Blogs, Wikis And Mashups -- Oh, My!

Blogs, Wikis and Mashups Oh My! Community and Participation on the Web 2.0

Welcome

What Does It All Mean?

- What do the buzzwords mean? - Do mashups have anything to do with potatoes? - I am going to answer all of those questions...

Later

First...

First we need to answer a more important question...

Why?

Why? Why should we care about these technologies? Aren’t these things just for people with too much free time on the Internet? Are they really important to the business? To answer these questions we need to look at the work of Alistair Cockburn.

Alistair Cockburn

http://alistair.cockburn.us

Methodologist

Has a PhD in Methodology Worked for IBM and travelled all over the world watching people work Documented what worked and what didn’t Turned his findings into a doctoral thesis in methodologies

And apparently he has written a few books. Notice “Agile”, “Cooperative Game” and “Human-Powered Methodology”

The Agile Manifesto In 2001 Alistair got together with several other software methodologists to discuss what was being referred to as “lightweight methods”. The result was the Agile Manifesto.

http://agilemanifesto.org/

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools Working software over comprehensive documentation Customer collaboration over contract negotiation Responding to change over following a plan

People Over Process

Initially Software Oriented...

But Broadly Applicable

For example, Alistair mentioned in a recent interview that Crystal Clear was being used to build airports. Mary and Tom Poppendieck are now talking about the application of Lean Manufacturing to software development.

http://pmdoi.org/

Project Management Declaration of Interdependence

Crystal Family of Methodologies

Crystal Clear is part of the Crystal family of methodologies. All Crystal methodologies have three critical features...

Frequent Delivery

“We can negotiate how frequent is frequent and how delivery is delivery.” The idea is that we show something at relatively short and regular intervals

Reflective Improvement

Stopping once a month (or quarter) and reflecting on the process. Write down what we like and what we want to change Throw everything else out This is how the process evolves organically

Close Communication

Close communication is critical.

“The speed of the project is proportional to the speed at which ideas move between minds.”

...and it is nonlinear

The relationship is nonlinear

“Everything that impedes the movement of ideas between minds slows the project.”

small impediment large slowdown

Crystal is a Conversation

When a team is doing Crystal they have conversations with... - the stakeholders (external) with releases and feedback - the team (internal) with reflective improvement and close communication

Switch gears and approach from a different angle.

The Cluetrain Manifesto Written by smart people who understand business in 2000 It is a manifesto, meaning it is intentionally hostile to the status quo It would be a mistake to let the incendiary language obscure the truths within

http://www.cluetrain.com

Most of the content is available on the web site.

“Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed.” A powerful global conversation has begun. Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a direct result, markets are getting smarter—and getting smarter faster than most companies.

95 Theses

Not going to talk about all of them...only 6.

Markets are conversations.

1. Markets are conversations. Customers, competitors and suppliers are all talking to each other

People are also talking to each other directly inside the company.

42. As with networked markets, people are also talking to each other directly inside the company—and not just about rules and regulations, boardroom directives, bottom lines.

Companies typically install intranets top-down

44. Companies typically install intranets top-down to distribute HR policies and other corporate information that workers are doing their best to ignore. “Intranet” is archaic but useful as it hints at internal networks as a microcosm of the Internet

The best are built bottom-up

45. Intranets naturally tend to route around boredom. The best are built bottom-up by engaged individuals cooperating to construct something far more valuable: an intranetworked corporate conversation.

A healthy intranet organizes workers.

46. A healthy intranet organizes workers in many meanings of the word. Its effect is more radical than the agenda of any union. The intranet is the spec of sand around which a pearl can form

Companies make a religion of security, but this is largely a red herring.

41. Companies make a religion of security, but this is largely a red herring. Most are protecting less against competitors than against their own market and workforce.

Recap - Common themes: communication, participation, community, conversation The Internet changed the rules by changing what is possible Competitors, suppliers, customers and employees are all a part of the conversation Imposed hierarchy and “security” policies are impediments to communication

Old Tools

The initial adoption of Internet tech by business was wrong - seeks to duplicate existing paper based workflow with email and CMS - this electronic toolset is inadequate

Email

Corporate email is not appropriate for many kinds of communication

Not A Good Reference

Emails are not good for reference - No good archival techniques; lots of duplication - Searching sucks - Information goes into an email “black hole”

Users Can’t Choose to Join the Conversation

The sender decides who receives an email (even if they don’t know who should get it) - Users can’t decide which emails they want to receive - Important people get left out of the conversation

Email is the “Great Interrupter”

Most people don’t manage their email efficiently - They allow email to interrupt their workflow - They do not process emails in a timely manner - No one handles large volumes of email appropriately

Mailing Lists are Better

-

Searchable and referable archives Users choose which conversations to join A mailing list alters expectations (who the message is directed at, etc) Better, but still not ideal

Content Management Systems

“Electronic File Cabinet”

-

Follows old models of how we deal with paper Utilizes excessive levels of hierarchy Difficult to find b/c too many decisions must be made Hierarchy is imposed rather than evolved

Poor Transparency

- Users don’t know what exists in the system - Once they know about it, they cannot find it - Too many barriers to creating and publishing content

The New Tools

A new set of tools is emerging that is less structured, less centralized and more efficient than the old tool set.

Web 2.0

“Web 1.0” was an information push, deeply hierarchical “Web 2.0” is a conversation; less structured, non-hierarchical (tags)

Blog

“A Web site on which an individual or group of users produces an ongoing narrative”

“Web Log”

Online Journal

Personal Diary

Professional Articles

- Posts (two visible) - Sidebar with bio, tags, archive links and search - tags and categories are used to organize posts

Live demo of blog... Ideas for use of blogs within companies. Look at existing blogs to get an idea.

RSS

Really Simple Syndication

Feeds

Feed Reader

AKA “Feed Aggregator”

Wiki

“Wiki Wiki” is Hawaiian for “quick” Usually shortened to “Wiki” “A Web site that allows collaborative editing of its content and structure by its users.”

http://c2.com/cgi/wiki

The first wiki was created by Ward Cunningham (see Agile Manifesto) in 1994 and went live in 1995.

http://en.wikipedia.org/

The most famous Wiki site.

Everyone Can Edit

Simple Markup

Live Demo

Podcasts

Screencasts

Mashups

“A mashup is a website or application that combines content from more than one source into an integrated experience.” - Wikipedia

“Integrations”

Questions?

fin.