Page 194 - How Cloud Computing Is Transforming Business and Why You Cant Afford to Be Left Behind

MANA GEMENT STRATEGIES F O R THE CL OUD R EV OL UTION

And it’s likely to display what Jue et al. termed “unex-
pected reach,” or the ability to find people with information
related to the project that management or other members of
the team knew nothing about. Fresh talent can find the team
by searching on a subject from a source in the internal cloud
and finding references to the group’s activity. It allows those

who can contribute to volunteer from the shadows. In the
face-to-face world, well-established hierarchies tend to inhibit
such behavior. There will be chaff produced in this process,
perhaps, from wannabes and posers, but the group is likely to
function with a collective intelligence on what is real and what
is tertiary.
An example of where this type of digital crossroads and

intense social networking works in real life is open source
code projects. A project site is set up, and developers from
around the world comment freely on the nature of the task
and the quality of the code. The project has a continuous
string of comments from participants and responses from
those responsible for specific areas of the project and the proj-
ect leaders, who hold their positions largely as a result of their
skill in both producing code and coordinating the efforts of
others. The active process of producing and reviewing code

becomes a filter through which many participants come to
be viewed, even though the project leader knows little else
about them.
A rough democracy prevails; the code is the thing, and
ability to contribute to the code is one of the few criteria that
are used to determine status in the group. The level playing
field that is created and the transparent communications used

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