Innovation is not just nice; it's a requirement. Take a look at the chart below which is a prime reason the newspaper industry has tanked. Throwing up walls around your products will ultimately not work; one must take risks and move forward. My thanks to Graeme Thickins for the Tweet about the Business Insider "Chart of the Day". Click upon the chart to view full sized / resolution. It will allow you to read all the data points and explanations.

Sometimes it's hard to believe how new all the various Web 2.0 tools which we now take for granted really are. Over the past several months I've worked hard at finding formal academic research which attempts to demonstrate the business value / ROI of social media for non consumer focused industrial companies. Well folks, it's slim pickings out there! While I believe in the value of social media and have many examples where the enhanced communication has delivered value, this field seems to be too young to have attracted many formal academic studies. In addition to my own efforts, I've had two research librarians look hard for content. While it's easy to find articles in magazines and journals authored by so called experts, thorough studies using metrics are almost impossible to find.

Here is what I've found. If you know of other sources, please post a link in the comments.

From the University of Southern California, I found an excellent report on the ROI of virtual teaming (Meeting the Performance Challenge: Calculating ROI for Virtual Teams). This 47 page report studies two teams in detail including a global alliance research and development team. Here a quote I particularly like:

And my other favorite quote from the study:

I actually posted via Twitter in my attempt to solicit benchmarking partners. Here are links to a couple of those Tweets (I found even less academic research surrounding industrial use (non consumer focused) of Twitter and micro-blogging):

• To Tweet or not to Tweet
• Benchmarking Request
• All Northstar Nerd Tweets

I did come across one other intriguing academic research effort led by Professor Sandy Pentland of MIT. He is the recent author of a book, "Honest Signals … How They Shape Our World" (podcast). The professor and his team are doing some cool research on social networks and cell phones. The research participants wear a sensor device which delivers data to the research team. Unfortunately, the data around social interaction with cell phones while interesting, does not really pertain to my corporate work.

For those of you with access to APQC, they also have a very thorough benchmarking report (200+ pages) on "Accelerating Collaboration and Knowledge". However, formal studies of micro-blogging (Twitter, Yammer, etc) in which I have a particular interest are rare.

Once again, if you know of examples, or work for a large industrial company and would like to benchmark, post a comment or give me a shout.

Update on June 25th: Posted CalTech NASA Collaboration Research Study

I am a proud papa! Carl graduated yesterday magna cum laude from Wartburg College. It seems like only yesterday I gave you "bear" on the day you were born. This Fall you head to Johns Hopkins University and their Masters in Internation Relations Program. Enjoy your first year on their Italian campus … and the second in Washington DC (our government could use your help!). (graduation video)