Dufferin Research offers full service consulting specializing in Collaborative Intelligence. This is known by many names and involves such notions as co-creation, where the traditional respondent is engaged in a two-way dialogue which involves listening, in addition to the traditional more structured asking. While the explosive growth of social media and online communities has caught everyone’s attention, and everyone is climbing on the bandwagon, few of the so called “social media” experts truly understand the mechanics behind social networks. There are important similarities as well as differences between traditional in-person social networks (friends, family, work colleagues, former classmates, neighbours, etc) and those we form online. Rick Frank has been studying, experimenting in, tracking usage over time and heavily participating in this online space. In order to know where to go in future, it is first necessary to understand what is happening now, and what has preceded.

At play are a combination of human psychological needs married to sophisticated algorithm’s targeting user profiles for the purpose of marketing & ad placement. Math & computer science intersect with human social behaviour to interesting effect. However it is not easy for the novice to make sense of this.

Whether you are in the marketing department of a company considering marketing in this environment, or a human resources professional trying to decide what usage policy needs to be enforced within your workforce, or even CAN be enforced in the wired and wireless workplace, you need the experience of someone who has been tracking the explosive use of sites such as Facebook since 2007 and is fully immersed in the medium.

Rick is available @ 613-204-1070

Follow on Twitter @Rick_Frank
Find on LinkedIn @