I know; it sounds like the basis for a thesis. Not to worry. We’ll keep it lite. Let’s begin by agreeing to a common understanding for the terms being thrown about like so much bathe water.
Osmotic Comunication: “Osmotic communication means that information flows into the background hearing of members of the team, so that they pick up relevant information as though by osmosis. This is normally accomplished by seating them in the same room. Then, when one person asks a question, others in the room can either tune in or tune out, contributing to the discussion or continuing with their work.” From Crystal Clear by Alistair Cockburn of Agile software development fame.
ROWE (Results-Only Work Environment): ROWE in practice means “each person is free to do whatever they want, whenever they want as long as the work gets done.” Employees control their own calendars, and are not required to be in the office if they can complete their tasks elsewhere. It is generally accepted that there are times when collocation will be necessary. Under normal circumstances, work when and where you like.
Software As A Solution
Chris Spagnuolo’s Edgehopper provided some recommended software tools for distributed teams. These are certainly useful and a good starting place but are they applicable to osmotic knowledge sharing? On the surface it seems as though osmotic communication in a remote work environment is an impossibility. In the strictest of terms, this is true. But if we loosen out grip on semantics just a little, perhaps we’ll find that there are ways to rub elbows at the office although geographically being worlds apart.
Instant Messaging / Chat
My initial research has revealed that many IT shops are using chat rooms as a means to try to replicate ‘office chatter’. For this to be effective, participants must all sign into a single chat room where all the members have simultaneous sessions. The solution requires that general discussion take place in that chat room. In this way they can ‘overhear’ one another’s discussions and perhaps absorb information osmotically. Seems reasonable. It is true that a person can’t see every bit of chat that scrolls past the screen. But, neither can they overhear every discussion at the office. A chat client will allow for paging back and seeing earlier talk; something not possible with the immediacy of verbal conversation.
Web Conferencing / VOIP
For those considering this route, I have a couple of suggestions. On the commercial side (and if your company has some $$$ to spend), check out Microsoft Office Communicator. It integrates with many other Office products and works very well as a general chat communication tool. For a much more robust and feature-rich platform, consider Cisco Unified MeetingPlace. MeetingPlace may be overkill for some organizations as it provides webex, telecom/voip and video functionality. It also does provide chat, shared whiteboards/applications and more. Communicator and MeetingPlace are in no way mutually exclusive. Each product lends itself to the strengths of their respective companies.
Wikis / Sharepoint
I’m not a big proponent of these type products as a communication tool. This is especially true of osmotic communication. While the content is coming from the users themselves, there is a reliance on the users to visit the websites and find the latest updates. There is no subscription model (i.e. push). Sharepoint has a completely unintuitive interface. If your going to ask developers to keep information current, you better make it REAL easy otherwise it’s just not going to happen. If you must, check out mindtouch wiki software. It is the best I’ve seen to date and pushes the boundaries of what wiki software is expected to offer.
Forums / Blogs
Yes, please. These days there is very little difference between forum and blogging software. Modern versions have categories, subcategories, topics, threaded discussion/comments, search and so forth. Perhaps most important are the ease-of-use and subscription services. I can’t stress this enough. Developers are very busy people! Make it simple for information to be added. Make it automatic for information to be consumed. I’m interested to find digesting features for these tools. Perhaps a weekly update email with a digest of new items and updates.
Not Quite the Real Thing
Have we accomplished osmotic communication? No. But perhaps we’ve identified some tools that provide a common ground. Ultimately, the goal is to stay informed while keeping it simple and natural. I’d be glad to hear of other software that is being used to fill this void like Mind Mapping software as an example.
