Comments on: Don’t forget external collaborators

By: James Robertson

James Robertson — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 22:31:09 +0000

Hi Andie, I believe this is possible using MOSS 07, but you’d need to look closely at the technical (and licensing!) aspects in detail…

By: Andie McPherson

Andie McPherson — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 15:22:29 +0000

Does anyone know if MOSS 07 has the capacity to open team sites to external collaborators? I work ithin an international development organisation and we seek the ability to open up collaborative workspaces to affiliates and partners so that we can all work on the same information. It is rare that when we collaborate we do so on internal files for internal use only, most of our work requires the input of donors, affiliates, consultants and other stakeholders.

We are thinking about going down the MOSS 07 route but want to know its capacity for facilitating external collaboration. Does anyone have any ideas?

By: James Robertson

James Robertson — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 02:40:28 +0000

Hi Geert, definitely something to look at when purchasing collaboration tools, as licensing can become very expensive when opened up to the “outside”.

By: Geert Mortier

Geert Mortier — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 08:58:22 +0000

There might also be a software licensing issue when you open up internal collaboration platforms to external users: some of these software tools have a user based license scheme or require special connector to ‘open up the platform to the outside world’…

By: andy lavender

andy lavender — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 06:51:38 +0000

I am interested to see what other organisations are doing in relation to collaborating successfully through external forums with vendors and competitors without exposing their own IP?

The official line may be do not divulge anything without permisson from senior management. However, as we have seen at recent KM conferences there is a real trend toward online chat in today’s workforce. The new generation of employee moves more frequently and openly shares their thoughts.

I believe we should be managing the risk rather than using this as a reason to simply not chat externally, but what sort of risk measures are being taken? For example, as part of forum/collaboration training does an IP/risk group provide coaching or guidance notes on how to not only protect IP but acquire maximum benefit from external discussions with others?

Be interested to hear what others are doing in this area of collaborative governance.