Web 2.0 has taken off largely on the basis of services that are focused on personal use. Certainly there are enterprise Web 2.0 tools, but the powerhouse services -- like MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter -- are all focused on personal use. That's why, as soon as I heard about it, I began exploring a new micro-messaging tool called Yammer. I'm excited how they are bringing the concept of Twitter and applying it to the business environment.
I will confess that writing about Twitter is an odd choice for me. While I am a prolific user of Web 2.0 tools, I rarely use Twitter. Twitter is about one simple question "What are you doing now?" In my personal life, as a strong introvert, my answer to that is "None of your business." But in business life, my employer and co-workers have a clear need to know what I am up to. Yammer says it is all about answering one simple question "What are you working on?"
I'm reminded of the time I flew down to Atlanta for a conference and ran into three other people from my company at the same conference. While it was an interesting event, when you consider the time and money spent by four employees -- my company did not get a great return on investment. Imagine if one or more of us had placed an entry on Yammer that said "Anybody going to this conference?"
Consider the many other potential applications like: posting questions from an RFP; asking if anybody knows how to create a certain style graph in Excel; tapping the knowledge of your co-workers before you start a time-consuming project. Let's not forgot one of the most underrated groups of employees in any company: receptionists. Imagine their excitement to be able to easily find out where employees are!
While I started my exploration with Yammer, there are already at least three of these micro-messaging tools in the marketplace: Yammer, Present.ly, and QikCom. Each of these companies is adding features as quickly as possible -- the ability to connect from mobile devices, to create groups, to delete messages, to customize the interface to match your company branding and to use an API to integrate this into existing enterprise applications.
While security is a chore for so many Web 2.0 tools, for these micro-messaging tools there is an amazingly simple security model. To participate in the messaging for company X, all you need to have is an email address at companyx.com. A simple email verification message and the process is done. This simple approach also highlights how employees can start using these services without IT participation.
In the world of enterprise IT we spend an extreme amount of time on productivity and security issues as the "protector" of the enterprise. These micro-messaging systems present a great opportunity for IT to be the leader. I would encourage IT folks to take this opportunity to grab the lead on this Web 2.0 trend. Let your next Twitter read, "Exiting Twitter and providing my company with a simple and private way to keep the entire company up-to-date!"
— David Silversmith, Internet and Web analytics consultant, and former CTO of Carfax
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I think all Yammer could be is a ListServ or a message board thread with pictures of the person posting.
Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Actually, there might be value for an enterprise in such a situation, but really, if so, they have more powerful and better collaboration tools. A small business doesn't need a virtual discussion thread because their employees likely actually get out of their offices and talk. And, Yammer would never work with a melting pot kind of club (like a book club, runner's club, etc.) because everyone would have different e-mail extensions.
So, I'm kind of with you. Maybe there will be a home for "Yammer Inside" or something like that, where Yammer is part of a bigger application. Oh, I think that's Facebook.
I've been playing around with Twitter and Yammer again today.
Two things strike me about Twitter.
1. Utter absense of a business case. And I don't see how this will change over time, regardless of how many users they have.
2. Just how badly the site's code is written. Half the features don't work. It's shocking.
Re Yammer:
As far as i can tell, all if has going for it is a simple piece of code that id's you via your email suffix, and sticks you on a page with other equivallently suffixed people. That, and the ability to have messages slide in "live" as you type them. And that's it.
It seems like this pulls together the ability to have a project team keep everyone in the loop without constantly meeting and adds color to what otherwise might just be a Microsoft Project timeline. I'm not exactly sure that's within this application, but I could see that as a natural spin-off.
It seems like the hang-up to adoption of something like this is the need to call it micro-this or micro-that. Web 2.0 could benefit from Marketing 101 to get adopted in the enterprise.
I also spoke with SocialText founder Ross Mayfield who said SocialText wasn't a good option for us unless we wanted a combination of a microblog, a social network, and a wiki.
Thanks for that suggestion - I checked out SocialText and was disapointed. I just don't really see the point of what it's doing. Am I alone in that? (Maybe... I see they have tons of funding... perhaps you have to live in silicon Valley and have an MBA to be able to detect its brilliance).
I noticed also that on its Web site SocialText it describes itself as "Twitter™ for the Enterprise." Ballsy. I wonder how happy Twitter would be if it read that???
Actually, the name SocialText seems really stupid to me. I have a SOCIAL life. If I was starting a company that did twittering for the enteprise wouldn't i want to call it BUSINESS text?
honestly, my search for a microblogging kind of live chatty feature for IE has been generally a dud.
Talking to our developer here we've concluded that we can probably just build what we need in a few weeks, without losing any funcionality, and without having to give any money to preppy startups in CA. Humph, what does that say about their future? NOTHING GOOD.
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