Enterprise RSS: Connecting People, Information & Communities

Delivering a communication channel that enables people to subscribe to the information they need, includes filtering and alerting mechanisms to notify people of important changes, and provides access points across multiple application contexts, is an incredibly powerful solution. Deployment of feed syndication platforms to manage proliferation of RSS feeds can improve worker productivity, drive business performance and aid in community-building efforts across people with common information interests. In this panel, senior strategists from leading enterprise RSS vendors and enterprise customers share their perspectives on market trends across different industries.

Speakers:

• Mike Gotta, Principal Analyst, Burton Group
• Brian Kellner, VP of Products, NewsGator
• Scott Niesen, Director of Marketing, Attensa

My Notes:

Brian started off with a background on NewsGator with its background in the consumer side, but is now moving into the enterprise RSS and, in particular, integrating with Sharepoint.

Scott gave a background on Attensa and, of course, their enterprise server. (One difference is that Attensa is only an enterprise product. They did not come from the consumer side like NewsGator.) He highlighted the attention stream feature of Attensa that prioritizes the RSS content and pushes your most popular/used/read feeds to the top of your attention stream.

Most of the audience is familiar with RSS and enterprise RSS. Most of the audience uses a browser-based reader; few were outlook plug-ins and a few were RSS reader clients.

Mike quizzed Brian and Scott as to why we need them and why the big vendors are not in the space.

Attensa wants to help companies embrace RSS as an company communications tools. He sees breaking company communication into "need to respond" and "need to know." Need to know items would be RSS and need to respond would be email. Also it is a better way to harness the good information outside the firewall with the flow inside the firewall.

Brian thinks the big vendors are just missing it. It is not a clear message or product for them to get their arms around it. There is also an important security element. Consumer-focused rss readers do not handle security well. The product also makes it easier to get new people up and running in the organization and into the flow. It is key to tie into LDAP to get people subscribed to the feeds the need and the feeds they should have.

Synchronize, security, download control and analytics are key features.

An audience member raised the issue of consuming the content. Should there be a predominant way to access your RSS feeds. Power users may want the more robust features of a full client, some people cannot be removed from outlook and some live by their blackberry. One of the great features of both the NewsGator and Attensa servers in the ability to synchronize the feed across the platforms. An item is marked read across the platform. Brian indicated that he routes his feeds through NewsGator clients in different ways. Some go to his Sharepoint reader, some to his client, some to his blackberry. (This seems to be different from the synch model of enterprise RSS.)

Patrick from Wallem a shipping company told his story about implementing enterprise RSS. (Like the FedEx presentation, information flow is very important to the physical

Simon from Pfizer told part of his story about implementing enterprise RSS. They are rolling out Sharepoint and see enterprise RSS as a way to improve the communication nature of Sharepoint. Simon says not to focus on email. Focus on the communications. RSS allows you to push external content and make people aware.

There is a concept of pushing a reading list of feeds as part of the on-boarding process. Attensa has a browse directory of feeds that users can shop among and pick their own in addition to the feeds pushed to them.

Patrick pointed out that enterprise RSS can create on the fly channels of communication to be able to push information out. This is particularly useful in the event of an emergency or unusual event.

Enterprise RSS Day of Action - The Obstacles

One of the obstacles to implementing Enterprise RSS is getting the firm to agree that enterprise RSS is a good investment.

RSS is still not a well known technology. People are more likely to keep going back the webpage instead of subscribing to the RSS feed. Relying on people to keep coming back to the blog or wiki to find changes will make the tools less effective and less likely to spread within the firm.

RSS producing tools are less effective without Enterprise RSS. If you have to rely on the people to sign up for RSS feeds themselves, they are less likely to do so.

Of course if you don't have many RSS producing tools inside the firm, then enterprise RSS would not seem to be a good investment for the firm.

So which comes first, the chicken or the egg? Which comes first, the enterprise blog or the enterprise RSS?

