From: John Conover <john@email.johncon.com>
Subject: Re: Groupware for Learning LO2426
Date: Wed, 16 Aug 1995 00:18:45 -0700
Replying to LO2422 --
PeterVS1 writes:
> Replying to LO2362 --
> I noticed an interesting commentary by Tom Davenport in the July 17, 1995
> issue of Information Week about how the introduction of Lotus Notes
> requires a complete change in the mindset of an organization if the
> technology (Notes) is to work successfully.
Additional references might be:
@book{Zuboff,
address = "New York, New York",
author = "Shoshana Zuboff",
publisher = "Basic Books",
title = "In the Age of the Smart Machine",
year = 1984}
@book{Ciborra,
address = "New York, New York",
author = "Claudio U. Ciborra",
publisher = "Cambridge University Press",
title = "Teams, Markets and Systems",
year = 1992}
@book{Morton,
address = "New York, New York",
editor = "Michael S. Scott Morton",
publisher = "Oxford University Press",
title = "The Corporation of the 1990's",
year = 1991}
@book{Boone,
address = "Rocklin, California",
author = "Mary E. Boone",
publisher = "Prima Publishing",
title = "Leadership and the Computer",
year = 1991}
@book{Sproull,
address = "Cambridge, Massachusetts",
author = "Lee Sproull and Sara Kiesler",
publisher = "MIT Press",
title = "Connections",
year = 1991}
@book{Tapscott,
address = "New York, New York",
author = "Don Tapscott and Art Caston",
publisher = "McGraw-Hill",
title = "Paradigm Shift",
year = 1993}
These, of course, are in addition to the LO and BPR books. In point
of fact, chapter 6 of:
@book{Hammer,
address = "New York, New York",
author = "Michael Hammer and James Champy",
publisher = "Harper Business",
title = "Reengineering the Corporation",
year = 1993}
is very good.
I like Zuboff for the presentation in relation to the social
environement of the workplace, which I am very big on. (The workplace
is a social institution ...)
> Briefly, Davenport calls Notes "socialware" that requires "substantial
> changes in work processes and culture if it is to be successfully
> deployed...In short, Notes needs informational altruism."
> Davenport goes on to say: "Also, Notes demands some roles that are
> unfamiliar to many organizations. If discussion databases are to be
> useful, they need an editor to spark discussion, seed new databases, and
> prune out irrelevant comments. Yet when I read want ads for Notes
> administrators, these new roles are rarely mentioned."
> The creator of Notes is quoted as saying "this complex software should be
> allowed to start small and grow."
> The commentary points in the direction of many of the things that are
> required to begin to actually use technology to build a learning
> organization.
Also, don't forget that Notes is a lot like the unix email system
(sendmail,) which has had a lot of case studies and development in the
last 20 years. I personally use elm or rmail, which are a lot like
Notes, only with a distributed database under them, (ie., full text
database information retrieval system.) With Notes, you don't have to
contend with the obscurities of the unix command structure, but if you
email is going onto the Internet, etc., it will probably be carried by
sendmail, anyhow.
John
--
John Conover, john@email.johncon.com, http://www.johncon.com/