UC And Web 2.0 / Enterprise 2.0

Over on the Enterprise 2.0 blog, Irwin Lazar discusses whether UC and Web 2.0 are "friend or foe"? Here are some of my thoughts. Deeper commentary can be found here: Turning Instant Messaging and Presence Upside-Down & Inside-Out.

Unified Communications	Web 2.0 / Enterprise 2.0	Synergy
Instant Messaging, Persistent Group Chat	Social Messaging / Micro-blogging	IM will remain more point-to-point. Social Messaging will take-on Persistent Group chat features. IM will replace direct messaging in enterprise social messaging tools.
Presence, Rich Presence	Activity Streams, Geolocation	Presence will remain but will focus on people's availability for communication. Activity streams and Geolocation will become the focus of more advanced rich presence efforts.
"Buddy List"	Social Graph and "Follow"	The concept of a private buddy list will be surpassed by social graph and "follow" features in social networking platforms.
Directory-based Profiles	Social Network Site Profile	UC will not be the focus for user profiles and will instead leverage profiles from social networking platforms.

The obvious opportunity for UC vendors is to augment Web 2.0 / Enterprise 2.0 by adding click-to-call, click-to-conference, presence awareness, etc. If UC vendors could get their heads out of the SIP/SIMPLE world, then they could possibly make a run at social messaging (which will likely involve XMPP, Atom/AtomPub, microformats, perhaps portable contacts, etc). But existing vendors such as IBM and Microsoft have so much already invested - that I don't see them being able to turn around their respective mindsets. Cisco perhaps because they need to do something to disrupt the market and their XMPP asset (Jabber) could play a strategic role in a Cisco-based social messaging tool (or they acquire someone). I also don't see enough cross-team synergy on the Microsoft side between SharePoint and OCS. The OCS team is heavily focused (obsessed perhaps) with cracking the code necessary to dominate the telephony space. The social aspects of UC are just not critical enough to have them signficantly alter their course I imagine. IBM is trying to keep Sametime relevant in a traditional collaboration and UC market - Lotus Connections is IBM's social play. The Connections team is adding capabilities related to Activity Streams - so I expect some awkward positioning to come out of IBM as they balance two teams with different strategic goals. Avaya remains a dark horse on the fringe I suppose. No other major player in the UC space really matters when it comes to this UC/Web 2.0/Enterprise 2.0 intersect. The expertise location idea has been around since the late nineties (Tacit, etc). So it's not really all that "new" - tagging and some techniques are causing people to take a new look, but issues related to profiles are numerous and often over-sold as an expertise "silver bullet" by vendors.

UC and Web 2.0: Friends or Foes?

At this week’s VoiceCon conference I had the opportunity to moderate a panel discussion featuring Cisco VP & CTO of UC, Joe Burton, and IBM Lotus UC and Collaboration Services U.S. Leader Peter Fay on the role of Web 2.0 in an enterprise UC architecture.

Enterprise 2.0 Blog » Blog Archive » UC and Web 2.0: Friends or Foes?

Comments

[John Del Pizzo]

Hi Mike... Some colleagues pointed out your post and I tried to clarify Sametime vs. Connections on the Sametime blog (http://www.thesametimeblog.com). I always thought the positioning of these two products - and their enhanced value when used together - was pretty clear. Take a look and let's discuss.

[Rob Ingram]

Is there truly a conflict in the 2 technologies? I see added opportunity by combining the two. For example its logical to be able to branch out of a social networking tool like Lotus Connections and start a realtime chat or voice call via Sametime. This is possible today. Why can't the social streams also become published to other users who don't use a social networking app via their Sametime presence status if that's where they happen to be working at that moment. Mashups can make this possible. What if the business card aggregates and displays all of a user's status info and can share it as a tool in multiple applications - whichever context matters to the user.

Yes of course its all coming together. I don't see this as conflicting positioning but rather a great opportunity for UC and Social networking to leverage one another's strengths via Web 2.0.

If I can draw comparison with an earlier paradigm change - email to IM. Many users are already very adept at blending their communication modes and they have learned how to chose between IM and Email. I don't think any users today would say those two technologies have a positioning conflict. Users are smart enough to have figured out the tool that works best in a given situation and happily use both tools side by side.

Why assume users won't also be able figure out when its best to use asynchronous social computing AND realtime UC tools in different situations ?

[Stu Downes]

It will be interesting to observe how elements of UC will become a consumer tool in time and the level of integration between those consumer offerings and consumer based collaboration platforms (including the social platforms). We didn't see too much from Skype/eBay but that maybe was the wrong mix. It will be interesting to see how Google Voice positions and how enterprise UC solutions match it or wane.

[mike gotta]

Thanks Stu - the Google Voice angle is pretty interesting from both a consumer and enterprise perspective. Thought I read a feed item that suggested Skype might be set free from eBay.

[Mike Gotta]

John, I don't disagree on the integration of Sametime and Connections, like I've said - there are lots of opportunities to IM/presence enable social tools.

My point is that the Sametime team is locked in the "single hammer to nail" mindset when it comes to social messaging. This should not come as a surprise - I ask these questions during briefings. I'm not hearing anything that shows me some out-of-the-box thinking.

[Mike Gotta]

Rob, integrating IM/presence capabilities is obvious and that's a good thing. You should have click-to-call, click-to-IM, and have a presence indicator on activity streams and micro-blogging/social messaging tools. And I would love for IM systems to turn themselves inside-out (read the post with that title). But IBM, Microsoft, and Cisco are simply not doing that. Let's take profile cards. IM systems are not going to be the master record of that information. In the case of IBM, Sametime should be fetching that from Connections. On the status/activity streams, sure, just like Twitter can update a FB status you could do the same thing for an IM tool. But the idea of seeing the history over time (activity streams) is not something I would want to see SIP/SIMPLE-based systems take on. I don't believe SIP/SIMPLE was ever designed to take on activity streams. Now if you have a product you're trying to protect, then sure - I can see the Sametime team and the OCS team at Microsoft making that case. But I think that is just a flat out mistake.

On the real-time vs. async tools - IM will have it's place (read the bowling alone post) - I believe that UC vendors are trying to push old models into the social world rather than take an outside-in look at what's going on.

[Jordan Frank]

Mike - I like this model for comparison. You could also do a model around migration from email / IM to blog, microblog and wiki activity.

I've definitely seen both my professional and personal pattends change considerably as I've found ways to move communication from fragmented, overly private desktop channels (E-Mail / IM) to the various professional and personal social spaces to which I belong. These include www.facebook.com, www.linkedin.com, www.twitter.com/jordanfrank, and, of course, my www.tractionsoftware.com TeamPage server.

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