The other challenge to enterprise RSS is the broad group of skills needed to chose a vendor and implement. You need desktop applications to test the integration with the email client or the standalone RSS feedreader. You need the network guys to integrate the enterprise RSS server. You need the web developers to integrate enterprise RSS with the RSS producing tools. You need the telecommunications people to integrate the RSS feedreaders on mobile devices. You need the librarian and researchers to help find, organize and disseminate external RSS feeds. You need people using internal RSS producing tools. Fortunately, the enterprise RSS platforms are relatively inexpensive. It is the allocation of firm resources that is a bigger investment.

Personally, I think enterprise RSS is a great investment.

The Enterprise RSS Day of Action is drawing to a close here in Boston.

Enterprise RSS Day of Action - Making Enterprise Communications More Effective

One of the enticing features of Enterprise RSS is the ability to make enterprise communication more effective. Ten years ago, enterprise communication happened face-to-face, by phone and paper memos. Now, email is the default way of communicating within the enterprise.

Take a look at your email inbox. If your inbox looks anything like my inbox, it is full of email from the administrative departments transmitting updated policies, events and information. Almost none of these emails are urgent or require me to take any action. So why are they clogging up my inbox, getting in the way of client communication and urgent communication? Are these internal communications reasonably findable anywhere except my inbox? If not, what happens to the person who joins the firm tomorrow?

It would be better if that information was posted to a website so that everyone in the firm could find that information. (And find it the same way and in the same place.) For that posting to be an effective communication to the firm or a subset of the firm, you still need a way to push that information out to the firm or at least make them aware the new information. You can't rely on each individual in the firm setting up their own RSS feedreader and subscribing to the feeds for this information.

That is where Enterprise RSS fits into the picture. Feedreaders are installed at the firm level, making RSS information feeds available to everyone in the firm through a variety of tools. You can view the RSS information feeds in your email program, a dedicated feedreader, the intranet or even your blackberry. With Enterprise RSS, you can also force subscriptions on people. So everyone gets the human resources updates, memos from the managing partner, etc.

Take some time to read about and learn about Enterprise RSS today, the Enterprise RSS Day of Action:

• Enterprise RSS Day of Action Website
• Attensa's Enterprise RSS Product
• NewsGator's Enteprise RSS Product
• Other Posts on The Enterprise RSS Day of Action
• Listen to this great podcast with James Dellow of Chieftech and Matt Moore of Engineers without Fears: podcast - james dellow - enterprise rss action day
• NewsGator's collection of webinars on Enterprise RSS
  

A big thanks to James Dellow of Chieftech for organizing this information about Enterprise RSS and organizing the Enterprise RSS Day of Action.

Enterprise RSS Day of Action - April 24

The Enterprise RSS Day of Action is April 24.

I consider RSS to be the glue that holds together Web 2.0 and especially Enterprise 2.0. Blogs and wikis are great tools. But they are even more powerful when they are pushing content out through RSS feeds. It is much more efficient to have relevant content pushed to you, rather than you having to seek it out.

I previously posted on knowledge as an artifact and a flow. RSS is the flow. Enterprise RSS is the flow for the enterprise.

Of the 2.0 technologies, RSS is the least recognized. Most people recognize blogs, wikis and social networking sites. Tagging like del.icio.us tends to fall down on the list. But most studies I have read put RSS way down at the bottom for recognition and use. Enterprise RSS falls even father down the list.

Enterprise RSS is the key tool that would turn a collection of blogs and wikis into communication tools. To much internal communication happens by email. As a result, your email inbox becomes an information warehouse. That email does no good to the person who starts at the firm the next day. The knowledge is lost to that person.

Lots of internal communication could be better handled by using a blog, wiki or similar tool to host the information. As new information is added, the subscribers get the notification of the change and the content. The big plus is that the content is on a platform that should be easily indexed and retrievable by a search engine.

To really make this work well, you need to force subscriptions on people. That is the keystone to Enterprise RSS.

To learn more about Enterprise RSS:

• Listen to this great podcast with James Dellow of Chieftech and Matt Moore of Engineers without Fears: podcast - james dellow - enterprise rss action day
• Enterprise Day of Action Wiki
• Attensa an Enterprise RSS vendor
• NewsGator an Enterprise RSS vendor
  

RSS and Law Firm Knowledge Management 2.0

Right behind wikis in the toolbox for law firm knowledge management 2.0 is the use of RSS feeds. Without RSS, a wiki is a much less powerful tool.

