Effective Collaboration

Enterprise Collaboration and Virtual Teams Report (May 13, 2008)

The People Part of Enterprise Collaboration and Virtual Teams

• One vendor argues that wikis are bad for external customer collaboration, due to four reasons. "I think many companies rolled out Wikis for their customers and incorrectly assumed they were ideal because they give the company one place to go to maintain information. As usual, this is right and wrong. For the company, it might appear to be low maintenance. However, this is a fallacy because the maintenance load grows substantially as the Wiki grows. For the customers, it is not ideal and leads to frustration and antipathy. My advice is to use a Wiki selectively, but don’t make it the central tool to collaborate with your customers."


• Glance Networks released a video interview with MailWise, talking about how they are using the Glance desktop conferencing tool. "Without Glance, we wouldn't be able run our business."


• One Communications Corp. is using telepresence to link its offices, and is finding it great. ""The technology has come so far so fast that it's very easy for anyone to run it," says Russell Oliver, the company's vice president of strategy. Mr. Oliver says the company's six videoconferencing rooms, which use a system designed by Norway's Tandberg ASA, are fully booked on most weekdays."


• Partnerships in law firms: Chuck says stop that already, and go for collaboration instead. "I would suggest you collaborate where you can if you really want to work together. If he or she wants an office, let him or her get an office. If he or she wants a secretary, let him or her get a secretary. If his or her minds changes and he or she wants to move on from you, let him or her move on. Create a structure that allows for organic collaboration in which people can be what they want to be, and do what they want to do, and in which you can work together when you can, and not work together when you do not want to or are unable without having to bust bank accounts and business structures and feelings to do it."

The Technology Trends of Enterprise Collaboration and Virtual Teams

• GotThingsDone released Version 2.0 of its web-based project management service, with new capabilities for team project management. "WhoDoes 2.0 introduces new instruments that makes managing of the projects activities and the sharing of information within the team even easier, a new graphical user interface more intuitive making it more usable and a new approach more collaborative to facilitate team work."


• Video interview with a couple of IT professionals who have embraced SharePoint. Benefits: "It's all bundled into one location."


• Alfresco released Version 2.2 of Alfresco Enterprise, its enterprise and Web content management platform. "Industry leaders such as Electronic Arts, Activision and Sony Pictures Imageworks Interactive use Alfresco to provide advanced user experiences, create communities around their products, and deliver this at dramatically lower cost through the benefit of open source. These new community oriented product micro-sites need to be highly-scalable with the ability to integrate rich media with user generated content, and support rapid content updates for a fresh customer experience, while promoting a consistent brand." (hat tip, Seth)


• Deva from ClearContext says there are three areas where email clients haven't kept pace with change: volume of inbound messages, integration with digital artifacts beyond email messages, and context. "Email has become a dynamic project management and collaboration tool where people routinely exchange status updates and work assignments for projects, have group discussions, and often replace status and planning meetings with emails. That requires real integration between all of the pieces of information beyond the emails themselves - the associated task lists, appointments, documents, etc. And integration extends beyond the email platform to external applications on servers or in the cloud (CRM, project management, HR, basically any enterprise app) that require all that data - a process that now often involves cumbersome manual exporting or copying of that information from the messaging platform to the application." ClearContext has an upcoming release that will address some of these issues.


• SlideShare announced $3 million of additional investment from Venrock (hat tip, Ross). "SlideShare is using some of the money to relocate from Mountain View to San Francisco, where they’ll have a larger office. It will also grow its team from about 10 people to 18, mostly with local hires even though the bulk of its development occurs in India."


• Cisco released two new TelePresence offerings, one for personal use and one for large conference rooms. "With the introduction of the Cisco TelePresence System 500, the immersive power of Cisco TelePresence is extended into the personal office. This smaller form factor retains all the same qualities of the life-size, face-to-face Cisco TelePresence interaction while giving organizations the flexibility to support intimate, one-on-one meetings or enable employees to join larger group meetings from personal workspaces. The Cisco TelePresence System 500 also provides a lower-cost entry point for medium-sized businesses to experience telepresence in communication with partners, customers or suppliers."


• Research In Motion and two other partners announced a $150 million fund to encourage the development of mobile applications. "Agnostic to both stage and balance sheet, the BlackBerry Partners Fund will not restrict the development of mobile applications and services to any single mobile platform or any specific industry segment. The Fund will be designed to advance the industry by fostering development and driving the entrepreneurial spirit to create the most innovative mobile offerings for customers."


