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April 23, 2012

Microblogging or Macroblogging…or simply messages

Why do I like Google+

…cause I can make little or big email-like posts and @mention people…and the interface is so clean and simple.

I was sent a 3 paragraph email today with a few bullet points, a bold heading and an image…it was sent to 5 people in different teams…the email was of a simple nature “…we are doing this initiative, can you guys offer advise or help in anyway…”

When we look at enterprise activity stream tools they really lack in what Google+ offers ie. some formatting, space for bigger communications, and a real smooth interface.

Coming back to my example above; if your work had Yammer, Newsgator, Socialcast, Podio, Tibbr you would of had to resort to email.

…is this an #epicfail or not, what do you think?

Maybe I’m wrong…I’m just assuming these products have a character limit…but I know they allow for little formatting…and certainly don’t have the UX of Google+.

So far there’s one product I’ve seen called Neudesic Pulse that comes close…I would say its UX is the closest to Google+ (they released version 3 not that long ago)

Now in relation to formatting and space…Neudesic Pulse could be better. The status updates tab doesn’t have it (actually I’m not sure if it has unlimited characters)…but if you click the “Articles” tab you can write a long-form communication with some minimal formatting. But you can also collaborate on it, and so forth…so it kind of feels more like an online pages/wiki page type thing…but it could be used for the use case above.

Facebook is similar in that it has Facebook Notes, which is a long-form, but only it has more a blog post like feel compared to the online page like feel of Neudesic Pulse Articles

Anyway, what I’m looking for is a status update tool that allows you to do what I do in email now, but doing it online instead.

ie. I want to write a status update that’s 3 paragraphs long with bold and bullet points and an image, and then @mention people

Hmmm…but I wouldn’t call it status updates, or microblogging, or blogging or wikis…I’d just call it “messages” or “posts”.

Google+ doesn’t have a name for it’s posts, all it says within the text box is “share what’s new…”

It also collapses and expands messages and comments perfectly so one message/comment never dominates the screen unless you want it to

Posts and Messages

Email is mostly known as messages

Blogs are posts (I don’t consider Tumblr/Posterous microblogging, they are just really easy blogging via a bookmarklet and simple interface)

Microblogs are status updates…which kind of blur the line between chatting and broadcasting (eg Facebook and Twitter)

If you ask me Google+ blurs this line the most, but it’s not really microblogging as there’s nothing “micro” about it…your posts can be “macro” if you want…Macroblogging is the most stupid term ever that I just made up…but I just feel Google+ is a little different

Whether it’s the example I gave above, or troubleshooting with colleagues using simple formatting and screenshots; there are still reasons why email is easier
eg posting a 3 paragraph message, with minimal formatting and pasting a couple of screenshots to 5 people

This takes a couple of minutes in email, whereas you can’t do it in microblogging…you can’t do the last bit in Google+ either (in my last post I pointed to Confluence being able to paste images)

If we look at our emails, what’s the average size…perhaps a couple of paragraphs, with some bullet points, bold text and an image easily pasted in here and there…there’s nothing micro about this

So then why is enterprise social software all crazy about microblogging…I get it that it’s easier than blogging and more engaging to be in a network, but an unlimited character limit and offering a few editing buttons won’t make it harder or less engaging.

If most of our emails aren’t that micro and often have formatting (bold/bullet points), then let’s allow messages in activity streams to reflect this

For example if 50% of our emails don’t have formatting, images, and are only one paragraph; then this 50% has a chance to be re-purposed in activity streams (rather than email)…but the other 50% will continue in email, unless activity streams make a few simple changes.

If we want our online messages to be more twitter like broadcasts, and simple conversations and questions, then that’s fine…this replaces a good portion of email. But if we also want posting online messages to do what most of email offers ie. the features that cater for all contexts of communication, then we need those simple changes

Related

There’s more to say, but it was not the focus of this post; like types of posts (idea, task, event, question)…and also posting to a group from your main stream.

