Yammer: An Experiment In A “Closed” Tweetspace
Yammer piggybacks on the popularity of Twitter. Its stated goal: help companies and organizations become more productive through the exchange of short (140 characters) frequent answers to one simple question: “What are you working on?”
Anyone in a company can start their Yammer network and begin inviting colleagues. Network privacy is obtained by limiting access to people with a valid company email address. Founders are former executives and early employees of PayPal, eGroups, eBay, and Tribe.
I’m the fourth member of the University of Washington network. Care to join? [You'll have to use your UW email address.] If tweets (erh, “yammers”?) are marked with the #MCDM hashtag, it will be easy for the group to have a more private space than on Twitter. Only other members of the UW network would be able to see the posts.
Like most networks, there are positive network effects. That is, the service is more valuable when the network grows, although there could be a point at which the effects become negative. That’s when hashtags will be even more important as a means to set up sub-groups.
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15 Comments, Comment or Ping
Brook Ellingwood
The agency where I’m contracting is using Yammer (and has more users than the entire UW, although I’m sure that’s going to change quickly). It’s been interesting to watch over the last few weeks as people start to find uses for it. Serious conversations about process and such still take place in e-mail, but more and more commentary on work is happening in Yammer.
Nov 12th, 2008
hrhmedia
I’m definitely into trying this. Once again, social media can truly prove its worth (at least to those who need clear ROI) within an institution. Much like companies are using Second Life to conduct virtual meetings.
Nov 12th, 2008
Kathy
Looks like you don’t need hashtags to set up groups.
Hanson, I think Yammer might be a good sandbox for students to experiment with the technology in a more closed environment.
Nov 18th, 2008
seanwang
Tried to register, still waiting for the email.
I’m concerned about its prospect, since it asks for “company email”, which is restrictive, lacks flexibility. I’d much prefer it allows user to define own “group”, and let any email address to join. Users can self regulate for the interest of the group.
Nov 18th, 2008
pluyckx
Hm. I signed up with my washington.edu address and it’s telling me I’m the first to join?
Nov 20th, 2008
Brook Ellingwood
I just tried and didn’t get a mail either. When I did it at work, the mail was instantaneous. My guess is that UW is spam trapping them.
Nov 21st, 2008
Brook Ellingwood
I take it back. The mail was just slow. I’m in.
Nov 21st, 2008
Brook Ellingwood
I created the uwmcdm group. Any MCDMers who successfully sign up should join.
Nov 21st, 2008
pluyckx
I agree with Sean that there should be another way to self-identify as a group than just by domain. Think of conferences where Yammer could be very useful, but those are attended by people with all kinds of email addresses.
Nov 21st, 2008
pluyckx
Thanks Brook for telling me that my UW address ends in u.washington.edu and not in washington.edu.
Joined now and part of uwmcdm group.
Nov 21st, 2008
Brook Ellingwood
I’ve posted a How To on using Yammer to the MCDM Wiki: http://mcdmwiki.mootkat.com/index.php?title=How_to_Use_Yammer_With_Your_UW_Email
Nov 22nd, 2008
adriana
I added a link to the Wiki on FTM. I can also add Yammer and the Ning group Paolo created. Would like to see what gets used the most.
Nov 22nd, 2008
Ross
We’ve been using Yammer at KUOW for a week. About a dozen people signed up right away but only the three of us who work on The Conversation use it. It’s replaced email as a way to quickly communicate. Instead of diving into the clutter of our inbox we can find what we need from each easily.
Dec 3rd, 2008
Brook Ellingwood
It’s interesting to log into Yammer with a UW address and see the same pattern repeat itself over and over: First a small flurry of MCDM people joined and posted, then a small flurry of people associated with #uw-medicine-systems, now a small flurry of people associated with #ischool.
As of yet, none of the flurries have stuck. It’s an interesting laboratory in seeing where the tipping point will come.
Dec 4th, 2008
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