Customer Reviews
Throwing Sheep in the Boardroom - How Online Social Networking will transform your life, work and world - By: K. Nellies, 05 Jan 2009 
If the title seems strange wait until you start reading. What you think is a book about how social networking will change corporations begins with the medieval Popes army - The Nights Templar. Weird, but effective as it links the web2.0 revolution with historical & anthropological perspectives. The perpetual conflict between centralising institutions & horizontal networks.
The title of the book is derived from the Facebook feature of being able to throw virtual objects at your friends. It would be unfair to describe this as just another web2.0 business title as it covers how society as a whole & not just corporations is being changed & challenged by online social networks.
The book is split into 3 sections which the authors describe as I.S.P - identity, status & power.
The notion of identity online is more fluid & multifaceted than the physical world where we are constrained by institutional norms & values. In cyber space you have more freedom to be who & what you want to be. Liberating stuff but there is a dark side; paedophilia & cyber bulling are amongst some of the more frightening examples given. Also the idea that your past online becomes an indelible digital tattoo that is with you for life. Those funny moments captured flat on your back at university & posted on Facebook suddenly become a lot more embarrassing when Googled by a future employer.
The section on status moves away from the social individual & into the corporate world where there is a command & control model or as the book describes it a vertical structure. Social technologies are horizontalin nature & have a bias towards performance & efficiency. This allows the smartest ideas from whoever & wherever to rise to the surface. Middle managersin particular view this as threatening as they see their ascribed status & position as gate keepers of information undermined.
Power is fundamentally about who is the boss. Social technologies are pushing power to the margins rather than it being monopolised. The old command & control dynamic is dying, now anyone can contribute as the barriers & cost of entry is almost zero. This is resultingin new commercial realities.
In the music industry the revolution of social networking sites & peer to peer networks has forced the development of a new business model.
In corporations the adoption has been slower but web2.0 tools are now being used for communications functions that don't necessitate organisational change.
In Politics, Obama's victoryin 2008 is the first Facebook election & a vindication of the power of grass roots technology. The same social tools he used to sweep to power now offer an opportunity to reconnect Government to the people.
The authors conclude by examining the issue of trust & state that the web2.0 revolution may depend on the capacity to find a proper balance between loosening controls & losing control - between self regulation & legal constraints.
Overall this is a good book that is stuffed with well researched examples & is written from the perspective of the realist rather than the evangelist. It knits together the past, present & futurein a highly readable narrative.
What does social networking mean for people & businesses? - By: Jonathan Jensen, 04 Dec 2008 
Throwing Sheep is both a fascinating & entertaining read. The authors have captured the key elements of online social networking - identity, status & power - & looked at what these mean.
Social networking is already having a profound impact on the way individuals connect & is starting to do the same for business. This book is a 'must' read for anyone interestedin these trends & who wants to maximise the benefits that social networking can bring them.
I would have perhaps liked to see a little more focus on the power of Twitter to connect people,in particular because many people struggle to understand how effective Twitter is.
