Bill Mitchell recenty offered definitions of Email and Groupware and their
key differences -- as follows.
>If accessed is controlled by the sender it is EMAIL and the technology
>is providing "scale" for organization. If accessed is controlled by
>the receiver then is is groupware and it is technology for effectiveness
>(in Rick's terms).
A word of caution -- as there are hybrids. I have a concern that the less
technical members of this mailing list may feel that if their orgs only
use email, they cannot have any of the characteristics of groupware. I am
also aware that there are members more technical than I, but here is my
cut at this issue.
Lots of email systems allow the creation of a repository of information
that people can access through auto-response mechanisms -- just as Rick
has set up the Learning-org info mailing. In Internet and Web terms, the
use of FAQs (Frequently asked questions) is part of the culture and
something many orgs could easily use to their advantage.
In addition, most email systems allow the creation of large mailing
addresses like the one we are currently communicating on. As we see on
this list, this allows folks to ask questions of their "community" and
also allows other to "lurk'' and share in the generated information and
knowledge. It does not assume, or collude with, any hierarchical notions.
I have noticed that in orgs new to email there is a tendency to see it
simply as an electronic form of memos, either to individuals or groups.
They are not always aware of the auto-response or large mailing address
options and their "memo frame" does not always allow them to consider
them. Alternatively, those of us who have spent time in using companies
Unix-based software have grown up with these mail options and cannot
understand why all email users do not take advantge of them.
For me, the key additional advantages of groupware systems are:
1. The central archiving of the information and related discussion -- as
most email systems rely on the individual to archive and anyone coming in
after the discussion cannot access it.
2. The associated ways of accessing the information and related discussion
- which Lotus Notes call "views." These allow users to view and search the
accumalated information and related discussion from different
perspectives.
Lastly, returning to the notion of hybrids. In my consulting work I
constantly find myself pointing out that there are always hybrid solutions
and that black/white differentiations get in the way of this thinking.
Folks tell me that they cannot or will not use CBT as there is no real
interaction with the source of the learning, i.e. the learner cannot ask
questions. While this is true, a hybrid option allows the bulk of the
learning content to be packaged and the learners are also provided with an
additional interactive option, such as direct face-to-face, or
voice-to-voice, interaction with a subject matter expert, or via the use
of email or a bulletin board.
-- Peter A. Smith Orbis Learning Corporation 74363,3637@compuserve.com