This post has focused just on “posting/sending messages”…whereas my previous post also covered productivity and managing your stream.
eg
Search within an activity stream
Follow up/Flag
Put people you follow in lists
Tag other peoples posts
My sent posts
Filter stream by post type (idea, event, task, question)
Filter your stream by person (I have only seen this on FMYI, and perhaps Socialtext)
Filter your stream by date (not sure if I have seen this anywhere, besides the Newsgator pivot viewer webpart…but this is separate from your main homepage)
A robust “notifications” page

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February 1, 2012

Australian blog readers study

Filed under: blogs

I don’t post in this blog often as I leave it for long pieces, but don’t get the time lately…you can check out my daily posts at Snippets.

Anyway here’s a good excuse for a post…

Dr Peter John Chen, Department of Government and International Relations, University of Sydney is publishing a book in 2012 about the Internet and Australia, and politics.

As part of it he’s doing research on characteristics of blog readers…I’m happy to help out on his endeavor by asking my readers if they are interested in sparing 5 to 10 minutes on a survey about this topic

The survey is open to readers of the blog who live in Australia.

All responses in the survey are anonymous and confidential.

The survey can be found here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Australian_blog_readers

I will be gaining access to a summary of the results and will share them with those who are interested

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July 8, 2011

Google Plus : Closed group email collaboration done online

Filed under: blogs, conversation, email, collaboration, communication, tasks

I recently posted about the functional design aspects of Google Plus

A section I covered was wall-to-wall posting and private messaging. Google Plus has none of these; instead in Rawn Shah’s words it’s more "esoteric"…meaning that we have used the features a certain way to come up with what seems private conversations ie. there is no explicit feature called "wall posting" or "private messaging" as of yet. But perhaps a more fit word is online email-style collaboration; where the conversation is seen by a select few who get invited in as the conversation progresses…but only threaded and not messy like email.

First let’s visit Facebook…

Private messaging

When you private message in Facebook you use the designed private/direct message feature where it’s a conversation between you and a selected few.

@mention from your stream

When you @mention someone in Facebook from your own profile, that person will get a notification, and all your friends will see it.

Wall post

When you have a wall-to-wall conversation in Facebook you don’t initiate it from your profile, instead you visit that person’s profile to make your post.

Then the way it works is that only your mutual friends will be able to see your posts (but I think you can change this in the settings to make it more open).

NOTE: In IBM Connections your post on the person’s wall will be seen by their friends…this is perfect for the enterprise context where you can tap into someone else’s network…perhaps this is the idea behind G+ Extended Circles.

Now let’s look at G+

When you @mention someone in G+ and also select Public or a Circle, that person will get a notification, and your followers will see it.

When you use "@mention" without using any other selections like "Circles" or "Public", this is more similar to Facebook private messaging than wall posting; as only the two people in the conversation can see the post.

But then you’d want a G+ feature where you can collect these types of conversations eg. where’s that individual to individual conversation I had with Gerry last month

At any time the author or commenter can @mention people to join the private conversation.

So it’s not strict private messaging as the author cannot control a one-to-one conversation, and it’s not wall posting as other followers aren’t part of it by default….indeed esoteric.

But what it does remind me of is email collaboration, but only more neat.

We have always advocated for people to go online to a group space to start their conversation. But no-one is motivated to shift context. They already hang out where they do doing other types of communication, they don’t want to go elsewhere. And more importantly we cannot always clairvoyantly have a pre-defined group space for the type of thing someone wants to communicate. And no-one is about to create a forum and send invites and wait for people to subscribe so finally they can say something…that’s ludicrous.

Spontaneous and adhoc conversations is basically what we do in email most of the day ie. something happens or I have to do something, I kick off an email to someone. Soon enough that gets kicked around and some more people are in on the conversation (yes of course there are parallel conversations happening…this is indeed the weakness of email). As you can see the group of people evolve as the conversation grows, previously we simply didn’t know who’d be involved. And the email conversation itself ends up being the group space. This is very organic and intune with our we behave and action stuff.

