Communication / Collaboration / Content / Competition, Peter O'Kelly

Communication/Collaboration/Content Competition, "Co-opetition," and Culture:

Opportunities for Traction Software and its Customer Community

TUG 2010 – 2010/10/13

Peter O’Kelly

[email protected]

pbokelly.blogspot.com

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mailto:[email protected]

3C Competition, "Co-opetition," and Culture

Agenda

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A brief history of and framework for communication, collaboration, and content

The battle of the titans

Where Traction fits in

Cultural considerations

Discussion

3C History and Framework

The big picture

Communication and collaboration are about - Connecting people with information resources and other people

• In order to get things done

Content is basically anything not well suited to a traditional relational database management system- Resources and relations…

Communication, collaboration, and content are, collectively, fundamentally important for- Productivity

- Responsiveness and agility• Including the ability to work in distributed teams, and across organizational

boundaries

- Effective time and attention management

- Information governance and regulatory compliance

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A couple historical snapshots

65 years since “As We May Think”

4Also see http://www.dougengelbart.org/events/vannevar-bush-symposium.html

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1969/12/as-we-may-think/3881/

http://www.dougengelbart.org/events/vannevar-bush-symposium.html

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0029356733/qid=1140552374/sr=1-4/ref=sr_1_4/103-0800316-3538230?s=books&v=glance&n=283155


A couple historical snapshots

50 years since PLATO

5http://www.platohistory.org/conference/50th-anniversary/

http://www.platohistory.org/

A 3C Framework

Communication Collaboration

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Blurring Boundaries

Optimization opportunities

Evolving from specialized and proprietary applications to simplified and integrated services on the Internet platform

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Core 3C Concepts

Key themes

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• Workspaces

• Information items and models

• Tools

• Composite views

• Activities and programming models

• Templates

• Integration

Market Dynamics Enabling 3C Optimization

Some recent drivers

• Contextual activities

• Social content and social networking

• XML information architecture

• Integrated work and personal tools

• The software + services shift

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Agenda

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• A brief history of and framework for communication, collaboration, and content

• The battle of the titans

• Where Traction fits in

• Cultural considerations

• Discussion

IBM’s 3C Platforms

Overview

• IBM has three largely distinct communication/collaboration platforms, with

- Different underlying application and information models

- A business model partially predicated on perpetuating protracted professional

services engagements and legacy software licensing revenues

- A sometimes politically-motivated standards policy

• This approach has resulted in an often confusing, cumbersome, and costly enterprise communication/collaboration value proposition

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IBM Lotus 3C Platforms: Notes/Domino

Notes 1.0 (1989)

12Source: Ray Ozzie

http://docs.com/Main/DocView/user/1945479/doc/87ed46e2f21c4ae3801eeb5976c83681


IBM Lotus 3C Platforms: Notes/DominoS

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*Note: IBM announced at Lotusphere 2009 that future releases of Sametime would be based on WAS and DB2

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IBM Lotus 3C Platforms: WAS-basedS

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IBM Lotus 3C Platforms: SaaSS

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Note: the full LotusLive suite includes a mix of Notes/Domino and WAS/DB2, along with Outblaze- and WebDialogs-derived services 15

IBM’s 3C Migration Mandate

IBM’s Enterprise Customer Dilemma

• Two incomplete communication/collaboration platforms, with IBM pushing migrations to the WAS platform

- Despite the fact that the WAS suite does not include enterprise messaging

Collaborative applications

Enterprise messaging

Web applications

Information management

NotesDomino WebSphere

DB2

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Microsoft’s 3C Platform

Overview

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• Microsoft has a consistent and coherent communication/ collaboration architecture

- Addressing most facets of the communication/collaboration continuum, with • A singular focus on unified information architecture and platform services• The same architecture, tools, and user experiences for both software and

services– On-premises, cloud-based, and hybrid

• The deepest integration with the tools most information workers use every day (Office applications)

• Significant new innovation in Office 2010, SharePoint 2010, and Visual Studio 2010


Microsoft’s 3C PlatformS

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With the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite, the same solutions are used on-premises and on-line18

