Behind Glass Walls

Here we go! I’m involved with a student consulting team at QUT. Our task was to create a Business Proposal to encourage the QUT Library to genuinely adopt Web 2.0 technologies and techniques. The team consists of:

• Sarah Killey,
• Darren Cann,
• Sean Marshall
• Donald Gee
• and me!

We’ve really tried to cover a wide range of areas, and think we really can show solid reasons for the uptake of Enterprise 2.0. As part of our report, we produced a video, detailing the content of the report in audio and visual form. Enjoy!

There are a huge range of options when it comes to online collaborative document editing. How do we choose something that matches the needs and knowledge of an organisation, a community group, or a university assignment group? He’s my first look at some comparisons:

Wiki

The most Web 2.0 way to appraoch document editing. Gains in ease of access and use, with losses in security, formatting and overall structure.

eg. Wikipedia, Confluence, PBWorks, WikiSpaces, WikiMatrix (comparisions)

• are usually intended for on-screen display
• may use a special ‘wiki’ markup rather than WYSIWYG or HTML
• generally put emphasis on recording changes and authors
• can have anything from no restrictions to strict, role-based authentication in company intranets
• have a number of pages and incorporate internal linking as a core feature
• are intended to be constantly evolving
• allow pages to be created and removed with ease
• do not impose structure, relying on links and searching for navigation
• rely on guidelines and undoing actions

Some info from the Wiki Wikipedia article.

Single Document Editing

Applying Web 2.0 ideas and tools to a very common issue. Allows concurrent, direct editing, at the expense of formatting power, often requiring remote hosting or interaction with external companies.

eg. Google Docs, Zoho, Huddle,

• are generally a single page
• usually aim to produce a ‘final version’, when the document will be reviewed or made read-only
• are intended to be edited simultaneously
• tend to have a structure and format
• promote drafting before editing the document
• use WYSIWYG editors

Online Document Sharing

The least effective way to version and edit a document, but allows for the most formatting power, control over access and provides a huge array of features.

eg. Box.net, XDrive, Files Anywhere

• usually using Word or plain text files (may include pdf, OpenDocument, .docx)
• most difficult form of collaboration
• each computer requires a browser and the software to read the file
• are usually in a semi-complete form
• allow for comments or notes
• make more powerful formatting tools available
• can be backed up or moved easily

I’ll do another post in the next few days talking about common issues with document management, and how the three methods above can help or hinder the process.

A common scenario in anything from music to open source,  libraries to large corporations, is trying to implement a new feature, tool or attitude, only to have it waste away in the face of a lack of interest or low usage. Sometimes it just wasn’t meant to be. Often it’s an issue of promotion.

Promotion can be a dirty subject. It brings to mind pop-up ads, newspaper pages full of ‘savings!’ or ‘limited time only!’. Marketing is a very polar industry – if you’re in it, you push for greater exposure, if you’re the target, you want less. But without it, a key part of success in any project is missing. In the age of a thousand possible directions for attention, ‘build it and they will come’ has never been less true.

Obscurity is enemy number 1. To big and small music artists alike,

Obscurity is a bigger fear than piracy

For open source software, obscurity can hit multiple times. If a user tries out an app, and finds that it’s not polished or up to scratch, they’re probably going to stop using it, and never look back. Even if that app later develops into an amazing piece of software.

Someone who tried your app three years ago and found it wanting may not realise that the version she can download today is far improved. Unless she goes out of her way to look, how likely is she to find out?

Even open source applications targeted to enterprise use may get caught out by obscurity:

[It is claimed that] most business-class open source apps have qualified consultants who can provide enterprise-level support. Cool. But how obvious will that be to the casual observer?

Obscurity is not always bad. In fact, an entire area runs on obscurity: security. Securing something is, at it’s core, making the method of getting access or likelihood of unauthorised access so low or obscure that it would take too much time and effort to carry out. Nothing is 100% secure.

