The following is a result of Jive Client Services’ extensive work with many large clients who have deployed Jive SBS for employee engagement purposes. It is Part 2 of a three-part series. Read Jive SBS Structure Best Practices, Part 1 before reading this.

Special shout-out to my colleague and friend, Kathryn Everest, for writing this entry.

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Jive SBS Spaces

Types of Spaces

In a large enterprise, space structures should reflect:

• key enterprise knowledge domains (e.g., products, customers, industries) where there is significant business value to be gained by improving collaboration at the enterprise level
• key strategic topics where your organization is trying to stimulate enterprise conversation and collaboration (e.g., Innovation, High-Performance Teams, Growth, Globalization, Customer Focus)
• key business processes where there is a strong collaborative requirement (e.g., idea-to-market product development methodology)
• key stakeholder groups or business units (e.g., executive sponsors’ groups)
  

Spaces are relevant for:

• different or granular levels of security - spaces can either inherit the permissions of its parent space, or be completely different
• completely different user communities than what exists.  Subgroups of a user community, however, do not always need a subspace.  Consider using tags and tag groups (see below) to view content by topic, or use a Jive SBS Group
• different branding/themes – a space can have a completely different look and feel from other spaces

Space Management

Ensure each space has an owner, and that users understand how the space is managed. If there are no owners or champions of the space, it may surface a larger organizational issue around accountability.

Questions to ask people who request a Jive SBS space:

1. Is it really a strategic area (see the “keys” above)? If so, there should be accountability somewhere in the organization.  If not, the topic may lend itself better to being deployed as a group, and not as part of the formal space hierarchy.
2. What will be offered in the space? In addition to displaying information, what collaborative capabilities will be in the space? Communities are NOT just about content – they’re where people collide with content and with one another. To facilitate this collision, a space must have at a minimum one or more of the following elements:

• Blog
• Document (e.g., wiki-style pages and files) sharing
• Discussions
• Video (if implementing the video module)

It is not mandatory, but recommended that each of the elements are stewarded rather then just enabled.  This means that for each element that is enabled, there is a specific plan in place.  For example, if the blog is implemented, what is the plan for the blog?  Will there be a group of people who will blog regularly?  Will it be open to anyone to blog?  In the Products space for example, perhaps a general product blog can be managed by product marketing, but the space wouldn’t provide a discussion area or document sharing.  Product-related documents and discussions would be available in sub-spaces dedicated to specific products.

If a document or discussion were to be available, how would they be managed?  Would anyone monitor the space to ensure questions are answered within a reasonable time frame?  Would anyone monitor the documents to ensure they are tagged appropriately and stored in the correct space?  If it is difficult to identify what types of content would exist, or who would be interested in helping to ensure it is properly managed, this could be an indication that there isn’t a sufficient need to include the capability.

Space Layout

Develop a guideline for space layout to provide a familiar environment for participants who are members of multiple communities. For example, always place the Actions widget on the right, Tag Groups (”Topics” in the screenshot below) on the left. Ensure that every space initially created has been designed – don’t rely on the default space layout.

Jive SBS Groups

Groups were included in Jive SBS in version 2.5, in direct response to customer requests for a more simplified, self-service approach to forming ad hoc places. They are an essential part of the structure, providing a method for the formation of more organic and/or smaller areas, which lends itself to an emergent approach to structure.

Groups have a strong membership component, unlike spaces – there is a Members tab, in fact. Because of this, groups are a great way to uncover pockets of like-minded people within your organization, and provide an opportunity for them to discover one another.

Types of Groups

Groups are typically used for:

• Committees and teams
• Communities of Interest dedicated to sharing best practices around topics such as social media participation, iPhone or BlackBerry devices, Web 2.0, Being Green, etc.
• Communities of Practice dedicated to sharing best practices and support around a profession or designation, such as .NET, Project Managers, Architects, Sales Engineers, Community Managers, etc.
• Social groups, such as a cycling club, book club, sports enthusiasts, etc.

Since groups can be public or private, create usage patterns and include them in training materials to demonstrate when to use public versus private groups. This will assist participants in deciding what type of group to create or request.

Group Management

Groups do not include the variety of management options that spaces do. There are no granular permission levels, and group managers do not need access to the space administration console in order to manage their group. Primarily, the person who creates the group is the group administrator – he or she can assign this permission level to any other group members through the end user interface.

Group Layout

As with spaces, design of the group’s Overview page is important. The default layout, however, is typically good enough, and provides uniformity across groups.

Tags and Tag Groups

Tags are keywords that can be added to any type of content by the author. Additionally, participants can tag content created by someone else by using bookmarks. Tags are the “Web 2.0” way of categorizing and making content more findable. A rule of thumb is to tag content with words or phrases you might use to search for it later. Create a tag phrase by using hyphens or underscores between the words, instead of spaces. Initial participants should be well trained in the use of tags.

Space managers create tag groups in order to collect tags into logical groups, or categories. These tag groups appear as choices in a drop-down selection box within each content type (documents, discussions, blog posts), and as a list of folders within the Tag Group widget on the Overview page for spaces. The tags within a tag group are displayed when the tag group is selected within a content type. Participants can select or manually type multiple tags from one or more tag groups. When a tag group is selected within the Tag Group Widget, all content with tags in that tag group will be displayed.

Not sure when to create tag groups? Review the emergent vs. prescribed approaches described in Part 1 for details.

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Stay tuned for Part 3 later this week, which will suggest an initial space taxonomy and initial groups that provide enough comfort for people who need to browse, and that offer enough of a pattern of use to seed proper taxonomy growth.

• Previous Entry: Jive SBS Structure Best Practices, Part 1
• Next Entry: Jive SBS Structure Best Practices, Part 3