Collaborative Thinking

Getting Ready For A Next Generation Collaborative Experience

One of the arguments over the past year among those passionate about "Enterprise 2.0" has been the position that such initiatives must become more pragmatic. Specifically, that E2.0 initiatives and solutions should target process-centric business activities. If we can improve the way people work within structured contexts like processes, then we should be able to deliver measurable outcomes that in turn satisfies management desire to see the ROI from E2.0 investments. I don't entirely disagree. However, it's important to recognize that this argument does not mean that E2.0 champions have focused on the wrong imperative up to know. Improving the softer, more intangible aspects of how work gets done is incredibly important as well - despite the difficulty in measuring cause-effect impacts. 

That said, the transition to a focus on process has been a long-standing goal of collaboration strategies for some time (i.e., "contextual collaboration" circa 1999). Strategists involved in E2.0 should not view a process-centric approach as an sign of failure or as an excuse to abandon original goals (e.g., emergence, relationships, more visible and transparent participation, etc) but as an expansion in the scope of those objectives.

Indeed, E2.0 over time is broadening our understanding of what we mean by the term  "collaboration". Traditionally, we (the industry) have taken a  narrow view of collaboration. As I mentioned in my previous post on how micro-blogging is expanding our notion of communication, E2.0 is expanding how we view collaboration, moving it beyond a mind set that has been biased towards content-centric, asynchronous, and workspace-based models. 

And it doesn't stop with E2.0. Technology sectors we have thought to be adjacent and/or over-lapping (unified communications, social, content, collaboration) are converging into a singular, multi-faceted domain that is deeply inter-twingled. We will be unable to treat content and collaboration independently from each other, or communication strategies in isolation from its social aspects. More pervasive use of video will need to be thought of as part of an integrated collaborative experience, not as a stand-alone communication channel. There are no more well-defined structural borders. Market adjacencies are porous and always in transition. Place these trends in the context of a market that produces a seeminly endless stream of new mobile consumer devices and an "office" environment where the work style of employees occurs in the context of a digital lifestyle that is increasingly mobile - and you can see how security, identity, and privacy requirements can also not be viewed as something to bolt-on afterwards.

This viewpoint was actually the driving force behind the launch of what-was-once-known-as-Burton-Group's Collaboration and Content Strategies service back in 2006. "Social" is the new entrant to what we called convergence of "the 3C's" (communication, content, collaboration) back then. Gartner alludes to this phenomena when it talks about fourth-generation collaborative environments. 

So while it is appropriate for E2.0 enthusiasts to argue for a focus shift towards process, I would expand that line-of-thinking to include not just the tactics, practices, and tooling we associate with E2.0 (which is inherently about "social") but expand that framework to include communication, content, and collaboration where people are at the center and process is just one use case to consider. We simply cannot treat social as a silo. A unified approach can satisfy not only the need to improve processes but address needs related to business transformation, innovation, productivity, organizational development, etc. etc. If you want to wrapper that all under a single E2.0 label that differs from its roots, that's fine. Some organizations I've talked to leverage E2.0 as such a uber-term. I prefer to keep E2.0 more to its original concepts but that's a personal preference of how I segment things.

The important point is to ensure that you are treating at social, communication, content, and collaboration in a cohesive manner. For me, this represents a more accurate view what a "next generation collaborative experience" represents. This next generation collaborative experience will require business and IT strategists to think across multiple dimensons with people at the center (vs. process). If you want people to excel - to innovate - to transform the business, you need to consider:

• People-to-activities: The traditional area where we focus on work models, process, projects, productivity, information sharing, etc.
• People-to-collectives: An area often touched on by knowledge management efforts realted to teaming and communities
• People-to-networks: A key aspect of E2.0 (that we still only barely understand), related to social identities, social roles, social networks, and the underlying participation structures that connect peope inside and outside of the enterprise
• People-to-organization: An area often disconnected from collaboration related to how people learn and develop their own talent - and how the enterprise can best leverage its social and human capital

This is a line of thought I'll continue to evolve - feedback welcome...

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The Human Network: Adding Social Context To EA

If you are involved in enterprise architecture, collabortion, or Enterprise 2.0 initiatives, I will be presenting at the IASAWorld Summit 2010 in September. I'm looking forward to the conference - on Day 2 George Paras and Tim Westbrock (former Meta Group colleagues, now at EAdirections) will present "Variations on the Architecture Theme: Solutions, IT and Enterprise Architecture".

