Thinking In Terms Of Patterns
If I was at the Web 2.0 Expo, I would love to sit in on this session - but unfortunately I am in the middle of writing a report due early May (although I have a brief trip later this week).
Looking at social software in terms of "patterns" can be very helpful. Patterns can represent real-life usage models. The can be comprised of one or more user archetypes (personas), attributes related to the activity and the relationships between those personas and attributes. Specific personas (“Jane Doe is a utilization management nurse and a subject matter expert on infectious disease”) help bring a pattern to life, allowing people to see themselves in the solution that pattern addresses. Documenting a pattern (or usage model) in such a manner helps articulate the social aspects of work and defines a narrative that people can agree on. Not only does this help humanize a solution, but it also enables an IT organization to leverage patterns as templates into which certain tools can be mapped.
If you’ll be at Web 2.0 Expo San Francisco this week, you’re invited to Wikipatterns Theatre Wednesday, April 23rd through Friday April 25th in the Atlassian booth, #535. Presentations will be held every hour, on the hour during the open hours of the expo. Presentations last about 5 minutes, with 5-10 minutes for Q&A afterward, and focus on wiki adoption and use topics. See the full schedule below for details.
I will try to be there. Btw, thanks for publishing your "Trends in Social Software" report.
Anand
Posted by: Anand Sharma | April 23, 2008 at 12:22 AM
I've started thinking about these things in terms of discourse communities which I think takes a broader context than what you're talking about here. But in essence what you start doing is framing the issues around people and objectives rather than the technology.
Posted by: Kim Feraday | April 23, 2008 at 05:48 PM