Stop using e-mail as a collaboration and knowledge management tool

E-mail still has a place in the work environment. E-mail won't go away. But it's amazing how many employees still rely on e-mail for collaboration and knowledge management tasks that would be better suited for even a simple internal wiki Web app.

I'd like to eliminate the overuse of writing simple text documents in Microsoft Word or Acrobat (pdf file) and e-mailing them around to each other as e-mail attachments. And I'd like to eliminate the use of printing these simple text documents on paper to read or study later.

Back in 2000-2002, I tried to get people to use the Plumtree Portal system at work. If it was used, people uploaded .doc and .pdf files.

In 2001 or 2002, I also installed at work for my own use the Greymatter blogging tool. Greymatter did not use a database. I stored files as plain text files on the file system. And when a new post was created, the HTML was created, and other files were updated. It was simple, easy to use tool. I liked it better for managing notes, task, links, etc. than the portal. This blog tool was my knowledge management tool.

In 2001 or 2002, I wrote message board and blogging gadgets for the Plumtree Portal, but I was the only one who used them. The message board gadget was a community gadget to be used, obviously, by multiple people in that community. The blogging gadget was a personal gadget to be used on a user's personal workspace area.

In my opinion, meeting notes, project ideas, tasks, anything work-related should be stored as plain text markup in a database in a CMS, KMS, or wiki, and displayed as HTML to the user. Comments and/or annotations on posts/articles can provide collaboration.

Start with the simplest setup to get adoption, and then let engaged users request additional features. Then enable or build those features.

Don't install a system with gobs of features and complex writing and updating screens that overwhelm users into revolting.

In 2000-2002, most users in the workplace did not write to the public Web. They used e-mail, but most users did not post to message boards or blogs. Maybe they wrote a review at e-Bay or Amazon.

But in 2013 with so many social media sites in existence, more people are creating content for the public Web. It seems that it would be easier today to get employees to post to an internal social media-like knowledge management tool. I would think that employees would be requesting some kind of Web-based internal app to manage company information. But the employees want the writing part of the app to be as simple as posting to Facebook or Twitter.

Complex features can still exist for power users or users who eventually would like more features. But these advanced features are not so obvious that the screens get cluttered, which increases confusion for the users. The advanced features are somewhat hidden. The advanced features exist for the people "in the know" because they read the online documentation.

But for simple content creation, simple features will suffice most of the time. Keep the form elements to the bare minimum. Make the power commands be text-based that are added to the document. Or the power commands screen can be activated by a small, obscure link.

The first goal should be user adoption. Then as users become comfortable with the internal Web-based KM tool, the users seek additional features.

Unlike 10 to 12 years ago, today's internal KM tool should have some social features, such as following users and following tags or topics. I don't think "likes" for pages and comments is necessary. It may not be a good idea to show the number of followers for each user. The focus should be on work and not popularity. For larger companies, following users and topics can be useful for sharing information.

Many companies exist today that create enterprise level social media tools for internal usage that also serve as KM apps.

But the resistance to use these tools is still great. The heavy reliance on e-mail and sending attachments of text info and printing these files is still great, amazingly so. It seems like a big waste of time and a great loss of corporate knowledge.

E-mail is a woefully inefficient way to manage the amount of information bombarding knowledge workers today. Implementing and getting user adoption of an internal wiki-like, social media-like, KM tool could enable employees to work smarter. Workers could be more efficient, getting more work done in less time. New employees or employees changing departments could learn quicker and be productive sooner. Accessing the archives of old projects, the good and bad parts, could be helpful for future projects.

Tagging, searching, taxonomy (organizing), and sharing could help the company compete better in its industry. I don't see how it's possible for such a tool

#kms - #cms - #wiki - #blogging - #business - #email