90p Admin

Robert and I were talking about expanding the utility of this group by having more collaboration around one or two topics. This could involve subcontracting between members and/or just regular idea sharing. To start with we're thinking Business Objects and BizNet are two items where the most members would get the most benefit. We already have member with strength in those areas. Part of what we're thinking is to gather documents, checklists, best practices (think code samples for BOI). We think using something like Basecamp might make the most sense and we could do so on a cost share basis (which also keeps out the lurkers). As I was thinking about this some more today I started to create two groups in Socialcast and realized that we're again running into a limitation with Socialcast because we cannot create a group just labeled ""BizNet"" and have people we add into that group NOT see everything in the main feed. The solution is that we could just suck it up and tell everyone not to post sensitive stuff to the main feed (though I think people would bitch that they had historical info in there) and then create private group which in Socialcast don't allow anyone outside the group to read the private group. Or we might consider making use of Yammer for just the collaborative part of 90Minds. Yammer does support using private communities which by definition do NOT put those in the private community in a position to read the main feeds. I've spoken a few times about this and it is starting to seem like Socialcast's inability to segregate those we add to a private group could be a hinderance. I'd also like to be able to add in trial members to group where they could not see/interact with the full 90Minds group. I'd also envision that, for example, with BizNet we might entice one or two BizNet employees to participate in just the BizNet area -- which would definitely mean that we'd need private groups. I'd also envision potentially asking Sage technical people to participate in the BOI area -- which again would doubly mean we'd need to have the private communities be a segregated area that didn't mingle with the regular members. Do you see where I'm going with this? I think we're running into a limitation with Socialcast and we can probably get around it awkwardly (and not well) with private groups. Or we can move the collaboration part of our group to Yammer. I'm not sure whether we'd have to make a wholesale move to Yammer or not. I'm fine running two but I can see issues. Anyways -- up for discussion...

The bigger picture issue driving this is that ""break fix"" ERP is a dead end. We're trying to think ahead about what ""special sauce"" that we could add to our client engagements which would not as easily be matched by competitors -- or even Sage. Pure play support is always important and to date that's what 90Minds has provided to most of us. I guess this is just moving the ball a little farther down the road in terms of collaboration (and profit making) opportunities.

Why is yammer better than this? Thanks, Mark Chinsky www.clientsfirst-us.com Excuse my typing. Sent from my Sprint Epic 4g.

The only thing that I see as being better -- and I think it's significant.... If you create a private group (community) on Yammer then those who you've invited to that community cannot see the main feed (thing regular member chit chat) which includes not seeing any historical chit chat. With Socialcast we can create a private group but people in the group cannot see other private groups but they can see the posts that members make into the public stream... As I've said previously we could use a way to bring in trial members so that they could only participate in one area (think 'MAS90 technical') and NOT see other discussions. With Socialcast we could create a private 'MAS90 technical' but those in that private group can read the main public feed (there's no way to make the public home feed private to only 90minds members) If the group is willing to admit people and treat the home feed as public chit chat (including all historical discussions in the home feed) then we could get by with Socialcast and just creating public groups. The problem as I see it is that we're probably not going to let in outsiders for a private group when we know they could skim through several months of public feeds in our home area.

I say stick with social cast and we get more careful about posting in the mainstream

I love this idea of the collaboration. I think it is a BIG win for all of us. I am ok with Socialcast but this mainstream / group thing can be problematic unless you are using the web interface (at least my experience,) It is definitely all about the 1st posting being in the right group.

In a way I do sort of like the public feed because much of our discussion could be open and mutually beneficial even to non-members. I think we just have to be more careful in what gets posted publicly.

Agreed Thanks, Mark Chinsky www.clientsfirst-us.com Excuse my typing. Sent from my Sprint Epic 4g.

How is SC at working with users on enhancement suggestions? Do we carry any weight in this since we got a ""happy camper"" write up. Perhaps they could create the ability to do what we are lacking?

I just posted this on their 'get satisfaction' site. If you 'vote it up' it will be more impactful: http://getsatisfaction.com/socialcast/topics/need_to_make_the_home_stream_private

Their reply -- Dear Mark -- Bawhahahah - that's a good one. We will share your idea with no one. Have a nice day.

This tiny company seems alot more responsive than sage and adds more functionality in a year than sage does in a decade because they arent run by a bunc of quarterly bonus seeking idiots Thanks, Mark Chinsky www.clientsfirst-us.com Excuse my typing. Sent from my Sprint Epic 4g.

How do you vote? I tried to but it kept asking me to login using my gmail account or twitter neither of which were accepted. Hopefully, they DON't also run the MAS idea site. Lots of suggestions, no action or updates.

This is a getsatisfaction site they use which is third party and uses its own login. Welcome to '3rd party addons' Thanks, Mark Chinsky www.clientsfirst-us.com Excuse my typing. Sent from my Sprint Epic 4g.