• Research In Motion and Microsoft announced an agreement to integrate various Microsoft Windows Live services with the BlackBerry. "The integration of Windows Live services into the BlackBerry platform will allow customers who use Windows Live Hotmail and Windows Live Messenger on their BlackBerry smartphone to benefit from the BlackBerry platform architecture with the ability to communicate in real-time using push technology, and offering an exceptional mobile communications experience. Customers will also be able to seamlessly access their Windows Live Hotmail and Windows Live Messenger account from their BlackBerry smartphone by simply entering their Windows Live e-mail address and password once."


• TANDBERG announced that it has shipped 10,000 personal TelePresence units, that being the Centric 1700 MXP. "The 1700 MXP features CD-quality audio, an integrated HD camera and a 20" flat-screen monitor that seamlessly switches between the PC content and brilliant, HD video calls for an unprecedented level of interaction and collaboration throughout an entire organization."

Insights on Being Productive and Effective as an Individual

• Great question for getting on with key projects: "So what can be done now?" This is a better question that what "should" be done, because it encourages action rather than the dreaded "I've got to do this".


• Brian has one of the new LiveScribe pens, and talks about using it in combination with the LiveScribe web service.


• When your energy is flagging, Laura has ideas for bouncing back: (1) stand up, (2) take a short break, (3) walk around more, (4) practice energy renewal strategies at your desk, and more. And Laura's new book, Exhaustion Cure: Up Your Energy from Low to Go in 21 Days is now available from Amazon.


• Three things to get good at: presenting, numbers, and focus. "In a world of ever-increasing opportunities, choices and distractions the ability to make a clear decision on time is priceless. Learn some good stress management strategies.It's really worth getting good at keeping clear focus."

Other Noteworthy Insights

• Walt on the Lenovo IdeaPad and Asus U2E.


• Sascha at PC Magazine on the BlackBerry Bold vs. iPhone. "The iPhone/BlackBerry smackdown really began when Apple pledged to make the iPhone compatible with Microsoft Exchange servers. This created a sort of hysteria that the iPhone would then take over corporate America. But the BlackBerry's dominance in corporate America isn't about its cutting-edge design. It's about several things that the iPhone doesn't have ... "


• Microsoft released Service Pack 1 for Office 2008 for Mac, and promised Visual Basic for Applications (again) in the next version.

Enterprise Collaboration and Virtual Teams Report (May 12, 2008)

The People Part of Enterprise Collaboration and Virtual Teams

• Getting to "we" in a collaboration, in five steps: (a) state the problem, (b) talk it through, (c) listen to others and learn, (4) see the interlocking concerns, and (5) create together.


• We are what we share. We are no longer what we own.


• One user thinks out loud about the current crop of online document creation tools, and comes up wanting more. "While it is interesting to consider the market for collaborative document tools, I believe someone should learn about what is possible and then determine what would work best for their needs. Yes, this is a course on Web 2.0 tools, but must one always be online? This reminds me a little of the students I see who cannot seem to relish the silence w/o cell phones or Ipods. Working on a document simultaneously may have its advantages in the early stages, but in the end, there needs to be one editor and hands-off time. Maybe that’s when one copy and pastes it from the collaborative space back into their private world!"

The Technology Trends of Enterprise Collaboration and Virtual Teams

• DocVerse is in private beta, but it offers a document sharing and collaboration service (hat tip, Mike). The two founders are ex-Microsoft, and both have had roles in SQL Server things.


• Peter is speaking at a web conference on May 29 about email chaos and SharePoint. "While most solutions on the market, today, offer a one-sided solution to these problems by either addressing the information retention problem or helping users collaborate, this web conference introduces an innovative email management solution, called Email-Manager and SharePoint , which effectively addresses both issues." Email Manager is a server-side approach to capturing email messages into a SharePoint library.


• RIM announced the BlackBerry Bold, RIM's answer to the iPhone. "From its lustrous black exterior, satin chrome finished frame and stylish leather-like backplate, to its stunning display, sophisticated user interface and newly designed full-QWERTY keyboard, the BlackBerry Bold smartphone is a symbol of accomplishment and aspiration." Available Summer 2008. See Michael Parekh, "One has the killer physical keyboard and industrial-strength email capabilities. The other the killer touch-screen with the "real internet", and a universe of software applications to come." And Wall Street Journal.


