This study explores the ways in which the

Collaborating across boundaries is important for organizational innovation, but it poses a key challenge for large, distributed organizations. New technologies such as enterprise social media (ESM) are often heralded for their open infrastructure, democratic nature, and ability to break down traditional hierarchies and barriers to communication; thus, such tools may be expected to play a role in facilitating cross-boundary interaction. Usage patterns are likely to be shaped by existing cultural factors within the organizational and national contexts, however. Drawing on a case study of a large Russian telecommunications company, we empirically assess the introduction of an ESM application and the degree to which it promotes cross-boundary communication (across geographical and hierarchical lines), through analysis of server log data and in-depth interviews. Our findings demonstrate that ESM promotes cross-boundary communication, although there are distinct patterns for hierarchical and regional boundaries. Implications for ESM implementation and distributed collaboration are discussed.

Abstract. Implementing social media in the workplace may make it easier for employees to participate in knowledge sharing activities such as Q&A and ideation. However, vetting the quality of answers and ideas becomes more complex when anyone in the company can contribute. Research on the use of social media for Q&A has shown that certain characteristics and reputation algorithms can help determine the best answers. Less is known about the ideation process and the way it plays out in social media. This paper explores the use of enterprise social media (ESM) for ideation by employees in a large Russian organization distributed across nine time zones. In particular, we explore which characteristics of both ideas and their contributors predict whether ideas get accepted or rejected. Our analysis is based on logistic regression analysis of a sample of 488 ideas contributed in an ESM tool used in the organization as well as a content analysis of the types of ideas generated. Our results suggest that rather than being truly democratic and decentralized, ideation in ESM is driven by those in (or proximate to) positions of organizational power.

Inspired by the reported use of Web 2.0-based applications to stir national revolutions in the Arab World, and the potential of this technology to increase transparency and engage citizens in decision-making processes as documented by research in egovernment, this study explores to what extent Arab League nations are using "democratic" features in their government websites and how citizens have responded to these initiatives. It does this by comparing (1) the information access and opportunities for participation offered in their portals with non-Arab countries, (2) and the traffic to governmental websites and number of citizens (viewers, fans, followers) engaged by their social media applications. For this purpose, 160 websites from 82 different countries were examined. Results show that although non-Arab countries allow users to get access to more information and present more social media applications with a higher number of citizens participating on them as viewers, fans, and followers, surprisingly no differences were found in terms of participatory features and local traffic rank in governmental websites. Six countries were selected as case studies to lend evidence to the results.

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