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I can and should be getting that RSS item streamed to me so that I can see your work as it happens rather than when (if) you remember to show it to me.
As for the culture change required to make this stuff happen, I don't mean to discount that at all. I know we aren't going to dump our Lotus Notes mailboxes and wake up in the clouds tomorrow. I'm still doing my best to find the best way forward. By writing all of this out I'm distilling my ideas into a form that will serve me (us) well the next time this comes up in conversation with my supervisor... or yours... or a company vice president.
EDIT: A book I enjoyed very much insists that the only real way to drive this kind of culture change is with the full support and energy of the CEO.
1) What do RSS feeds give you that mailing groups do not?
2) Why do I have to collaborate on the web and then put it all in Powerpoint? Why can't I just use what I've been using?
3) I don't want anybody changing anything I'm working on.
Reason 3 is probably the most frustrating of them all. People need to get over the idea that "I'm" working on something and shift gears and understand that "we" are working on something.
2) You are free to continue doing what you have been doing, but the continued drumbeat of economic downturn and globalization means that each month you continue operate under an obsolete workflow is a month where your organization draws closer to bankruptcy.
3) The only systems that don't change are dead systems. No one is employed to maintain those. If you want to participate in a living business, you must accept the fact that you have to run at a certain pace just to *maintain* your current position. Any hope of advancement will require even more hard work and optimization.
2) I fail to see the correlation of economics and workplace collaboration, apart from a potential gain in efficiency.
3) The AS400 gurus want to have a word with you. :)
2) I'm obviously not an economist nor a CEO, but I was trying to suggest that yearly gains in efficiency will be necessary to stay competitive in business. RSS feeds aren't the silver bullet to solve all workplace woes, but they'll definitely streamline operations and open up new horizons when it comes to knowledge work.
3) Got me there! I imagine that an AS400 doesn't need a huge staff to keep it running. I'm more thinking about the headcount required to build and extend new projects. I like to think that a good IT person/department automates things so well that they are no longer needed full time and can move on to someone who needs them more. I doubt many people are comfortable with that perspective though - it's hard to contemplate the end of a job.
1) @entmike: There are a great many 50-somethings more versed in using the Internet and collaborating than the 20-somethings. Check the demographics on Social Media sites used by early adopters if you doubt me. We've left careers at places like IBM behind, used Lotus Notes years ago, and maintained not only AS400s but also multi-CPU mainframes with International distributed networks so we're not all obsolete. ;-) Lotus Notes was intended to be a tool for collaborating - not a mailbox. It was very slow but you could sync docs.
2) @Daniel Your wife may be correct that some will misinterpret your comments; however, from my perspective you stated your points professionally and concisely. The only way to be sure you do not offend anyone is to do nothing.
The bottom line is the tools are still being built and they simply are not really there yet. RSS feeds do make far more sense than email although both can deluge us with more than we can handle.
One thing about collaborating - letting others change what you're working on - is that you may not have realized that most people are not contributors. They do what they're told and do not create original work. When you collaborate with others you respect who bring unique specialized skills to the table that changes everything.
We must work together to create solutions that allow us to collaborate. The advanced tasks I am working on require systems that do not exist yet and when I explain them at donationcoder I usually get no responses, possibly because they are too complex.
I would love to collaborate with both of you and anyone else who "gets it". Drop by my GrowMap blog or find GrowMap on Social Networks including Twitter, FriendFeed, StumbleUpon, cliKball, Ning - most major sites. Entmike is welcome to play Devil's advocate any time and I really want to hear more of your ideas, Daniel.