Comments for Allyis Blog http://blog.allyis.com Learn about the features, benefits and the ins and outs of SharePoint. Mon, 28 Mar 2011 19:59:26 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Comment on Interop, New York: The Social Computing Adoption Hurdle From An IT Perspective by solson http://blog.allyis.com/interop-new-york-the-social-computing-adoption-hurdle-from-an-it-perspective/#comment-2 solson Mon, 28 Mar 2011 19:59:26 +0000 http://172.16.14.162/wordpress/?p=270#comment-2 1. Ethan, you have hit on a key reason for implementing a centralized RSS/ATOM component in social solution architectures. While it does not rise to the level of a "standard" these formats are used ubiquitously in social and collaborative applications. A centralized RSS server aggregates messaging activities across these systems. There are a number of benefits immediately realized including the ability to create managed channels for users and the ability to cross-populate social and collaborative apps with content based on context. In effect the XML layer works like social middleware. To your point regarding the potential loss of information, it is possible to create exactly the opposite effect with good design. Aggregated content is centralized and becomes a permanent repository of both content and knowledge that is both searchable as well as full of useful analytics. In the interest of full disclosure I have a "dog in this fight" because it is a central focus of Attensa but I think as more and more organizations adopt enterprise views of these new tools this social middleware use case will gain acceptance. Posted @ Thursday, November 19, 2009 8:31 PM by charlie davidson charlie.davidson@attensa.com 2. Thanks for the great, detailed comment, Charile. Great to hear from you. Another interesting element of the panel discussion occurred when I articulated what I want to see as the structure of social messaging tools and activities: a free, social flow of content with some mechanism there to capture and "institutionalize" the useful content that gets created. This, to me, sounds like precisely what you're describing when you talk about a middleware layer that aggregates social content and turns it into a permanent, searchable repository. Interestingly, when I said what I did about what I'd like to see in this regard, one of the other panelists took issue with the idea that you could combine social and institutional at all. Now you and I both understand that the enterprise can benefit from social messaging, but the enterprise needs that social content to convert to useable knowledge base. My fellow panelist argued that "if you design social around what the enterprise needs, you will kill the social." Somehow I think you would take issue with that comment. And so would I: as you say, success lies in good design. Posted @ Friday, November 20, 2009 1:30 PM by Ethan Yarbrough ethany@allyis.com 3. Great post and great comments all around. I completely agree with the concept of Social Middleware. Companies can benefit tremendously by engaging with social networks (for both internal and external communication and collaboration). But they need the ability to use these social networks on their own terms. Expanding on the definition of Social Middleware I would say it is something that creates a flexible, secure layer between enterprise users and public social networks that allows social data to be filtered, tagged, integrated, archived and aggregated in a way that makes sense for the enterprise. The point around tagging is an important one. Although the lines are blurring between personal and professional use, companies and employees should have the ability to designate how the content should be used. Anything tagged professional should be leveraged throughout the extended enterprise and of course should be retained. Anything personal should be treated like any other personal data of an employee. I do have to make a disclaimer. Our company, Socialware, is bringing some innovative solutions to the market around the concept of Social Middleware. In addition, we are launching an application that gives users the ability to tag all of their social posts as either personal or professional. Posted @ Sunday, December 06, 2009 7:44 AM by Chad Bockius chad@socialware.com 1. Ethan, you have hit on a key reason for implementing a centralized RSS/ATOM component in social solution architectures. While it does not rise to the level of a “standard” these formats are used ubiquitously in social and collaborative applications. A centralized RSS server aggregates messaging activities across these systems. There are a number of benefits immediately realized including the ability to create managed channels for users and the ability to cross-populate social and collaborative apps with content based on context. In effect the XML layer works like social middleware. To your point regarding the potential loss of information, it is possible to create exactly the opposite effect with good design. Aggregated content is centralized and becomes a permanent repository of both content and knowledge that is both searchable as well as full of useful analytics. In the interest of full disclosure I have a “dog in this fight” because it is a central focus of Attensa but I think as more and more organizations adopt enterprise views of these new tools this social middleware use case will gain acceptance.
Posted @ Thursday, November 19, 2009 8:31 PM by charlie davidson charlie.davidson@attensa.com

2. Thanks for the great, detailed comment, Charile. Great to hear from you. Another interesting element of the panel discussion occurred when I articulated what I want to see as the structure of social messaging tools and activities: a free, social flow of content with some mechanism there to capture and “institutionalize” the useful content that gets created. This, to me, sounds like precisely what you’re describing when you talk about a middleware layer that aggregates social content and turns it into a permanent, searchable repository. Interestingly, when I said what I did about what I’d like to see in this regard, one of the other panelists took issue with the idea that you could combine social and institutional at all. Now you and I both understand that the enterprise can benefit from social messaging, but the enterprise needs that social content to convert to useable knowledge base. My fellow panelist argued that “if you design social around what the enterprise needs, you will kill the social.” Somehow I think you would take issue with that comment. And so would I: as you say, success lies in good design.
Posted @ Friday, November 20, 2009 1:30 PM by Ethan Yarbrough ethany@allyis.com

3. Great post and great comments all around. I completely agree with the concept of Social Middleware. Companies can benefit tremendously by engaging with social networks (for both internal and external communication and collaboration). But they need the ability to use these social networks on their own terms. Expanding on the definition of Social Middleware I would say it is something that creates a flexible, secure layer between enterprise users and public social networks that allows social data to be filtered, tagged, integrated, archived and aggregated in a way that makes sense for the enterprise.

The point around tagging is an important one. Although the lines are blurring between personal and professional use, companies and employees should have the ability to designate how the content should be used. Anything tagged professional should be leveraged throughout the extended enterprise and of course should be retained. Anything personal should be treated like any other personal data of an employee.

I do have to make a disclaimer. Our company, Socialware, is bringing some innovative solutions to the market around the concept of Social Middleware. In addition, we are launching an application that gives users the ability to tag all of their social posts as either personal or professional.
Posted @ Sunday, December 06, 2009 7:44 AM by Chad Bockius chad@socialware.com

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