The Workstreamer Blog

The Wikinomics Blog raised interesting questions regarding collaborative tools. They describe email as a “push” medium where you distribute the information and wikis as a “pull” medium where you can take from it and add on. However, they raise one very interesting point: liability.

With both types of collaborative tools, users can copy and paste confidential data and analysis and contribute to the slew of securities fraud we’ve recently witnessed a la UBS.

This raises interesting points and ideas for both Workstreamer and the future of collaborative software. In your projects, should a manager be allowed to have his or her software encrypt their work so that it cannot be so easily copied and pasted?

Obviously this brings up another issue: trust. If we can’t trust our employees then why should we hire them?

All of this is interesting and Workstreamer has the capabilities to provide a potential solution. But with all these issues at large in our society, we really need to choose a direction and let web and enterprise 2.0 come up with the solution.

Hi there! If this is your first time, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed and signup for the Beta Thanks for visiting!!!!

In recently reading an article from the DM Review website about teams of professionals and how they’re managed and organized, I realized how low the level existing management solutions is and how that can be improved.

The main piece of software that the article talked about is Microsoft Office Project which allows a single person to create a schedule and manage a project. It does not allow for collaboration.

It also talked about email and how managers distribute important documents through it and get everyone on the same page via the documents. However, email also has the inherent flaw that you never which email you’re supposed to look at and which document is the most accurate (assuming your boss sends several copies).

This article called for improvements in service-oriented architecture (SaaS) and collaborative technologies to fill this void. Although the article said that this software is improving, there was no recommended means of managing a project using existing software.

What should the ideal software look like? We think we know, but in truth it varies for everyone. What do you think?

From ReadWriteWeb:

Human history is one of progressive improvement in communication. From the 20th century mail was a fundamental form of communication. The invention of electronic mail (email) changed two things. It became cheap to send short mail, and delivery was instant. Email became favored for both corporate and personal communication.

But email faces increasing competition. Chat, text messages, Twitter, social networks and even lifestreaming tools are chipping away at email usage.

….Email has been the blockbuster and the Internet killer app for the past few decades, but it doesn’t have a monopoly. New more contextual ways to communicate are emerging and slicing pieces of the email pie, particularly in the consumer market.

We’re likely to see a consumer shift from email towards more compact forms of communication, but in the enterprise the email hold is strong and unlikely to be replaced any time soon.

I disagree with RWW’s analysis here. Any change that is as fundamental as the communications shift we currently see in the consumer sector will relatively soon percolate into the ‘enterprise’ setting. This is especially so because we are seeing a rise in entrepreneurial and contract based work. The enterprise setting itself is changing. Workers among these newer, more progressive types of companies — who we call modern web professionals — seek social, cheap and intelligent communications without the restrictions of middle management and corporate red tape.

I believe that a shift away from email will begin as soon as we see products that can demonstrate a true ROI based on their use and I think that time is nearly upon us.

Other Responses to This Discussion:

Broadstuff

Mark Evans

Alexander van Elsas

Zoli Erdos

This has nothing to do with online collaboration, but you could probably use a break, right?

Google announced several days ago that it will start allowing users to collaborate and edit its maps in order to improve details and keep up with new construction. Although there are several restrictions in place such as the regions available for editing (you can only edit in the small Caribbean Islands) and size (you can only edit in a high zoom mode so that people don’t change the shape of countries), this is a major step in collaboration online.

Google is considered an Internet giant in search, advertising, mapping, email and a slew of other things. But this latest step reinforces Google’s appreciation for collaboration and open source. Inspired by the likes of Wikiepdia it’s increasingly clear that collaboration can come from anyone — not just a panel of experts. Does this move make open source, collaborative efforts more legitimate? We think so. Even though there will be teams of people ‘overseeing’ or fact checking this experiment Google’s latest move validates in the power inherent in the web as a platform enabling collective intelligence.

Is it now fair to say we have reached the era where collaborative software is an essential part of life and business? As a current college student, I can affirmatively state that Wikipedia is engrained into my life, as it is for most of my friends. Even top college professors look to it for “dumbed down” explanations and visual aids.

Based on my experience with Workstreamer, we fit right into this trend. I truly believe that tools like Workstreamer that encourage social collaboration will enhance the fantastic information exposure we’ve come to expect from the likes of Wikipedia. I love the idea of allowing people to share, edit and learn what they want, when they want, and how they want.

In an article on Globe and Mail titled, Online collaboration lands young authors book deal, we see examples of how online collaboration tools are literally changing our world

Danielle Bennett from Victoria, B.C. and Jaida Jones from New York, both 21 years old, had never met before a chatting on LiveJournal about the renowned C.S. Lewis novel, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. After connecting on the site, the two budding authors exchanged emails and begun bouncing ideas off one another for their own fantasy novel.

As the conversations continued, one thing led to another and they began collaborating online to produce a science fiction novel. Each girl would stay up late after school and write between 6 and 7 pages before sending it off to the other to edit the latest chapter.

After 18 straight days, their novel was complete.

With some help, the girls hired a literary agent, but initially received negative responses from publishers before catching a big break with Random House who offered each of the authors $30,000.

