Nice place you have here

In an e-mail correspondence with Tim Spalding from LibraryThing about Enterprise 2.0 I finally put my finger on why I don't like SharePoint.

If social computing is going to be effective in the workplace things have to be different - fundamentally.

When we started building this stuff at the BBC we were consciously trying to build the online equivalent of a collection of Cotswold villages with lots of footpaths between them. You know where the pub and church are, you’re comfortable in the environment and you can locate yourself. Corporate systems tend to be more like Milton Keynes. On the surface they’re efficient with lots of straight lines and signposting, but you get lost because everything looks the same.

Using a new tool really does feel like walking into a room and working out what the atmosphere is like, what the other people are like, whether they feel like people I could get on with and whether we will be allowed to take our time to form a relationship and begin to get things done. Dave Snowden was right when he said that you can’t manage knowledge but you can create a knowledge ecology.

I can't put my finger in what it is - the graphics, the language used or the intentions behind the software but I rarely get this feeling from Microsoft stuff especially not SharePoint. They are too good at creating sterile environments run by control freaks who hate messiness, consider conversations unprofessional and rarely understand the true pulse of their organisations.

This stuff may be seen as "business-like" at the moment but I don't believe it will be what business is like in the future.

Comments

[Adam Carson]

Hi there, just wanted to point you towards my new blog focusing specifically on Enterprise 2.0

http://adamkcarson.wordpress.com/

[christianhauck]

and now for something completely different: why do you ignore my old blog http://evilkm.blogspot.com/ ?
I want comments: tips and tricks, how to get rich quick, where to get cheap Vlagra, and which blogs I should read.

[Steve Dale]

Agree with your post about Sharepoint (having recently implemented for the IDeA). Would much prefer to use something like ConnectBeam (www.connectbeam.com), which enables you to know your pub from your church, and to take a leisurely stroll between the two with your friends. Maybe the difference is that ConnectBeam is focussed on 'KM' (connections between people) and Sharepoint is focussed on 'IM', i.e. the organisation of explicit knowledge.

p.s. Good interview on Gurteen - the best messages are those that are simple and to the point!

[Ross Mayfield]

One thing though, legacy investments for attention are there in SharePoint, so you need a compromise -- SocialPoint.

But you probably already know this.

[Euan Semple]

You're going to have to say that again for me slower Ross!

[Jon Husband]

I interpret Ross' statement to mean that in places using Sharepoint, the workers using it have access to stuff they now use, and have developed some workflow / work habits that involve the use of Sharepoint .. all the already-established points of interaction with Sharepoint's design and functionality.

If not that, then I'll appreciate another run-through as well.

[Phil Wilson]

Ross is the CEO of SocialText, an enterprise wiki company.

They recently announced a SharePoint plugin.

http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release_html_b1?release_id=177884

[Euan Semple]

He's also a good friend of mine Phil so I am aware of his work with Sharepoint but thanks for pointing it out to my other readers.

[Phil Wilson]

Ah, sure thing! Your comment didn't give any context for which bit wasn't making sense.

That'll teach me :)

[Euan Semple]

It was more Ross's grammar than the context that was challenging me!

[Sharon]

Well better late than never to the party I guess :-) I missed commenting on this at the time, too busy blowing out candles...

You're right, we need tools to support new ways of working rather than just sustain traditions. But I'm more concerned about the lack of people who want to walk in that direction and instead cling to their old staid worlds of hierarchy, command-and-control, don't think-just do and kid yourself there will be a pension at the end of it all. If you want to change your work environment, you can bash pretty much any old piece of technology into some sort of shape to suit your purpose, but the organisation has got to want to go there...

Mind you, SharePoint could be a lot less sterile and more fun to use. Unfortunately, thanks to regulation, SOX and co, those deploying it are more concerned with standards, consistency, templates, auditing, managed processes... they think sterile is great :-(

disclaimer: I used to be the UK lead at MS for SharePoint, feel free to accuse me of bias ;-)

Happy New Year!

[Euan Semple]

Thanks for the great comment Sharon and for re-enforcing the point that it ain't about the technology so much as the mindset both of those whom it is done to and those who do it to them!

[Trevor C Williamson]

"They are too good at creating sterile environments run by control freaks who hate messiness, consider conversations unprofessional and rarely understand the true pulse of their organisations."

Take a look at this:

hedkandi.com

Believe it or not, that is SharePoint...

[Euan Semple]

I'll grant it looks funky but not sure it negates my concerns - and I'll set aside the fact that the first page after the front page was well and truly broken in Firefox!

;-)

[Stephen Cummins]

I like your village metaphor, but perhaps SharePoint is more like the design classic the London Underground map, it makes some that grew organically and is this difficult to navigate into something, clear and its way beautiful. Unlike being on the tube itself...

[Bart Stevens]

Dear,
I agree on the mindset argument, but what is as important is what the current enterprise vendors are doing/saying. SAP is committing 400 MLN Euro (!) in the next 8 quarters "to improve their GUI".
What I mean with that is that they are trying to "ipod-tize" the GUI of the enterprise into something which will fit the "2.0 trend".
In my organisation we are doing the same (have a look at the link). It's fun to do but very challenging, just to see what you can offer in a free, bronze, silver, gold and platinum version of you (old) software version.

So it is a mind set thing, but only when the barrier to try is low and with very little risk. Will keep you posted on our work in progress,

Cheers

Bart