• Mark posted what he learned from the March 2008 Gartner conference on Portals and Collaboration.


• Adam from Quest Software released a white paper on why a company should migrate to SharePoint. "This white paper discusses why Microsoft Office SharePoint Server is an excellent platform on which to consolidate your data. It is not efficient to keep data spread across the organization in so many locations."

Insights on Being Productive and Effective as an Individual

• Chuck weighs in on the value of public speaking to build a practice as a marketing strategy. "It is cheap. In fact, it will often guarantee you a free meal. It will give you an opportunity to meet a lot of really good people (including some strange and interesting ones - but always enjoyable). It is just an expansion of your elevator speech. It usually does not have an immediate and dramatic increase on your practice, but if you actively solicit those groups, organizations and people that you need to build a referrals base, the business stream is typically longer and represent better clients because they are often pre-qualified."


• Ask the key question of yourself each day so you can pass the Pillow Test. "Ultimately, you want to end your days laying your head on your pillow satisfied in the knowledge that you rocked out, and rocked hard. Asking yourself the question How do I want to feel when I put my head on my pillow tonight? may give you just the push you need to stay focused, take advantage of every opportunity you have to move forward on your goals, and to "get down to it, before the night is over.""

Other Noteworthy Insights

• Eric White is working on technical evangelism for the next edition of Microsoft SharePoint. He's dreaming up great ideas: "take some external data source, generate Open XML documents, and automatically provision a SharePoint site with documents that enable a group to accomplish their mission in an easier way."

A-Z of Virtual Teams: H is for Handling Disagreements

Disagreements among people are a good thing — really, they are — because they show that people are actually invested and interested. "Whatever" is the absolutely worst statement you want to hear during a discussion / debate, because it signals that the person speaking has decided to exit the conversation and feels unheard and not listened to. Again, that's a bad outcome.

But just as disagreements are a good thing, keeping them festering and unresolved for too long can cause great damage to the forward progress of the team, and the relationships among team members.

Two key things are needed:
1. An agreement upfront that disagreements are valid and to-be-expected, and that people should stay in the argument and not prematurely exit; and
2. That disagreements won't be swept under the proverbial carpet, but will be argued out until everyone understands what the other parties are saying, and either that there is a clear way forward, or someone — a manager or leader on the team or that the team reports to — hears the two sides and makes a binding decision.

It's unlikely that two people on a team will ever perfectly agree, but they should have total permission to argue a position or idea.

What Do I Need To Do?
Stay attentive to how disagreements are handled within your team. If you sense that others are not being listened to, even if you don't agree with their position, speak up for their right to speak.

Debate the idea; don't destroy the person. A vital outcome of a healthy team is the willingness to work together again on another project.

Listen for the cues that others are giving up because people with bigger mouths and better words are steamrolling what they are saying. Suggest a switch to a written mode if one person has vastly superior verbal skills and the other person is a better writer. Get both parties to document their arguments.

See A-Z of Virtual Teams: Summary for the complete list.

Enterprise Collaboration and Virtual Teams Report (May 9, 2008)

The People Part of Enterprise Collaboration and Virtual Teams

• One potential reason for the difficulty of embracing a wiki for team collaboration: we prefer to work alone. "Often I see very smart and highly competent people use what I call a divide-and-conquer method where one personal will call or interview the external contacts, a second will handle the records research, a third gets to manage the Excel spreadsheet and numbers, and the last person writes the report or slide deck. The work has been sliced in such a way that we prioritize getting the task done with as little individual investment as possible, and this ensures that we work alone rather than collaboratively. Only infrequently do we see a small group of people apply multiple sets of eyes to a common issue or concern. At times professionals appear to believe that we are accountable for the final product, but as for my role I will do this one task and largely go it alone."


• A strategy for executives on how to kill SharePoint: (1) every site has to look the same, and (2) don't permit users to make any changes. My question: What's the fear? What concern or major issue of theirs has not been addressed? Records and compliance?

The Technology Trends of Enterprise Collaboration and Virtual Teams

• Xero integrated its online accounting application with Google Docs.


• One companies experience in its evolution on thinking with SharePoint: (1) SharePoint can do anything, let's migrate everything, (2) SharePoint sucks, (3) "look at all of these cool WebParts I've written", (4) SharePoint can do a lot more than people think, and (5) SharePoint is just a tool.


