Corporate Social Networks

I think it was Kent Beck who once mentioned that we need geeks, who are socially responsible. From today's conversations it was pretty clear for me that the more company is pouring money into any kind of corporate newsletters, web forums, or you name, the less it gets back. Apparently geeks just do not think this way. It's not real, it's not authentic, it's too controlled by top management, and it's just not enough cool. Therefore any attempt to instill, for example, common development infrastructure in order to direct company money to something more productive and more directly connected to the company business, any attempt of this kind is doomed to fail as well quite soon. Because it comes from the top. Sometimes bloody dictatorship could sustain for years, but sooner or later it's replaced with a bloody anarchy. One just cannot enforce things from the top for too long. The only hope is to create an environment where informal social networks naturally from around the most influential persons. Haven forbids the management from deciding who is the most influential! It must only naturally emerging. Risky game, but seems to be the only possible. It would be very interesting to see how closely connected clusters of admires are emerging around world level opinion formers in software like Martin Fowler or Robert Martin. How exactly does it work? Probably nobody knows. But what is important is that the best tools, practices, the most effective ways of doing our job will spread through this network like a fire. This kind of network is an indispensable asset, no one could actually buy, but could probably support and nurture.