Michael Sampson on Collaboration

Yvonne Wong's Review of Collaboration Roadmap

2012-01-27T20:30:16+13:00

In the comments to Martin White's review of Collaboration Roadmap, Yvonne Wong just posted her feedback:

"I just completed reading Michael's new book 'Collaboration Roadmap' and it's a great book that all professionals (including IT professionals and Mgt) dealing with intranet/collaboration/KM should grab and read it!

We always wonder how nice if the IT folks can understand these other aspects of collaboration (it's not just about technology as technology is only an enabler) and it would make our jobs easier.

Michael has captured many practical stuff in this book which I have been discussing with others and looking for answers to. This book has moved away from concentrating on Sharepoint capabilities only and covers more aspects of collaboration (beyond technology).

I ordered this book many months in advance (before the book was published) and have no regrets in waiting for it.

Thank you Michael for the great collaboration book! :)"

Very cool - thanks Yvonne!

Why Use Collaboration Tools?

2012-01-26T16:29:07+13:00

Following on from the Why Collaborate? infographic, I've just posted on a different question - Why use collaboration tools?:

"... given the realities of business and organizational life today, the nature of collaboration has changed. For example:

Decisions have to be made quickly, often based on input from many people working in different office and field locations.

People have to interact regularly with the people they work alongside, only the “alongside” is separated by time zones, countries, and even continents.

Problems have become more multi-dimensional, due to globally integrated supply chains, just-in-time manufacturing, global marketing, and workforce diversity.

Expertise has become more fragmented, as the stock of knowledge expands rapidly. The half-life of information is shrinking. Two people who both trained as chemists (or engineers, or information scientists) are often unable to speak together in knowledgeable ways, because each has studied different aspects of a large discipline.

These business and organizational realities coalesce to mean that we frequently have to work with people with whom we are not physically collocated. And more than that, that we have to work with a broader and more diverse set of people than would happen without the above major trends.

Based on this, there are four reasons why we should use collaboration tools."

Martin White's Review of Collaboration Roadmap

2012-01-26T09:56:08+13:00

Martin White from Intranet Focus in the UK has just published his review of my new book - Collaboration Roadmap:

"I suspect that many SharePoint implementations are justified on the basis of improving collaboration, even though there is usually only at best anecdotal information about poor outcomes of collaborative working. Anecdotes usually form the basis of most books offering advice on collaboration, and the result that it is difficult to take advantage of the advice in your own organisation. This excellent book takes a different perspective. Michael Sampson’s latest book, Collaboration Roadmap, comes with the strap line “You’ve got the technology – now what?” and is full of practical advice and (just as important) encouragement to do collaboration better. Michael has been studying the technology, business implications and cultural aspects of collaboration for nearly two decades, integrating information, experience and knowledge about effective collaboration into a book full of wisdom. Collaboration Roadmap will tell you all you need to know about how to get the best from the technology.

....

Michael has self-published this book but the production quality is higher than many commercial publishers achieve. The cover artwork alone will make you want to have this book on your desk to show that you (thanks to Michael) really do know how to get the best out of the teams you work on, or work with. The book is full of charts and diagrams that will soon find their way onto a whiteboard in your office. At just $39 it is excellent value for money. Why not buy one for each of your team leaders and one for your CIO?"

As Martin says in paragraph three, the book is not about SharePoint per se. It's about collaboration, and how that can be brought to life regardless of the collaboration technology you are using - SharePoint, Connections, Jive, Central Desktop, and more.

So:
- If you don't have a copy of this book - please see the ordering page for details about how to fix that problem :-)
- If you do have a copy of the book, would you consider writing and publishing a blog post about the book? That would definitely help me get the word out, sell more copies of this book, and give me the space to write another book for you.

Collaboration Master Class in London - March 15

2012-01-26T06:37:39+13:00

I'm delighted to announce that I will be presenting a public master class on collaboration in London on March 15. Martin White at Intranet Focus is organizing the event.

"Many organisations are finding that gaining long-term measurable benefits from collaborative working is a significant challenge. Michael Sampson is a world leader in helping organisations to take advantage of collaboration, and in particular to be able to understand the role of technology in supporting collaborative working. The subtitle to his recently published book Collaboration Roadmap is “You’ve got the technology – now what?” This workshop provides answers to that question.

