It seems to me that, so far, we barely scratched the surface concerning collaborative tools. No matter the size of the company we all work for nothing has yet been implemented to help employees truly SHARE [insert here whatever]. I’m not even broaching the subject of big topics and major subjects which are the bread and butter of each entity but simple tips related to Outlook, best practices in Word or Excel, VBA and macros in Access, you name it.
Il me semble que, jusqu’à présent, nous avons à peine gratté la surface des outils collaboratifs. Peu importe la taille de l’entreprise ou nous travaillons tous rien n’a encore été mis en œuvre pour aider les employés a vraiment PARTAGER [insérer ici tout ce qui convient a la notion]. Je n’aborde pas ici les grands thèmes et les sujets majeurs qui sont le pain et le beurre de chaque entité, mais des conseils simples liées à Outlook, les meilleures pratiques dans Word ou Excel, VBA et macros dans Access, la liste est longue.
Personally all what I know regarding aforementioned applications I’ve learned it (1) thanks to external discussion groups, forums and tutorials all of which were (and still are) mostly initiated and maintained by individuals. In turn, wouldn’t it be nice to share the little I know with colleagues near or far?
Personnellement tout ce que je sais concernant les applications susmentionnées, je l’ai appris (1) grâce à des groupes de discussion externes, des forums et des tutoriels qui tous étaient (et sont encore) essentiellement initiés et entretenus par les individus. Ne serait-il pas agréable de partager le peu que je sais avec des collègues proches ou lointains?
I read a post (which I left comment on) about ATOS’ CEO willing to ban email. I’m still waiting for alternative solutions that supposedly will replace it there, good luck finding one. On one side we have this one tool we take turn and pleasure to critize on the other side what other communication tool do we have (please do not mention Intranet, it is the private walled garden of top-down communication department)?
J’ai lu un billet (sur lequel j’ai laissé des commentaires) concernant un PDG pret à interdire email a ATOS. Je suis toujours en attente de solutions alternatives qui sont censées le remplacer là, bonne chance pour trouver un. D’un côté, nous avons cet outil que nous prenons plaisir a critiquer de l’autre de quel autre outil de communication dispose-t’on (s’il vous plaît ne pas mentionner l’intranet, c’est le jardin clos du département de communication de haut en bas)?
On one side we have only one tool, on the other employees obviously willing to communicate.(2)
D’un côté nous avons un seul outil, de l’autre une majorité d’employés de toute évidence désireux de communiquer (2).
Doesn’t it look strangely like a catch 22 situation to you?
Est-ce que cette situation ne vous semble pas un tantinet ubuesque vous?
Someone, somewhere truly needs to unlock it and go ahead either opening up to external platforms or at the very least provide similarly powerful
communication facilities (again, good luck with that).
Quelqu’un, quelque part a vraiment besoin de déverrouiller et d’aller de l’avant, soit par une ouverture aux plates-formes externes ou à tout le moins d’en fournir d’aussi puissantes (encore une fois, bonne chance avec ça).
So, what are we waiting for? Alors, qu’est-ce qu’on attend?
(1): could it be that companies tend to be a wee bit stingy (discriminatory too) when it comes to instruction? I’d hate to digress but this alone could be an interesting topic.
(1): se pourrait-il que les entreprises ont tendance à être un tout petit peu … regardante (et discriminatoires) quand il s’agit de la formation? Je détesterais faire une parenthèse, mais cela seul pourrait être un sujet intéressant.
(2): over last 20 years we evolved from personal computers to having them in networks. Next step is: sharing data and not only just by exchanging files.
Sticking to a provider of personal applications (Excel, Word, …), namely Microsoft, on all PCs prevents us from progressing to another paradigm, sort of a la World of Warcraft or similar massively distributed games where only one central point is the core application, all what would be distributed being just datas.
(2): Sur les 20 dernières années nous avons évolué des ordinateurs personnels pour les mettre dans les réseaux. L’étape suivante: le partage des données et pas seulement par l’échange de fichiers.
S’en tenir à un fournisseur d’applications personnelles (Excel, Word, …), à savoir Microsoft, sur tous les PC voila peut etre ce qui nous empêche de progresser vers un autre paradigme, a la maniere de World of Warcraft ou des jeux massivement distribués où un seul point central constitue l’application de base, tout ce qui serait distribué étant simplement les données.
plerudulier 
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[…] could be seen as a follow-up to a previous post where I was wondering ‘what we were waiting for‘. Not that I intend to repeat here what I wrote there and then but it seems to me that what I […]
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Thanks for the comment. I’m afraid I haven’t been cleared in conveying the big picture I wanted to get across: I don’t want to ban email, email is fine but it’s just too limited in some fields. It has become so popular some just expect too much out of it and, at the same time, same people find themselves drowning because of too many emails they need to process.
Now the question is: is email popular because it’s good or is it so because it’s basically the only simple communication tool? If I had to picture this I would take Theater: Cinema then TV did not manage to kill Theater but both respectively took their shares in its audience to create theirs out of it. Theater is good at hosting live performances but is admittedly limited in, say, special effects something Cinema and TV are pretty good in. Still, there’ll always be an audience for Theater.
Likewise, it would not cross anybody’s mind to use MS Excel to process words something MS Word is for, in this regard why continuing using email processors for activities that go beyond merely sharing news.
My point is: people obviously want to communicate, let’s give them most appropriate tool-S to do so not just one.
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But here’s the problem, and actually it is two-fold. First, there is the inability for hardware, actually software as much or more so, to work together smoothly when designed by different people/ companies.
Enterprise level example: MS SQL server to IBM DB2. Yes, that was supposed to have been solved by now, but it hasn’t really. Less dreary example: Mobile O/S (apps), specifically Google’s Android developers struggling over making Android work with Apple apps. Nor am I sure that Apple iPhones work well with Gmail!
Next, there’s the data. That is actually easier, an attainable goal, I think. But it requires universal agreement on standards, and strict adherence to those standards. Again, some dreary stuff that is important like: Consistent use of date-time field formats; two word versus one word last names and how to handle consistently. You get the idea!
The other part of your post: I don’t understand the urgency to get rid of email. One doesn’t always want to share conversation with everyone, nor be limited to the length of an instant message (for private or 1 to 1 communication). I’m missing something maybe. Doesn’t email have a use in corporate settings? At least until, as you said, someone comes up with a better alternative!
P.S. I could provide you with links to corroborate my claims, but I’m afraid Akismet will dump it in the spam bin. This might be too lengthy for its overly naive Bayesian filters even!
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