• Bruce is working on his next application for Notes/Domino, a link sharing tool, eg, social bookmarking. "LinkJam is the perfect solution for IBM Lotus Notes and Domino shops that want to explore social bookmarking but can't afford IBM's Lotus Connections. LinkJam is a pure IBM Lotus Domino application that you can have running on your existing Lotus infrastructure. No new hardware and no new software. It works with Domino 6.5.x, 7.x and 8.x. It just works."

Insights on Being Productive and Effective as an Individual

• In the A-Z of Personal Productivity, V is for victories, for celebration of completion. "Now, I understand that if you stop to gaze out over the valley after every step it would be dark before you reach the summit; so the celebration should be roughly proportional to the task you've completed. Sometimes it's enough of a kick just crossing things off your list, but if it's a big project or something you've been working towards for a long time then you should acknowledge what you've completed and reward yourself with something special."


• Start getting balanced in your life: Dave has a 15 minute a day plan to make it happen.


• Get going on something you don't want to do: (1) put yourself in jail, (2) ask for help, (3) some decisions don't require extensive research, (4) take a baby step, (5) do it first thing in the morning, and (6) protect yourself from interruption. On #6: " How often have you finally steeled yourself to start some difficult project, only to be interrupted the minute you get going? This makes a hard task much harder. Carve out some time to work. Yesterday, I wanted to put a newsletter sign-up box on my blog. I figured this would be frustrating and time-consuming, so I waited to make the attempt when I knew I had two hours when I could work uninterrupted."

Other Noteworthy Insights

• Why don't companies track Windows downtime? "I would estimate that while working with Win XP I would spend minimum of 10% of my productive time solving WinXP issues. On a Mac maybe 1-2%. At least when a Mac crashes it just goes down quick and hard! but Apple have basically stuck to the Unix principle of keep it small and simple and let the combinations of different flexible programs tackle your problem. All this is a huge hidden cost for companies who would be aiming at 500k-1000k $USD per employee in terms of revenue. They should wake up and smell the coffee."

Collaboration Newswire (May 8): IBM Lotus Quickr Content Integrator

The May 8 edition of Collaboration Newswire crossed the wire a few hours ago:

"IBM's Lotus Quickr is a team collaboration product that continues and enhances the Lotus Quickplace offering, as well as embraces design ideas from the Web 2.0 world. It is also multiplatform, running on Microsoft Windows, Mac and Linux operating systems. Last week IBM announced the availability of a migration and coexistence tool for Quickr, so that organizations can shift content from team sites in SharePoint, Public Folders in Microsoft Exchange Server, document libraries in IBM Lotus Document Manager (previously Domino.Doc) and teamroom applications from IBM Domino Server into Quickr places. Note that the technology underpinning Content Integrator is from CASAHL Technology."

It should be up on the back issues page in a couple of days.

Enterprise Collaboration and Virtual Teams Report (May 8, 2008)

The People Part of Enterprise Collaboration and Virtual Teams

• CEO Online offers an extensive overview of how to set up a remote workforce. Key parts: (a) main motivating factors for businesses looking at a remote workforce, (b) disadvantages of remote working, (c) how to get started, and (d) the main steps towards implementing remote work.


• Virtual distance between team members can lead to a host of problems and negatives, including reduced innovation effectiveness, declining trust, and reduced work satisfaction. A couple of authors share what they see as the antidote: (1) communication clarity, (2) cultural sensitivity, (3) context sensitivity, (4) boundary spanning, (5) advocacy, (6) shared leadership, and (7) leader intent.


• John outlines a number of email examples that could be shifted to different tools, such as a blog or a wiki. "This post is not just focusing on communication type blog posts, in fact it’s not focusing on blogs at all. It’s going through example emails and proposing how that email could be re-purposed."


• Where's the value of Web 2.0 offerings to HR? "Honestly, I’m struggling with what we’re using Web 2.0 for and wondering why it’s useful.  Do we really need blogs for recruiting, or wiki’s for employer branding?  Is a social network useful?  I’m a huge advocate of 2 things that have to do with Web 2.0: (1). Networks are indeed very useful if we employe them for the enhancement of collaboration or innovation; (2). Web 2.0 is great when it comes to usability. Those 2 items aside, I’m not sure Web 2.0 is really adding that much value to HR. Perhaps I’m not a visionary, or perhaps I just haven’t seen it work yet.  But unless we’re using this stuff to really create value, we’re just spinning our wheels and focusing on the wrong things."


