Comments on: Why Social is an improvement over Email – Our take http://www.hyperoffice.com/blog/2012/10/23/why-social-is-an-improvement-over-email-%e2%80%93-our-take/ Collaboration Made Simple Sun, 14 Apr 2013 19:03:34 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Pan Tan http://www.hyperoffice.com/blog/2012/10/23/why-social-is-an-improvement-over-email-%e2%80%93-our-take/comment-page-1/#comment-10102 Pan Tan Tue, 30 Oct 2012 19:14:06 +0000 http://www.hyperoffice.com/blog/?p=1927#comment-10102 Thanks Alan and Rainer for your comments! Alan, I agree, email is not bad for all situations. Clearly its not. The fact that its ubiquitous would have us acknowledge that it definitely has got a lot right. For me, till we have standards and protocols where multiple social systems can easily interact, email is clearly the best way for communications across business boundaries. In terms of a single company, email is probably the best option so far for communications which come from the environment into the business. Social seems to be better for internal communication and collaboration, or even collaboration with close partners. Rainer, when you talk about offline access, I guess you bring up a larger question which relates to all cloud based software. There is definitely the tradeoff of losing access when you are not connected, to all the benefits you get with cloud software. The demand for offline access is something that social software had not had to face so far, probably because there are fewer and fewer times when we are not connected. If there is substantial consumer demand for offline access, its something social software will have to address. Thanks Alan and Rainer for your comments!

Alan, I agree, email is not bad for all situations. Clearly its not. The fact that its ubiquitous would have us acknowledge that it definitely has got a lot right. For me, till we have standards and protocols where multiple social systems can easily interact, email is clearly the best way for communications across business boundaries. In terms of a single company, email is probably the best option so far for communications which come from the environment into the business. Social seems to be better for internal communication and collaboration, or even collaboration with close partners.

Rainer, when you talk about offline access, I guess you bring up a larger question which relates to all cloud based software. There is definitely the tradeoff of losing access when you are not connected, to all the benefits you get with cloud software. The demand for offline access is something that social software had not had to face so far, probably because there are fewer and fewer times when we are not connected. If there is substantial consumer demand for offline access, its something social software will have to address.

]]> By: Rainer Gimbel http://www.hyperoffice.com/blog/2012/10/23/why-social-is-an-improvement-over-email-%e2%80%93-our-take/comment-page-1/#comment-10055 Rainer Gimbel Fri, 26 Oct 2012 17:45:15 +0000 http://www.hyperoffice.com/blog/?p=1927#comment-10055 I agree with all the mentioned "counter"-arguments. But IMHO there is one important argument missing: I don't have any control over my email-inbox. I do however have control over my activity stream filtering out all the irrelevant information. So far - for me - there is only one question unanswered when it comes to switch from email to social: What to do when your offline? I agree with all the mentioned “counter”-arguments. But IMHO there is one important argument missing:

I don’t have any control over my email-inbox. I do however have control over my activity stream filtering out all the irrelevant information.

So far – for me – there is only one question unanswered when it comes to switch from email to social: What to do when your offline?

]]> By: Alan Lepofsky http://www.hyperoffice.com/blog/2012/10/23/why-social-is-an-improvement-over-email-%e2%80%93-our-take/comment-page-1/#comment-10009 Alan Lepofsky Wed, 24 Oct 2012 00:02:08 +0000 http://www.hyperoffice.com/blog/?p=1927#comment-10009 Thank you for the mention and reference to my post. There are a few things mentioned above that I think sound great in theory, but don't play out quite as simply in the real world. For example, "when we refer to social business tools, we are talking about a single internal social network." I rarely meet a customer that has a single social network. Almost every organization I work with has a "social problem" where different departments are using different solutions. My main issue with all the "email vs. social" discussions is that the "social evangelists" refuse to talk about the use cases when email is a GOOD thing. A very large percentage of my email involves information that does not need to be (or in some cases can not be) shared with multiple people, and email provides the perfect platform. Thank you for the mention and reference to my post. There are a few things mentioned above that I think sound great in theory, but don’t play out quite as simply in the real world. For example, “when we refer to social business tools, we are talking about a single internal social network.” I rarely meet a customer that has a single social network. Almost every organization I work with has a “social problem” where different departments are using different solutions.

My main issue with all the “email vs. social” discussions is that the “social evangelists” refuse to talk about the use cases when email is a GOOD thing. A very large percentage of my email involves information that does not need to be (or in some cases can not be) shared with multiple people, and email provides the perfect platform.

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