Speak First, Then What? - Collaborative Technologies and Applications for Interactive Information Design - page 152

structure to drive “listening”, this essential feature
to entice and enforce true collaboration. These
systems seem to consider “listening” as:

ing capability as a solution. In my experience,
that is a hollow argument. Commenting on posts
is a disjointed, somewhat hidden affair between
the poster and the commenter. Rarely have I
seen actual discussions being conducted here,
especially between several people. Often, after a
few comments, this post occurs: “ why don't we
discuss this in person? ” That is the end of the
online repository of information, as most of the
following discussion is offline. I n effect, the com-
menting system does not allow for actual, natural,
casual, and effectual interaction .
What did the Economist survey respondents
claim as the top challenges (excerpt)?

• passive : today's systems do not capture a

true record of listening activities!

• non-value add : what is being visibly im-

proved by listening?

• dreary : so much content, so little time!

• expensive : what does the individual gain

from listening?

The Economist Study also finds:

• 57% of the participants do not have ready

access to the information needed to do
their job

• Improved ability to integrate complex in-

formation from various sources: 46%
Easier access from your desktop: • 42% claim they cannot find relevant infor-

mation when it is needed
Only

• 42%

• Analytical and reporting tools: 41%

• 38% state that email is not an effec-

tive communication tool In short, what is needed are tools that use all

the available information better.
What needs to change? I believe we need to
think harder about enabling “Listening” as a key
component to communication and collaboration.
That will drive the use of information rather than
the focus on simple availability.

Further: “ While knowledge workers are satis-
fied with the quality and quantity of information
available to them, they feel burdened and frus-
trated by the amount of time it takes to collect,
analyze and process it. ”, (Economist 2007), p 5.
Yet 55% stated that their company is very signifi-
cant or significant in obtaining the relevant data.
As the report puts it: “ knowledge workers often
resort to workarounds… ” ditto, p. 5.
The participants go on to list these challenges
to do their job (incl. always-often-sometimes):

to listen is to Add vAlue

Why will online, collaborative “Listening” solve
some problems in collaboration? Why not better
tagging, better commenting tools, more slicing
and dicing of content to make it easier to find.
Here are some of the issues we can find in the
way today's online collaboration concepts work.
We will present them as actual episodes in a
team's work.
Meet Joe , Mary , Bazzar , and Mel .All four are
members of a New Product Development project
totaling more than 50 team members. They are
working together across several boundaries:

• 80% claim the information is scattered

across multiple systems

• 76% state the information is poorly

organized

• 73% reformat the available information

In essence, the information is there, but it is
hard to get at, digest and reuse.
Some may come to the defense of modern
collaboration systems, pointing to the comment-