• Email or a wiki for planning the next Scout camp? One person has gone the latter route this year, and found it great, but still has questions. "I set up a wiki for the leaders. It’s a private wiki so I’m sorry I can’t share the link. I will however say that we’re using PBwiki, which I find to be superior to Wetpaint in terms of editing as well as help. But that aside, so far it’s been helping us keep track of personnel and manpower, topics of discussion, a couple of things to be noted, schedules, equipment lists and so on."


• John Chambers from Cisco weighs in on the power of collaboration: (a) great for productivity and innovation within the organization, (b) the people are the most important part of the collaboration strategy -- and you have to match that with the right technology, (c) collaboration is about changing how we do business, (d) collaboration changes leadership from command-and-control to many-to-many; and collaboration allows more leaders within the organization to come to the fore and help with the organizations; and (e) "why now?" ... to get to any content from any device from wherever you are. Cisco's role in collaboration: shifting from merely being a plumber, to delivering a more intelligent network and platform.


• Is your team working on the same idea or a ghost image of the idea? "It reminded me that what he's talking about is a common phenomenon. Until I find a better description, I'm referring to the misunderstood images of the original idea as Idea Ghost Images, a reference to the shadow images you get on television when you have problems with the antenna. They are a reflection of the original images, but they're off. And the more of them you have, the greater the problem. Have you seen this happen in your business world? Where there's an idea being discussed but each person imagines something slightly (or maybe more than slightly) different? And sometimes companies will move forward and commit to budgets and tasks and strategy without realizing that each person is agreeing to something different. That can cause a whole lot of problems." Tim has a solution ...

The Technology Trends of Enterprise Collaboration and Virtual Teams

• Web 2.0 technology is changing the way the enterprise software vendors have to think and deliver their tools. "Deighton stressed the importance of simplicity, but cautioned that keeping things simple should not be confused with making them simplistic. To illustrate his point he used the example of Salesforce.com versus SAP, Gmail versus Outlook, and a project that QlikTech has undertaken in partnership with Danish airline Sterling to revamp the bookings section of its website with a more user-oriented and visual interface."


• Tine 2.0 is being developed as a replacement for eGroupWare, the open source groupware product. They have a blog.


• WebMessenger announced WebMessenger Mobile for Microsoft Office Communications Server, a mobile client for Microsoft's IM and presence offering that works on BlackBerry devices. "WebMessenger Mobile for Microsoft OCS provides the mobile unified communications tools that drive employee productivity, reduce operational expenses and greatly increase workplace appeal to tech-savvy, younger recruits. Each of these aspects contributes significant operational and competitive advantages to companies that deploy and encourage the use of Microsoft OCS and BlackBerrys throughout their organizations."


• RIM says that is not tied to mobile phone form factors. This means that RIM could be working on an iPhone killer.


• Ten reasons why SharePoint implementations fail: (1) seeing SharePoint as merely a replacement for shared files, (2) merely using the default sites, (3) not doing any capacity planning, (4) throwing sites out to Joe User, and (5) getting carried away and trying to do too much at once. The next five are coming. See also Michael Watson on file shares vs. SharePoint.

Insights on Being Productive and Effective as an Individual

• Some great snippets of thoughts from Matt Cornell, on productivity and the like. Eg, the "put pocket", reading in the bathroom, post-project celebrations, and much more. Love the format Matt!


• If only ... we could stay completely engaged in our work. "A recently released study of 88,612 workforce members in 18 countries by Towers Perrin finds that only 21 percent of employees are engaged in their current work. In fact, 38 percent of workers feel partly to fully disengaged."


• How does a boss increase the productivity of a team? By asking them for their ideas. "If they are codependent upon you and hesitate to speak up, walk out of the room and let them deal with that question. And ask them to bring forth their highest and best recommendations. If they are not codependent upon you, stay in the room and participate. If they push back on you, that’s fine. If you can push back on them without them feeing threatened, you have the basis for synergy and for using third-alternative solutions."


