Blog category: Collaboration

February 7, 2012 by James Robertson

Book review: Collaboration Roadmap

Collaboration and social tools are becoming the "new normal" within organisations, sitting alongside established corporate platforms such as the intranet. Yet while the technology is becoming widespread, there is strangely little discussion about how to ensure adoption and success. It seems like there is an assumption that if collaboration tools are ...

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October 26, 2011 by James Robertson

What is a social intranet?

The phrase 'social intranet', while appearing more commonly, still generates both interest and confusion. What makes an intranet 'social', and what are the differences between 'social intranets' and 'traditional intranets'? A philosophy and way of working Social intranets are not a technology, or a specific set of features or functionality. Instead, they represent ...

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September 29, 2011 by James Robertson

Enable commenting on intranet news

Two major trends are affecting how intranets are used to communicate to, and connect with, staff. The first is the move by internal communications teams away from just top-down corporate communications to two-way communication and dialogue. The second is the rise of collaborative and social tools, which promise to transform how staff ...

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September 7, 2011 by James Robertson

Two-speed intranets

You'd think from the buzz about social media and collaboration tools that the world is changing rapidly. And you'd be right. These tools are transforming the typical corporate intranet. The intranet doesn't need to be a one-way communications channel and home for policies. With the availability of new tools-and new ...

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September 2, 2011 by James Robertson

Ok, so I might’ve said “blogs and wikis are dead”

It seemed that my keynote talk at KM Singapore helped to change some people's thinking about intranets. Challenging the notion that they are old, dull sites containing policies, I generated new enthusiasm for what intranets can (and should) do. But the most controversy came during the question-and-answer session, where ...

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July 29, 2011 by James Robertson

Deploying microblogging in organisations

Microblogging inside an organisation provides staff with the ability to post short messages to everyone in the organisation or a select group. A variety of online tools can be used, for example Yammer, SocialText or an internally built solution. Deploying microblogging involves more than understanding the technology, because it is ...

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May 20, 2011 by James Robertson

Presentation: Bringing intranets and collaboration together

Yesterday in Stockholm, I gave a presentation at a local IntraTeam community group meeting. A friendly bunch of people, with lots of good conversations (and great lunch!). These were the key ...

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May 19, 2011 by James Robertson

Internal social tools that support the business

Yesterday I gave the keynote presentations at Intranätdagarna (Intranet Days) 2011 in Stockholm, Sweden. A friendly crowd, and some great presentations from the other speakers. The talk shared in this post looked at social ...

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May 18, 2011 by James Robertson

You can’t change corporate culture using social tools

It's been a busy couple of days for enterprise social tools. IBF24, just finished, had a big focus on the social tools that are being rolled out in organisations of every size, from Yammer to team sites, from status updates to rich staff directories. There was also palpable enthusiasm for social ...

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October 5, 2010 by James Robertson

Collaboration tools require new ways of working

Collaboration and social tools promise to transform how organisation work, dramatically improving the way that staff communicate and work together. They also provide new ways of storing (and retrieving) corporate information. For all this, these are deeply unfamiliar tools for most "normal" staff (ie not us). They are not drop-in replacements ...

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August 10, 2010 by James Robertson

To technology strategists: how to blend enterprise + business + people?

Jane McConnell has written an insightful piece on balancing three perspectives of intranets. To quote: When I work with global organizations to help them define the business objectives of the intranet, we do it from these 3 angles. The problem is when we push each dimension to its logical conclusion, ...

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August 3, 2010 by James Robertson

5 key features to consider when choosing a social intranet

Angela Cullen lists key features to consider when choosing a social intranet. To quote: By using a forum or threaded discussion tool, you can engage your employees around specific topics and challenge them to start talking about topics that matter to them. For instance, Project Managers might discuss the ...

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August 2, 2010 by James Robertson

Making the case for enterprise activity streams

Christopher Lynch discusses the value of activity streams on intranets and in collaboration tools. To quote: From a purely practical standpoint, various activity streams, and social software in general, are extra tools layered on top of the current systems a worker has in place. This is inherently true because we’re not ...

