IBM's WorldJam: How IBM Created a New Standard in Intracompany Collaboration

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Basex' report, IBM's WorldJam: How IBM Created a New Standard in Intracompany Collaboration, is an in-depth look at WorldJam, a 72-hour-long online community event hosted by IBM to which all of its 320,000 employees were invited.

Basex analyst Jonathan Spira was one of two outside observers to view WorldJam in action.

WorldJam was a set of tools and an environment that were integrated to support a 72-hour online community brainstorming session. The goals were threefold:

1.) To tackle ten "thorny" business problems
2.) To report to colleagues on best practices
3.) To "jam" with friends and colleagues

There are several levels at which one can view WorldJam. First, the technology itself. Second, the issues which were at the heart of the WorldJam discussions. Third, the collective knowledge and wisdom of the company which WorldJam brings together for 72 hours. And fourth, as an extraordinary scientific experiment in online collaboration, and the ramifications which it raises. Today I concentrate largely on the first.

At the core of WorldJam were ten asynchronous discussion databases, or forums, each led by a moderator/expert in the field, assisted by trained staffers. Each forum had a topic and a question, e.g. "Supplying the Glue: More than 25% of IBMers are 'mobile' - telecommuting, working on customer premises, teaming with geographically dispersed colleagues. What do you do to avoid 'IBM' = 'I'm By Myself'?".

The scope and magnitude of a WorldJam-like event is an investment that very few companies could undertake.

This 30+ page report includes actual screen shots of IBM's WorldJam, reports and analyses of forum activity, multiple illustrations, interviews with key IBM executives involved in developing WorldJam, and exhaustive analysis. It is provided to you electronically via PDF.