RSS is simply a notification of a change or new content on website. The notification can be sent by email. Even better is through feedreader. Google Reader, Bloglines, Attensa, and Newsgator are examples. (Most of you reading this are getting it through a feedreader. There are few getting it by email and some keep coming back to the page to read the content.)

RSS disaggregates the content from its source. You do not need to go back to the website to find the change or discover the new content. The content is pushed to the subscribers of the RSS feed for the website. Wikis publish the changes to a wiki page or the addition of another wiki page to the subscribers of the wiki. Blogs push out new blog post with RSS.

The power of RSS is to showing the flow of information rather than just seeing static content. RSS turns a webpage from a repository of information into a broadcaster of information.

Increasing SharePoint Value with RSS

Forrester Research and NewsGator are putting on a webinar: Increasing SharePoint Value with RSS: "Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 is getting lots of buzz because it’s a one-stop portal, collaboration, content management, search and business process environment. To get the most of SharePoint team sites, you need to make the experience as rich as possible for employees and ensure that content is accessible when they are away from the portal. "



Using the RSS feeds and an enterprise based RSS reader can turn SharePoint from a repository of information into a much more powerful communications tool. SharePoint produces RSS feeds for its blogs and wikis (no surprise). It also has RSS feeds for searches, changes to lists and many other objects in the SharePoint platform.

RSS for the enterprise

Tom Dunlap wrote a piece on the Intranet Journal: RSS Slowly Gains Momentum in the Enterprise. It reads more like an advertisement for NewsGator, but has a few interesting quotes from Todd Berkowitz of NewsGator.

"Everyone gets too much email."
"Information workers are drowning in content -- email, newsletters, press releases, and spam. . ."

I am currently using two RSS readers.

I have been using Bloglines as an web-based RSS feed reader for many months. The benefit of a web-based reader is that I can use at work, at home or when traveling. All I have to do is logon.

I also installed an Outlook based RSS feed reader from Attensa. I am running this against some external blogs and sources. More importantly, I am also running it against the RSS feeds in our Sharepoint2007 development site. I see lots of potential in using the enterprise based RSS reader to improve internal communication and knowledge sharing.

With an enterprise based RSS reader, you can force certain RSS feeds on groups of users. So everyone can notified of HR updates, but it is moved out of the email inbox and into the RSS feed. With an Outlook add-on, there is a flag for a new message. But the flag and the message is in a separate folder, instead of my inbox. Even better, it does not set off my blackberry.

My goal would be to have actionable messages from the firm to go to my email inbox and non-actionable messages go to an RSS feed.

Better Communication Through Blogs, Wikis and RSS

E-mail comes and goes. We need a place to collect and build communication.

Email has become the principal means of business communication. My theory for its widespread adoption is that is just like typing a letter or making a phone call. Therefore, it was relatively easy for users to translate their existing communication processes to email. Although email has become widespread, it took years for it to get to that place.

Blogs and wikis are still in their infancy for business communication, but we should look ahead with their potential.

I find the key to enabling them as a communication tool is to tie them to the enterprise with an enterprise RSS feed aggregator. I recently looked at the Attensa product and tied it into the next generation of our intranet using Sharepoint 2007 .

The proverbial light went on over my head. I now see the intranet as a communication tool instead of a mere content repository.

The blog becomes the way to collect communication and distribute it. But the communication is no longer a disruptive email. It moves communication that is not actionable out of the email inbox. People do not need to save the email to later recall the message. The intranet search can easily retrieve the blog posting.

The wiki combines a document with the communication of changes to the document. Instead of drafting a substantive memo and circulating the memo by email, the user creates a wiki page. Those interested in/ subscribed to the wiki topic get a notice of the new wiki page. But the notice comes through the RSS aggregator instead of email. And the reader does not need to save the email and memo to retrieve the memo. The wiki moves an email and a bulky attachment out of the email traffic flow. The intranet search can easily retrieve the wiki page.