Although they didn’t make use of online social/collaborative tools other than email, the girls were able to achieve an amazing success and prove the power of online collaboration.

Just think — if people are getting novels published through email exchanges, then the potential for people to connect and collaborate on a global scale offers tremendous potential for revolutionary hybrid companies and innovations.

Workstreamer wanted to highlight a recent post by Abbie Lundberg titled, Digital Natives in Our Midst. We felt Lundberg’s central point is an important and in need of exposure:

Digital Natives view as “co-workers” anyone within their network who can help them solve a problem.

Lundberg’s terminology “digital natives” and “digital immigrants” was coined by Marc Prensky in 2001, to describe the emerging dichotomy in both education and the work place.

Lundberg then argues that due to a divide in technological abilities, it is increasingly difficult for the baby boomers, or “digital immigrant generation” to teach and lead the up-and-coming generation digital natives as young people are more proficient at using technology than professors and/or bosses. Obviously there both significant positives and negatives associated with this change.

Furthermore, Lundberg notes that my generation utilizes the entirety of its social network to answer work-related questions (i.e. an i-banker calls a law buddy for a question about a deal). This is something that she claims is largely enabled by technology, and specifically social media.

In addition, many firms are losing potential revenue because employees are both giving and receiving work-related advice free-of-charge; this poses a serious threat to many firms that relied on secured-knowledge for revenue.

In sum, Lundberg believes that this new phenomena has the potential to really shake things up. But enough about what Lundberg thinks…what are your thoughts?

….Click here to follow Abbie Lundberg on Twitter.

We’re now on Facebook. Please visit the Workstreamer Fan page and click “Become Fan” on lower right if you’d like to be our buddy!

Just another reason why it’s a waste of time to use those archaic attachment things

In late April of this year Fred Wilson posed the question: Is “Social Enterprise Software” An Oxymoron?

Fred’s post resulted in string of 52 thoughtful and important comments. We decided to pluck a few snippets from the Disqus comment thread and re-post them here on the Workstreamer blog. The thoughts below represent a tremendous cross-section of thought surrounding the viability of ‘social software’ at work.*

I spoke to a group of corporate comm[unication] heads, and asked them if employees can read blogs, Facebook, and other places that customers might give them feedback. “No, most of that is blocked” they said. Then I asked if employees are allowed to have their own blackberries or iPhones. Sure. Well, then they’re not blocked at all. They’re just on smaller screens. – Howard Greenstein

As an enterprise that has evaluated a few of these offerings, it’s clear that there is a huge skills gap in terms of selling to and servicing enterprise customers. You may think Web 2.0 is great, but a lot of enterprisers think it’s cute. At best. - Thomas

I moderated a session at O’Reilly’s Money:Tech conference in February called “What Do Hedge Fund Managers Want?” J.P. Rangaswami had several comments on this topic the day of the conference, including the revelation that Goldman employees are using Facebook more extensively than one would think to collaborate with each other. – Cathleen Rittereiser

To place the blame on firewalls or IT security is a much lower level issue than we tend to make it. The real issue is getting top level executives to understand the tangible benefits that communicating with customers, prospects, members, partners, and employees can bring to the organization. Until we change the discussion, we are working at the wrong level of the organization to gain traction and adoption. – M Rowland

I think there’s quite an opportunity to take the Google Apps Suite, add an elegant social network with profiles, updates available on your start page, and cross linking between teams and interests to create a enterprise social software. - Kyle

The term “social” by itself is a problem since it implies external and non-work types of relationships, even though many “social” applications are primarily professional- or task-oriented in ways that are very supportive of enterprise interests. – Dennis McDonald

Enterprises are just a bunch of people trying to work together…The enterprise should not want to replicate social tools inside the firewall because the enterprise is not the owner of an individual’s relationships. - Dsheise

An enterprise activity stream for AP/AR department, for instance, could be beneficial on multiple levels. Think FriendFeed for AP/AR applications. - Raj

Somehow I doubt though that anyone marketing “enterprise class social software as service” is realizing the power of a less is more when a community already exists - Kellan

I think all future social ‘environments’ have to become more like Facebook and less like Skype, that is…. not just the social graph, but also the long tail of third party applications around it. – Vruz

I think this is a big idea, and a huge opportunity. Big idea here. – Dick Costolo

You are also very right about the enterprise to date being “awfully anti-social.” Therein lies the opportunity. – Jeff Dachis

I think the isolated business organization will give way to the community just because it is not as powerful, but will [still] fight it, unsuccessfully – Gregory

Collaboration is the big opportunity, and is probably underserved by today’s crop of applications. They tend to be task-focused (”let’s create this document together”) and not context-focused (”let’s figure out how to help this customer together.”) – Tmcmh

Shared learning streams, and peer generated, just in time knowledge is another killer enterprise application. – Alive88

There seems to be a disconnect between the needs of a large org and the needs of a person,. and the entire reason that social tools have been successful is that they fulfill the needs of the user, and nobody else - Jevon

*Please note we have tried to provide attribution when Disqus profile information was available.