RSS to replace email in the office
Can you imagine RSS replacing emails in the workplace? Apparently, It is already being done. Over at Computer World Juan Carlos Perez reports that it is being done. Perez’s article Users Tap RSS Tools to Ease Info Overload reports that Union Bank of California NA hopes to use RSS technology to bring down and control internal communications overload.
Union Bank, a subsidiary of UnionBanCal Corp., has 248 branch offices in California, Oregon and Washington. It is now in the pilot phase of deploying an enterprise RSS system from KnowNow Inc. and expects to eventually roll out the technology to all of its 10,000 or so employees.[Source]
The internal messages are posted on the Intranet and the RSS system delivers to the intended recipient.
So what is the difference between RSS and email? The article cites that RSS can be used to deliver messages that are of importance but can be viewed later. In other words one can comeback and read it. In an email often these types of messages get drowned in with the almost never ending queue of emails that come in.
It would be interesting to note if such RSS technology is already filterable. Can the user actually preselect the articles or messages the user actually needs.
Companies said to be involved with RSS software and its integration with corporate intranets include but not limited to KnowNow, Attensa Inc. and NewsGator. Then you have companies like Microsoft Corp and IBM Lotus who have began to include RSS capabilities to their collaboration and messaging products.
It seems that one of the problems or stumbling blocs to the implementation of RSS technology, but was dealt with, in the company’s Intranet was hesitancy among the would be new users.
2 opinions for RSS to replace email in the office
John
Nov 30, 2007 at 3:41 pm
While email is the traditional channel of communications within the enterprise, often the limitations of email far exceed the benefits. RSS in the enterprise is used to share critical information and collaborate across the organization and its value chains. With an Enterprise RSS Server, like the one from us here at Attensa, it’s easy to filter the information, get the right information to the right people and not get lost in the information overload. Furthermore, we take filtering information one step further by continuously observing and analyzing user behavior in order to automatically deliver the most relevant information to the users based on their attention.
Best,
Then Attensa Team
Jamie Fiorda
Dec 1, 2007 at 2:11 am
http://www.afeedisborn.com/rss-to-replace-email-in-the-office/
Thanks for mentioning ComputerWorld’s coverage of KnowNow in your post — we’re particularly proud of our Union Bank of California deployment.
I wanted to respond to your question, is “such RSS technology is already filterable. Can the user actually preselect the articles or messages the user actually needs”?
The answer, in short, is yes. Users (which can be employees, partners, or even customers) can filter terms (ie, keywords) of posts by title, author, description, or source (at a minimum). Filters can include or exclude content so users have explicit control over what content and how much surfaces in their reader.
Additionally, KnowNow and various other vendors, including Google, Attensa, and others, are introducing innovative uses of analytics to identify and push more content that is likely relevant to a user, or determine what content should be filtered. Each vendor seems to be pursuing a different strategy, which is not surprising considering how many options exist with the available content (personal and social clickthrough data, social tags, blog authority, the list goes on…).
We are truly at the front end of a wonderous technological journey as analytics and recommendation technologies are only beginning to touch on the rich data that social media provides. Stay tuned with KnowNow as we continue to innovate automated relevancy techniques and find new ways to stifle information overload.
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