Wednesday 11 June 2008

Creating the integrated Enterprise2.0 environment

Previously in the post Social Profile I discussed how the integration of information from Social Content Creation and Social Information Management tools would enable the capture of a transactional descriptor of the current interests and activities of a user. In this post and subsequent ones I will discuss how such a integrated enterprise2.0 environment could be created.


In considering integration we can see that in addition to hyperlinking there are three key components:
  1. Single User ID - In order to allow any aggregation of information across systems it is essential that users have a single identity across all the tools. In this case enterprise2.0 has a big advantage over web2.0 as it can leverage this via LDAP or Active Directory.
  2. RSS Enterprise Server - RSS enterprise server provides a tacit method of aggregating all content from the Social Content Creation layer plus which feeds a user is reading.
  3. Tagging Service - this provides a way to aggregate all keywords/tagging and annotations a user assigns to the content they interact with along with their microblogging.

These three components make up the integration layer that resides below the social tools layer.


How achievable is this? Not as far away as you might think we are already seeing examples of companies moving in this direction. For example NewsGator are already showing how a RSS enterprise server can aggregate a users activity, i.e. social sites, while the logical evolution of a social bookmarking tool would be a tagging service, are Connectbeam hinting at a move in this direction? Finally to enable this the RSS enterprise server and tagging service need to be developed with this in mind so that the synergies between these tools can be realised.

Sunday 8 June 2008

OnePoint: Revolutionising team collaboration

OneNote is widely recognised as a gold standard personal knowledge management tool. It is an application with an intuitive user-friendly interface that readily enables a user to aggregate information together from multiple sources and arrange it in a familiar notebook format. One of the less well known features of OneNote is the capacity to create shared notebooks. We have combined OneNote 2007 with SharePoint 2007 to create an excellent team knowledge management tool, which we refer to as 'OnePoint'. This implementation provides an intuitive user-friendly interface onto a SharePoint document library with automatically managed online/offline capability. In addition to this the ability to add hyperlinks, text and pictures alongside these document files adds significant value to a team - users doesn't always have to open a document to find information. OnePoint has enabled project teams to move seamlessly into working in a collaborative fashion resulting in increased engagement and cohesion. An added bonus, probably related to the facile fashion in which information can be collated, is that we are seeing teams aggregate not just the data/information they are using but also including the context, rational and decisions they are making on it. OnePoint is not only revolutionising team collaboration, but also reducing email traffic, eliminating information silos and being demanded by users of all technical ability!


Update: I have been asked to take down the slide deck associated with this post. Hopefully I will be able to re-post it in the near future.

Update: After a bit of "anonymising" I'm free to re-post the slides to slideshare, enjoy.