Another View of Microsoft’s 3C Platform

Reflecting a multi-year shift to a unified architecture

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Google’s 3C Platforms

Google is attempting to redefine the enterprise 3C landscape

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Google’s 3C Vision


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Oracle’s 3C Platforms

Taking another run at communication/collaboration

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• Oracle has failed with at least 3 major communication/ collaboration offerings since the early 1990s, most recently with Oracle Collaboration Suite

• Oracle is also determined to become a more significant 3C player, however, in part because- Collaboration and content decisions now drive DBMS deployments, directly

impacting Oracle’s primary platform franchise• Threat: being displaced, especially by SQL Server (via SharePoint)• Opportunity: expand Oracle Database role in content management via

XML information management

- Oracle’s application businesses can be usefully extended with contextual communication/collaboration services

- Oracle understands the IBM Lotus installed base is in transition, and seeks to capitalize

Oracle’s Communication/Collaboration Vision


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Cisco’s 3C Vision

24Source: Cisco “Transforming Collaboration Through Strategy and Architecture” white paper

Cisco’s 3C Vision

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Cisco’s 3C Platforms

Scrambling to move beyond voice communications

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• Some related acquisitions- WebEx (2007/03, Web conferencing)- PostPath (2008/08, open source Exchange Server clone)- Jabber (2008/09, IM/real-time communication)

• Cisco Quad- “This enterprise collaboration platform combines the power of social networking with communications,

business information, and content management systems. At the same time, it meets IT's needs for policy management, scalability, security, and ease of management.”• Source: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps10668/index.html

• Cisco’s likely success level in this 3C leapfrog attempt is still tbd- Burton Group (2010/10/05):

• “Cisco's WebEx gambit is in its opening moves and, therefore, enterprises should adopt a wait-and-see approach concerning Cisco's development of its SaaS 3C strategy and technologies.

• Enterprises can safely add WebEx web conferencing to their short list but should evaluate the other WebEx offerings carefully because of their technology gaps.

• In particular, WebEx Connect and WebEx Mail should only be implemented in limited circumstances where they fulfill needs for lightweight communications.”

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps10668/index.html

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps10668/index.html


Agenda

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• Discussion

Traction Among the Titans

A collaborative hypertext journaling pioneer

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• Traction considerations

- “Best of breed” versus suites• Focused and fast-moving

– E.g., not attempting to pull a Web app server platform or comprehensive programming framework

- History and team expertise • Including many of the most advanced customer deployments

- “Co-opetition”• Competitive for generic blogs, wikis, social networking, …• Complementary for

– Beyond-the-basics hypertext collaboration– Synergy with multi-vendor enterprise deployments

Traction Among the Titans

Very well aligned with the Internet platform

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• TeamPage can serve in multiple roles, including

- Blogs and wikis for asynchronous communication/collaboration

- Hypertext-based compound document management

- Social software services

- Taxonomy/other metadata-driven information item classification

- Hypertext application platform• Traction software developer kit and SDL (Skin Definition Language) “to

extend or customize Traction TeamPage's appearance, behavior, and connections to other systems”

• The underlying Traction meta-model – its collaborative hypertext journaling system – is a key enabler


Agenda

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• Discussion

Cultural Considerations

Some key themes

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• We’re in a “paradox of abundance” 3C product/service phase- With an incredible selection of cost-effective alternatives

• Effective 3C-conducive culture is a perennial challenge, however- Many of the same challenges faced with Lotus Notes 1.0 20+ years ago

- Avoid “Field of Dreams” (if you build/deploy it, they will come) wishful thinking• Organizations must provide clear guidance on what to use when

- Promote effective communication, collaboration, and content management• Train people to communicate and collaborate via hypertext content

– But also to avoid over-sharing and other risks

• The explosive growth of social software is a mixed blessing- Making 3C less of a hard sell

- But also introducing new challenges, e.g., in terms of encouraging information workers to use the right form-follows-function-fit tools/services