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July 30, 2010 by James Robertson

The intranet is dead. Long live the intranet.

David Reinhardt writes about the death of intranets, replaced by social tools. To quote: Prince was wrong – it’s not the internet that’s dead, it’s the intranet. When I talk to clients about intranets as a collaboration hub they cock an eyebrow as if I’m speaking 2003 speak rather than ...

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May 13, 2010 by James Robertson

Social intranet vs intranet 2.0

Toby Ward outlines his take on social intranets vs intranet 2.0. To quote: An intranet that features multiple social media tools for most or all employees to use as collaboration vehicles for sharing knowledge with other employees. A social intranet may feature blogs, wikis, discussion forums, social networking, or a ...

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May 10, 2010 by James Robertson

When was the last time your intranet empowered anyone?

Steve Radick asks the question: when was the last time your intranet empowered anyone? To quote: If you stopped using the terms "social media," and "Enterprise 2.0" and just started telling people that you "have some ideas for improving our Intranet that will make our employees want to log on ...

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May 10, 2010 by James Robertson

Senior executives need to get social on the intranet to do their job

Allen Butcher argues that senior executives need to start using social media, to support intranet strategy. To quote: At each one, collaboration and social media was very much at the forefront – and the importance of securing a place at the top table for change to be approved. And ...

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April 30, 2010 by James Robertson

Forming organic online communities on the intranet: #hashtag everything!

Simon Goh explores the interesting idea of #hashtagging everything on an intranet, to spontaneously create internal communities. To quote: Twitter has popularised the use of #hashtags as a way to aggregate relevant tweets together. #hashtag is a special kind of tag because people learn about them before using them. For ...

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April 8, 2010 by James Robertson

E2.0 Community Approval Criteria

Christy Schoon writes about approval criteria for new collaborative spaces. To quote: In my last blog post I covered open vs. managed community creation inside the enterprise. The next logical question I am asked is “If we do go the managed creation route, what types of questions should we ...

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April 6, 2010 by James Robertson

Alstom: communities of practice

When I was recently in Europe, one of my stops was Paris, for an intranet breakfast event organised by Jane McConnell. This brought together some of France's biggest companies to talk about intranets, and it was a great morning. One of the presentations was by Alstom, talking about their efforts ...

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March 3, 2010 by James Robertson

Senior manager blogs and non-blogs

Jane McConnell shares concrete numbers on adoption of enterprising blogging. To quote: The figures in this year's report clearly show that senior managers in many large organizations are using blogs to improve communication flow, to break through some of the barriers and silos. However, there is still a lot ...

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March 2, 2010 by James Robertson

More advanced steps to a good intranet wiki/blog

Mark Morrell writes about further steps to a good intranet wiki/blog. To quote: In BT anyone can start a blog or create a wiki article internally about their views and opinions and can contribute to other blogs or wiki articles if they wish to. To get started all you ...

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February 23, 2010 by James Robertson

Future principle: put people at the centre

This future principle explores where intranets should be heading. Previous principles include act proactively, not just reactively, provide universal access and it's more than the intranet. They support two "future scenarios": starting a new job and driving the engine of change. Up to this point, the ...

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February 18, 2010 by James Robertson

Video interview with Sabre on their online social tools

Sabre Holdings is one of the largest travel services businesses in the world, quietly connecting travel agents with airlines, as well as running major sites such as Travelocity. Sabre Town, their enterprise social space, provides a ...

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February 16, 2010 by James Robertson

Video interview with NYK on wiki-based intranet news

NYK is one of the world's largest shipping and transport firms, with 770 major ships sailing the oceans. In an incredibly competitive market, it is vital to quickly respond to industry changes and competitor moves. To facilitate ...

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January 18, 2010 by James Robertson

Social intranet products: am I missing something?

I've been looking at a number of "social" and "enterprise 2.0" intranet solutions recently. (I won't name them, as we maintain strict vendor-neutrality.) These are all intended to be out-of-the-box intranet solutions for medium-sized organisations, and they provide rich social functionality. This includes: team spaces wikis blogs social updates (eg Facebook/Twitter) rich personal profiles home-page "latest updates" ...

