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), ...
Blog category: Collaboration
August 28, 2008 by James Robertson
Close team spaces when projects end
Tags: Collaboration, projects, team spaces
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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August 6, 2008 by James Robertson
Using social media (Ning) to manage a social project – KETC and the mortgage crisis
Rob Paterson shares an interesting case study of using social media to support a social project. To quote: To do all of this we have to work across the silos -- the TV production people have to work with Outreach -- who has to work with Marketing - who has ...
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August 2, 2008 by James Robertson
Ten tips for succeeding at collaboration (+ audio)
view presentation (tags: blogs sharepoint wikis openpublish08) I gave a presentation ...
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July 30, 2008 by James Robertson
Why most branded communities fail
Tony Byrne has written about the challenges of establishing white-label social networks, drawing on recent Deloitte research. To quote: We also found that there are several different ways to build, foster, and take advantage of communities, but (as Deloitte observes), each approach takes active care and feeding. Budget your schedule ...
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July 29, 2008 by James Robertson
Intranets and social networking
Gale Langseth has written about social networking and intranets. To quote: For most businesses, though, any social networking seems to be too much. As soon as you start mentioning blogs and wikis to upper management, the backpedaling starts: "We can't do that, because people wouldn't get any work done." Explanations ...
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July 8, 2008 by James Robertson
Recreate or integrate … that is the question?
Richard Dennison has asked whether it is better to recreate or integrate web 2.0 services within the organisation. To quote: The balance between recreating and integrating I think is going to be what makes or breaks our internal social media tools in the future. We need to give it ...
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July 7, 2008 by James Robertson
Integrating social media into a web content strategy
Britt Parrott has written an article on integrating social media into a web content strategy. To quote: Any individual or organization that sells products or offers services should value open communication as a goal. If your client or company does not have an existing communications plan, or even a mission ...
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July 4, 2008 by James Robertson
How would you start out sourcing social networking tools?
Craig Thomler has written a post about choosing social networking tools. To quote: I apply some fairly rigorous criteria. Any system must: Meet W3C, Federal, Department and Agency web standards Support at least AA accessibility (and preferably AAA) Meet our ICT requirements for interoperability, stability, bandwidth use and technology platform Integrate with our identification ...
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June 20, 2008 by James Robertson
Enterprise social networking has landed in BT
Richard Dennison has written about the newly-launched social networking tools in BT. To quote: Top left is the normal friends functionality … only we call them contacts because it would never do to have friends at work … this also displays a newsfeed of your contacts’ current activities or ...
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June 2, 2008 by James Robertson
Video: Social Media in Plain English
The Common Craft folks have created another of their marvelous videos, this one explaining social media in simple terms. Forward this video (and previous releases) to those just getting started in this space...
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May 21, 2008 by James Robertson
21 days of wiki adoption
Stewart Mader has published a series of videos covering 21 days of wiki adoption. To quote: Your competitors are using wikis. Your customers are using wikis. So are other employees in your organization. You need to use wikis too. It’s where your future is. And I’ll show you how.
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May 20, 2008 by James Robertson
Running a brainstorm session in virtual space
Michael Sampson has written an article on virtual brainstorming sessions. To quote: Be very clear that brainstorming rules apply. If the brainstorming work is being run through a wiki page, write clearly at the top of the page, "Brainstorming Rules Apply", and create a link to the page in the ...
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May 13, 2008 by James Robertson
Sage advice on wiki adoption: keys to success
Stewart Mader has written about keys to wiki adoption. To quote: Meetings are an especially good place to start. Plan agendas using a wiki, then record minutes & notes, and action items. Between meetings, you can update the status of items, and this sets the stage for deeper wiki uses, ...
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May 9, 2008 by James Robertson
Enterprise social tools: components for success
Thomas Vander Wal has written about achieving success with enterprise social tools. To quote: Social tools require much more than just the tools for their implementation to be successful. Tool selection is tough as no tool is doing everything well and they all are focussing on niche areas. But, as ...
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April 30, 2008 by James Robertson
Making collaboration work
I was co-facilitating the Intranet Leadership Forum workshop in Melbourne today, and we started the day with a discussion around collaboration. We covered a variety of questions, but one key topic was: how do we make collaboration work well? In five minutes the group had brainstormed the following list: involve key ...
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April 28, 2008 by James Robertson
Collaboration tools: STAGS
Matt Moore has published his STAGS model for collaboration tools. To quote: I've been thinking about different collaboration tools for various groups recently and I was pondering on some of the different factors you need to consider and I came up with this (click to enlarge).
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April 4, 2008 by James Robertson
Getting to know collective and collaborative
Thomas Vander Wal has written an article that differentiates between collective and collaborative. To quote: One of the things that has been a little bothersome in the last year or two and has been the lack of understanding between the difference between two terms, collaborative and collective. The two terms ...
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March 13, 2008 by James Robertson
Community of practice success story
Mark Schenk has written a post on a case study from Rio Tinto on their community of practices. To quote: Rio Tinto has made a short video on one of the stories and this is publicly available on their website. Well worth checking out and using as an example of ...
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February 18, 2008 by James Robertson
The trouble with web 2.0
Alexander Wilms has written an article on the trouble with web 2.0, from an enterprise context. To quote: We have seen that there are differences between the Web and corporate environments. While the Web is a deregulated environment, with millions of users contributing and easy access to data, corporations have ...
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February 7, 2008 by James Robertson
What’s my scene — user roles and needs in social computing
Matthew Hodgson has written an article on user roles in social computing. To quote: Do you allow people to comment, review, rate and ask questions on your website's articles? If you do, you'll be enjoying the fact that your own users are helping others know what information is valuable on ...
