IBM Watson Research Center

New Center for Social Software takes on challenges of distributed organizations IBM’s new Center for Social Software is a first-of-its kind center of excellence for collaborative and social software. Based in Cambridge and directed by Irene Greif, IBM Fellow and founder of the field of Computer-Supported Cooperative Work, the Center will help organizations address the modern-day challenges of collaborating across distributed, global enterprises. The Center will feature design and demonstration spaces to showcase innovative social software systems. It will tap the combined expertise of IBM’s Research labs in Cambridge, MA; Hawthorne and Yorktown, NY; Almaden, CA, Haifa, Tokyo, and Beijing, as well as partner with IBM’s Global Business Services, Software Group, and Office of the CIO. IBM is an acknowledged innovator and leading-edge provider of social networking and Web 2.0 technologies for business. In collaboration with our partners, IBM employs a “Venture Research” methodology an approach that moves projects rapidly through a pipeline from idea conception, through swift proof-of-concept and initial evaluation, to large-scale internal and external deployments as the basis for software research, field studies, and rapid product and application delivery. IBM uses this methodology to vet fledgling social software concepts and transform them into Web 2.0 implementations that are fit for business, earning its reputation as a leading innovator in Enterprise 2.0 deployments. IBM technologies such as Many Eyes visualization software and the Beehive social networking system are proving the value of the venture research approach. High priorities for the Center include gathering, analyzing, and publishing data on adoption rates and the value of social software to business. Academic researchers and corporate residents will have access to data gathered in internal and external social software experiments. And because innovation often arises from early phases of a project, the Center will go beyond deploying systems with proven business value, and will also deploy experimental social systems in business and educational settings. Beyond serving as a focal point within IBM for social software research, development, and study, the Center will be home to several groundbreaking programs that provide avenues for collaboration and partnership with the external community. A Social Software Internship Program will enhance IBM’s existing Cambridge summer internship program, concentrating on collaborative and social software and giving students the unique opportunity to work with world-class experts throughout the year. A University Relations Program will foster collaboration with academic partners, who will be granted access to raw data for exploring the social science behind the software. A Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Corporate Residency Program will offer corporate partners early access to social software deployments in the IBM Venture Research pipeline and will allow them work closely with principal investigators on research projects, collaborate with designers on storyboards and vision pieces, understand strategies and trends in social software, and study its usage and benefits.