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James shakes his head. “Maybe so, but we’re getting way ahead of ourselves.
PRIDE was designed to support eight to twelve people in an exercise class. People
who were in treatment following a heart attack or something like that. Now you’re
saying, ‘Let’s have a class of 10,000.’ Whoa. We’re not there with our systems.”
Nicki’s heard this kind of talk in the past. “But we could support 10,000 in an
event, no?”
“In theory, sure. But the devil’s in the details. In this case, the details are the
requirements. What kind of a user experience do you want? You can’t put 10,000 little
dots on a cell phone to show people where they are in the race. Well, let me correct
myself: Of course we can put 10,000 little dots in the middle of a cell phone screen;
we do it all the time, in fact. But what possible meaning would that have to anyone?
They would see only a blur.”
“Well, we can figure that out,” Nicki says. “Couldn’t we just show them the five or
so people in front of them?”
“Sure we could. We could do anything. It’s just bits. We can build
anything you want. How much money and time have you got?” James is
trying to sound positive.
He pauses to think, then continues, “And, like I said, the devil’s in the
details. Let’s say the person in front of a particular user is 0.00000005
seconds ahead. How do we display that? Scale it up so it appears the
person is way ahead? Or what if the person in front of this user is 10
minutes ahead, what then? And what if the user is the leader? What do we
“It’s all about show? A blank screen?”
eyeballs.” “Ah, we can figure that out. That doesn’t seem so hard.”
Image source: jiris/Fotolia “No, it’s not. It’s just bits. We can do it, just like we could build a 20-story building
to replace this old relic of a warehouse we’re in. But we can’t do it tomorrow, and it
won’t be free.”
“So, what do you want to tell Zev, James?” Nicki is frustrated.
“I don’t want to tell him anything. But he bought a company that had software
that supported 10 people in an exercise class, and now he has you two telling me that
we should multiply that by 1,000. All doable. Nothing wrong with the idea. But we are
not there right now.”
“Well,” presses Nicki, “how long will it take? And what will it cost?”
“Let me try again. I want you to build a 20-story building to replace this one. How
long will it take? How much will it cost?”

STUdy QUeSTIonS

Q8-1 What is a social media information system (SMIS)?

Q8-2 How do SMIS advance organizational strategy?
Q8-3 How do SMIS increase social capital?
Q8-4 How do (some) companies earn revenue from social media?

Q8-5 How do organizations develop an effective SMIS?
Q8-6 What is an enterprise social network (ESN)?
Q8-7 How can organizations address SMIS security concerns?
Q8-8 2026?
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