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January 29, 2008 by James Robertson
Trend map for 2008 and beyond
Nowandnext.com and Future Exploration Network have created a trend map for 2008 and beyond, covering key aspects of the online and physical worlds. To quote: While last year’s map was based on the London tube map, the 2008 map is derived from Shanghai’s underground routes. Limited to just five lines, ...
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January 29, 2008 by James Robertson
Librarians challenge Web 2.0 myths
The Register has published results of research into web 2.0 and search amongst youth. To quote: According to a British Library study many of the assumptions made about the Google generation - defined as those born since 1993 - fail to stack up to the evidence. Among these, that the Google ...
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January 25, 2008 by James Robertson
Collaboration’s resurgence
Shawn Callahan has written a post of the resurgence of collaboration as a hot topic. To quote: Everywhere I turn recently and I hear people talking about the need to collaborate as if the idea was new. Why has collaboration become the capability organisations must have? And why now? I ...
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January 24, 2008 by James Robertson
Perkins Eastman: Practice Area Communities
This is the last of the video interviews with the inaugural Intranet Innovation Award winners. This interview is with the Gold Award winning Perkins Eastman (USA), introducing their use of "practice area communities". Covered in this video: Why ...
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January 21, 2008 by James Robertson
The elements in the social software stack
Thomas Vander Wal has presented a model of the elements in the social software stack. To quote: When thinking through social software (also known as social computing, social media, and social web) I have been influenced by many ideas, but at the core there are two things that stick in ...
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January 10, 2008 by James Robertson
Is this preaching rebellion against IT?
Michael Sampson has written a post on the Forrester survey into collaboration. To quote: Forrester reports that 68% of its respondents indicated plans to invest in "real-time collaboration software", a phrase which generally means instant messaging. Technology for enterprise instant messaging has been widely available for many years, so what's ...
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December 18, 2007 by James Robertson
Collaboration is about people
A number of articles have recently been published on collaboration. Focusing on collaboration tools, these articles have explored when they work, the challenges involved and how to avoid these problems in practice. In many ways, these articles have taken for granted the central aspect of collaboration: the people involved. This article ...
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November 29, 2007 by James Robertson
It’s nice to have friends
It's nice to have friends. Over the years, we've met a lot of people at conferences and events, and have steady readers of the articles we publish. We've also worked with a lot of organisations, or have had conversations via emails. The connections we build at conferences, however, can be lost ...
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November 5, 2007 by James Robertson
Start by ‘gardening’ collaboration
Collaboration tools have been used in organisations for a long time now, and the new generation of tools is spreading at an incredible rate. Tools are being deployed in parallel across many different business units, irrespective of any organisation-wide strategy or support. A planned approach must therefore be taken to ...
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November 5, 2007 by James Robertson
Successful collaboration requires support
Successful organisation-wide collaboration does not happen by chance. While the uptake of collaboration tools can be very rapid, some areas will use the tools well, while others will struggle (or fail). Rolling out collaboration tools is not without its risks. As outlined in the earlier briefing Collaboration tools are anti ...
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November 5, 2007 by James Robertson
Establish a portfolio of collaboration tools
There is no one-size-fits-all solution for collaboration needs within an organisation. Individual teams and business areas will have very different behaviours and requirements, and this must be reflected in the collaboration tools that are put in place. To fully meet an organisation's collaboration needs, a 'portfolio' approach should be taken. This ...
October 13, 2007 by James Robertson
Building a culture of collaboration
Bill Roberts has written an article on building a culture of collaboration. To quote: Today's collaborative tools fall into two broad groups: tools created for a web-based function, and collaborative platforms designed for various disciplines from supply chain management to HR processes to general knowledge sharing. The first category, known as ...
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October 13, 2007 by James Robertson
Followup to collaboration is anti knowledge sharing?
A few days ago I posted an article titled: collaboration tools are anti knowledge sharing? This was a deliberately provocative article, and I've now had an excellent response from Michael Sampson. To quote: If the team has done a proper job of collecting and collating all of their discussions, ...
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October 9, 2007 by James Robertson
Collaboration tools are anti knowledge sharing?
There is a clear need for collaboration within organisations, and the rollout of collaboration tools will bring many benefits. What is not widely recognised, however, is that the unmanaged spread of collaboration tools can work against knowledge sharing. While collaboration tools work extremely well for the staff using them, they ...
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October 4, 2007 by James Robertson
Taking the best of both worlds
A little while back I wrote an entry on enterprise 2.0, characterising the conflict between the libertarians and the corporate suits (noting the deliberate stereotyping). To quote: On one side we have what I would call the "libertarians", the body-and-soul evangelists of enterprise 2.0 technologies and approaches. While not all ...
September 15, 2007 by James Robertson
Social networks and group formation
Shiv Singh has written an article on social networks and group formation, drawing upon a range of academic research. To quote: The online social network field is broad, and any literature review can only focus on a selection of articles. The present article highlights recent research in the field and ...
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September 15, 2007 by James Robertson
Adopting collaboration: continuing the discussion
A few days ago I posted a model for the adoption of collaboration, which outlined the following phases: Phase 0: Fragmentation Phase 1: Gardening Phase 2: Business solutions Phase 3: Rich networks Phase 4: Coherence This has generated some excellent conversation via other blogs. Matt Moore started the conversation by adding his insights against ...
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September 15, 2007 by James Robertson
Enterprise 2.0: working in the middle ground
vs It's been interesting to observe how the battle lines are shaping up between the evangelists of enterprise 2.0 on the one side, and those perceived to be resisting such technologies on the ...
September 11, 2007 by James Robertson
Adopting collaboration tools in four phases
I've been doing a lot of thinking recently about collaboration and collaboration tools. It's clear that there's a huge unmet need for this capability, but a lot of confusion about how best to introduce these tools to organisations. What is equally sure is that just providing the tools and hoping for ...
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