Engaged Learning

SharePoint vs. Social Media

Jun 22, 2009 Social Learning SIG

Recently I was asked if I was OK with using SharePoint instead of social media software.  The short answer is a resounding NO.

Why?  My main reason – which may not seem like much on the outset – is that SP is document focused and social media is people focused.  After that explanation I can hear the question, “So what?  If they do the same thing is there any difference?”  First of all, they don’t do the same thing.  They may look like it, but they don’t.

photo credit: withoutgas2

In a few weeks I am leading 14 Boy Scouts, 14-17 years old and 12 leaders and parents on a bicycle trip from Cannon Beach on the north coast of Oregon to Florence, a central coastal town.  Some boys have road bikes.  Others are making due with mountain bikes equipped with slick tires, not the knobby ones.  These bikes were made for mountain biking, not for road biking.  Making adjustments will help.  But through the last year’s practice runs there is a definate difference between those who’s bikes are make for the trek and those who’s bikes are not.  They are slower.  These boys expend more energy to get the same distance.  They drag everyone behind.  They have to stop for more breaks.  They are not as aerodynamic (and with a headwind on the Oregon coast that makes a BIG difference). If the bikes have shocks… well, that is a killer.

In the same way, both SharePoint and social media might be said to make similar journeys – they are both vehicles.  But for different landscapes and different purposes.  Even with the changes SP says they will make in 2010, it still will not have the right focus.

Besides, how do you act and think and feel and interact when you are working on a document.  Now, how do you act and think and feel and interact when you are working with a person.  The PEOPLE are the ones that create the documents.  Why focus on the documents with limited knowledge when you can focus on the people unlimited & timely knowledge?  It is a different mindset which makes you interact with the people and content differently.

Here are a couple resources that talk about the difference between the two.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Hinchcliffe/?p=280

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=Software&articleId=9134641&taxonomyId=18&pageNumber=1