Looking to the future in Unified Communications
It's always interesting to watch the voices in the broad field of unified communications. I'm always fascinated by the change in who I read and listen attentively too over time. There are people whoe were thought leaders coming in to the Web 2.0 mentality shift that I still read every day, yet they don't sepak to me the way some newer voices (to me) do. And in some ways, it might be a conscious effort on my part to read and think more globally.
One person whose blog I've been reading lately is Giacomo Vacca in Italy - The Presence of Presence. It took a bit of digging to figure out that Giacomo's affiliated with Abbeynet, so this linkage is loosely coupled to my online friendship with Luca Filigheddu. Odd that it took me a while to put that together.
Giacomo posted a reaction to my Magnificent Seven post that makes some really interesting points.
It's true: LCS is something that almost every company looking at the enterprise context must deal with, but the real innovation comes - in my opinion - with the migration of presence(and location)-based communication tools inside mobile phones. There are a lot of good examples in the "Web 2.0" world: Eqo, Jumpclaimer, Nimbuzz, and others.I couldn't agree more. LCS is interesting, but the innovation...real innovation, isn't coming from Microsoft. And it surely isn't coming from the traditional wireline carriers. As Gicaomo points out, presence and location-based services are hot innovations, and they're inextricably interwoven with mobile technology.
Ken cites GranCentral, Talkster and Twitter together with Iotum, and in this case I fully agree with him. Twitter, in particular, represents the easiest way to publish an availability status, as it is exactly how people do it with their mobile phones, sending SMS to inform about their status, without even knowing what the word "presence" or "relevance" can mean.Twitter is an interesting phenomenon. I note some pretty staunch pockets of resistance (here and here). I confess that Shelley's reaction doesn't surprise me, but Kathy Sierra's does. Problems of Continuous Partial Attention aside, the truth is that the way we work is changing. The way we interact is changing. And the next generation of workers won't allow themselves to be confined to a cubicle or chained to either a single workstation or a single, serial communications stream. Our workflow of information must become even more asymmetric and asynchrounous than it is today. I know if you confie me to a cubicle and the traditional business tools, you'll cut my productivity by 80%, or more.
I see with interest some tools, classified in the Customer Relationship Management, which work heavily with the concept of relevance. I'm talking about communication tools that put in contact users browsing a web site with an operator, a customer care person and so on. In this case presence and relevance play an important role, as the communication depends on the availability of the responder, but also on
the context of the "call". Examples are Helpcaster and LivePerson.
Twitter is one example of how that's happening. It's fascinating to me to see the people who are embracing and using it and the people who are shrugging it off.
I believe Twitter exemplifies a facet of the next generation of unified communications social networking tools. Integration of SMS, IM, and web widgets is clearly the direction that the industry is heading with both VoIP and video. I expect Twitter to be someone's hot purchase, and like my friend Jeneane, wouldn't be surprised to see Ev be the first to be bough twice by Google.
Giacomo's post made me think about this again, and I'm sure I'll have more to say on the subject. Thanks Gicaomo for adding your thoughts. Don't be shy. I think what you have to say covers some really important trends in the industry and helps shape our direction.
Technorati Tags: Giacomo Vacca, trends, unified communications, Twitter
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"the way we work is changing. The way we interact is changing. And the next generation of workers won't allow themselves to be confined to a cubicle or chained to either a single workstation or a single, serial communications stream. Our workflow of information must become even more asymmetric and asynchrounous than it is today."
I could not agree more with all of that. But I just don't buy your argument that Twitter is a practical reflection of this "changing interaction." You mentioned several excellent uses of something like Twitter, and I don't see why specific applications of it wouldn't be successful and positive, but in its current form, its also feeding an addiction that--in my opinion (and the opinion of brain scientsts)--is not healthy and *not* simply an example of change. (or at least not an inevitable march of progress kind of change)
I'm still optimistic, though, that there will be a backlash now that we've reached the... twitter point. You said, "continuous partial attention aside..." and that's just exactly the problem--putting that aside is to celebrate the positive uses of these technologies while completely ignoring the severe consequences. I've been re-reading those Scientific American articles on media addictions, and it scares me quite a lot. But again, I have hope that as people reach the breaking point, most will be able to detox and figure out how to use these communication streams in a way that supports their brain.
When I saw the Lifehacks/43 Folders session at ETech have a bigger attendance than any other session, I knew something serious was happening. Here were the youngest, hippest, most -connected geeks all acknowledging their failure to be productive and happy in the always-on environment, and looking for "hacks" on how to keep their browser, email, and IM to a bare minimum.
I'm not suggesting that we halt progress on this--and maybe after all this time people *are* culturally ready for "presence" (as opposed to a decade ago when early attempts (like the sensor project at Xerox PARC) failed because people were... a little creeped out), I'm suggesting that we do NOT set aside the negative consequences and figure out how to do this responsibly.
God, I can't believe this is ME (the poster-child SHP) typing these words. I can understand why you were surprised by my response to Twitter... so was I ; )
Anyway, I'm so happy that you brought this up, because it's helping *me* consider the other side... the positive uses and potential of these technologies.
Posted by: Kathy Sierra | December 10, 2006 3:38 PM
Kathy,
Thanks so much for an incredible thoughtful and insightful comment. I guess in a way I was surprised at your view of Twitter because I instinctively would have expected you to be on the other side of the equation.
I wholeheartedly agree with you that in its current iteration, Twitter is an interesting gadget and something of a fad and a toy. Yet the potential is so undeniable from where I sit.
Your post about Twitter and the CPA problem is one that made me really think about it a lot more because it was so on target. We are all struggling under a glut of information and finding ways to synthesize so much input.
I'm still thinking through how to deal with all of this myself. I find it odd that I"m a 53 year old man, completely hung up inside Twitter. It seems so much the domain of the MySpace generation. And yet, it's another tool. I struggle with keeping in touch with people, even with IM, Skype and email. Twitter gave another dimension to that personal interaction and staying in touch.
I'm sure we'll be thinking about this for a good long time! I know I will.
Posted by: Ken Camp | December 10, 2006 4:58 PM
Hi Ken,
thank you very much for you comment: I really appreciate your encouragement and I'll try to use it as another push to keep writing.
Best,
Giacomo
Posted by: Giacomo Vacca | December 11, 2006 3:20 PM