Microsharing: It is All About the Tools. It is Not About the Tools - My Notes from Enterprise 2.0 Boston Conference

This is the fifth in a series of my notes on the Enterprise 2.0 conference in Boston, June 14- 17. This post covers the panel, Microsharing: It is All About the Tools. It is Not About the Tools. It was led by my Marcia Conner, now a partner with the Altimeter Group. Panelist include: Eugene Lee, CEO, Socialtext, Tim Young, Founder & CEO, Socialcast, J.B. Holston, CEO & President, NewsGator Technologies, Inc, Mike Gotta, Principal Analyst, Burton Group, Steve Apfelberg, Vice President of Marketing, Yammer. I have written about the four products and know Mike and Marcia so this was a must see session. Here is the description. My notes follow.

“With unabating buzz over Twitter and enterprise microblogging you'd think microsharing must be new. Tell that to the birds. Or a 3-year old bursting forward nonstop. What’s fresh is how deceptively simple tools connect people and ideas better, farther, wider, faster. Hear what's on the horizon from companies creating enterprise microblogging solutions and how people in organizations are using these tools as a smart unified messaging stream.”

Marcia began by noting her new affiliation with the Altimeter Group as a Partner.  She asked the panel how they explain their job to the person next to them on the plane. JB said microsharing is a one liner with a link attached. Eugene said that Twitter is the world’s biggest bar- it is way to discover new people with common interest for conversations.  Tim said microsharing unites people, data and apps to supply a peripheral alert system for employees. Steve said microsharing  is like having the “to” line out of email so anyone can see it. Mike said microsharing is like public IM.  Marcia summarized that now we got the same thing described in five different ways. Marcia said microsharing is like the communication we learned as two year olds and taking it online. We have been communicating like this for a long time but now we have new tools.

Marcia said there has been a lot of chatter on the tools, features and functions but she is not excited about this. What else is there beyond the tools?  She asked the panel: assuming that the tools work how are you more than the tools that you provide. Steve addressed the cultural issues: breaks down dept silos, communicates across areas and levels in the organization. There is a stigma about emailing senior people but you can Twitter them. It enables people to better know their each other.

Eugene said it is little like porn as you know it when you se it. They try to get people to see it and try it. People discover people working on the same thing who did not know each other.  You also get answers to questions from people that you might not know. People feel more connected to the company. 

JB said microsharing is an innovation No one blogs now, they tweet (I do not completely agree – bogs and microsharing complement each other).  It facilitates interaction even though not technically profound. (perhaps the profound part is the simplicity).  Tim said microsharing shits employee behavior from information hording to information sharing and now you see the informal social organization of the firm emerge.  Mike said all these positioning thoughts have been applied to prior tools such as email, IM, or collaboration. We improve the tools but they do not necessarily cause the behavior change. There needs to be more than the tools.

Marcia said that she asks her client organizations if they are really interested in breaking down the silos.  Or do you want to just open windows between them. Silos exist for reasons.  I think that one of the differences between these tools and Twitter is that you have more control over the silos and when they are up and when they are down through such features as groups and permission levels.

Steve mentioned a CEO  uses microsharing to come out of his bubble to better to see what is going around the enterprise. This goes back to his comment about getting rid of the ‘to” line in en email. It is one to many.

JB said that people more often talk about event sharing that microsharing. It is updating these for a broad audience. It is very different that Twitter because of the work context.  Mary Abraham said that there is now context for your updates. Marcia said there is ambient awareness of what people can bring to the organization. So there is context in several ways, why they do it, when they do tit what is it they do.

Mike said that hashtags help with the context and what to focus on.  This is microsharing within microsharing with people with a shared interest.  Marcia said there are specific areas of interest. Organizations often overlook how they can be more a targeted when the implement microsharing because of the Twitter on the Web model.

Marcia asked about the social word. What does social mean when you are behind a keyboard? JB said some of their government accounts do not like the word: social. Communities is a more accepted term. Eugene noted that everyone in the audience is buried in their computer right now likely involved in Twitter. But he is not offended because he know most are listening. Parents often find they can talk to their teenagers better through social tools than in person.

Tim said that most work is social today. His clients do not dislike the word: social, Knowledge workers are the growth area. Social interactions deal with human perspective. So thinking about the term social is not useful. Mike noted that having everyone with their heads down feels like home to him. His daughters never raise their heads form their keyboards. 

One audience member noted that work has been social for years. We now just have digital tools to support this. Other people said that people have been detached at work. Marcia noted that social has been seen as not working but there is a large social part of work. 

One person asked about the big deal of microsharing. JB said that adoption of their collaboration suite is doubled when microsharing is included as a feature. Their tool has blogs, wikis and other tools. People like the quick means.  So is microsharing taking mind share form other e2o tools? Tim said that Socialcast can sit on tip of them as an interface so there is an integration. Mike said alerts were around in the 90s. One thing that is new is that these tools are self-initiated and self administrated. We can pick what hashtags to follow. It is simpler to use.  Eugene said you make a smaller commitment before getting engaged. This is a big part of what Twitter offers.

Mike said but you can look foolish in 140 characters just as in something longer.  But there are also too many tools out there even if it takes less time.  Tim said this is why they provide an interface to multiple apps. Mike said but it can be messy as an inbox unless it is well organized. Tim agreed.

Marcia said she has been working with the Mayo clinic and they said an average medical person hears four beeps a minute. How do you filter this out? They want microsharing as a single place to replace some of these beeps.  Then you can choose when you want to check in and focus on the areas important to you.

Marcia discussed the activity stream. Those who are getting the most value are using microsharing as an activity stream. She asked for examples of activity streams. JB offered an example from a big consulting firm. They have communities for each business area. They have activity streams for each of these. A person can be at a trade show and capture something of importance to the group to quickly share.  Eugene talked about the phrase “in the flow of work” and said they only look for clients who have a business case. In the flow of work is a key feature here.  The speed factor enables things to happen in the flow of work.

Tim gave an example of interactions with finance on approvals and you can see the approval in real time.  Mike said we have had email alerts for years. But he does not see this as bad but the real case is not yet articulated.  Eugene said the difference is there is value in the transparency with microsharing that you do not get in email. Mike said that this raises other issues like security and permission levels.

Marcia asked how can the activity stream be used for business reasons and not but just serendipity? JB said the conversations can now be archived and analyzed. 

Marcia is asked if microsharing will go away as a fad.  She asked about the future of microsharing. Steve said it is part of the democratization of software. People often select their products along with the corporate standard and the company has to adapt to this.  There can be many more improvements, He thinks microsharing is very early in the maturity cycle and has a ways to go.  Tim thinks it will not be part of a product suite. It will be more of an enterprise utility. One of the reasons for uses is the simplicity.  This is the telephone comparison. 

Mike said it is the literacy issue. If these tools allow people to create their own environments will people will take the time to learn them to get value out.  Will people will become literate in product uses?  JB thinks of microsharing as table stakes.  You have ti have it in a collaboration suite to move forward. The competition will be on who owns the data and who will process the data.  Eugene said that the tools need to work together. He believes that social will emerge as a layer in the enterprise IT stack or there will be chaos.

Marcia said the opportunity is that we have lowered the barrier to entry to participate in the organization. This is a good closing point as I see the increased participation is a large part of the value.