• HBR on time management: (1) break your responsibilities into categories, (2) ask what percentage of time to spend in each category, and (3) check alignment with colleagues and superiors. See Harvard Business Online. "To-do lists will be only marginally useful if you don’t set parameters for how much time to devote to each task. When you make your list, carefully estimate the time each task will take, and box it into your calendar. This discipline not only will help you finish your list, but it also will improve your ability to estimate time and manage expectations of those around you. Particularly if you are in a new position or are confronting new tasks, ask for help estimating the time for each task—otherwise, you run the risk of missing deadlines and mismanaging expectations."

Other Noteworthy Insights

• Galen argues that a "no Macs" strategy is no longer a defensible IT strategy in business. "IT can embrace that Mac momentum, not just tolerate it, thanks to several shifts in computing that make the Mac a better enterprise fit than in the past—first and foremost being a rising threat to Microsoft’s other mainstay in the enterprise desktop environment, Internet Explorer."


• The Lotus Sametime team has a blog.

Tim (6) Draws me a Lego Man

One of the benefits of working from home is having pictures delivered on a regular basis from my children. Today Tim, who likes Lego a lot, brought me this picture ...

Thanks Tim!!

Being Notified of SharePoint Task Items: By Email, "Connect to Outlook", or RSS?

You are on a project team and are using SharePoint as the central place and space for capturing and recording all of the project related information. Within the team site that's been created, there is even a task tracking capability ... so that people on the team can record and view what they have been asked to do. So the question is: How do we keep team members informed of what tasks they have been assigned? If you say that they should "check the team site regularly", then I question your sanity.

Microsoft built into SharePoint a number of options for keeping team members informed of their task assignments. One of the operating principles of team work in our virtual world is that people are working on multiple projects at once, usually in different spaces and sometimes in different tools. They need some way of being pulled back to each of the projects they are working on, and being told what they are supposed to be doing, and what the other people on the team expect of them.

SharePoint offers three ways of being notified of new tasks:
- By email
- By a connection to Outlook
- By RSS

So which one should you choose, for tasks?

Notification by Email
If you do it by email, you can set it up to get a new email every time you have a new task assigned to you, or once a day in summary form, or once a week in summary form. The problem is that you then have another email to deal with, and most people say that they've had enough of dealing with email. Secondly, if you choose a daily summary of your tasks and you are so highly productive that you get one of the tasks completed on the day it was created, then you will still get a notification in your daily summary of that task. It will say that you have completed it, but it will still say it ... and it's extraneous noise that you don't need to see. This is partially due to how the notification email is created by the end user; you can only choose one alert statement when creating the rule, not a combination thereof. So you can't say "send me a notification whenever I have a task assigned as long as it's not completed." It's one or the other, but not both.

Notification within Outlook 2007
If you choose "Connect to Outlook", the complete list of tasks from the task part of the SharePoint team site will be synchronized between the SharePoint team site and an Outlook task list. Note that you get every task item, not just the task items that have been assigned to you. So if you want to see what everyone on the team is working on, "Connect to Outlook" is the way to go.

But if you want to just see your own tasks ... "Connect to Outlook" isn't the way to proceed. Even if you choose "Connect to Outlook" from the "My Tasks" view of the tasks list, you get ALL of the tasks that have been created, not just the ones that have been assigned to you. Now, I'm sure that you have really nice team mates, but getting to see all of their tasks alongside yours when you come to get some work done … that's pushing the boundaries a bit too far. And remember too, that one of the realities of working in a distributed and virtual team is that not everyone is going to use Outlook (shock horror!). And thus if you only want to see your own tasks from SharePoint in an Outlook task list, then you need to do some programming magic at the SharePoint end or within Outlook. That then becomes a custom coding situation, rather than taking what's available out-of-the-box.

Notification by RSS
If you do it by RSS, it actually works the way it should work for showing a user the list of tasks they want to see. You receive an RSS alert of whatever list of tasks you want to be given. If you want to see "All Tasks", then select "View RSS Feed" from the "All Tasks" view. If you want to see only "My Tasks", then choose the "View RSS Feed" from that view.

RSS also solves the distributed teaming issue of everyone not using Outlook and a Windows computer. Even the Mac people on the team will be able to receive a pull-back into the space if RSS is being used! As below ... with NetNewsWire on a Mac:

The other really nice thing about using RSS is that most RSS readers permit you to set up folders for grouping your RSS feeds by topic or interest. Because you have an RSS feed for tasks from the SharePoint project site, and also an RSS feed from the announcements list from the SharePoint project site, you can put both together in an RSS feed folder called "Project Delta" (the name of the project, in this situation). Then you can quickly see the current state of the project directly from your RSS reader.

