Using Twitter in the Enterprise

Using Twitter in the Enterprise Edward Yourdon email: ed@yourdon.com blog: www.yourdonreport.com Feburary 23, 2009

Agenda Basic themes of Web 2.0 1. Key tools, technologies, and strategies of Web 2. 2.0 Using Twitter & microblogging for soft ware 3. development Using Twitter & microblogging for project 4. management Using Twitter & microblogging for process 5. improvement 2 Published under the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL)

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Basic themes of Web 2.0  Web 2.0 is the combination of:  Tools and technologies  Business strategies (e.g., customer participation)  And social/cultural trends  ... which drive the individual creation and sharing of content on the Internet (see also YouTube video, based on Wikpedia article re Web 2.0)  While this is usually focused on “general” business/customer issues, it can also be focused on the “business” of developing soft ware and systems in an IT organization.  IT organizations obviously use tools, technologies – but remember also:  They are a “community” with a social structure  They have their own cultural trends 4 Published under the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL)

Key tools, technologies, business strategies, cultural trends  “Technical” tools, technologies  API’s  “Mainstream” tools  Business strategies, policies  Cultural/social trends 5 Published under the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL)

“Technical” tools  AJAX  Programming languages aimed at rapid development – e.g., Ruby on Rails  New IDE’s for supporting development of Web 2.0 apps  While these are important for IT organizations to be aware of, they’re not as important as the other items on the list 6 Published under the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL)

API’s  Primarily for creating interfaces with an organization’s existing tools, data  New tools emerging from vendors like Yahoo, Microsoft  Good examples: Yahoo Pipes, Microsoft PopFly  Most obvious application: creation of mashups  New application: connections to micro-blogging tools 7 Published under the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL)

More API Examples  Google  Google Maps API  Google AJAX search API  Yahoo  Yahoo search API  AOL  AIM API’s  Dapper’s API ser vice (Israeli-based, partnering with Microsoft)  Twitter API  Facebook API  OpenSocial API for social net works  Google’s announcement (remember: they lost to Microsoft in the bid to invest in Facebook in Oct 2007)  Nicholas Carr’s comments on OpenSocial  Dan Dodge: “50 million Facebook users don’t care about OpenSocial”  Perspective from Nicole Ferraro (editor at large at “Internet Evolution”)  John Battelle comments on Myspace joining in with Google  O’Reilly commentary  Stowe Boyd’s comments and perspective  Summary and opinion about Open Social from Marc Andreesen (co-founder of Netscape, CEO of Ning) 8 Published under the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL)

“Mainstream” tools  Wikis  Can be “internal” or “external”  Usually developed with existing tools  Blogs ... and micro-blogs  IBM has approx 3,500 blogs (see “Business Week” article on IBM’s use of social net working and this article on IBM’s Web 2.0 tools and plans)  Microsoft has approx 3,000 blogs  Can be “internal” or “external”  Also, consider using “micro-blogs”, e.g., Twitter 9 Published under the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL)

Microblogging with Twitter  Twitter simply asks, “What are you doing now?”  Started by Evan Williams, who noticed 200 people emerging from a lecture at Stanford, all picking up their cell phones to ask their friends, “What are you doing now?”  Twitter messages are known as “t weets”  A Twitter user says: “IM is real-time, person-to-person communication, while Twitter is ‘baby email’ with everyone where you get to pick whose messages to read.”  See “Twitter in Plain English” for YouTube explanation of how it works.  Slide show on the difference bet ween IM, email, blogging, and Twitter.  LA Fire Department started a Twitter feed during Oct 2007 California wildfires; still active in Dec 2007 for other citizen-reported events.  Case study of a small business using Twitter.  St. Louis newspaper encourages subscribers to Twitter about real-time traffic impact of a repair- shutdown of one of its busy highways.  See David Weinberger’s characterization as “continuous partial friendship”  See characterization as “ambient intimacy” in Nov 4, 2007 New York Times article entitled “The Global Sympathetic Audience.”  See “Now, Brevity Is the Soul of Office Interaction,” in Nov 23, 2008 NY Times article. 10 Published under the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL)

Social Change: Microblogging with Twitter 11 Published under the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL)

TweetWheel: an intriguing Twitter UI 14 Published under the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL)

Microblogging with Twitter  See Guy Kawasaki’s “How Twitter Made My Website Better”  See BT Group CIO JP Rangaswami’s blogs here and here and here about use of Twitter in the enterprise. And see Jan 8, 2009 Net work World article, “12 CIOs who Twitter”.  See also Luis Suarez’s blog on “The Twitter verse Debates” re business justiﬁcation for using Twitter in the enterprise.  Useful blog posting on “What is Twitter For? The Message is the Medium” Also, see “What is Twitter For?” from the same author.  Interesting Dan Farber blog on statistics about Twitter followers  See also “Twitter Tools, Tweaks, and Theories” for more discussion of practical applications of Twitter.  See “GroupTweet” for interesting tool to support t wittering among a speciﬁc group of users.  Twitter t-shirts now available from eatsleept weet.com  TwitDir says: 2,981,651 Twitterers as of Sep 16, 2008 (see also this chart showing recent exponential Twitter growth). [Estimated 6 million Twitterers in Feb 2009]  Obama and Clinton each had approx 30,000 Twitter followers, but Obama used it more effectively; see this “Business Week” article. 15 Published under the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL)

