Who's the Boss?
May 7, 2007 1:22 PM Subscribe
Introducing the Forbes corporate org chart wiki (beta). Forbes magazine is conducting an experiment in Web 2.0 to collaboratively map the org charts of corporations including Intel, Apple, Google, & Microsoft. Everyone is encouraged to pitch in, add names or make corrections. And if your company's not already on the list you can always add it.
I guess this is an "experiment," so there's that value. But this really seems to me to be something that doesn't need to be collaborative wiki-ish. This seems to be a good time to resort to good ol' fashioned journalism: call up HR, review Corporate Documents, and review disclosures. For the most part, what do 99.999999% of the population have to add about the corporate organization of Mircosoft? The people who work there know it, and people who go and research can figure it out (which goes back to the old journalism issue). But collaborative things have to off-set the detriment of bad reporting and gaming of it by the masses through the utility the collaborative process brings. Or in other words, what is the value to the system you bring beyond your ability to delete it when I put myself as Bill Gates' boss?
In short, I don't get the utility of this (beyond the experimental value). It doesn't strike me as something that benefits from collaboration from the whole world.
posted by dios at 1:36 PM on May 7, 2007
In short, I don't get the utility of this (beyond the experimental value). It doesn't strike me as something that benefits from collaboration from the whole world.
posted by dios at 1:36 PM on May 7, 2007
What a bizzare interface. I think people would be more interested in contributing if it wasn't for all the flashing, flickering advertisements.
posted by delmoi at 1:38 PM on May 7, 2007
posted by delmoi at 1:38 PM on May 7, 2007
I love how their decision to make the interface flash quite handily makes it impossible to just pop the links into a bunch of new tabs for easy comparison and perusal.
I hate buzzwords as much as the next ex-Web Producer, but come on, Forbes. AJAX is years-old tech.
posted by chimaera at 1:42 PM on May 7, 2007
I hate buzzwords as much as the next ex-Web Producer, but come on, Forbes. AJAX is years-old tech.
posted by chimaera at 1:42 PM on May 7, 2007
Interesting. A little like They Rule, from a different perspective.
posted by churl at 1:42 PM on May 7, 2007
posted by churl at 1:42 PM on May 7, 2007
I wonder how to connect Woz with Apple?
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:43 PM on May 7, 2007
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:43 PM on May 7, 2007
I know nothing about US privacy laws, but surely this violates something, somewhere?
posted by Zinger at 1:43 PM on May 7, 2007
posted by Zinger at 1:43 PM on May 7, 2007
I know nothing about US privacy laws, but surely this violates something, somewhere?
Isn't most, if not all of this public record?
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:46 PM on May 7, 2007
Isn't most, if not all of this public record?
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:46 PM on May 7, 2007
My company is on there, but I'm not important enough to be charted (and not foolish enough to chart myself.)
posted by davejay at 1:47 PM on May 7, 2007
posted by davejay at 1:47 PM on May 7, 2007
This seems to be a good time to resort to good ol' fashioned journalism: call up HR, review Corporate Documents, and review disclosures.
What disclosures? This isn't a lawsuit. Any position below vice-president is likely not publicly available, and calling HR isn't going to help considering HR's job is to make sure this never gets out.
And I definitely see the value in this. Once you learn who some support drone reports to three levels up, you can call the switchboard and ask for that person directly. This could force companies to become much more responsive to customer complaints.
posted by Pastabagel at 1:48 PM on May 7, 2007
What disclosures? This isn't a lawsuit. Any position below vice-president is likely not publicly available, and calling HR isn't going to help considering HR's job is to make sure this never gets out.
And I definitely see the value in this. Once you learn who some support drone reports to three levels up, you can call the switchboard and ask for that person directly. This could force companies to become much more responsive to customer complaints.
posted by Pastabagel at 1:48 PM on May 7, 2007
I'm sure Mayor McCheese will be happy to transfer you to Grimace in accounting...
(not wikiist)
posted by abulafa at 1:50 PM on May 7, 2007
(not wikiist)
posted by abulafa at 1:50 PM on May 7, 2007
needs more metafilter.
posted by boo_radley at 1:51 PM on May 7, 2007
posted by boo_radley at 1:51 PM on May 7, 2007
Interesting. A little like They Rule, from a different perspective.
posted by churl at 4:42 PM on May 7
They rule is excellent. I just realized that the fatness of the directors icon represents how many boards they sit on.
posted by Pastabagel at 1:51 PM on May 7, 2007
posted by churl at 4:42 PM on May 7
They rule is excellent. I just realized that the fatness of the directors icon represents how many boards they sit on.
posted by Pastabagel at 1:51 PM on May 7, 2007
What disclosures? This isn't a lawsuit.
Corporate disclosures. For public companies. No need to jump at everything I say. It's not all controversial.
posted by dios at 2:02 PM on May 7, 2007 [1 favorite]
Corporate disclosures. For public companies. No need to jump at everything I say. It's not all controversial.
posted by dios at 2:02 PM on May 7, 2007 [1 favorite]
I know nothing about US privacy laws, but surely this violates something, somewhere?
Isn't most, if not all of this public record?
I don't know, that was kind of what I was asking. How far down the org chart is/can be public knowledge? Thinking of Walmart for example, although I doubt every single "associate" would be posted there anyway, could/should they be?
posted by Zinger at 2:27 PM on May 7, 2007
Isn't most, if not all of this public record?
I don't know, that was kind of what I was asking. How far down the org chart is/can be public knowledge? Thinking of Walmart for example, although I doubt every single "associate" would be posted there anyway, could/should they be?
posted by Zinger at 2:27 PM on May 7, 2007
This is ugly and dumb and pointless.