The Human Network: Adding Social Context To EA
The role of Enterprise Architecture has evolved over many years as a means to inter-connect business, information, and IT to enhance enterprise performance in ways that enable the organization to achieve its strategic objectives. Historically, a core emphasis of EA has focused on business capabilities involving process, information, and eventually ? technology. However, with the advent of Web 2,0, Enterprise 2.0, and social media ? the scale and scope of what EA strategists need to consider has dramatically expanded. Connecting people so they can effectively participate in a more social and dynamic business environment is becoming a critical organizational imperative that will fall into the EA realm. This session will explore:

• Why is the human network is a strategic opportunity for EA?
• How should an "architecture of participation" be defined?
• What are the risks and how should they be managed?
• What role can EA play to influence a more "participatory culture"?
• Are there any emerging best practices to learn from?

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Micro-blogging: Friend or Foe For Unified Communications

One my last reports recently was published by Gartner  on the topic of enterprise micro-blogging. The document ("From Twitter To Enterprise Micro-Blogging" Note: requires Burton client access), takes a very broad look at how micro-blogging will reshape communication patterns. My premise (which I've publically discussed previously in this blog, sometimes under the term "social messaging") is that micro-blogging's broadcast model, coupled with its "follow", hashtag and other filtering/categorizing capability creates a "sense of space" within the stream.

While somewhat different than collaborative workspaces (which are persistant and often document centric), the notion that we can/should communicate in spaces versus channels (ala e-mail and instant messaging) is an intriguing trend and worth exploring. Historically, the industry has long lamented the use of communication channels for collaboration. e-Mail is very popular but it leaves a lot to be desired as a collaboration vehicle - the same goes for IM - it can work, but is not as effective as a workspace in many instances.  Instead, the more effective approach was to collaborate in workspaces. While workspaces are typically thought of as an asynchronous environment, they can also include real-time sharing "workspaces" as found in web conferencing systems.

Micro-blogging is a mindset change for those leveraging it for enterprise communication. Channel-centric tools, such as e-mail and instant message, are more direct - you are the sender and you push it to an identified recipient (person, distribution list). Micro-blogging alters this model via a broadcast stream pattern of posts that are public (in general). If your posts are interesting (for a variety of reasons), people subscribe to ("follow) you and your post stream. As participants in micro-blogging environments "follow" each other often resulting in follower/following connections that begin to overlap (evolving into social networks and possible communities). As people interact, they begin to direct posts (e.g., @<name>) to each other. In a way, the behavior duplicates the sender/receiver need that still exists from the channel model, but now situated within a stream context. The result, depending on the client tool used, is a user experience that begins to resemble instant messaging and group chat. Other capabilities within micro-blogging tools (e.g., hash-tags), also help enables a "sense of space" - albeit one where a stream runs thought it - posts eventually flow out of view rather than pile up in an inbox.

I find this cognitive dynamic of space within group communications interesting.  As I observe people's behavior within the various micro-blogging environments I've participated in, it seems that there are some interesting implications for how we think about unified communications in a more expansive way. From time to time, I'll find myself in a conversation as to whether micro-blogging is a threat to investments made in instant messaging, or something that can be additive. I don't see it as a threat at all - if anything, micro-blogging augments investments made in unified communications. However, we need to alter the way we design, architect, and deliver such capabilities.

For instance within micro-blogging environments

• It would be nice to have presense added to either individual posts or to the profile
• You can also imagine client-to-IM, client-to-conference, and click-to-call available from a post or profile entry
• Micro-blogging can also expand our notion of what presense is all about, that is, rather than a simple color indicator and awareness of someone's availability (for a call, for a F2F), UC presence plus micro-blogging posts gives rise to the concept of "social presence". Activity streams deliver better context over time regarding someone's "presense" than what we have today.

From within a UC platform

• Hashtags could be generated to create back-channels for real-time video or web conferencing sessions, online classes, web events
• When you select to add someone to your IM buddy list, you could choose to also "follow" their micro-blogging posts
• In fact, the concept of a buddy list being private could be expanded so that buddies were optionally public
• Status updates between IM and micro-blogging could be synchronized so that an IM status update might automatically show up as a public post. Conversely, micro-blogging posts could be shared as an IM status update.