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December 22, 2009 by James Robertson

The culture of collaboration and what it means for your intranet

Maish Nichani writes about the culture of collaboration, and its relevance when planning projects. To quote: Many organisations are waking up to the fact that collaboration is a key piece of the intranet puzzle. I have spoken to many such people in charge of collaboration in their organisations and what ...

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November 23, 2009 by James Robertson

The immense value of expertise location will help drive enterprise social media

Ross Dawson has written about the value of expertise location. To quote: I have been interested in the field of expertise location for over a decade, from back when knowledge managers were building 'corporate yellow pages' and other tools to find the best expertise in the organization. Unless a large organization ...

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November 2, 2009 by James Robertson

Organizational collaboration: four foundations – overview

Michael Sampson talks about the four foundations of organisational collaboration. To quote: 1. Summarized Expertise ... Who are the people in your organization, and what are they good at? 2. Correlated Knowledge ... What is known about a particular topic in your organization, and who has demonstrated knowledge in a particular ...

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September 18, 2009 by James Robertson

Using the intranet to access collaboration tools

Collaboration tools are spreading through organisations. Wikis, team spaces and discussion groups are being used in ever-greater numbers. For many staff, this means they are involved in several different collaboration spaces. This might include a project space for their current work, another for a committee they are a member of, as ...

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September 8, 2009 by James Robertson

Implementing enterprise micro-messaging with yammer at Océ

Bill Ives reports on the use of Yammer at Océ. To quote: The low barrier to entry helped expand the number of users. The intuitive and attractive interface also helped. Samuel said that there were only about 15 to 20 people using Twitter in the company when he introduced Yammer. ...

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August 30, 2009 by James Robertson

Collaboration: questions to ask

Staff and business areas often identify a need for collaboration tools, without knowing what the best solution would be. They may have some familiarity with a handful of tools, but not know how others work. As discussed in the earlier article Successful collaboration requires support, there needs to be a ...

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August 30, 2009 by James Robertson

Mitigating enterprise collaboration risks

There are many perceived and actual risks when collaboration tools are introduced within organisations. This table lists some of the key risks, and outlines options for mitigating or eliminating them. (Thanks to the participants of our 'Succeeding at collaboration' workshops for their input on this list.) RiskOptions for mitigating the risk Inappropriate ...

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August 17, 2009 by James Robertson

Social networking on intranets

Jakob Nielsen has also written about social media on intranets. To quote: As people embrace social media in their private lives, they naturally expect to use similar tools within the enterprise. This is especially true for younger workers who use these tools in everyday life. Open communication, collaboration, and content ...

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August 17, 2009 by James Robertson

Social media on a global intranet – how do you choose?

Jane McConnell discusses social media on intranets. To quote: An intranet manager asked me recently how to prioritise ideas about social media for the intranet. They are a global organization and are currently attempting to bring all the local intranets under the same umbrella. They ran a workshop, and lots ...

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August 2, 2009 by James Robertson

Book review: SharePoint Roadmap for Collaboration

Michael Sampson's first book, Seamless Teamwork, was a masterpiece of step-by-step instructions for teams using SharePoint. Working from a very practical starting point, it gave teams clear instructions on which elements of SharePoint to use, and how. By design, this book was very much "in the trenches", focusing on getting ...

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July 29, 2009 by James Robertson

Yesterday’s collaboration workshop in Canberra

Talk about collaborating on collaboration! I ran the first of our "Succeeding at collaboration" workshops yesterday in Canberra, and discussions were vigorous and insightful from the outset. At some points I could barely get a word in edgeways, which is exactly what you want when so much great experience is ...

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July 24, 2009 by James Robertson

Launch of social media strategy framework

Ross Dawson has launched another one of his superb diagrams, this one providing a social media strategy framework. To quote: Today we launch our Social Media Strategy Framework. This provides guidance and a frame on how organizations can approach engaging with social media, following in the tradition of our highly ...

