The document discusses the need for improved collaboration tools beyond email. It introduces Refinder, a social platform that allows teams to collect, curate, and communicate information across applications. Key features include creating collections for sharing content, connecting to cloud apps, and using machine intelligence for search and recommendations. Examples of how Refinder supports use cases like team information bases, project collaboration, and shared workspaces are also provided.
8. Why you love email
• Perfect for asynchronous one-to-one
communication
• Widely supported standard
• Communication within and across organizations
• Ubiquitous access from any device
• Easy to use
9. Why you hate email
• File sharing — the “version hell”
• Team collaboration — the “reply all” un-culture
• Expected to happen in real-time
• Intermingle content and notification
• “Store everything, find nothing” medium
12. Refinder Main Functions
1. Collect — capture relevant information,
share it with colleagues, keep it for later
reference
2. Curate — arrange information based on
topics, projects, tasks; tag and relate
3. Communicate — share information,
exchange ideas and thoughts, push it to
other applications and services
16. Collections
Collections are collaboration spaces for
exchange in teams.
1. Create a collection
2. Invite users
3. Connect cloud apps
4. Collect relevant information
5. Be productive! :-)
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22. Collect information
• Collections can be connected to cloud apps
• Information from apps stay synchronized
• Search, communication, collaboration,
notifications — across all connected apps
• Direct access to original source
23. Collect information
• Refinder is able to deal with any type of
information
• Bookmarks, files, email messages,
contacts, calendar events, articles,
questions, etc.
• All information is stored in structured
formats, which allows for automated
processing
24. Collect information
• Information can be collected in an ad-hoc
manner
• Bookmarklet — capture Web pages as
you browse
• E-Mail — send emails to capture them in
Refinder
• Application integration — plugins for
Office suite, widgets for Web applications
28. Information Curation
Refinder’s built-in intelligence provides fast
access to relevant content:
• Search — find information across all
connected apps
• Filtering — drill down results, find relevant
signals in the noise
• Recommendations — let the system suggest
helpful information
• Connect — establish links between
information items that belong together
33. Communicate
• Refinder provides simple but powerful
communication mechanisms:
• Comments — add notes, thoughts,
feedback to any kind of information
• Like — show appreciation
• Contrary to “just sending emails”,
communication is preserved and socialized
in Refinder
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35. Stay on track
• Email notifications provide activity alerts
• Dashboard gives overview on recent activity
43. Team Info Base
• When working in a team over a longer
period of time, information accumulates
• May be related to various sub-topics, but
addresses the team as a whole
• Diverse types of information: Web
bookmarks, files (pdf), blog posts
• Initiated by one person (for their own
purposes), shared with others on demand
44. Team Info Base
• Create collections based on topic
• Invite interested people
• Share information ad-hoc, using
bookmarklet, file upload, or email
• Public collections (where appropriate)
48. Project Collaboration
• When a project is set up, people from
different organizations with different
background come together
• In many cases, collections are created when
the number of circulated emails exceeds a
certain level
• Created by one person, most people are
invited immediately
49. Project Collaboration
• Project-based collections are often
connected to external apps (e.g., folder in
dropbox, RSS feed, twitter stream)
• Often, already existing information is re-
shared into a project collection
• When a project is done, the collection
“fades away” — no explicit “closing” or
“archiving”
52. Shared Clipboard
• Use case similar to “infobase”, but less
structured, more informal
• This use case comes closest to the “What are
you working on?” attitude of typical
Enterprise Social Software
• Mostly bookmarks, less files, sometimes
tweets
53. Observations and Benefits
• Less emails being sent
• Information is found
• Stay in touch with the team, even when not
in the office
• Confidence: save it to Refinder, and you will
find it again
55. Summary
• There is an obvious need for a new
generation of collaboration software.
• Boundaries between work/private, office/
mobile, personal/team, local/cloud, internal/
external ... disappear.
• Business requirements need to be combined
with simple usage.
56. Summary
• Refinder is an example of a tool that
combines a social layer with semantic
information processing.
• It is being effectively used as information
management and communication platform.