ECSM 2016 Keynote Speakers

Unlearning Learning with Social Media

Sue Greener, Brighton University, UK

It’s hard to unlearn bad habits. Why? Because we always want to move forward with our lives and our learning. Build on what we know, discover new things and go to new places.  We want to hear the “news” from other people and places, and social media is becoming our channel of choice to create, receive and share that information. So for every new educational course we construct learning outcomes, targets for new knowledge and skill we expect our students to achieve. In organisations of every kind, we expect people to learn both formally and informally, in order to gain competitive advantage or improve performance. But what if this forward momentum is a myth? Over thirty years ago, Helberg discussed the idea that knowledge couldn’t just accumulate: “Knowledge grows, and simultaneously it becomes obsolete as reality changes. Understanding involves both learning new knowledge and discarding obsolete and misleading knowledge” (Hedberg, 1981:3) - this is the nature of unlearning, which is not the same as forgetting but involves the challenge of confronting knowledge, in which we have invested effort, but which is no longer helpful. The contention of this keynote is that social media in all its forms can offer us something special when it comes to unlearning. New patterns of collaborating, researching and arguing which, through the social nature of the media, can force us to unlearn and, perhaps more importantly, can help us break out of linear routines of acquiring knowledge.

Researchers in Social Media, Businesses Need You!!! 

Ali Ouni, Spectrum Groupe, France

The growth of social media has boomed over the past decade. “ Organizations cannot afford not to be listening to what is being said about them or interacting with their customers in the space where they are spending their time and, increasingly, their money too”  (Malcolm Alder, KPMG, 2011). Using  social media has become a business imperative, which is definitively on the agenda of executives. Besides its integration in marketing, advertising, public relations and customer service functions, Social Media is reaching most organizational processes and will radically impact the businesses models of organizations (Uberization as an example). Many studies have reported that the majority (+70 %, since 2010) of big organizations operating around the world are active on social media. Five years later (2015), other reports are indicating that 80 % of social business efforts have not achieved the intended benefits due to inadequate leadership and overemphasis on technology! If many adopters are targeting (and sometimes finding) significant benefits, they are also facing unexpected risks and difficulties along the way. Businesses are realizing that  1) social initiatives are different from previous technology deployments, and 2) socialization through social media is widely different from traditional ways of working. In addition, the social media landscape is rapidly changing. As technology is evolving, many innovative examples have emerged. Things are going too fast compared to traditional business time frames!! Therefore businesses have to define a good approach to effectively embrace social media; facing the risk of being outdated if they fail. Research about the impact of social media on business is very rich, with empirical and analytical models available. However, despite all of this, organizations are unsuccessful when it comes to decision making, strategic tools, and business models optimization.  Businesses need help from research in order to mitigate their risks in choosing and working with social media.