Class discussions create great conversation starters!

An immediate benefit from this HRIS class is that I feel slightly more comfortable discussing social networking than I did a month ago.

I had lunch with a former co-worker (and friend, of course) yesterday who now works for Google in Mountain View. (I proudly wore my Google guest badge all day. It felt as though I'd entered the DisneyWorld of IT, but that's another story.) I was able to at least spice up my contributions to the IT portion of our conversation with snippets about Twitter, Yammer (which he hadn't heard of), and blogs. I'm really fascinated with Yammer as a potential communication channel for my organization, which houses 1250 college students in 20 different locations around campus. We currently grapple with ways of getting important bits of information out to our house level managers in a timely manner. We all have company e-mail addresses, so Yammer could be a way to send out protected info in short bursts that students might actually read.

I did a little research on Yammer last night after I got home. As we talked about in class, Yammer aims to bring the types of technologies that are popular with consumers into the workplace. "People get to use great consumer internet sites, like Facebook, Twitter, and Geni , to communicate in their personal lives. Then, when they get to the office, all the software is antiquated and hard to use -- that doesn't make sense. We want to do something about that," said Yammer founder, David Sacks. Yammer claims it can increase communication while reducing email. Sounds just like what we need at work.

Last time we got together, my friend introduced me to the concept of "The Cloud", a term I'd never heard before. Basically, the Cloud refers to the way new technology allows us all to store, access and share information through the web, instead of on our hard drives. So, whenever I check my e-mail on Google, or you post photos on Facebook , we're using the cloud. To quote Google, "Everyone has their own space in the cloud." He asked me if we'd talked about it in class yet. We haven't, but I bet we will...

Anyone familiar with the newly developing Google Wave? It reminded me of our discussion in class about how social networking sites like Facebook & Twitter may eclipse e-mail. The Wave sounds like a way to create the ultimate one stop site for all your on-line social (and even business?) communication. I wonder how it might be useful in business and/or HR?

Here's a link that provides some details about Google Wave, if you are interested:
http://tinyurl.com/mmmtmv.

Our class discussions have made some great next day conversations for me. All of my friends and co-workers laugh when I tell them I'm blogging and tweeting as class assignments. Even my kids (ages 16 & 20) don't use twitter (yet), so for once I'm not behind the times. It make me think, OK, at least I can sort of keep up. Thanks, Jun (and class) for teaching this old dog some new tricks!