Many of our readers here at ReadWriteWeb are brave explorers of what’s new in technology – while working inside large, often slow-changing organizations. For those of you who fit that description, there’s a new organization in the works called The Working Group. More than just another niche social network, this is a serious project that I expect will be in high demand.
The Group calls itself a “place for anyone to share their experiences, frustrations and successes in driving change inside large organizations.” Monthly meetings, the first being this week, will combine guest speakers and open discussion. Account creation is required in the group’s Ning social network, but anyone can join. (Too bad there’s no OpenID at Ning.)
Founded by Oracle Corporation’s Paul Pedrazzi (pictured here) and discussed on the Oracle AppsLab blog, the first teleconference meeting is scheduled for this Wednesday morning. (PST) It will begin with a 30 minute talk by guest speaker Oracle Chief Privacy Council Peter Lefkowitz, followed by a 30 minute open discussion.
The group is “not affiliated with Oracle or any other company,” but it’s nice to see some heavy-hitters getting involved as individuals.
Context
Building momentum for new paradigms, tools and strategies is something that gets easier when you’ve got other smart people in similar circumstances available to talk to.
If high-value guest speakers can continue to be lined up and the discussions are well moderated, I expect that this group and others like it will be very well received. There’s certainly a growing number of people hungry for collective learning in their efforts to drive change in large organizations. Those are the people who will help keep the big companies relevant – something that cannot be taken for granted in a time of extreme disruption.