The objective of this workshop is to help delegates analyse the nature of the problem that they are facing, and then to provide a range of solutions for consideration."

The master class is being held in the beautiful Etc Venues in the middle of London, making for easy accessibility for all.

Numbers are strictly limited.

Register Now
Please see the class outline for more details and registration information.

Intranets2012: Agenda Is Posted, and I'm Speaking

2012-01-25T15:31:23+13:00

Last May I attended and spoke at the first Intranets conference put on by Step Two Designs in Sydney. It was a fantastic event. Step Two Designs are hosting the 2012 edition of the conference in May in Sydney, and the agenda has been posted. There's a great line up of speakers.

I'll be attending, and will be speaking on the topic Collaboration: something old, something bold, something cold on Thursday May 17.

Are you going? Learn more ... and register.

Why Collaborate? The Full Infographic is Now Available

2012-01-24T14:16:13+13:00

Earlier this month, I posted an incomplete infographic looking at reasons why collaboration is a good idea on the Smarter Office blog. It was incomplete because there were six letters on the A-Z that weren't filled out, and I was looking for input from other people on how to complete the A-Z.

We had some great input from across the world, and the revised A-Z infographic has just been posted - with special thanks to Philippe Creytens, Sebastien Thielke, and Olivier Berard.

See: Why Collaborate - The Complete Version

Getting Ready for Europe/UK in March

2012-01-24T13:07:25+13:00

Now I'm back in the country after having had a wonderful week in the United States last week, my thoughts turn to getting ready for my European/UK tour in March. There are three confirmed events, and 5-6 others still under discussion.

The basic approach at the moment is:
- Monday March 12 and Tuesday March 13 - speaking at Congres Intranet in Netherlands.
- Thursday March 15 - presenting the Collaboration Roadmap public seminar in London (details forthcoming).

I should have greater clarity on timing for the other events, in-house workshops, and public seminars shortly.

Media Portrayal of IBM, Lotusphere, and SharePoint - What?

2012-01-21T03:00:58+13:00

I've attended Lotusphere 2012 this past week. It was my first time, and as I wrote a couple of days ago, IBM talked about some big things. I was impressed as the vision casting - I hadn't expected that as such, but felt it came across well.

Having attended (and live blogged) the Opening General Session at 8am on Monday, perhaps you can imagine my disgust at reading the coverage of the session in ComputerWorld NZ - SharePoint is a 'document coffin,' says IBM. In an article of 510 words, the author (Sim Ahmed) spends a third focused on just five words from Jeff - and a throwaway five words at best. I'm not denying that Jeff said them - they're in my blog post - and it brought a laugh in an otherwise intensive session. My concern is that by making the review article first and foremost about that throwaway line, the author gives a myopic view of what IBM is doing and attempting to do. I feel it is morally wrong.

A couple of specific issues I have with this press coverage:
- second paragraph says the audience had "over 1000 developers, clients, and media." That is true - 5000 people is more than 1000. But it's bad reporting to say 1000 when the number was 5000 or more.
- fifth paragraph says Jeff made the comment about SharePoint being a document coffin before announcing product changes. If you go and read my blog post, you'll see that some announcements - Connections Next and IBM Docs - came before the statement.

I "get" the competitive nature of the market - I work with clients that use SharePoint, and with those that use IBM products. I've written two books on SharePoint. I speak at conferences around the world on being effective with SharePoint. But to pivot IBM's whole approach at Lotusphere around SharePoint being a document coffin - which in reality SharePoint is for some companies - is wrong. It writes history wrongly - it's not accurate reporting. It portrays a myth. And it sets up competition between organizations that use SharePoint and those that use IBM, where I think each has a lot to learn from each other.

In this more social world, we need to hold those that write articles like this to a higher standard. I for one am disappointed in this coverage.