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July 22, 2009 by James Robertson

Cutting through the hype of social media

When discussing intranets and related enterprise-level software, it’s easy to get caught up in the technology. There are many features and components, so much whizz-bang functionality. It can be difficult to stay on target and focus on a piece of technology that will simply do a job that needs doing, ...

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July 21, 2009 by James Robertson

12 rules for bringing ‘social’ to your business

Dion Hinchcliffe has written a post outlining 12 rules for bringing 'social' to your business. To quote: But for most of us to really get strategic value from social business, we'll need to understand the ground rules. In other words, let's ask and answer the tough questions in making this ...

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July 9, 2009 by James Robertson

FOI and implications for collaborative, crowd sourced environments

Matt Hodgson explores FOI implications for collaborative tools within government agencies. To quote: I heard a story recently about a boss who was afraid to use a wiki, even inside the walls, because it didn’t fall under the strict editorial control processes normally required for their conventional paper documents or ...

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July 3, 2009 by James Robertson

Collaboration in Australia

Matthew Moore and Keith De La Rue have launched a survey to understand usage of collaboration tools within Australia. To quote: We are researching the use of collaboration tools in Australia. “Collaboration” is a buzz term at the moment, and we want to get behind the hype to discover how ...

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July 1, 2009 by James Robertson

Insights from the e20 challenges at J&J

Abigail Lewis-Bowen has written about her experiences of enterprise 2.0 at Johnson & Johnson. To quote: Coach Leaders ahead of time about the essence of communicating with these tools: praise the good, ignore the bad, be prepared to accept criticism, and never come across as critical or negative. Doing so ...

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July 1, 2009 by James Robertson

Introducing the Enterprise Wiki Software Guide

Stewart Mader has published a new Enterprise Wiki Software Guide, providing a brief summary on key enterprise wiki tools (both free and commercial). To quote: Choosing the right wiki for your team, project, or organization is essential. The right tool will help catalyze adoption, encourage continued use, and help people ...

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June 22, 2009 by James Robertson

SharePoint roadmap for collaboration: Michael’s second book

Michael Sampson has pre-announced his new book called SharePoint Roadmap for Collaboration. To quote: SharePoint Roadmap for Collaboration is the indispensable guide for the CIO and IT department about what to do after installing the software. This book takes everything that I teach in my SharePoint Roadmap workshop -- about ...

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June 17, 2009 by James Robertson

Why businesses don’t collaborate – new research report

Stewart Mader has published some research into why businesses don’t collaborate. To quote: Many businesses think they collaborate. But content professionals today are tugged in multiple directions, and expected to multi-task their way through an increasing amount of work with the help of software tools designed to make them more ...

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June 16, 2009 by James Robertson

Five wiki gardening tips

Matt Wiseley has written about wiki gardening. To quote: I wrote a few months ago about keeping the chaff out of your site with a regular Wiki Spring Cleaning. This is just one in a set of activities often referred to as Wiki Gardening. Now that it is actually ...

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June 16, 2009 by James Robertson

When it comes to enterprise 2.0, every vendor wants to own the user

Interest in enterprise 2.0 and collaboration remains high within organisations, despite the economic downturn. The range of tools in the marketplace is growing, and capabilities are improving. So far, all good. The challenge is, however, to work out where to fit these tools in the enterprise landscape. Most organisations have a ...

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June 11, 2009 by James Robertson

JetBlue’s test group helps enterprise wiki adoption

Stewart Mader writes about a case study of wiki use in JetBlue. To quote: The software selected provided a vehicle for JetBlue faculty to talk to one another, not just about process improvements in learning & development, but also to share photos from family vacations, weddings and birthdays. The thinking ...

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June 4, 2009 by James Robertson

A case study of enterprise wiki usage

Matthew C. Clarke has published an extensive enterprise wiki case study, covering the work done at CorVu. To quote: CorVu produces software that assists other enterprises to implement their strategy and to track their performance against that strategy over time. CorVu has a variety of channels for making its internal ...