... Sorry, but, yeah. Informative post though. The interface sucks, I don't think it will be used for reference since you can't bring in other companies to the same chart (like with TheyRule), it's information that's already available, and... who cares?
Oh well.
posted by blacklite at 2:30 PM on May 7, 2007
... Sorry, but, yeah. Informative post though. The interface sucks, I don't think it will be used for reference since you can't bring in other companies to the same chart (like with TheyRule), it's information that's already available, and... who cares?
Oh well.
posted by blacklite at 2:30 PM on May 7, 2007
Well, you can vandalise it I guess. That should be 5 minutes of fun for someone.
posted by Artw at 2:44 PM on May 7, 2007
posted by Artw at 2:44 PM on May 7, 2007
Also is almost-but-not-quite-Google-Maps the best interface for this kind of thing? After about five minutes of trying to ue it I would say not.
posted by Artw at 2:46 PM on May 7, 2007
posted by Artw at 2:46 PM on May 7, 2007
The MSFT one is very wrong.
posted by jeffamaphone at 3:28 PM on May 7, 2007
posted by jeffamaphone at 3:28 PM on May 7, 2007
I was the wikiCEO of wikiEnron years ago making millions of wikiDollars until they uncovered a wikiScandal and now I'm in wikiJail.
It's all true, just look it up on the web.
posted by Muddler at 4:04 PM on May 7, 2007
It's all true, just look it up on the web.
posted by Muddler at 4:04 PM on May 7, 2007
I know that my customer and my employeer both specifically state their org chart is confidential. Besides, what good is it going to be to anyone to know what managers report to what senior managers? All anyone really cares about are the CxO and VP level roles.
Seems like a waste of programming effort to me.
posted by jeversol at 4:30 PM on May 7, 2007
Seems like a waste of programming effort to me.
posted by jeversol at 4:30 PM on May 7, 2007
boo_radley writes "needs more metafilter."
Your wish is my command.
posted by Bugbread at 5:33 PM on May 7, 2007
Your wish is my command.
posted by Bugbread at 5:33 PM on May 7, 2007
Under the Apple section, Dr. Eric Schmidt's title is listed as 'Vagina'. Makes me wonder about the validity of the site, interesting as it may be.
posted by hangingbyathread at 6:15 PM on May 7, 2007 [1 favorite]
posted by hangingbyathread at 6:15 PM on May 7, 2007 [1 favorite]
My org chart:
When Jerry's not here, you do what I say.
It goes from God to Jerry to me.
posted by mattbucher at 6:21 PM on May 7, 2007
When Jerry's not here, you do what I say.
It goes from God to Jerry to me.
posted by mattbucher at 6:21 PM on May 7, 2007
Jonathan Ive is five steps down on the Apple chart, and reports under the iPod division? I find it hard to believe that's accurate. And their second tier execs seem really heavily weighted toward iTunes/iPod. This is definitely more Wiki and journalism.
posted by MarvinTheCat at 6:28 PM on May 7, 2007
posted by MarvinTheCat at 6:28 PM on May 7, 2007
The biggest problem with this is that, as far as I can tell, there's no version history. The beauty of the Wikipedia is that it's easier to revert an edit than it is to make one, which means that it's easy to undo garden-variety bogus edits.
Wake me up when it has a version history with undo.
posted by zippy at 7:39 PM on May 7, 2007
Wake me up when it has a version history with undo.
posted by zippy at 7:39 PM on May 7, 2007
Fun for about five minutes. Flash was annoying.
posted by who squared at 7:44 PM on May 7, 2007
posted by who squared at 7:44 PM on May 7, 2007
To make an unconnected employee the boss of someone already on the chart, drag the boss over the employee and wait for the flash. Once it flashes, move the boss above the employee and release.
That's exactly how you do it in real life, too.
posted by Kibbutz at 8:39 PM on May 7, 2007
That's exactly how you do it in real life, too.
posted by Kibbutz at 8:39 PM on May 7, 2007
It's already completely full of silly entries and spam.
Wow, that didn't take long.
posted by drstein at 10:05 PM on May 7, 2007
Wow, that didn't take long.
posted by drstein at 10:05 PM on May 7, 2007
That's a, uh, very vertical management structure Microsoft's got.
posted by Bugbread at 8:18 AM on May 8, 2007
posted by Bugbread at 8:18 AM on May 8, 2007
So what kind of education do you think Jeff Robbin needed to become "VP boobs" of Apple?
posted by undercoverhuwaaah at 8:27 AM on May 8, 2007
posted by undercoverhuwaaah at 8:27 AM on May 8, 2007
After thinking about it long and hard, I can't decide if I like "VP boobs" or "VP of boobs" better. They are both great in their own way.
posted by dios at 8:46 AM on May 8, 2007
posted by dios at 8:46 AM on May 8, 2007
Microsoft seems to have given up on the vertical management approach and gone horizontal.
posted by Bugbread at 2:56 PM on May 8, 2007
posted by Bugbread at 2:56 PM on May 8, 2007
dbolll writes "Goro certainly is busy these days."
Are you talking about Regional Manager Goro, or Four-Armed Miniboss Goro?
posted by Bugbread at 2:59 PM on May 8, 2007
Are you talking about Regional Manager Goro, or Four-Armed Miniboss Goro?
posted by Bugbread at 2:59 PM on May 8, 2007
Man, that's a bizarre UI they have: it doesn't take the characters I send it down the wire, it looks at what key I pressed, and uses the character it has assigned to that key. So if you use a non-US keyboard, special symbols (like @,',(,),&,%) come out all mixed-up.
posted by Bugbread at 3:06 PM on May 8, 2007
posted by Bugbread at 3:06 PM on May 8, 2007
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posted by slogger at 1:32 PM on May 7, 2007