Facebook and BIW comparison

I had an interesting message from a BIW user and EE blog reader via Facebook. She made an interesting comparison (partly in relation to the email-type application embedded in BIW’s collaboration platform):

“This morning I … had this thought that Facebook is similar to BIW in a way. FB is heavily emphasizing usage of ‘team-mail’ (if I may:-)), whereas in the industry the team-mail is somewhat undervalued (in the little experience I’ve had). Storage on BIW can be compared to posting a video or link on the FB… Meeting management is highly developed in both!

I’m training some people in half an hour; I think I’ll attempt a little analogy with the FB, provided they now what it is.”

Of course, the phenomenal international take-up of Facebook has been heavily driven by under-30s, so provided her training group is relatively young the analogy will probably work.

Others seem to regard Facebook as a time-consuming irritation that should be banned from the workplace. UK trade paper Contract Journal recently discussed the pros and cons of such social networking, and CJ’s Foreman blog has just ‘outed’ contractor Skanska for changing its policy regarding employee use of Facebook.

BTW: this is the second time in the past month that I have had people talk to me about Web 2.0 as a relevant concept for the AEC industry – just a fortnight ago, Martin Brown talked up the possibilities for virtual meetings with project stakeholders.