Collaboration Convergence
A browser crash
has killed my first attempt to write this entry, perhaps just to make me write a more dramatic first sentence. My prediction is that 2008 will be marked by collaboration convergence, this means
has killed my first attempt to write this entry, perhaps just to make me write a more dramatic first sentence. My prediction is that 2008 will be marked by collaboration convergence, this means
- tightening and deepening the connections between collaborative applications and related fields like social networking, content management systems, enterprise resource planning systems, business intelligence solutions, business process management and so on.
- blurring of borders of individual collaboration tools like digital asset management systems and wikis, wikis and blogs, blogs and forums, forums and mailing lists, mailing lists and chat, chat and instant messaging, instant messaging and twitter, twitter and time tracking, time tracking and task management, task management and workflow management, workflow management and document tracking, document tracking and document sharing, document sharing and digital asset management
- deeper integration of web-based collaboration software and desktop-bound productivity software. Right now, some people equate web-based productivity software that allows a degree of content sharing with collaboration software, but this will change.
Signs of this integration are:
- EditGrid's plugin for Microsoft Excel that allows users to edit spreadsheets on the web in EditGrid that are automatically pushed to the opened Excel window combining power of desktop tools and ubiquity of web-based tools, both to collaborate.
- Google's integration of desktop widgets that come with Google Desktop Search and iGoogle, allowing your personal web-page to embed real-time information of your hardware state.
- Mozilla's WebRunner that allows you to install web-applications like GMail or Google Reader as standalone desktop applications (via Marcel Weiss)
- Blogbridge, the feed reader as an example of desktop software that is truly web-aware.
- Apple's .Mac, back from hibernation combines desktop remote-control, a virtual hard drive, a photo gallery, and a web/IMAP mailer that is tightly integrated with the desktop operating system
I am Product Manager for Collaboration and Digital Asset Management at 