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June 3, 2009 by James Robertson

Steps to a good intranet wiki/blog

Mark Morrell has written a post on 5 simple steps to a good intranet wiki/blog. To quote: While talking to people after presenting ‘Adding value to your intranet - Intranet governance at BT‘ at Intranätdagarna 2009 in Stockholm last week it made me realise some simple steps could help an ...

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May 8, 2009 by James Robertson

Collaboration anti-culture: can It get any worse?

Michael Sampson has written about cultural barriers to collaboration, giving a real-life example. To quote: "Collaboration" will fail at your firm, because of lack of freedom. Eg, you two are hand-slapped for going to talk to other people at head office (talk!). Collaborative activity doesn't flourish in tightly controlled environments ...

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May 4, 2009 by James Robertson

Being social at work: which communications model to adopt for the enterprise?

Matthew Hodgson has written a post on communications models for enterprise 2.0. To quote: Web 2.0 technology presents the modern organisation with a plethora of means for communicating new information to staff. While some of us are now running to install wikis and blogs as a vehicle to achieve enterprise ...

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April 28, 2009 by James Robertson

Moderating internal discussion forums, blogs and other social media

When starting intranet-based online discussions in an organisation, whether they are forums, blogs, comments on articles, or internal Twitter-style tools, how should you go about moderating them and maintaining their effectiveness? Where do you begin with writing policies and guidelines on use? Should you even monitor the discussions at all? ...

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April 27, 2009 by James Robertson

Visualization: Wikis in the enterprise

Ross Dawson posts a nice visualisation of wikis in the enterprise. To quote: Today we are continuing our series of visual representations of social media tools inside organizations, taken from our Implementing Enterprise 2.0 report. The diagram below was used in the chapter on wikis in the enterprise, to ...

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April 24, 2009 by James Robertson

10 tips for a successful wiki

James Everett has written a post outlining 10 tips for a successful wiki. To quote: There are dozens of different wikis, from free open source models to commercial enterprise packages. Use your list of criteria to research the available options and evaluate each to see how it fits your team. ...

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April 14, 2009 by James Robertson

New report: Governance and support for SharePoint team sites

I'm pleased to announce the release of our latest report: Governance and support for SharePoint team sitesA best practice case study Microsoft SharePoint is now rapidly spreading through organisations. In terms of team collaboration, this is meeting a very real need. If unmanaged, however, this explosive growth will generate ...

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April 6, 2009 by James Robertson

Reviewing intranet-based collaboration setups

Maish Nichani has provided a set of guidelines to review intranet-based collaboration, building on our Intranet Review Toolkit. To quote: The ability to form groups and collaborate on the intranet is key to making the intranet a place for ‘doing work’. A well-planned collaboration setup allows staff to use the ...

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March 26, 2009 by James Robertson

Video: Use a wiki to plan meeting agendas, record minutes

Stewart Mader has posted a video that discusses using wikis for meetings. To quote: A wiki can help your team make meetings shorter and more focused. How? By letting everyone track progress of projects and action items online, so they can focus meetings on just the items that need in-person ...

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March 23, 2009 by James Robertson

No collaboration without communications

Organisations are rushing to jump on board the web 2.0 bandwagon, which seem to offer a collection of affordable tools to collaborate and share knowledge. While many organisations are currently experimenting with social media tools, strong successes are still relatively rare. Consider the following scenario: an organisation introduces collaboration by piloting ...

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March 23, 2009 by James Robertson

Integrating social tools with the EUMETSAT intranet

In 2008, the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) won a commendation in the Intranet Innovation Awards. Their AJAX-based ‘Intranet Newsflash’ delivered quick bulletins of news and critical messages to users, regardless of the page on display. EUMETSAT’S intranet innovation doesn’t end there, however. A wiki for new ...

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March 18, 2009 by James Robertson

UX design for collaboration 2.0

Matthew C. Clarke has written an article on designing "collaboration 2.0". To quote: I want to start this discussion by proposing a model for collaboration1 that links the various elements of collaboration, comment on the so-called “collaboration software” currently available, and make some tentative suggestions about IA and UX requirements ...