This is why group spaces have been good for interest groups, or pre-defined tasks, but not those many informal tasks or things we do everyday at work…which later on can even become the precursor to more defined task.

Anyway nowadays we can use enterprise microblogging, which is an open version of this email type collaboration…only neater ie. threaded with a history of the conversation. Just like people can be forwarded or included as the email conversation progresses, the same can happen with @mentioning online. Using G+ as public posts and @mentions is a perfect example of this…using it this way is exactly like Twitter, only now you get threaded conversations and notifications if you have previously left a comment.

People may be happy to do this sort of thing online, but might not like the visibility of it. They may ask if we can do this online in a private way. In addition to being shy, they may also not want others to see this type of conversation online as it’s of very low use for anyone else…ambient awareness does have its limits in being noise.

So there you have it G+ can be used for neat and open multi-people conversations, both in a public way, and a private invite type way (that resembles email)

What I like about this is that people can still resume their private email type behaviours, but only online…and they will like the neatness of it and that it’s documented…that’s level 1. Once they get used to this, hopefully they may then open up the conversations in a "public" way…and all of a sudden you have Twitter-type ambient awareness in the enterprise…that’s level 2.

Here’s my findings…I did a little test in Google Plus with this result (this is a modified excerpt):

"There is no G+ private message feature. Instead just post as regular and @mention one person or even a few…make sure you don’t choose any circles or public.

Then go to your profile and type the name of the person you @mentioned in ""View profile as"…voila, you will see your post. Now do the same thing for a person that you follow but you did not @mention…voila you will not see your post

Therefore there is no explicit private message feature, instead you just post as usual, but @mention the person and don’t choose public or any circles.

Note how this is not a wall posting feature; it’s more leaning to a way to do private messaging.

From here both the author of the post and the commenter can @mention to invite people into the conversation.

Of course you only get notifications if you authored the post, or have already left a comment…or if someone @mentions you

NOTE: The weird thing is that when I view my profile as the person who was @mentioned by the person I initially @mentioned, then the post does not display…something is inconsistent here. But when speaking to this person they are indeed seeing the conversation and commenting.

Anyway, this functionality is just like email collaboration but only not as messy, and it’s documented…finally a way to do spontaneous private group collaboration (but the group is not defined up front, it instead evolves). This sort of thing happens in email, but it’s so clunky that we complain all the time

This functionality is not like private messaging, as PM is only one to one (not even the sender can invite others into the PM)

NOTE: The closest G+ has to a wall posting feature is if you @mention someone but also include Extended Circles (which means all people you follow and some people in the mentioned people’s circles will also see it)

Louis Richardson calls these types of email conversations "spools":

"I’ve seen email threads that should have been called spools. Someone asks you to do something. It’s going to involve a number of people. You add their names and respond. They individually respond and add others as they see necessary. If this goes like most, soon you have an email snowball that has engulfed anyone close enough to get pulled into it’s gravitation field. Stop the insanity…go social.

You get an email asking you to do something that will involve others or multiple steps, use Connections Activities. This can be as simple as dragging the email into your Notes sidebar onto the Activities widget. This will create a social activity. Once done, you can add tasks and items to the activity. You can assign people and add content. Your actions will generate short email alerts to those involved, linking them to the activity, where the conversation takes place. The emails are merely announcements with links. The real conversation is done outside the inbox. Now if anyone joins late, they aren’t relegated to pouring through an email thread to try to discern relevant information. Instead, they find themselves in a social activity that is structured such that the information is easily found and acted upon."

Enterprise microblogging : you no longer have to report back to base

Enterprise activity stream - email conversations with externals staying threaded in the stream

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February 16, 2011

Enterprise activity stream - email conversations with externals staying threaded in the stream

Filed under: blogs, conversation, presence, email, collaboration, tasks

On my tumblr blog I posted about email being sucked into an activity stream (dashboard), and the owner being able to make it public, or replying to the email from within the stream, etc… The idea being that email, is just like flickr, youtube, delicious…it’s just yet another source…but it’s different in that people only see it, if you click a button to make it public.

