Liferay Social Office – Using Open Source Enterprise Collaboration Software in Business.

We are about to test Liferay Social Office interally here at Moho in Groningen.

Link here – http://ww.liferay.com/web/guest/products/social_office/features

This Open Source software almost meets all the parameters I was looking for and I am sure will streamline internal tasking, collaboration and build more ‘teamness’ at the company.

But the biggest hurdle in implementing new software such as this is convincing people to use it. Some basic training is required to make people comfortable using it, and if people don’t feel comfortable with the software, they simply won’t use it. Employees should be given incentives to contribute and the rewards could be either financial or psychological.

Shifting a corporate culture from being competitive to being cooperative is no small undertaking but the staff is young here and more easily adaptable than Gen X’ers like me – and if the software used (built internally or from and outside vendor) has well-built, intuitive and intelligent architecture, the learning curve should not be that steep.

My original synopsis on needs:

The new collaborative work/communication/tasking product(s) should allow management (and staff in certain cases) to:

1. …assign track-able tasks to individual and/or groups of staff and define what is urgent. Include management and staff alerts by email and Gizmo (see #3). The idea is for management to better plan their tasks and duties, that of staff, as well as projects and, most importantly, track the progress. Management needs to see what the team is doing and what they need to do, discuss stuff that they are working on and generally have a firm grip on what is going on and what needs to go on. In my opinion, the current system of email alone is not a very good tool to manage projects and tasks in the company. Especially with current projected and anticipated growth.

2. …create Wikis (with WYSIWYG and Versioning, Revisioning) to start building corporate information database – documents on nuts and bolts of company. It’s my experience that when management and staff take time to write down and better define their role and duties they instantly increase performance. Company Wikis also build an excellent knowledge database for incoming staff and management – thereby making it simpler to integrate new people into the company by providing them with the data needed to do their work and understand the work of others.

3. …instantly communicate with other management, staff and possibly clients and vendors – using free Gizmo (Skype-like tool with Instant Messaging, Two-way SMS, Group Chat, Voicemail, Call Recording, Chat History, File Transfer. Video Calling, Conference Calling) for text-based and audio discussion and interaction in real time. The problem with using email as a core tool for communications is – it tends to create lag time from the top down because of uncertainty if, when, and how emails are being read and interpreted. Trackable, loggable real time communications allow for the instant addressing of issues. The reason for using Gizmo as opposed to Skype is to deter and cut down on staff social communications via the more common Skype.

4. Install an ethos of collective intelligence within the company – which is shared or group intelligence that emerges from the collaboration and competition of many individuals. This can be done by offering the ability to share news, research, event information via threaded discussion. For instance – a sample thread may be on data and image sources for copywriters for a new artist or concert.
Software(s) should/could have collaborative management of tasks and documents within a knowledge-based business environment so workers can communicate, evaluate, prioritize and study their work load and should:

1. have easy browser based workflow management – with a drag-and-drop modulized user home page for each staff member with all their productivity and information tools at their grasp with integration of built in a news management system, where “company news” can be published on all home pages.

2. have the ability to add or remove application functionality to suit requirements via a dashboard and widget framework

3. have an instant messaging, real time collaboration tool such as Gizmo

4. have a tasking tool to schedule, track, and chart the steps of tasks, projects and duties as they are being completed – includes issue/ticket based worklog, weekly planning and and daily/weekly/monthly timer based recording.

5. inclusion of electronic calendar integrated with tasking tool, CRM and David Infocenter to create visual shared and individual agenda and automatically notify and remind group members of tasks via email and Gizmo alerts

6. possibly have desktop sharing for training new staff and meetings.

7. have the ability to create new permission-based Wikis (with a WYSIWYG Editor for easy content authoring) to create content in a matter of minutes and make updates fast and easy. All relevant editors and lists should have a corresponding “printable version”, which can also be in PDF format.