Notes on ID225 Setting Up Communities to Solve Your Biggest Challenges

2012-01-19T08:26:45+13:00

Suzanne Livingston and Michael Wanderski are presenting on communities in Connections. My notes from the session:
- Will be talking about a variety of use cases for communities (note that these are similar to what I talk about in the collaboration scenarios in Collaboration Roadmap. It's also an approach I initially wrote about in Seamless Teamwork).
- IBM Connections offers a plethora of tools - profiles, communities, files, wikis, activities, forums, home page, social analytics, micro-blogging, bookmarks, and blogs. Within a community, there are a further set of capabiliies just for the specific community. Eg., the ideation blog.
- When setting up a community, ask this question: What's the goal? Which capabilities do I need to help the community members to reach this goal?
- Scenarios:
- ... (1) Evaluating Product Ideas - Mike showed the use of an ideation blog for capturing, ranking, and promoting ideas. For the manager, they can stop the creation of new ideas, as well as freezing the whole blog. Ideas can be graduated, and you have the option of spawning an activity for ongoing management.
- ... (2) Strengthening Customer Relationships with New Products - using activities for planning future action, and forums with moderated content.
- ... (3) Improving Social Media Presence - the ability to reach into social media services on the Internet, and get a reading on the current sentiment. Or seeing what's being said, and responding to particular issues (whether positive or negative). There are some new things coming, and the Feeds area has been available for a long time. With c.Next, there may be the capability to "Discuss This" for a web page or blog post.
- ... (4) Creating Effective Teams ... using Quickr Document Library integration, place catalog, and calendar. With document integration, you can bring existing content across more easily. It shows the Quickr document library within the Connectinos page. Results are security trimmed - the user gains access to the documents in Quickr that they are permmitted to see. There's also a team calendar coming in c.Next. c.Next calendars can be added to a personal calendar - but it's an overlay to the calendar, but it doesn't block it off for free-busy.
- ... (5) Socializing Enterprise Content - the ability to link to Quickr and SharePoint documents.

It was a good session. Good to see the scenarios approach being used as a way of describing capabilities.

Pulling It All Together - Michael's Comments on Lotusphere 2012

2012-01-19T06:59:42+13:00

I've been attending Lotusphere 2012 as an industry analysit this week in Orlando. Although I've known some people, it's been overwhelming being here for the first time. 5,000-7,000 people sharing a relatively small space for a week is quite incredible. It's definitely the biggest event I've ever attended.

To date, I've taken notes on all of the sessions I've attended, and blogged those here if that was permitted. There were a couple of analyst-only events that while I took notes, were not for blogging. As I leave Orlando in just a few hours, here's my thinking about what I've seen and heard.

1. IBM knows how to put on a large scale event. I've been impressed with the smoothness of how the week has gone. Getting multiple thousands of people through meals has worked smoothly. Of course, having a large event center and good staff has made that possible, but it did actually work. Well done.

2. The overall sense I take away from the event is that IBM has wanted to (a) continue casting a vision of the future of social business, and various other trends, as well as (b) introducing everyone to customers who are making it work now. The customers who have shown up to speak for 5-10 minutes on the main stage have given great credibility to the vision, by talking about what they are doing now. It was tastefully done - and impressively coordinated.

3. IBM has a strong story to tell around Connections, both what it can deliver now for social / organizational collaboration, and what's coming in the immediate next release. The integration of Notes Mail and Exchange into the Connections interface for users, so they can see their newer Connections material alongside their traditional email, is a good move. Bridging the two worlds will help move people away from a sole reliance on email, and will facilitate a step-wise migration to different ways of collaborating.

4. Notes and Domino, the traditional Lotus products, have had some focus at the event. I've heard some Notes/Domino administrators complaining about this lower focus, and I'm of two minds about my reaction. On the one hand, mail is a mature offering with little opportunity for discontinuous change. So the reduced focus makes sense, given the game changing opportunities with Connections. On the other hand, there's a need to bring Notes/Domino administrators and users along for the new journey. IBM's work around making parts of Connections freely available as an entitlement for Notes/Domino customers goes some way to addressing this, but the more critical aspect is that Notes/Domino administrators need to take the challenge and step up to the broader picture. IBM can say this again and again, but the administrators need to hear that and take it on board.

5. It's been gratifying to see a good level of focus on collaboration strategy, governance, and business/user adoption. Those topics are of deep interest to me, and I'm delighted to see people talking about these topics in the IBM collaboration area. I haven't always agreed with the approaches being advocated, but that's a better problem to have than the topics not being discussed at all. As Alistair Rennie said, technology is important, but it's not the only thing that's important.

6. I'm glad I came. I got to hear and see what's going on with IBM. I got to meet some people I needed to see. It's been a great investment of time and effort.

I'm heading to California soon, then back to New Zealand on Friday night.