I suggest you read the tumblr post to get up to speed.

Now…

Imagine an enterprise version of friendfeed as your social network/microblogging/activity stream eg. Socialcast

Firstly, let’s get this out of the way…when having a discussion, and you need to write an extended reply, you don’t need to use email as the enterprise activity stream allows more than 140 characters…which is good as this doesn’t split up the conversation.

Now imagine if an enterprise activity stream allowed you to follow your email client (of course no-one else could do this for privacy reasons).

Wow, bye bye email inbox, as the enterprise activity stream is the new inbox.

From within enterprise activity stream you could reply to this email which would send an Outook email, or if the receiver is on enterprise activity stream you could reply with a comment…look at that a conversation thread where each element may have happened on different products.
At any point you can cherry pick one of your emails that you see in your enterprise activity stream and make it public in your profile stream. People following you will now see the Outlook email title and click it to read it.

You could also do this at the time of sending your email from Outlook ie. when you send your email to someone it will also appear in your enterprise activity stream profile.

Same when replying to an Outlook email from the enterprise activity stream ie. when in the enterprise activity stream you send a reply to Outlook and it can also be made public in the activity stream

Hmm, not sure if you could send an Outlook email (not a reply, but a new email) from within the enterprise activity stream…that would be like sending a tweet from Friendfeed…not a reply tweet, but an initial tweet..or a direct message, etc…

Now imagine this…

You are using your enterprise microblogging/activity stream to do a task with co-workers.

If you need to liase with someone in your company who is not on the task, you can still use the enterprise activity stream
eg. in the comment of the task post you could @reply to this person on the edge of the task, and they can comment back.
This way your co-workers know what is happening on your leg of the task ie. you don’t have to tell them (report back to base), or narrate your work…in this instance, there is no such thing as an “update”, as they “observing” you work in the open.

Now this ain’t gonna work if the person on the edge of the task is an external party eg a vendor, supplier, client.

But what if you were in Outlook and sent the supplier an email and also chose for it to post in the enterprise activity stream as well….or perhaps you are in the enterprise activity stream and choose to create an email which becomes a post as well (or create an email which becomes a comment within a post)…this is sending the Outlook email from within the microblogging app itself so it instantly becomes a post or a comment.

Voila, your co-workers know exactly what stage you are at. They don’t have to ask you how you are going with the supplier, they already know, as you cross-posted the email you sent the supplier as a comment under the task post in the stream…this didn’t have to happen after the fact, this cross-posting can happen at the time you are sending the email (keeping in mind the email can be sent from Outlook or from within the stream).

Now when the supplier replies to your email you will see that in Outlook or your enterprise activity stream, depending where you are at the time…we hope that our head is no longer in Outlook as the enterprise activity stream is the new inbox/dashboard.

If you are in enterprise activity stream at that time, you can click a button to make it (the email reply from the sender) public so it appears as a comment.
If you are in Outlook at the time, you somehow have to also be able to make it send as a comment to your activity stream…I haven’t thought this through technically or how user-centric it is (ie. you don’t have to think). Making an email cross-post to the stream as a post is easy enough, but to cross-post it as a comment within a post means you need to email it to the post email address (or something like that), which sucks as it means you have to hunt around for this emailID, which is not smooth and user-centric…it would be a hassle…drag and drop would be nice

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October 25, 2010

Self-reflection on why do I share

Filed under: blogs, learning

At work our dormant 3D Animation CoP just got a comment on a past blog post by someone from the Machine Design CoP saying they have also done a bit of 3D work.

That’s great; our CoPs are a grounds for discovery, connection, diversity, re-use/remixing..but that’s not what this post is about…

On the same day the 3D Animation CoP posted 3 new blog posts…

Why is that so?

It’s like that commenter came to the table for a feed, and the blogger realised his CoP table was empty so he thought he better put more food on the table, as it’s the right thing a host should do…I mean the more people eat, the more the aim of the CoP becomes fulfilled ie. generates a community spirit.

