Enterprise microblogging : you no longer have to report back to base
This is a follow-up to my post Enterprise microblogging needs a facelift to rival email.
In that post I talked about adding an item in the stream to your Watchlist
- This way you can keep in the loop about a conversation without you having to be a poster or a commenter
I also talked about communally grouping items via contributors tagging them with a hashtag
- This way you can keep in the loop about the greater task that is generating all these items
Differences
- You are not being cc:ed, rather you "pull" the content to you (filtering your own information)
- you can be @mentioned which is like the to: or cc: field
- but this won’t happen in every post and comment, so it’s up to people to add it to their Watchlist
- you can be @mentioned which is like the to: or cc: field
- The sender has an understanding of who needs to be involved in a conversation, but this is not always apparent at the start of a task, and there are plenty of people on the edges who need to be consulted that emerge
- Now anyone can find a conversation, add it to their Watchlist, get involved
Deeper than In-the-flow and Above-the-flow
A while back a defining post was made on the difference between working Above-the-Flow (volunteering to share information and experiences based on engagement, trust, audience, reciprocity), and In-the-Flow (communicating and asking questions about tasks using social tools rather than email…doing what you are already doing in new tools).
Well what I want to describe here is going deeper than In-the-Flow…to the artifacts of the activity itself.
Example
We have a web conference about a task that involves people across teams.
We set up a group space.
We use this group space to ask the task team questions.
We use this group space to communicate our individual progress to the task members.
Why do I have to go to a blog to describe to other task members about my progress?
Let me explain…
An action item that came up in the initial meeting was for a member of the task to contact someone in IT to find out where we can host our database.
Once he found this out, he communicated back to the task members by fowarding his email conversation with the IT guy
OR
By blogging about this email conversation he had.
But you kind of feel silly blogging about something when you can just easily fwd it…it’s just easier.
Yes blogging it stores it for all to see, and keeps the conversation centralised…but it needs to feel natural. One positive step is to forward your email to the blogs email address, this way further comments about this is centralised around the blog post.
Deep In-the-Flow (Embedded In-the-Activity)
There is a better way…
Why report your progress by updating task members about it (whether in email or a blog)…
when instead they can see your conversation as it happens.
MICROBLOGGING AND HASHTAGS
Watch what happens when all task members follow the hashtag for this task:
| Task Member B’s filtered stream of #DMS_dev
Hi @ITguy we are looking for a place to host our new server…blah blah blah…#DMS_dev Comments expanded ITguy - No probs we have room in our data centre in Australia TaskMemberC - When do you think this may happen ITguy - We will have a meeting tomorrow so can give you a date TaskMemberA - do you have a goto person that we can liase with ITguy - just got out of a meeting and @ITguysfriend will do the hands on work, no date yet ITguysfriend - I’m travelling soon, so it would be good to do this ASAP |
Notice here how Task Member A does not have to write a blog post or forward an email to Task Member B or any of the other task members.
Why? Because all the task members are following the hashtag.
Task Member A is no longer the middleman to report the conversations he/she is having at the edges when doing their part of the task. They don’t have to forward an email or report progress as everyone can already know "as it happens."
ie. when on a task we don’t just converse with task members, we need to speak to random others in the organisation to get information from, authorise, or simply consult with as part of a task member doing their bit of the task
All task members (and anyone else) can now see the conversations each member is having with both task members and with indirect task members they need to consult with.
Indirect task members such as @ITguy can get involved at anytime without having to go through a task member; as long as they use the hashtag all task members will be in the loop.
What I’m getting to is you don’t need to report status or progress, as everyone can already see the conversations you are having.
Traditionally, if I were to report back to the group the progress of my task I would examine all my email conversations and write an email or a blog post on my progress…kind of like a real informal reporting. Or I would upload my emails which no-one will read.
But now people can have access to the artifacts without me having to forward them, or without me having to report about them.
This is a major difference between a closed system like email and an open microblogging system with the use of hashtags.