So, when developing a cool new feature for a website, or pouring a whole lot of effort into social media, or adding or changing the services you provide, it is essential to know how the change or addition will be publicised. Even if it’s ‘only a trial’, it needs to have good uptake, or the results are worthless.

It is a challenge, and not all projects can easily promote themselves, but it is essential. After all, I could have the best application, restaurant or  services in the world. If no one knows about it, then it’s not going anywhere.

Wow, is it really week 6 already? This semester is going so quickly. It is certainly a busy one. It’s been quite an experience blogging about Enterprise 2.0. At this point we need to summarise where we think we’re up to with regard to the criteria for this assessment. Here’s where I think I stand:

Practical ability to leverage off web 2.0 to enhance personal branding.

To me, this involves building up profiles on the social networks, web apps and blogs that I use, to allow others to find me. It also let people know who I am, so that there is a person to associate with the articles and comments. I’m an irregular user of a number of social networks – Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter; I have a personal blog in addition to this one; and I read and comment on a range of technology and web development websites. These activities establish my web presence, and give me avenues to express my self in different ways: from short, sharp tweets to longer blog posts and comments.

Manner and consistency of participation in weekly workshops activities and your contribution.

Consistently posting blog articles for a uni subject is a bit of a challenge. I’m not used to doing uni tasks so often outside of contact hours. Having said that, it’s not a bad way of doing it. It allows work to be done at any point, which certainly helps. Thus far I feel I’ve been going pretty well, although I probably could do to post a bit more often than the 2-3 times a week I’m doing now.

I hope I have contributed something to the community, as I do have some experience in the area of web applications and development. From the comments, my post about Ways I promote my blogs was well received.

Ability to appraise Web2.0 strategies and solutions for organisational and personal success.

There are a huge number of web apps and tools around, with many of them failing and appearing each day. Picking the ones that are worth investing time in is difficult, let alone picking the ones that will last. It is even more tricky to choose Web 2.0 platforms and applications that will be successful in enterprise situations.

While I haven’t had a large amount of experience in using tools that might be considered Enterprise 2.0, I do tend to think in that mindset, and look to software and strategies that might make tasks simpler or easier. I’m of the opinion that Enterprise 2.0 is about both the software and the attitude, rather than just the software. It is not possible to simply replace a software package and have things work smoothly without some changes in approach.

Ability to engage successfully with the wider community (including people outside of QUT) using Web 2.0 tools and techniques.

Engaging with the wider community can be difficult when you’re just getting into discussing Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0, even though I’ve been using the tools and technologies for quite a long time. In fact, since I’m a web developer, I’ve built some web 20-esque tools. Discussing the issues is a new area, but one I do have some interest in. I’ve commented on a couple of external blogs, on things such as including both software and attitudes in the definition of Enterprise 2.0. My blog as of yet has only received comments from QUT students. I need to be more proactive in not just reading other blogs and articles, but commenting as well. In the area of using Web 2.0 tools to interact with companies, I’ve found getsatisfaction to be quite useful. LinkedIn is also very helpful in researching jobs and engaging with other professionals.

Over the past few weeks I’ve been very busy with my other units – I’ve neglected Enterprise 2.0 somewhat. I hope to mend that in the next week, as I should hopefully have some more time now.

Quite a simple process…

• Sign in or sign up at Technorati
• Go to the claim your blog link
• Post you claim code (which is what I’m doing now: ef7c5k6pt9 )

When businesses are getting into Web 2.0 tools, and looking to adopt some progressive thinking, there is still “an albatross around their neck” in the form of IE6. It’s not like they can miss the fact that IE6 is hated by developers. That message has been around for years. There are so many options for browsers now:

• Mozilla’s Firefox
• Opera Software’s Opera
• Apple’s Safari
• Google’s Chrome

And word is that there will soon be another entrant: RockMelt. All these browsers are in active development, and support a much broader range of technologies. With all these options, you’d think business could find something to use? Apparently, so many businesses have web-based apps that are tied to IE6, that the reason IE6 is still floating around is because users just don’t have a choice. And there’s no solid reason to upgrade (apart from a few security issues). There’s also the issue of management – IE is by far the easiest to deploy to large installations. This begs the question – why not IE8?

