Interaction

I’m working at a small startup company and we’ve just got ourselves onto Yammer and I’m really getting into it. I use Twitter as well for my regular stuff, but Yammer has me posting all sorts of ideas and thoughts and feedback about the work we do.

We basically use it to state what we’re currently working on, respond to each other’s comments and ideas/rants, post up screenshots of stuff we’ve seen (inspirational sites, examples, etc.), ask questions, etc.

It’s like IM, but I think it works better because it’s like a blog as well. Yammer sends you a summary of the day’s posts, so that you can catch up with what’s going on. I find that it works not just for remote-working solutions but even for team-related tasks because you can be working on different things but not actually see each other’s work.

I like the fact that it’s closed – so that no dumb-ass spammer can find my profile and send a request to follow me.

I also like the fact that I can upload stuff directly into my posts. That way my readers can quickly open up a screenshot, etc. Sure twitter has twitpic, but that requires opening up a separate browser window, etc. With Yammer, all I had to do was use Fireshot to grab the screen capture and save it onto my hard drive, and get Yammer to upload the file from there.

I’m not a big fan of the clients they built (PC/Mac, etc). But it’s functional, and I can use it. The interface doesn’t look and feel as nice as Twitter’s, but I guess again, I’m not really complaining.

I don’t know of any other folks using Yammer, but if you are I’d love to hear what you think.

boon :: Jun.21.2009 :: social web, tools :: No Comments »

I started my first web log on Blogger years ago, probably in my little corner of the office as a software developer. At the time, it was just a way to post up random stuff about life, but over the years I slowly realized the potential it had to touch other people’s lives (as well as mine). But by the time I had realized that, I had put up so much junk on my blog that no one would ever read apart from myself, I feared no one would ever take me seriously.

So, I launched a separate blog to discuss about more serious things I cared about, like jobs and careers. And then, when I got into the masters program, I launched this blog, to talk about UX. Now, I manage three blogs, plus a food aggregator that caters for two countries I currently don’t reside in, and that can be a lot of work, sometimes. That’s when I start to relate to some people about what blogs are about, and what they should be, and what they’re not.

So sometimes I think it’s a way to post random junk. Then I think no, it’s a way to inspire others. Then, I think… no, I should make it sell – sell my ideas and make me rich (right).

And the plain fact is – it’s just a tool, dammit. Use it however you want.

*bonk*

Recently, a classmate of mine who is a total news junkie (his own words) introduced me to Dave Winer’s blog, Scripting News. Any self-respecting internet pundit would know about Winer’s claim to fame (the invention of RSS). He is someone who the NY Times calls, “The protoblogger”. Thus, skimming through his articles, I caught glipses of his “proto-posts”.

Dave’s posts are brief, but packed with insight. They are personal, but not revealing. They are vocal, but not contentious. And I think there is a lot of variation as you move out into the blogosphere, but Dave’s blog is like smack in the middle.

And if I ever really needed to give a good definition of a blog, Dave’s would be it.

So, there.

boon :: Mar.15.2009 :: social web, web :: No Comments »