Recommendation
So the answer to the question … it depends on what you specifically want to do (see all tasks vs. see only your tasks), but RSS is likely to be the most broadly applicable alternative for everyone on the team. And it gets over the problem of more email noise from being created. This will involve spreading the RSS virus around, and showing team members how to use an RSS reader both for the project at hand and for wider information goodness.

And finally ... maybe the "Connect to Outlook" is the right option for you, or the email notification alternative works best even given the "limitations" I said about. That's fine. I'm just pointing out how the tool actually works -- ie, what does SharePoint actually do -- and interpreting that within a virtual team situation ... and then seeking to give guidance that broadly works.

Factors that Knock Team Projects Off-Course

There are many things that can throw a team project off-course. The goal posts can be shifted by the project sponsor; that’s clearly a signal that the shared vision needs to be expanded or revised. That will have flow-on effects throughout the remaining project phases. Sometimes the shifting of the goal posts is a result of the team starting off on what they thought the project was about, and getting into it, and only then finding out that they hadn’t quite understood. Being rigorous in the initial take on the shared vision and desired outcome, and in getting sign-off and feedback from the project sponsor or sponsors is a way of minimizing the risk that this happens (and thus wasting a lot of project time, team member enthusiasm and energy for the project, not to mention the budget assigned to complete the project). At least to some degree, the team has control over shifting goal posts.

A second factor that can throw a team project off-course is changes in the market conditions that have an effect on the likelihood of success of the candidate idea. These changes may happen because the project is of a longer duration and a competitor has released a product or service into the targeted niche that changes the rules of the game. Think Apple, with its iPhone in the mobile phone space. How many new phone projects at Nokia or Motorola got canned after the iPhone came out? Or the change may happen as a result of new government or industry regulation that introduces new conditions and limitations on the product or service being developed. The team doesn’t have so much control over these things; but they will have to react to them and make corresponding changes within the work of the team. But although they can not control them, there should be an ongoing assessment of the major changes in the market, the following of competitor actions that impact key projects, and scenario development to ensure that worst case outcomes can be mitigated effectively.

A third factor that can throw a team project off-course is changes in the composition of the team. The team starts off on a good footing, and has got into the groove of working together. All of the upfront explicit agreements and discussions that took a lot of time have been internalized by the team, and there's a real hum in the way the team is progressing. And then out of left field, someone announces their resignation from the firm or says that they have too much on their freelancing plate and they won't be able to contribute any further. Now the team has to scramble to find a replacement team member, and get them up-to-speed on what the team is doing and how they can directly contribute and help. That process takes time, and depending on the criticality of the contributions of the departing individual or the nearness of the final deadline, it can wreak major havoc.

How have you experienced team projects going off-course? The above is not an exhaustive list by any stretch ...

Enterprise Collaboration and Virtual Teams Report (May 7, 2008)

The People Part of Enterprise Collaboration and Virtual Teams

• Chi-Town Daily News is a citizen journalism publication, and they are using 37signals Highrise for managing the newsroom. "Highrise enables us to collect contact details on our volunteers in one location, assign the volunteer to an editor, track stories to completion and send automated reminders when deadlines are missed."


• Don Tapscott says that corporate inertia prevents 'mass collaboration' in the way it could. "The other thing is that many people mistakenly believe this is about social networking and hooking up online, or creating a gardening community, or putting a video on YouTube. But all of that is so 2006. This is a new mode of production. There's a profound change in the ways that we orchestrate capabilities to create goods and services and to innovate. I don't think it's hyperbolic to say it's the biggest change in a century to the corporation." The big problem: a corporate culture of control rather than enablement.