Cultural Considerations

Example: tool guidance

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Document library Discussion forumWeb content,

including wikis

Work product File collections Information item collections arranged by topic

Web sites with hypertext pages

Life cycle Process- or project-oriented; library for results

Persistent discussion threads

Purposefully organized Web pages

User conceptual model

Folders, files, and activities

Topics and responses; channel-based updates

Semi-structured Web pages


Agenda

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• Discussion

Additional Content

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Core Collaboration Concepts

Key concepts

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• Workspaces

• Information items and models

• Tools

• Composite views

• Activities and programming models

• Templates

• Integration


Workspaces

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• Workspaces are simply spaces (real or virtual places) wherein people collectively engage in activities

• Workspaces are composed of - Information items

- Tools

- Membership-related services such as the ability to identify workspace participants and their respective access control privileges

• Some workspaces are optimized for ad hoc projects, such as collaboratively composing a customer request-for-proposal (RFP) response- These workspaces are, ideally, retired after the final work products are transferred

to other systems of record

• Workspaces may also be general-purpose and/or otherwise ongoing, such as a wiki workspace for tracking and discussing best practices for a given business domain


Information items and models

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• Information items are the artifacts used to facilitate collaboration in workspaces

• In general, there are two primary types of information items- Documents are typically used for narrative content that is optimized for

human comprehension, and organized in terms of hierarchy (e.g., sections and subsections) and sequence • Documents are not limited to print-oriented tools such as word processors;

modern document-oriented information items also include wiki pages and other types of hypertext Web content

- Lists: list-based information items are generally data-centric, used to describe real-world things such as customers, project tasks, and calendar events• Lists are ideally application context-independent, so that the list

information may be shared by multiple applications (and also used with standards-based query and analysis tools)


Information items and models (continued)

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• Information models are used to define how information items may be related

• Document-oriented information models are typically based on hierarchies and links

- A discussion forum, for example, includes hierarchies of topic and response

documents

- Document directories, with folders and sub-folders, are also used to manage

hierarchical relationships among collections of documents

- Wiki pages, as a third example, are more likely to be related by hypertext links

• List-based collections of information items may also be related through links, but they are more generally related by shared data attributes (a.k.a. schemas, in the relational model)


Tools

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• Information items are viewed and edited with a variety of tools for specific information item and model types

• The tools range from relatively simple document viewer and editors to more elaborate tools for domains such as calendar and project management

• In all cases, the tools are used to manipulate specific types of information items

- Or collections of similarly-structured information items


Composite views

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• Composite views are used to combine a variety of types of related information items into a shared view context, typically in the form of portal- or dashboard-centric pages

- A customer-focused composite view, for example, might centrally focus on a

specific customer request and peripherally include lists of recent customer-related

orders and meetings (likely with links to views with more detailed information)

- Most wiki page tools are also composite views, composed of a page editor along

with lists of related information (such as links to related pages, along with people

who have recently edited the current page)

• Since Web-centric composite views are now mainstream, in both enterprise and consumer-oriented computing contexts, it’s increasingly redundant to refer to “portal-centric” pages

- Such pages are now the norm rather than the exception, and portal-related

capabilities are pervasively included in modern collaborative application platforms


Activities and programming models

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• Activities and programming models are used to facilitate taking actions on information items or collections of information items

• Activities can be - Simple, e.g., checking out a document, creating a new document version, or

submitting a document for team review and feedback- Not so simple, e.g., people collaborating to create a detailed customer RFP

response- Complex, e.g., coordinating and managing a multi-month services engagement

• Information item collection-oriented activity examples include assigning a set of project tasks to a workspace participant, or escalating overdue project tasks to a supervisor

• In all activity and programming model scenarios, related goals include- Using declarative constructs whenever possible, in order to minimize low-level

coding (that can be more complex and difficult to maintain)- Maintaining a clean separation of structure, presentation, and activity (also known

as “behavior”) concerns


Templates

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• Templates are used to minimize rework and maximize consistency

• Some examples:

- Information item templates are used to specify information item structure,

presentation, and activity details

- Document templates, often referred to as form definitions, are commonly used

when creating new document instances

• Tool templates combine information item types and models along with activities and programming models appropriate for a given tool context (such as document libraries and discussion forums)