These are just some off-the-cuff thoughts, appreciate your feedback - and by the way, nothing here is representative of any Cisco direction. That goes for all posts on my personal blog. I will be working with the social media team to get established on the Cisco site soon. These perspectives are what I see happening in the market.

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Looking Back - Moving Forward

Friday, August 6th was my last day at Gartner … and my last day as an industry analyst. 

On Monday, August 9th, I start with Cisco as a senior technical solution marketing manager for social software.

Looking Back

Since 1996 when I joined Meta Group, I have had the opportunity to be in a role that provides a unique type of trusted advice and community advocacy for clients. I have thoroughly enjoyed my years in this profession. Being an industry analyst was a passionate hobby for which I was compensated ? I never really saw it as a “job”. Over the years (Meta Group, Burton Group, and Gartner) I have covered different research “beats”. Some of the most recognizable are:

• Collaboration
• Social software
• Enterprise 2.0
• Social media
• Social networking
• Unified communications
• Knowledge management
• “Collaborative CRM” (customer-facing interaction, e-Service, etc)
• Organizational dynamics (culture, productivity, learning, teaming, community-building, governance)

My long tenure in this role has provided me with a deep understanding of the collaboration market and its many adjacencies (e.g., enterprise content management, portals, search, identity, security, CRM, BPM). The numerous client interactions over the years have taught me that the most important issues influencing collaboration strategies have less to do with technology and everything to do with people, groups, and networks: how relationships evolve ? how decisions are made ? how people need to be engaged so that their participation and contributions enable personal and organizational success. At times, I wish I had majored in sociology or anthropology.

Not that technology is unimportant. It’s just often trumped by the issues above. When the conversation does turn to IT ? I’ve been a long-time advocate that design and user experience are critical success factors. I have also championed the need for strategists to define a technical reference architecture from which to base IT decisions. An architecture based on modularity, loose-coupling, pace layering, open source (when appropriate), and standards is incredibly valuable in my opinion. Standards are not a panacea, but the longer you try to stay “open” in your IT initiatives, the less chance you have to introduce a technology bias. Finally, I have come to appreciate that no single deployment model is always correct and that organizations need to have flexible delivery models (e.g, SaaS/Cloud, on-premises, and hybrids). 

Moving Forward

Careers sometimes reach a point where an opportunity emerges that causes you to sit back and think. You can stay in your comfort-zone and continue along ? or ? you can make a change that will take you on a new path ? a new trajectory. That’s basically what happened to me as I began to consider my long-term options earlier this year. I did not reach this decision quickly. I did my homework so to speak.

I have studied the collaboration market for 14 years. I have seen many different vendors come and go. I’ve seen vendors go back-and-forth with failed forays into the space. I’ve seen vendors gain a foothold based on domain expertise, a unique product capability, or first-mover advantage. However, after 14 years, this market remains led by IBM and Microsoft. Externally, it’s another matter ? arguably there is no dominant enterprise software player that has stood the test of time yet re: delivery models (e.g., SaaS/Cloud) and solutions (e.g., social media).

Cisco I believe has a compelling story and legitimate chance to re-shape the collaboration market (internally as well as externally). I’ll cover more of this viewpoint in another post. What I would like to say is that Cisco exceeded the expectations I had to what amounts to a career change:

• The company is serious and committed to attaining a leadership position in the collaboration market and understands that market transitions take time
• Cisco has a breadth and depth of offerings that create interesting synergies and market possibilities (e.g.,Cisco Eos)
• Cisco is listening to customers and the market ? proceeding at a pragmatic pace to ensure solutions meet those expectations
• The collaboration and social software investments in particular (e.g., Quad), will deliver a flexible business solution rather than a list of technology features
• Quad’s architecture and reliance on open standards makes it formidable competitor in the market

While it may seem that I’ve already lost my objectivity ? it merely reflects the goal I set for myself ? to work for a company that I can be passionate about ? and for an organization that makes great things happen for its customers, continually innovates (e.g., Cisco iPrize), and has a vibrant community outreach effort (e.g., social responsibility).

Overall, I intend to remain very open, honest, and objective in how I view the IT world and in my Collaborative Thinking blog posts. While no longer an industry analyst, I want to maintain the level of transparency that has become my style and reputation over the years.

Thanks for taking the time to read this rather lengthy post. I share more as I get my footing. You can expect a return to a very active blogging effort on my part moving forward.