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March 17, 2009 by James Robertson

We need to find the business value in collaboration

Managing collaboration takes a lot of work. Rolling out the tools is easy, whether it's team spaces, wikis or blogs. To ensure that they are successful is another matter. If collaboration is to succeed across the enterprise, organisations will need to appoint at least one full time person (probably two) ...

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March 11, 2009 by James Robertson

Where should collaboration sit?

Jane McConnell asks the question: where should collaboration sit? To quote: I recommend placing collaboration within the intranet landscape. That's to say, making the intranet the front door into collaborative spaces (even if they are built on a different technology). This reinforces the role of the intranet as a business ...

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March 4, 2009 by James Robertson

Collaboration and social media terminology?

Terminology is always muddy in emerging fields, particularly where product innovation outstrips theoretical thinking. This is very much the case in the spaces of "collaboration" and "social media". While this is hard to avoid, it's extremely problematic. Very different approaches and tools are lumped together, people discover they aren't talking about ...

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February 26, 2009 by James Robertson

What would you put in corporate Twitter usage guidelines?

Martin Belam asks: what would you put in corporate Twitter usage guidelines? To quote: When blogging became a popular activity for both employees and employers, it wasn't long before companies were formulating corporate blogging policies. As Twitter grows and grows, and can't seem to keep out of the UK media ...

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February 11, 2009 by James Robertson

Tools for remote teams to keep in touch

As working lives get busier and more flexible work options open up, a way to keep in touch with remote colleagues is needed. Colleagues might be working from home, in a different state or 'on the road'. Feeling part of a team It is difficult to replicate 'water-cooler' chat with remote staff ...

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February 6, 2009 by James Robertson

Untangling collaboration spaces

An all-too-common scenario: Collaboration spaces, such as wikis or SharePoint team areas, have multiplied across the organisation. Now numbering in the thousands, some are hugely successful but many are not. Confusion and pain has oustripped the value offered by the collaboration spaces, and things may be getting worse not better. How to ...

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January 12, 2009 by James Robertson

CoPs 101

Kim Sbarcea has pointed to some very useful introductory resources on communities of practice. To quote: Once again, I find myself in need of explaining CoPs (communities of practice) to people I’m working with. I’ve been working with CoPs since 2002 in the same organisation. There’s been the usual ups ...

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January 9, 2009 by James Robertson

Social computing behind the firewall – best buy’s video case study

George Dearing has posted a link to a video case study of Blue Shirt Nation, the social networking initiative at Best Buy in the US. To quote: With all the talk about the inability to show demonstrable ROI in social computing, it’s refreshing to see a company lay out the ...

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January 8, 2009 by James Robertson

Five common collaboration tool errors

Matt Moore has written about five common collaboration tool errors. To quote: The New New Thing Error. Deciding to deploy something because it is new rather than based on its merits to meet your purpose (N.B. You do have a purpose don't you?) Warning Sign:"One of our directors read about ...

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January 7, 2009 by James Robertson

Trends that will affect enterprise collaboration

Shawn Callahan lists six trends that will affect enterprise collaboration. To quote: Increased complexity. The world is getting more connected in all sorts of ways. We know more people, we visit more people, organisations are partnering, flights are increasing, information networks are getting more joined up and so it goes. ...

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December 4, 2008 by James Robertson

Worst practices for managing wikis in organizations

The Wikis in Organizations team has written a post on a few wiki worst practices. To quote: Instead of doing what others do best, try avoiding what others do worst. It is much more harder to follow best practices than to stay away from worst practices. With respect to managing ...

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November 19, 2008 by James Robertson

Is there a groundswell of demand for collaboration tools in your agency?

Craig Thomler asks: is there a groundswell of demand for collaboration tools in your agency? To quote: In my travels and conversations with peers I've become aware that many of them are seeing needs emerging within organisations for better collaboration tools - people are seeking better and more cost-effective ways ...

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November 18, 2008 by James Robertson

Three tiers of collaboration

There are many elements of collaboration, and we often encounter the "blind men and the elephant problem". We're all talking about collaboration, but we're actually discussing different parts of the animal. Some people are referring to technology when they talk about collaboration, others are looking at the "collaborative culture" within organisations, ...

