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Hector is having a party...
American based social media firm 'Socialtext' has created a series of new 'lifestreaming' tools specifically designed for business usage. Socialtext traditionally provide social networking and collaborative software applications for organisations such as 'Boston College' and the 'Global Design Consultancy'. This new component, wittily coined 'Social Text Signals', differs from the more personal touch of the Twitter-style 'Hector is watching Top Gear on Dave' to allow users to update their every movement within the professional and corporate environment, for instance, today, 'Hector was entertaining clients in Boardroom C'.
Adobe has also jumped in on the action, having created an AIR client that allows overly stressed worker bees to search status updates in real-time and segment 'tweets' into groups of departmental categories such as 'IT', 'Marketing' and 'Finance'. Twitter possess an incarnation of this particular functionality in the form of 'Tweetdeck' and 'Twhirl'. However, unlike the tidal wave of social activity (or is that anxiety?) that Twitter create and deploy, Socialtext is enclosed behind the Fort Knox style enclosure of your firm's firewall, available only to the prying eyes of your cohorts and 'Big Brother' upstairs. Is this the social media equivalent of an Orwellian 'social GPS' tracking unit for incompetent and unproductive employees? Don't be so cynical!
As opposed to commercialising this new software update as a module or individual component, the application is designed to be used in conjunction with the wider Socialtext product suite. 'Signals' has been specifically designed to work with Socialtext Wiki's and social networking tools to complement existing file upload features, blog posts and forum activity. So, "why on earth do we need this?", I hear you cry. Well, apparently, this latest offering will assist in minimising organisational e-mail clutter, as users are given the opportunity to share links and ask each other questions directly. For example, "Hector, could we implement functionality like this into our product: (http://www.socialtext.com)".
Lifestreaming for business (or should that be 'businessstreaming'?) as a market is certainly in a state of steady growth. However, many observers have criticised the 'Twitter for business' philosophy. Socialtext has seemingly acquired a certain degree of kudos for 'wrapping' this latest technological advance around its current range of applications. By utilising status updates in collaboration with these other features and tools, it appears to be able to connect the right people, with the right information, without the requirement to implement an entirely new product. The downside of this compelling revelation is that you have to invite the entire Socialtext family of products to the party.
"Hector prefers a different kind of party..."
Hector x
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