• The British think that more work will be done from home in the years ahead. "The institute put findings from the report to more than 1,000 senior executives. It found 74% expected "virtual teams of employees", working at a distance from each other, to become the norm by 2018." (hat tip, Jessica)

The Technology Trends of Enterprise Collaboration and Virtual Teams

• Mainsoft released SharePoint Integrator for Lotus Notes, for displaying and accessing SharePoint document libraries from within the Notes 8 interface. "This add-on to IBM Lotus Notes 8, an Eclipsed-based Rich Client Platform based on Java, provides
  point-and-click access to Microsoft SharePoint content, including Word documents, Excel worksheets, and PowerPoint presentations, from within Notes. Mainsoft professional services can also build composite applications across SharePoint data and Java or .NET line-of-business applications." See coverage at CMSWire, Notes on Productivity, and Ed Brill from IBM ("While ideally, we'd be having a conversation with Notes customers about Quickr as having similar functions to this typical use of SharePoint, the reality in some organizations is that SharePoint is "in', and not going anywhere. Since we've seen in talking with vendors and customers that 80% of the SharePoint use case is "file server 2.0", the Mainsoft integration is a logical way to have both products peacefully coexist").


• Colligo announced a patent award for peer-to-peer database synchronization. "Synchronous peer-to-peer database synchronization is a core technology that has been used in Colligo products since 2001. This technology employs an efficient method for replicating databases without the need for a central server. In contrast to traditional approaches, Colligo's peer-to-peer technology extracts changes from individual local databases and synchronizes them in an efficient manner directly with other individuals on a local network. One application of the technology, employed in Colligo Workgroup Edition for Lotus Notes, is used for peer-to-peer replication of IBM Lotus Notes databases. It allows mobile teams equipped with wireless capable laptops to instantly and securely replicate Lotus Notes databases directly between clients, improving productivity and collaboration when disconnected from the Domino server."


• Jeff contemplates the future of RSS, and notes 11 main areas of forward-looking interest. Of particular interest to Jeff is his #10, "Attention Streaming: This is something I am intensely interested in. We, as in a small group of leading companies, are just starting to get some momentum here so prognosis is good."


• Adobe released a Pro edition of Adobe Acrobat Connect, its web conferencing service. "Acrobat Connect Pro includes many new features for Web conferencing such as options for archiving and editing recorded online meetings; new presence capabilities that can allow federation with popular instant messaging (IM) clients; and powerful compliance and usage reporting tools. eLearning enhancements include break-out rooms to let students in virtual classes initiate separate conversations online; rapid authoring of video-based content; integration with Learning Management Systems (LMS) from Blackboard and SumTotal; and tools that track and organize online classes. Users also can easily tailor training sessions or meetings that help capture participants’ attention and increase knowledge retention, resulting in an online learning experience remarkably similar to an in-person class." Available end May 2008.


• Xythos is hosting a webinar on how Web 2.0 and software as a service can improve ECM in the enterprise, an May 21. "Many organizations struggle to effectively respond to the collaboration explosion that has occurred with the advent of Web 2.0. Adopting Web-based document management and collaboration tools may assist in delivering easy to use options which help businesses stay in control of content and better address increasing security and compliance challenges." Registration required.


• ... and an hour later, NewsGator is hosting a webinar on delivering enterprise social computing with SharePoint on May 21. It's about the use of the NewsGator Social Sites offering for SharePoint. Registration required.

Insights on Being Productive and Effective as an Individual

• Adrian suggests kick-starting your day with a quick win on an easy first task. "The way to get off to a flying start in the morning is to park your to-do list on a slope the night before. At the close of the day run through the items on your to-do list and work out the first one or two tasks that you'll attack in the morning. Try to pick something that will be easy to get finished - after all, the idea is to park facing down the slope, not up it."


• Productive work: that which attaches itself to an investment, as compared to that which is immediately consumed. "Is your time being consumed or invested? Are you working on activities that will return value, or finishing tasks that won’t matter when you’re done? Is your energy devoted to things you’ll care about 5-10 years from now, or will none of it matter?"


• Nicholas has 8 key thoughts about doing stuff better. Eg, "0: stop doing the non-excellent things; 1: do 1 thing at a time."


• Want to be more innovative: schedule uninterrupted thinking time (and forget hiring the business guru). "Dr. Edward Hallowell is the psychiatrist who coined the informal term Attention Deficit Trait (ADT) to describe this phenomenon. He maintains that the cognitive impact of all these interruptions causes people to work well below their full potential. They produce less output, think superficially, and generate fewer new ideas – despite working an increasing number of hours."

Other Noteworthy Insights

• The iPhone is coming to New Zealand, around July 2008.


• James has one of the new Lenovo IdeaPad U110 mini-notebooks, and is sharing his thoughts.


• The Mac: going more mainstream in business. See BusinessWeek.


• 26 ways to experience difficulty as a freelancer.