Month of January, 2008

Collaborate. Share. Publish. What difference does it make? Well, probably a lot. Some say that by definition, collaboration is something that is done amongst and between peers. Sharing presumes an initial "ownership" that gets expanded on a whim -- you or I or she shares, but we collaborate.

When we take this into the document management world, the difference in practical operation becomes much more relevant.

Sharing is one-way. I make my information (content, document, pictures, etc.) available for reading by a specific, known set of people. But at the end of the day it is my stuff and I don't want or expect anyone to mess around with it. Oh they can copy it and do what they want with their own instance -- but I am not asking for or expecting input or approval. Okay, go ahead and post some comments or loving notes of appreciation on it... But don't even try to make it better (thank you very much).

Collaboration is a two-way street. Or maybe more accurately, an open playing field. When we collaborate, we're all here to jointly make the best creation we can -- and each one of us gets to make changes and improvements. In that aspect, and on this project, we are peers -- or at least a bit more evenly matched. But the key thing here is that for collaboration to happen, all collaborators must have the ability and permission to make changes (or at least comments) that will influence the final deliverable. It's more than just a read-only experience.

So what about "publishing"? For me, its just like sharing... except that with publishing, the sharing is with an unknown set of people. If they can find it, they can read it. As the author, I may not even know you have it. What gets published is a finished and final work. But it does seem that publishing most often happens through well established locations or well-defined channels.

So wouldn't it be neat if a single tool could address all of those content management and control scenarios -- collaborate, share, and publish. That would be one useful tool!

In their book “The Starfish and the Spider” Ori Brafman and Rod A. Beckstrom highlight the differences between traditional enterprises (“spiders”: rigid hierarchy and top-down leadership) and the new breed of enterprises (“starfish”: distributed leadership and peer relationships of power). Peppered with great examples, it’s a fresh read – especially if you’ve already canned that new year’s resolution and are looking for a legit-looking tome to curl up in front of the fire with.

Content Circles claims to be the flat-out best solution for collaboration and document management for the “non-stop professional”.

So, who is the non-stop professional?

You know them. They’re the people with the laptop, the blackberry and the latte. Or maybe those other folks with the iMac, the iPhone and a mineral-water. They do it all -- work out at 5 AM, grab a bagel, meet with a client downtown, the head into the office to run a staff meeting. They check email over a cobb salad, start in on a Powerpoint presentation after lunch, then leave early to meet the family at the 2^nd-grade recital. They check email and tap a few notes on into the blackberry while waiting to be seated for dinner. And when the children are asleep and the spouse is parked in front of the TV, they sneak into the home-office to finish up that presentation for a morning meeting. They’re frequently connected, always thinking and usually in motion.

And they aren’t about to spend time remembering web sites and passwords to upload the latest draft or to download the white paper in progress. They want it now – simple and at their fingertips. Oh they wonder about the documents they create, edit, and review… but it’s more like “Gee, I wonder if Ed even looked at that spreadsheet” or “which one of these three versions in email is the one I need to update”.
And wouldn’t it be great if they didn’t even have to think about that! Hmmm...

Ah the inevitability of it all – Humans the world over crawling out of their beds, bound and determined that this year – THIS YEAR!! – we will quit that habit/change that behavior/lose that weight/do something different. Gym owners love this time of year. Tobacco companies hate it. Millions of people on a mission, what a sight! What a sound! What a mighty fury of effort and intent!