To reiterate the two main theme’s here:
1. People can now see the raw conversation as it happens, you no-longer have to report back to base…as people at base are privy to your conversation as it unfolds.
2. As a task member I am no longer a middleman in interpreting and communicating the progress of my part of the task, as you can see what I’m doing. Plus other task members can interact with the people on the edges (indirect task members) on the details of my part of the task.
Where it doesn’t apply
I’ve made clear that this works as a replacement to email, but when doing your part of a task you may have phone and face-to-face conversations with 3rd parties…in that case you do have to write a status update reporting your progress
Work products Deep In-the-Flow (Embedded In-the-Activity)
Aside from open conversations with both members of the task and people on the edges that are consulted about various parts of the task; we also have output documents eg. deliverables and supporting materials.
We no longer have to communicate (email or write a blog post) to people that we have just added a document related to our task. We simply do this at the time of adding the document.
The Activity stream of the microblogging app will suck in items added to the Document Management System (DMS) via an API
|
Task Member A is adding a document to the old DMS Click here to browse and and Add the document. Click here to add a description: Here’s the information sheet about our server #DMS_dev I thought I’d better @mention you @ITguysfriend as pushing this to you may get to you quicker as I recall you are travelling soon CLICK TO SUBMIT |
If we take another look at the hashtag stream we will see that the act of adding this document and a description has resulted in posting a new item into the stream (see the 5th post down)
| Task Member B’s filtered stream of #DMS_dev
Hi @ITguy we are looking for a place to host our new server…blah blah blah…#DMS_dev Hey @Qualityguy I need you to sign off on this paper work…basically it says…blah blah blah…#DSM_dev Hey main members of this task, what do you think we can call the new DMS, any ideas #DSM_dev Hey @Marketingguy are you able to come up with a brand logo for our new product, I gave you background to this task on your voicemail…also see linked document #DSM_dev Here’s the information sheet about our server #DMS_dev I thought I’d better @mention you @ITguysfriend as pushing this to you may get to you quicker as I recall you are travelling soon Comments Expanded ITguysfriend - just about to hop on a plane, sorry, will login when I land ITguy - that’s OK I’m gonna get @ITguysotherfriend to do this if she has time ITguysotherfriend - no probs, I’ve added this to my watchlist and read up on other related posts in this hashtag, so I’m all up to speed TaskMemberC - is Thursday OK ITguy - I’ll be in the office on Friday so we’ll do it then ITguysotherfriend - OK with me TaskMemberC - great ITguysfriend - just landed, good to see it’s all sorted |
Summary
This post focuses on a sweet spot in performing tasks.
Why?
It’s as easy as email.
You don’t have to set up a group space.
All you need to do is use microblogging (utlising Watchlists and Hashtags)
But the real focus of this post is about what happens on the edges.
All people on a task go off and do their bit and either report back on progress via email or a blog. They are the middleman between the task members and people on the edges who they are consulting with in doing the task.
Now we don’t have to report back, as task members (and anyone for that matter) can see the the raw conversations with people on the edges as it happens. Both other task members and people on the edges can interact without having to go through a particular task member.
Related
This is taking my ambient awareness post to proper task use, and brings back into fashion Jim McGee’s post on the loss of observable work.
Paula Thornton talks about artifacts of work, and this is exactly what I’m tackling:
| "Conversations are artifacts of work. Do not confuse artifacts of work with work products. Work products often miss much of the “real work” that occurred. Any evidence of “real work” qualifies as an artifact.
KM tended to focus on “work products” (often most closely aligned with ‘the explicit’). But the goal was never to document the “implicit” (as was often postulated), but simply to make it observable by others." |
This post is not so much the difference between conversations and the end product (deliverable), but more so how the conversations happen, and how we don’t have to report progress on our daily work on achieving our task.
Well let me clear that up, sure if I’m doing my own brainwork I will report my results, but if I’m having conversations with people that I need to consult with to achieve my task, well then I don’t have to report that this took place, as other task members already know, due to me using the task channel (defined by assigning a hashtag) to converse with people on the edges…all without them having to be part of an official group space.
