I’ve realized the more I get into it, that the solution I’m targeting is a collaboration tool geared towards dev and qa teams. I want to stay out of the way, but the dashboard idea (and web services, and rss feeds) necessitates interconnectedness. Document management seems me the biggest problem. That’s why wikis are both good and bad. That’s why sharepoint works so well (as a file server.)
I read an interesting article called “The Good in Email” on what collaboration tools need in order to be ubiquitous, written by (no surprise) a collaboration software company Central Desktop.
The simple answer: It’s ubiquitous. And easy to use.
Their points (in summary):
- Email is easy to understand
- Email is universal
- Email is accessible from anywhere
- Email can be personalized
- Email is manageable/configurable
- Email is searchable
- Email is in your face
- Email just works
After the first two points, they kind of lost me (except on search), but it’s good nevertheless. I think for the less savvy audience, the ease of understanding the metaphor “It’s like sending a letter through the postal service, except its electronic” is key. It’s universality is why it always ends out. But ask anyone who uses email at work via exchange about it being available anywhere.
One thing I’d like to get towards is submitting bugs, test results, blogs, even wiki edits via email. I know we should get off exchange, but outlook has a good (enough) editor. And it’s the search and foldering that make people want to do everything thought it. Now, the folder synonym is good. Shared network folders (Alfresco and Sharepoint) if they work are good. And why not settle nothing but the richest of editors — word and excel.
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