• Workspace templates typically include multiple tools and information item templates

- A project team workspace template, for example, is likely to contain document

library, discussion forum, and project calendar tools


Integration

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• There are two high-level categories of integration for collaborative applications and content

• The first involves platform services, including

- Identity, authentication, and authorization

- Encryption and information rights management

- Indexing and search

- Tagging and other means of categorizing information items

- Subscription and notification (including XML syndication, e.g., via RSS)

- Workflow services

- Contextual presence awareness and real-time communication tool invocation

- Storage, including caching and synchronization


Integration (continued)

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• The second category of integration involves other applications and information management solutions, such as external (to the workspace) databases

- For example, it’s useful be able to integrate workspaces with existing systems

for human resources (such as organizational structure), product/service, and

customer information, rather than maintaining duplicate copies of the

information

- With this approach, corporate systems of record maintain control over shared

information resources, and synchronization challenges are minimized

Market Dynamics Enabling Communication/Collaboration Optimization

Some key drivers

• Contextual activities

• Social content and social networking

• XML information architecture

• Integrated work and personal tools

• The software + services shift

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Contextual Activities

Taking actions in preferred, familiar tools• There is no one-size-fits-all solution

- People have different work styles and tool preferences

• To optimize information worker time, attention, and productivity, IT must be able to seamlessly integrate communication and collaboration tools into familiar work environments such as productivity applications and browser-based user experiences

- On PCs and other device types, including smartphones

• Information workers can then have a consistent user experience for activities ranging from business intelligence to ERP transaction entry

- Blurring the traditional boundaries among applications, documents, and Web-centric user experiences

• And IT can apply and capture data and metadata required for operations and record-keeping policies without placing additional burden on information workers

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Social Content and Social Networking

Connecting people with other people as well as content

• Social software generally refers to a mix of- Blogs

- Wikis

- Bookmarking

- Tagging

- Rating

- Expertise and social search

- Podcasts, videos, and other means of facilitating social collaboration

- Domain-specific communities including some or all of the above• Social software tools are increasingly familiar to

information workers from services used outside of the workplace- And non-trivial to robustly provide in a model that addresses all

enterprises concerns and requirements

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XML Information Architecture

A fundamental information management advance

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• Industry standards such as Open XML and OpenDocument Format (ODF) make it possible to seamlessly manage productivity application content using structured, schema-backed XML

• Blogs, wikis, and other more social interaction models are also XML-based

- And have ushered in a shift to hypertext models – focused on collections of

information items rather than traditional documents and files

• Modern database management systems (DBMSs) have no-compromise support for data and content (e.g., XML documents)

- With significant potential to consolidate around fewer moving parts, and to

improve end-to-end information management

XML Information Architecture

A fundamental information management advance

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• The XML-based service orientation shift also makes it possible for modern information worker tools to seamlessly integrate with back-end systems and Web-based resources

• This is a significant advance relative to earlier, proprietary, and binary content models

- Creating new options for application development and information

management

- Providing an opportunity to reduce dependencies on specialized tools and

application-specific user experiences

Integrated Work and Personal Tools

Removing boundaries without sacrificing governance

• Work and personal domains are both challenged with growing information and communication intensity

• Mobile devices are now essentially small form-factor, Internet-connected personal computers

• To optimize information worker time and attention, it’s critical to make communication and collaboration tools available in models that provide consistent and seamless user experiences

- Making it possible for information workers to maximize their focus on work activities while also staying on top of personal concerns• Across all of their preferred tools and device types

- While simultaneously ensuring enterprise resources are protected and policies consistently enforced

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The Software + Services Shift

Sustainable synergy

• There can be considerable financial and administrative benefits from moving from on-premises to online solutions

• It’s not an either-or equation, however

- Information workers can, ideally, continue working in familiar tools

- Application developers shouldn’t need to learn new languages and frameworks

- IT can benefit from a hybrid approach, e.g., using services for some employee roles and on-premises solutions for sensitive or regulated activities and information

- Business management can optimize a mix of new opportunities and maximized return on existing investments

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Technology

Communication / Collaboration / Content / Competition, Peter O'Kelly