CollectiveX Groupsite communities
Lots of posts about CollectiveX Groupsites, but I don’t see how this is different to Google Groups, what am I missing here…you have a profile page and you can join many groups, I guess it’s a little more networked than Google Groups, and looks better.
Google Groups has discussion forum, files and pages (create webpages for the group)…GROU.PS is similar.
CollectiveX has forums, files, media and a calendar (also batch messages blasts)…I do like the front page of a group, split up into events, discussions, headlines and recent group activity (kind of like the Facebook news Feed)…and you can get a feed for each of the 4 sections.
NOTE: Headlines are just another discussion forum.
So you can view profiles and send a message, but that’s it, you don’t get your own your own blog, you can’t add friends (well if you are in a group why would you want to add friends…but what if that group has 500 people?)
When you join a Ning group (eg. Mowser) you get a user space, you can message people, add friends, and you get a blog, and you can also post to the group forum. So your user space, among other things has your latest posts, and your latest forum posts and replies…not sure if it has my latest comments on other users blog posts.
I think Facebook is still ahead here as you have your own space in a social network, where you have your own media and blog, you can add friends and all that stuff. But then you can also join a group and have all the benefits that Collective X offers.
Only thing about Facebook is that you can’t view posts you make in groups in your own user space, and the other thing is you can’t send one of your personal blog posts to appear at the group page as well.
I mentioned all this in my post on Clearspace.
Another thing I also mentioned in my Clearspace post is that groups are limiting, we need our own soapbox as well, what if I want to collaborate with a few users across different CollectiveX groups, on-the-fly collaboration.
Here is the CollectiveX Champions group…I guess it’s more of a Community of Practice, with a few networking features.
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Have you tried CollectiveX by creating a Groupsite of your own, viewed the product tour at http://www.collectivex.com/tour or joined an existing public group at http://www.groupsites.com
Or are you writing this post based on what other outdated posts that have been written. Hence, CollectiveX not having friends isn’t true, it has endorsements and kudos… which make better sense within a group setting.
You are correct in that CollectiveX doesn’t have blogs as of yet. But that too will change within 60 days. I’d suggest writing a review after you have put it through its paces. A big difference between CollectiveX and other social networks, CollectiveX empowers groups to control their branding, privacy and members. Example: You can’t control branding with a Facebook group… its apart of the Facebook.
Thanks for taking the time to write about us none-the-less.
Comment by Clarence — September 7, 2007 @ 9:18 pm
Clarence,
I did join a group, the CollectiveX Champions, what I wrote about was based on testing it out…I even posted a topic in the forum.
Here is my profile:
http://champions.collectivex.com/network/show_profile/32640
You do have a point in branding, you can make it your own, perhaps I should have mentioned that as it’s a unique feature compared to the others.
I still like the idea of friends, as a group may grow in numbers, instead of sub-groups, you can just network with people in the group from your perspective. You could also see activity limited to your friends, and send a message to just your friends. I also like a public comment wall, these are things we are used to having in other networks.
I do like that you can join lots of groups in CollectiveX, similar to Facebook, but I’m still up for an individual centric view where I can add friends across groups, private message a batch of friends across groups…
When you get blogs will they be confined to a group, or will I have to have a blog for each group I join?
Why would an endorsement be an alternative or substitute to a friends feature?
I think both are a good idea…endorsement is a great encouraging feature for a CoP, if members are appreciated, they are more likely to keep being active and sustain the life of the group.
I guess this is a difference between Ning and CollectiveX, you join a Ning group, you have a blog and friends within that group and there is a general forum.
Perhaps the notion of networking with friends within a group is an unwanted splintering feature, if sending a friend batch message is good enough for your friends, why can’t the rest of the group read it…hence you only have email blasts to whole group.
Can email blasts be directed to select people, or is it default to the whole group?
I also see only nominated people have this feature, perhaps this is a good idea, as you don’t want anyone sending a blast to 500 people…spammers delight.
But just say the moderator wants to blast a select batch of people, as a message only concerns 20 people?
What if a member wants to private message a batch of people, how do they do this without adding friends…I see if you went to the trouble of adding 500 friends then sending a batch private message would be as powerful as an email blast.
Comment by Johnt — September 8, 2007 @ 1:40 am
John,
I understand your points… and most of what you’ve described is on its way. We’ve spent less than $1 million building CollectiveX versus the $10+ million that Ning has spent. As a result, we only build features that 90% of our users and groups require. We are getting to the point where we can add additional features that will put CollectiveX closer to what you are describing. However, we never add features because evryone else has them, we base our features on what our groups and users require to “get things done” as groups … not just for social purposes.
About CollectiveX blogs: We will be adding a message center under the My Settings area… the Message Center will allow you to wite blog posts that will be visible to anyone that has endorsed you or given you kudos. It will not matter if they are in your current group… your blog posts will be visible in your profile within all groups that you belong to… and will appear within the message center of any member that has endorsed you or given you kudos.
I also agree that in very large groups, showing your friends makes sense… but in smaller groups, friends defeat the purpose because 70% of CollectiveX groups are made up of groups of people that exist offline. Consequently, there has to be a better balance between friends and endorsements/kudos… I’m not sure that everyone wants friends within each group that they belong, especially smaller groups. Nothing bothers me more than being bombarded with friend requests from total strangers. And worse yet, when I accept them as “friends” they now have the right to send me messages etc.
Other upcoming features: Our calendar invites, discussion and email blasts will also soon allow for blasts to specific lists of members — not just the entire group. Expect to see this very soon. I also like your suggestion that you should be able to batch email blasts a group of people across all of your groups… I’m just not sure we should use the friends mechanism to empower this. I’ll think more about it.
Thats all for now, but I encourage you to stick around. There is much more in store for CollectiveX in the near future
Thanks,
Clarence
Comment by Clarence — September 8, 2007 @ 7:23 am