Much has been made about the coming great crew change and the loss of a generation worth of knowledge and experience. But this age of technology has blessed (or cursed) us with another dilemma, how do we consume the vast amounts of technology generated in the field? Data is captured in various forms across the enterprise that when properly visualized together, can present a clear picture of what is going on to users around the globe. The problem is our current applications and visualization technologies do not have the ability to represent the many layers of data available to the user.
The answer may be found in how the next generation has leveraged Social Networking to stay in contact with the various people that come into their lives. In the past, people relied on face to face, over the phone, and written communication to keep in touch with those around them. The problem with this is as your circle of friends increases, you are faced with gathering and sifting through more and more information so you can stay up to date. Social Networking helps to solve this by creating an environment where users can “Manage by Exception” their relationships with people in their networks. I can log into my favorite Social Networking site and quickly skim through the events that my friends are posting on the site. I may not care about the former classmate whose four year old is finally potty trained, but my former teammate who posts a rumor about a classmate’s police blotter may catch my eye. Social Networking sites allow me to query back and to investigate all the glorious details and my queries and his responses are captured for all that come after me to see.
How does this apply in Oil and Gas? I wonder, can we take this phenomena and apply it to the data we see in our daily lives? Rather than start my day by flipping through charts and graphs showing daily production from my wells, can I see a single page where my wells and fields tell me the highlights of their day yesterday? Ahh, well A-3’s production has dropped and well head pressure has risen significantly. I then search and see my buddy Matt had similar issues in the past with A-3. I can see the actions he took and even instant message with him to get his opinions.
How do you feel about applying social networking into the workplace this way? Or is it just this generation’s Cabbage Patch kid, leg warmers, and Member’s Only jacket. Any comments you have would be appreciated.
Chris Van Dyke
Interesting idea. I see corelation to sites like facebook but what about the microblogging like twitter and use of alternative devices like cell phones? How can those be integrated in also?
I like your idea about using the social networks to get help for common problems. Oil and gas folks of older generations are less interested in sharing information. I think the new generation of energy leaders will look at the world differently and run their business a bit more openly.
The other comment I'd make is that the younger generation will not put up with typical information delivery infrastructure in most oil and gas companies today. They are accustomed to information delivered at a "Twitter-like" frequency.
I thought I'd go and check out your blog after your visit here today. What a compelling post! I think there is tremendous opportunity if done right to leverage what's best in social networking to surface both what works and what doesn't more quickly.
That said there are new data visualization technologies emerging that can deliver immense information to help in this process. Check out www.vizmetrics.com. THis is a Houston based company. Mark Palmer puts not 100s or 1000s of data points on a single one page report but 10s of 1000s and 100s of 1000s.
Couple this with business tools like Sharepoint as a distribution vehicle and Stonebond as the connectivity solution capable of pulling data not just from applications and databases but also instruments and equipment and suddenly you create a very viral, very social view of your company. Of course the challenge in this industry is will the kind of openess taht social networks thrive on make it in the hierarchial and closed culture that has developed for over a century?