More about Twitter  See Jason Meserve’s Feb 16, 2009 PC World article “Twitter is Now a Must in the Enterprise”  Listen to “The Twitter Song” (silly, but amusing)  See Dan Farber’s April 28, 2008 blog posting, “What Twitter Brings to the Party”.  See TweetCube, which allows file-sharing via Twitter, for files up to 10 megabytes (including PDF and MP3 files).  Tweetjects and blog jects: objects that Tweet and blog. Examples: a t wittering house (see also this Wired article), and the t wittering London Tower Bridge.  Tweetclouds -- so you can see which words you use most often when t wittering.  Twitterphone - sending messages to Twitter via phone 16 Published under the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL)

More about Twitter: Zappos  Zappos is a shoe-selling company (just outside Las Vegas) that has grown from $US70 million/ year to $US one billion/year during the past 5 years.  Feb 22, 2009 Tweet by Jim Storer noted that Zappos ranked #7 in customer service for U.S. companies in Feb 2009 Business Week survey (Amazon was #1)  Zappos Twitter page of 400+ employees is here.  Har vard Business Publishing article on “Why Zappos Pays New Employees to Quit -- And You Should Too” 17 Published under the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL)

Practical Twitter Applications from “Twitter Tools, Tweaks, and Theories” TwitterStalking: ﬁguring out when you can call/email a colleague without 1. interrupting their day Microblogging: short updates, expressed succinctly -- rather than long 2. rambling blog posts that no one has time to read Note to self: keeping track of one’s own stray thoughts. 3. Breaking news: Twitter “communities” can form instantly, as new (unexpected) 4. events occur Communication - as an alternative to IM/SMS, and especially as an 5. alternative to phone/email Link Sharing - instead of del.icio.us or ma.gnolia, which can be pretty 6. cumbersome GTD (Getting Things Done): organizing your work ﬂow, to-do lists 7. Advice, Support, Polling, Questions: extremely quick feedback to questions, 8. often within minutes. 18 Published under the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL)

Another microblogging example: Dopplr  Deals with the “ships passing in the night” phenomenon  Answers the simple question: “Where are you going? When will you be back?”  Widely adopted by employees in several large multi-national companies, so their employees can coordinate their business trips  See Brady Forest’s comment on Dopplr’s “Coincidence Feed” -- and the virtue of providing LESS information in a news feed.  See Stowe Boyd’s Dopplr case study, presented at Web 2.0 Expo in Berlin, Nov 2007  Dopplr is integrated with Twitter, LinkedIn, Gmail, and Flickr in order to help create a larger net work of “fellow travelers” 19 Published under the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL)

Dopplr page, top view 20 Published under the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL)

Dopplr page, trip detail 21 Published under the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL)

Dopplr page, trip details 22 Published under the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL)

Business strategies, policies  Using Twitter & microblogging to encourage collaboration, feedback, participation from outsiders  This could mean people outside your department or group  Or people “outside the ﬁrewall” – beyond the boundary of the enterprise  Using Twitter & microblogging to encourage feedback and participation in a grass-roots, bottom-up fashion  Many organizations still operate in a predominately top- down, hierarchical, “control”-oriented fashion  Often ineffective in an environment of rapid, disruptive change … 23 Published under the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL)

Use of Web 2.0 & micro-blogging for SW development  Use Ajax and modern tools to develop more use-friendly Web 2.0 apps more quickly  Use wikis for collaboration, problem-solving  Use Twitter & microblogging to tell others – both inside and outside the organization – how exciting the project is, and how great the new system will be.  Consider letting “outsiders” contribute code, perform testing, help trouble- shoot, provide tech support, invent new product features  Former employees  Retired employees  Business partners  Random citizens 24 Published under the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL)

Use of Web 2.0 & micro-blogging tools for project management  Use Web 2.0 project management tools that facilitate quick, fast “grass-roots” data-entry for status, progress  Examples: eProject, Basecamp — look for API’s with Twitter & other microblogging tools...  Caveat: these are usually light-weight tools, may not be adequate for big “mission-critical” projects  Basic “cultural” issue: quick, informal communication, sharing and democratization of project-management data  Also, use wikis & micro-blogging to collaborate and share things like risk-management, issue-management 25 Published under the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL)

Use of Web 2.0 & micro-blogging for process improvement  Use wikis blogs, Twitter/micro-blogs to collaborate and share:  “lessons learned”  Tips and techniques  Best practices  Worst practices  Cultural issue: use micro-blogs and wikis to encourage quick, fast, bottom-up “grass roots” process improvement, rather than (or in addition to) top-down initiatives  Use external blogs and wikis to get more rapid, more “unﬁltered” feedback from users about the good, the bad, and the ugly aspects of the system/product 26 Published under the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL)

Conclusion  Technologies like Ajax important, but not key aspect of Web 2.0  Most important aspects are business policies and cultural issues  Use Web 2.0 & micro-blogging to encourage outsiders to participate, collaborate in soft ware development  Use Web 2.0 & micro-blogging to encourage grass-roots, peer- level, bottom-up project management and process improvement  Recognize that culture-change is likely to be difﬁcult, especially in “traditional” companies 27 Published under the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL)

Bottom line  You can ignore, resist, or forbid the use of Web 2.0 & microblogging technologies in your IT organization…  … but by doing so, you’re likely to have a more and more difﬁcult time attracting talented young developers to work for you.  … and you make it easier and easier for Web 2.0-sav vy startups and small companies (e.g., Zappos) to compete against you.  Remember what Dar win told us: survival of the species is not mandatory, if you prefer not to evolve 28 Published under the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL)

Using Twitter in the Enterprise Edward Yourdon email: ed@yourdon.com blog: www.yourdonreport.com Feburary 23, 2009

Using Twitter in the Enterprise

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