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November 17, 2008 by James Robertson

The beginnings of a theory of participation

Stuart French has outlined the beginnings of a theory of participation. To quote: Below is my first try at mapping the interactions between these concepts and uses the actual labels used by the participants in the study. There is minimal theory in this framework. Each link is based on evidence ...

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November 10, 2008 by James Robertson

A brief guide to successful virtual teams

James Dellow has posted an article on successful virtual teams. To quote: While it might not be recognised, in many organisations collaborating together as part of a virtual project team or a remote workgroup (where the staff are not co-located with each other, including tele-workers) is a normal fact of ...

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November 5, 2008 by James Robertson

Collaboration framework

Shawn Callahan has outlined a collaboration framework, providing a practical process and describing the necessary business environment. To quote: Organisations need simple ways to create a common understanding about what needs to be done. Our collaboration framework aims to provide two perspectives: the dashed oval represents the collaboration environment—the container ...

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November 4, 2008 by James Robertson

Do collaborative online groups need to be successful?

Craig Thomler asks the question: do collaborative online groups need to be successful? To quote: My personal experience of collaborative communities over more than ten years of operating and participating in them is that they all ebb and flow over time. Often only a few individuals are required at their ...

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November 3, 2008 by James Robertson

Time for a reality check

Richard Dennison writes about the need for a reality check on social media tools. To quote: I’m reading an increasing amount of stuff taking swipes at social media along the lines of … it was all just hype … it’s not delivering what it promised etc. I guess it was ...

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November 3, 2008 by James Robertson

Implementing enterprise 2.0 in the real world

Now that the hype of enterprise 2.0 is starting to settle, it's clear that there are many valuable approaches that can (and should) be put into practice. Intranet and information managers are busy, however, pulled in many directions by different stakeholders. Resources are limited, and senior management visibility is often low. ...

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October 28, 2008 by James Robertson

A scenario-based approach to evaluating social software

Tony Byrne has written an article on their scenario-based approach to evaluating social software. To quote: Explicitly or not, different Social Software products target different use cases. Understanding the business scenarios that fit better or worse for the different packages enables you to see deeper into their relative strengths and ...

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October 27, 2008 by James Robertson

Why web 2.0 doesn’t work in the enterprise (yet)

Allen Huish looks at why web 2.0 doesn't work in the enterprise (yet). To quote: 1. Not enough people in your company understand it You would not believe the number of people who I meet who don't know what a blog is, haven't tried facebook, or used a wiki (although I'd ...

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October 24, 2008 by James Robertson

Do public social networks have a place in government offices?

Craig Thomler asks: do public social networks have a place in government offices? To quote: With these mediums we put appropriate policies in place, sometimes train people on acceptable conduct and rely on trusting individuals to do the right thing, to act in their own self-interest (continued employment) and back ...

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October 23, 2008 by James Robertson

Study Confirms Our New “Connectedness” Is A Mixed Blessing

Sarah Perez reports on the latest Pew Internet & American Life Project report on connectedness. To quote: To all those who feared that technology pulls people apart, a new report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project on the American family reveals the opposite is true: today's families are ...

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October 22, 2008 by James Robertson

What makes a Wiki?

Gadgetopia has written a post asking: what makes a wiki? To quote: Way back in the day, when wikis were new and I was messing around with early versions of Twiki (we had to GlueWordsTogether to make links…), wikis had some prety clear differentiators. I agree that the lines between wikis ...

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October 20, 2008 by James Robertson

Don’t forget external collaborators

Collaboration tools are now being deployed widely within organisations, with a particular focus on team and project collaboration. What is all too often forgotten, however, is that there are potential collaborators outside the organisation as well. Two worlds of collaboration Most of us are now involved in some form of collaboration on the ...

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October 13, 2008 by James Robertson

Scottrade: Competitor Wiki

This year we held the awards ceremony for the Intranet Innovation Awards at the KMWorld & Intranets conference in San Jose. That gave me an opportunity to hand over more of the trophies in person, which is always ...

