my extension - and then I check a box that allows everyone in the Sun network to see that info (The turbo version of this application would sync the Facebook Open Work app with SunReserve so that your information is automatically in Facebook when you login and all you have to do is check the box to show the information to others, if you so choose).  It also allows me to do a search for people in the network that are in my same location that day (the turbo version could automatically tell me who is around me). Chances are I have never met any of these people.  But now I see who is in the office next to me - his name, what he does for Sun, a little something about him that allows me to make a connection beyond the fact that we both work at Sun.  Perhaps I invite him to lunch. Better yet, what if I could post a message to all the people on "Sunbook" in NYC that day suggesting we go out to lunch or happy hour? Or asking about the best place to go for a run near the office, since I am from out of town?

Next thing you know we are creating a sense of community that may sometimes get lost with more than half the workforce working from home or a drop-in center at least one - two days a week. That sense of community makes me feel more connected to my employer. And I don't know a lot about Organizational Development, but I am thinking that a stronger connection to my employer leads to greater employee satisfaction.  Surely that leads to increased productivity. Which translates directly into positive business results for the company.

So if anyone reads this blog and if you happen to be a Sun engineer who knows how to build a Facebook application and you are interested in collaborating on this project, please let me know!  And in the meantime, see you on Facebook.