Why Laconica Means Big Things For Corporate Micro Blogging

Aug 28, ’08 7:31 PM
Author Malcolm Bastien Categories General Tags , , , , , ,

After listening to the latest episode of FLOSS Weekly I’ve started to get very excited again about the philosophy that’s behind the Identi.ca and Laconica platforms, as well as the possibilities that they provides. And after listening to an interview with him as well, Evan Prodromou (creator of Laconica and Identi.ca) seems like a really cool guy. I’m now most excited about now having a platform that can easily be installed into an organization’s network, and being able to provide them with a solid, and quickly growing micro-blogging platform. I can see both corporations, and non-profits really getting a lot of value out of this, and I see a lot of opportunities for consultants selling micro-blogging as something useful for their clients Why?

I see micro-blogging in an organization as one part communications medium, and one part knowledge management tool. Compared to Wiki’s, micro-blogging enable a different kind of quick dissemination of knowledge.

Take this case for example: If John wanted to uncover policy information from a Wiki, but that page didn’t exist, he wouldn’t have the means to quickly acquire that information. But discovering that this information wasn’t on the corporate Wiki, John could use the corporate micro-blogging platform powered by Laconica simply broadcast a message out to colleagues, where one (or many) of which could quickly reply to him with the desired information.

So using Wikis, getting the information that John needs quickly could in this case be solved by the reliance on other people having previously entered the desired information the Wiki. With micro-blogging, the reliance is based on the knowledge that some has, whether or not they’ve committed the time and effort to enter that information into a Wiki platform, since they can just shoot off a quick message in reply to John.

Another add-on to this is that while John was broadcasting out messages much like “Working on new policy report for HR”, another colleague could have seen that message and reply to him letting him know of a new government story that just broke that morning, providing john with more information and saving him time.

A micro-blogging platforms like Laconica that could be installed within an organization enable a work flow such as this.  They also provide the valuable option of keeping all communications within a corporate network and not allowing these messages, which might hold delicate and private information, reach the public.

Do you think these sorts of micro-blogging implementations have an important place in the workplace of the near future?

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  • I agree with Marina! I think it's also interesting to go "multichannel" with corporate microblogging -- using desktop apps, the Web, RSS, and mobile devices to keep teams in touch.
  • I'm an efficiency consultant who works with lots of corporations to improve/automate processes - but instead of hacking expenses/options with a chainsaw, I aim for a more creative approach that increases employee happiness *and* positively impacts productivity/the bottom line.

    Instant Messaging within an organization has always been a thorn in my side, because there is definite value in being able to quickly ask/answer questions with other employees for things that do not necessarily justify an email. However, IM has lots of problems: it's a rare employee who isn't *also* IMing their non-work friends (and no way to allow one and block the other); interactions are one-on-one; and there's no corporate archiving of the information (GTalk archives don't work well here).

    A Laconi.ca instance within a company would solve all of these problems - encourage community/teamwork, logging answers to questions and making them searchable, and allowing any employee to pose a question to the entire organization. As long as the nature of the platform is clear - that is, there's no obligation to keep it open all day, respond to every message, or even the READ every message - I see it as a positive in many corporate environments.

    (Thanks for linking to the "Oh, Identi.ca" blog!)
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