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John, I think you identify a useful aspect of micro-blogging, but think it is also important not to lose sight of the importance of the willingness to contribute
Hashes, tags and labels (folksonomies) within collaborative programmes have transformed the way in which granular information can be managed, but it’s not always easy to get people to use them, and use them sensibly.
In my experience, folksonomies often fall down because people feel that’s it’s just too much to think about on top of every other aspect of their work or the project details. I use them a lot, but am not sure others feel the same devotion to them as i do
)
An interesting post anyway…
Comment by Martin Farley — July 19, 2010 @ 2:38 pm
Indeed, there’s a solution. It’s called journalling. There’s an app for that…Traction Teampage. Why none other? Architecture, pure and simple. Rebuilt leveraging Google Web Toolkit, it covers fundamentals Google has never addressed (while Google has addressed things that aren’t really relevant).
But focus on the architecture. Don’t look for a self-service demo, it’s contextual. It makes more sense when you see it framed for the potential of a particular context. Otherwise it can look like those 3D images from the 90s (that it took me the longest time to ’see’).
The Traction team has done architecturally what we told vendors was needed in the mid-90s: All software has been ‘optimized’ for a particular set of assumptions. For a business to be ‘unique’ (the whole goal of a competitive marketplace) it cannot rely on fixed, predefined tools. Stop creating ‘finished’ products. Build functions that we can refine for ourselves (especially the UI).
The problem with building such a solution is that everyone judges tools by the UI — they’ve been trained to do so, because for most tools if it’s not to be seen in the UI, you have no hope of accessing it. For a well-architected solution, that’s not the case.
The next problem begins with the fact that few resources in IT think architecturally — they’re minions of binary code.
Comment by Rokapchen — July 19, 2010 @ 3:35 pm
That said, there are two sides to this coin. A continuous journal is useless without a great mechanism for ‘findability’. John’s mentioned a ‘hard coded’ way of accessing information but what about the stuff that didn’t get coded (which is more the rule than the exception)? This is where Google will never be able to compete, because of the fundamental premise of their search engine and what it was originally optimized for — it works great for the universe of content that they normally address, but it is nearly useless for a ‘contained’ universe of content which has known attributes that can be leveraged. Using Google inside of an enterprise is like tying both hands behind your back.
The Traction team covered this angle by originally partnering with FAST Search. But since Microsoft does not support the 3rd-party vendor OEM model, this partnership has been replaced with a related (as in same DNA) product: Attivio.
To be fair to the truly brilliant at Google, there are pockets of intelligence who have covered some of the limits of their search algorithms through new solutions. The semantic recommendations that Google offers — this is fundamentally the same sort of approach that FAST and now Attivio has taken. The underlying premise is the “zero-term search” — no need to search at all if relevant answers have already been presented for questions you haven’t yet asked. http://www.fastforwardblog.com/2008/02/25/better-shift-the-attraction-economy/
Comment by Rokapchen — July 19, 2010 @ 3:50 pm
Thx for the comments.
Martin,
Agree that my post has the potential flaw in that if someone fails to use the hashtag or makes a spelling mistake then it doesn’t work.
NOTE: you only have to use the hahtag for new posts, not comments
I was trying to think of a method that is not pre-defined, but instead the user can define it. But not by the user being able to build a task type app, instead I was thinking of the most simple way to coordinate work. People often don’t like visiting group spaces, with members, permissons, etc…Rather than have to find and visit a group space to say something (which you don’t have to do in email), I was thinking about making it as dead easy as email (one window to post content, just tag it to file it into a channel)
Anyway my posts are first draft ideas..not sure if they work until you get to play with them.
Paula,
I don’t know traction well enough, I do know that it’s a very granular tool and allows the user plenty of structural freedom…but have not played with it.
I’ve watched a few traction video clips, but not one’s based on the functionalities expressed in your comment.
But I have read the Kuka case study, which has a flavour of what you talk about.
Comment by John Tropea — July 19, 2010 @ 10:34 pm