This seems to go against the whole idea of implementing and incorporating Enterprise 2.0. How can modern, complex web interfaces that usually use some very advanced JavaScript and styling run on IE6, an eight (yes, count them, 8!) year old browser. In the world of tech, where applications are evolving every few months, if not faster, that seems ludicrous. However, there is not an easy solution. Any further ideas out there for how companies can at least move to IE8?

I thought I might share some of the methods I’ve found for promoting my blog. This was prompted by reading this article by Jason Van Dyke. I’ve had experience in setting up other blogs, and through that I’ve found some useful tools and ways of doing things.One point to make is that promoting yourself and promoting you blog can be two very different things, depending on how you want to promote yourself.

I’ve tried to order these by priority – the number one suggestion below I’ve found to be better at driving traffic than later suggestions.

1. What’s a blog without content? This is the number 1 way to get visitors to your site, and to keep people interested. Without regular, original, interesting/useful (for your audience) content, other suggestions here aren’t going to help much. It also helps to use words that represent what your site is about, and links to other quality websites. This tells search engines (and readers!) that you’re actively involved.
2. Use your site’s URL when you comment, and comment often. I used to just surf around reading things, and never really had the inclination to comment. Now that I know a bit more about my particular areas of interest, I’m more willing to comment. This is also an opportunity to show search engines that your website is actually known/linked by other sites.
3. Use the webmaster tools search engines make available. These tools offer ways to submit you sitemap, so search engines can more easily crawl the entire site. They also let oyu know about any errors encountered on your website. If you are using wordpress, there’s a plugin that can do the work for you.
   • Google
   • Yahoo
   • Bing
4. Link to your website or blog from your accounts on web apps. Many allow you to enter one or two urls as your home pages. Make use of them.
5. When you have a new post, don’t be afraid of letting people know about it. Do this sparingly, as not everyone likes to have individual posts ‘spammed’ at them.

That’s the way I promote my blog. I hope that helps a bit.

Promoting myself is another matter. I prefer to simply put my name to things, and let people find them. I don’t want to force myself onto people – if they like the content, they’ll know who it’s by.

Socialmedia.biz has a summary of a presentation Stephen Jagger gave all about how he’s converted his businesses to use a wide range of web apps and online tools. It is a rather extreme example – hosting everything in the cloud, or removing the need for office space are probably not options for many companies. For small, active businesses though, these are some really useful ideas and discussions.

The base of the services is hosted Google Mail, plus Talk, Voice and Sites.Yammer and Skype are used for internal and client communication. It seems he has quite firm grip on how the services work and what they are best used for. The tools fit well into observations of what gives good results when exploring social tools and collaborative attitudes for business. Andrew McAfee‘s SLATES is the major guide in this area, along with some additions from Dion Hinchcliffe which cover the atmosphere required to allow the tools to function effectively.

I do have some questions about how open and sharing the businesses are. It seems that the tools are viewed more as promotion aids than enabling client feedback. This may not be true, but it is difficult to find a mention of how the Enterprise 2.0 tools and strategy involved the round trip from employee to client and back.

In any case, this case study ties well with this bnet feature: putting Web 2.0 to work. For a more traditional company, the four steps outlined in that article are quite helpful.

1. Begin by using a web 2.0 tool to address a current need. This could involve test-driving a free web-based app or installing an add-on for current software.
2. Any new movement needs support. Many employees just want to do their work and get home, but for those that like to experiment (I’m in this bunch – I always like looking under the hood), this is the perfect opportunity to help shape the direction of a project.
3. Experimentation is the key – many services and software are very cheap or free, so why not test a whole range of offerings.
4. “Decisions about which Web 2.0 tools to use within your company should be made centrally, but the question of how to use them should be left to individuals, says Harvard’s McAfee.”