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October 10, 2008 by James Robertson

Micro-blogging in the enterprise: an idea whose time has come?

Ross Dawson asks whether the time has come for micro-blogging in the enterprise. To quote: So something like Twitter combines elements of the best of both worlds. It’s like email in that it’s broadcast, though you choose who you receive messages from, and you don’t need to read everything. You ...

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October 8, 2008 by James Robertson

British Airways: Crew Community Forums

At the beginning of my recent round-the-world trip, I went straight from touching down at Heathrow to the British Airways head offices nearby. Ignoring 24+ hours of jetlag, it gave me an opportunity to hand over the trophy for ...

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September 30, 2008 by James Robertson

Best-practice approach to SharePoint team spaces

SharePoint is rapidly spreading through organisations at the moment, and in terms of team collaboration, this is a good thing. There is a very real need to be met, and it will require a mix of tools, including team spaces. That being said, we've argued before that the unmanaged spread of ...

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September 29, 2008 by James Robertson

Should knowledge workers have enterprise 2.0 ratings?

Andrew McAfee asks: should knowledge workers have enterprise 2.0 ratings? To quote: So one approach would be to graph where everyone stands within the organization along six dimensions: authoring, editing, interacting, tagging, uploading, and positive feedback. A simple radar graph would instantly show were an individual is on each, based ...

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September 23, 2008 by James Robertson

Announcing the winners of the 2008 Intranet Innovation Awards

The winners of this year's Intranet Innovation Awards have now been announced. Global in nature, these awards celebrate new ideas and innovative approaches to the enhancement and delivery of intranets. Uniquely, the awards recognise individual intranet improvements, and not intranets as a whole. The awards are about improving all intranets, ...

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September 10, 2008 by James Robertson

Wikis Not Word! Gaining adoption through psychological warfare

Seth Gottleib has written an unusual post on building wiki adoption through psychological warfare. To quote: Your company has a perfectly good wiki but your (otherwise intelligent) co-workers insist on emailing you Microsoft Word documents to review. Your gentle guidance has been ignored. Your snarky comments have been equally ineffective. ...

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September 8, 2008 by James Robertson

Seven personal skills for effective collaboration

Shawn Callahan has outlined seven personal skills for effective collaboration. To quote: It's easy to talk about what collaboration is or is not or the types of collaboration. What's difficult is to change your practices (read behaviours) to improve your chances of an effective collaboration. Here are seven personal ...

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September 5, 2008 by James Robertson

Blogs no longer equal conversations?

Alex Manchester has questioned what blogs mean, in the context of today's usage. To quote: For me these days a blog is little more than a sophisticated, easy-to-use website platform. A place where an individual or a department/function can have their own site quickly and easily. Simplistic that may be, ...

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August 28, 2008 by James Robertson

Collaboration: leading by example

Collaboration: by stealth or by design, to a few or to all, in some form or other organisations are getting into it. Those that do, realise that there is more to collaborating than the mere introduction of tools. There is undoubtedly a large amount of online chatting, blogging and social networking ...

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August 28, 2008 by James Robertson

Two uses for wikis

Wikis are gaining rapid adoption with organisations at present, driven in part by the very visible success of Wikipedia, and other similar sites. While organisations are still learning how to use wikis in practice, it is clear that they can offer considerable benefits. Wikis can be used in many different ways, and ...

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August 28, 2008 by James Robertson

Close team spaces when projects end

Establishing team spaces for projects can be one of the most productive uses of collaboration tools. Projects have a lot of information to share between team members (and beyond), and collaboration can provide new ways of meeting this need. Projects are also nicely ‘bounded’, with a defined membership (the project team), ...

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August 22, 2008 by James Robertson

5 effective wiki uses and how companies benefit from them

Stewart Mader outlines five uses for a wiki within organisations. To quote: Red Ant, a Sydney, Australia based Web design and development firm, uses a wiki as the main collaboration hub for employees and customers. I asked Ben Still, managing director, how they use wikis: “First, a designer makes a ...

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