It means so much when you have an audience…when you are being heard…I have impact (made a difference)…people like what I say…hey I know this…glad it helped you…connection is happiness…mutual fulfillment…building something together…personal and group progress. All this motivates you to share.

Sure a motivation to share can be "I know this…", but not everyone cares to think out loud and share what they know as it happens. I think a more common motivation can happen in a reactionary way…people like what I wrote, they have used what I said in a positive action, the realisation of wow I know stuff and people are listening to me…maybe I could indeed be DIY subject matter expert.

The more people comment on my stuff the more I feel compelled to share, it almost becomes an obligation, but I think it’s just the essence of what it is to be human…having purpose and social connection…engagement.

See Nancy Dixon’s post on a company commander who became an active participant after he found out that other people were getting valuable use from his AAR document

It got me thinking about why I share, which I guess is a re-visit to my post on what blogging does for me

NOTE: this is not a post on why people share in general, for that see some points here about participation

NOTE: there’s also a heap of research on the physiology and psychology of why people share, but maybe I’ll collect and post these links another time

Anyway, here’s my self-reflection…

Interest

- I read so many great blogs and wanted to be a part of that

Express my thinking and clarify my understanding

- The act of posting is "learning" as you are going one step further than thinking…you compare, associate, correlate, analyse, etc…

Feedback

- In my context, who needs to pay for university teachers when you get people adding to and refining your thoughts…the most simplest comment by an unknown, or even someone in another discipline are often the best

- This feedback helps me grow and understand

Memory management

- I don’t want to forget what I read, I like to clip things and then correlate (especially inter-discipline connections)

Research

- Not all people are researchers, but I am…I don’t formally study…I’m just personally motivated by being passionate about certain topics

Impact

- I want to know I make a difference in the world; I don’t want to be just a work slave/consumer

Belonging

- I want to be a part of something…social connection makes me feel good

Audience

- Knowing you have subscribers and commenters just makes you want to post more as it’s an indicator that your purpose is being fulfilled ie. many of the points described above

- I used to post according to what the audience like (via comments on particular topics), but now I just post on what I’m interested in right now

Help others

- This is unconditional for me…but it does depend on time availability

- I co-facilitate the vendor CoP we use at work…I spend some of my time helping others…I do this for free…I’ve experienced many things with the product so for me helping people on the forums is the right thing to do…the by-product of this behaviour is you become known as a subject matter expert whether you like it or not

Habit/addiction

- I’m prone to be a blogger…it makes me feel good…but it’s also addictive

Showing-off

- But not really…it’s more clearing up old modes of thinking…maybe this is related to "advocacy"’

- I am a naturally inclined to be currently aware off all the latest stuff for self-interest, but also like to tell people about it when the occassion arises (BTW - I used to be a current awareness librarian)

- I think stuff is so cool, I just want to share it especially when it comes to music….I guess this is a natural trait of being an enthusiast, early adopter, connoisseur…maybe I’m a cool hunter…hmmm, I’m not a mainstream person eg. I don’t just like what they feed me on the mainstream radio, I go and hunt for stuff…more underground

Messenger

- Noise comes across my radar…the glass half-full is that what was once noise is a new topic I now like to read… a little noise is good…but it also means that when I come across posts about iPad I send them to my friend Gerry…I unconditionally send people links cause I know it’s what they like…I guess this is gifting

Career development

- This realisation came later on

Let’s finish with a snippet from the insightful Andrew Gent:

"People share openly when they feel they are part of a community Not a member of the community, a part of the community. They share because they are assisting the community, even if the sharing is one-to-one with another member. …incentives cannot alter the psychological affinity an individual feels towards to community. At best, the incentive may spur an initial (and temporary) jump from lurker to participant, which the individual then finds satisfying. This success may spur them to try again, and over time start to develop a sense of ownership in the group. (In other words, become part of the community.) This, I believe, is what advocates of incentives are aiming for."

I’m not going to tag people to pass this on, but I recommend "reflection" as a good experience in self-development… or simply growing your grey matter