This feature set is certainly worth a look.

Well, I hate to use a clichéd phrase, but this just fits. Digsby, like the good Web 2.0 company they are, are looking for ways to make money. This is fine. This is good, I like their all-in-one IM, social network and micro-blogging desktop app. They have innovative ideas for making money that don’t just involve “small unintrusive ads”. I like this so far. One of the hardest things for Web 2.0 companies is working out how to monetise it. So coming up with some out-of-the-box busines models is just the ticket.

It appears that the two main ways Digsby is looking to do this – offer what is traditionally known as ‘crapware’ (extra offers for toolbars or other – usually unwanted – services) as part of the installer and a research module that functions just like BIONC. These things can work.

The crapware is annoying, but if it pays the bills, ok. Just be nice, and make sure it’s not too easy to just keep clicking next and end up with a bunch of junk. The research module is an interesting one, which I think could be very useful to the user, Digsby, and a range of companies.

How well these things are received really depends on the how well they are presented. And, I’m sorry to say, Digsby have not learnt from the Facebook Terms of Service PR disaster or the eMusic Sony deal. When you make changes, you need to be upfront, honest, open to comment, and prepared with logical reasons. Digsby has done this only in stages. it’s first mistake was  “Not announcing [changes to how the product functions] before we started testing it”. Then out came the Lifehacker post about Digsby going to the dark side, and the response.

Digsby have responded adequately to the situation. However, I just uninstalled Digsby, and I urge others to either uninstall or turn off the “research module”.  Why? Here is their Terms of Service section:

15. USAGE OF COMPUTER RESOURCES.

You agree to permit the Software to use the processing power of your computer when it is idle to run downloaded algorithms (mathematical equations) and code within a process. You understand that when the Software uses your computer, it likewise uses your CPU, bandwidth, and electrical power. The Software will use your computer to solve distributed computing problems, such as but not limited to, accelerating medical research projects, analyzing the stock market, searching the web, and finding the largest known prime number. This functionality is completely optional and you may disable it at any time.

Did you spot it? It’s easy to miss… “searching the web”. Yes. They are using their software to search the web using your computer. I can handle everything else. Not this. What are they searching the web for? Where does the data from “searching the web” go? Who knows what websites they end up visiting… from *your* computer.

Digsby, give us control, like the good “user-focused company” you say you are. On/Off is not control. Get to it!

Blogging to me is not something that’s done to simply see how many people you can get commenting or visiting.  Although, it is also much more satisfying when people find your content interesting enough to comment and visit regularly. My view on blogging is that  it needs to be something related to your own interests, and it should be something for yourself. A record of sorts. An online journal, if that comparision hasn’t been done to death. If other find it interesting, all the better, but that is not the main goal. Of course, this is my view, I know there are as many reasons and methods of blogging as there are bloggers.

So, that’s my view, how about what the web has to say about guides to blogging?

Lifehack has a guide for newbies. The main points from here are:

• keeping posts short,
• accommodating skimmers,
• figure out a way to keep up the blogging,
• and promote yourself and your site through links and comments on other blogs or forums

The purpose of a blog could be anything. You could comment on the politico-economic environment, post funny pictures, record productivity and tech tips,  or let your clients know what your company is up to. The possibilities are limited only by server up-time, you time, and the time it takes to think up things to say.

There are some issues with blogging.  The Electronic Frontier Foundation has some tips on how to blog anonymously, if your topic requires it. The main point is to be extremely wary of any identifying information. Even if you don’t mind your identity associated with your blog, there are some things that should never be done. Like publishing your email address, for example.

In future posts I’m going to discuss other forms of blogging – namely how companies are approaching it (embracing it more and more everyday), and the mixture of blogging, Instant Messaging and SMS – yep, Twitter.