8. include outgoing RSS for staff and management to allow tracking of tasking, documentation ect. (”subscribe to this feed” button)

9. have integrated file management capabilities; graphics, documents, etc at the project/tasks entry points as project/task attachments. With Versioning, file locking, authoring and classification supported.

10. have user/staff reporting – most active, content creation, etc. as well as export report capabilities

11. have permission system ranging from wide open Wiki -edit mode to granular user and page level access and be able to create custom access permissions for groups of users, as well as control access by different groups at the section or page level 12. have full text search, search by section or sub-section, the ability to tag pages with additional keywords for improved search and display, and control search results based on users assigned access levels. Staff will only view the sections and pages they are authorized to view.

13. have threaded discussion support for projects, procedures, products, ideas, best practices – which can later be added to Wikis

14. have the ability to share news, research, product information via threaded discussion

15. Consider the use of a voting system for contributions to discussions.

Mashable Open Web Awards Opens the Gates to Voting!

Feel free to vote on the right for your favourite blog or site!

Nominations are held from November 5th till November 16th 2008 and the final voting rounds will be held from November 19th till December 15th.

Open Web Awards is the only multilingual international online voting competition that covers major innovations in web technology. Through an online nominating and voting process, the Open Web Awards recognizes and honors the top achievements in 26 categories. This year, we’re partnering with over 100 blog partners, Poll Daddy for extra security and ease of voting and extending the nominations period and voting rounds for greater participation.

A longing for days of paper…

A longing for days of paper…

Okay. I know the the issue with trees. And I am an environmentalist.

But still.

The longing for curling up under a Weeping Willow on a warm autumn day… late September in fact. Curling up on a slight incline with rustling and the sounds of nature on the lake at my feet. Curling up with a book, and treasuring every page like an afternoon sweet. Comfortable, close to the earth, content as can be… savouring the words I want to read. Curling the sentences in my mind…

As opposed to:

Staring a the screen. Listening to the hard drive churn. Staring at the screen. Hunched over trying to get comfortable. Starting at a screen. My back is starting to hurt. Staring at a screen. My wrist is sore. Staring at a screen. My eyes are itchy… STARTING AT A SCREEN. FLASH, FLASH, NEXT PAGE, NEXT SITE, MORE MORE MORE… I NEED MY DATA NIBLETS FASTER, QUICKER…

What ever happened to savouring a read in the old way?

What if you could get the writing you read in online in a magazine that you could take to the ballgame, take to the WC (as we say in Holland), take to the park and savour like only print can give?

Brogan and comments in print? Like The New Yorker. Or Atlantic Monthly? Or Harpers? Is it really possible?

Funny enough it is. http://www.magcloud.com/home

And I don’t work for them. I just like the idea. I think on-demand magazine printing is way-too-cool.

Actually posted this resume at Associated Press’ Job site.

Now I wonder if the human resources jockey on the other end reading this will laugh? I Actually posted this resume at Associated Press’ Job site.

Objective

To see if AP would actually consider the idea of hiring a Social Media analyst that was such a pain in the ass to their PR department.

Summary

Founder of Unassociated Press dot Net – Richard Kastelein proved to be a thorn in the side of AP when he rallied bloggers online to protest an asinine decision by someone at AP management (a lawyer no doubt) who decided that taking on a small volunteer blogger over copyright laws was a ‘smart’ litmus test.

It created glowing headlines like:

The AP, Hot News and Hotheaded Blogs – New York Times
DMCA takedown tiff not a battle the AP should be fighting
Here’s Our New Policy On AP stories: They’re Banned – Washington Post
AP faces copyright row with bloggers – guardian.co.uk

and the inevitable…

AP Backs Down on Blog-Posting Crackdown

Aside from that… my career as a web provocateur – I am also the publisher of www.freepressgroup.eu and work with over 400 writers under an ‘open source journalism policy’ designed on the GNU. See www.expathos.com for more details on me.

Specific Skills Area:

Advising companies on how to handle social media – both internally and externally.

Work Experience

Managing Director – Founder
Position Type:directHire
Employer: Expathos
Groningen, Groningen