11. November 2009 von · 7 Kommentare · Trackback
Social Software Matrix (SSM) released in beta status
Today, on the 11th of November, we have released Socialsoftwarematrix.org in beta status. The website gives visitors an overview about the enterprise social software market by comparing leading products in a set of business use cases, technological product dimensions and vendor qualities. The results we present here are based on our in depths testing of the tools, social software project experience and enterprise social software case-reviews. Nevertheless, results are not scientifically objective but reflect our personal perception of the tools which we would like to sharpen in the discussion with you on this blog and under the individual toolpages which are linked here and in the sidebar.
To make our evaluation transparent we have outlined our categories in a few bullet points and written individual evaluation texts for each tool. Socialsoftwarematrix.org is designed to serve visitors with different expectations. For all who want a quick overview about social software products we designed the SSM-flash-widget which can be easily embedded into blogs and websites. People who want to directly compare tools can use the dynamic comparison feature in the sidebar and everybody who wants more detailed information about a special tool should read the evaluation texts on the toolpages. So take a look around, tell us what you think and join the matrix!
First: Thank´s a lot for your work! I have a question: How do you generate the value of the individual categories?
Thank´s
Bianca
Hi Bianca,
first we dont think it is possible to add features up and make a big excel list because this mostly does not include the whole picture and the soft factors that cannot be easily measured. What we did instead, was to agree on an reference in each category that we like best for the particular use case. This reference then gets 90% (so 100% is really good). We then agreed on the order of the other systems (some are equal of course). Based on this it is fairly easy to come to the valuation becaus it is always relativ to other tools and can be verified against each of the other tools.
Does this help?
Best regards
Frank
Hi,
Looks strange to compare MS 2010 ie “future” to existing others; in this case why not to compare to the others future as well ?
This is really cool. Reminds me of a tool we made at Cisco that tabbed the internal comms and collaboration tools on their cost/reach/timescale and type of message vs the audience. This tool is far more nuanced. it’s getting me thinking about how a new matrix could mash the two concepts together and provide a bespoke tool…
@theparallaxview
Hi Oliver,
I understand that you do not like the fact that we evaluated and compared the SharePoint 2010 beta version to full releases of the other tools and in our team we actually discussed the issue too. However we reached the conclusion that socialsoftwarematrix.org being an information resource that is intended to help people in the process of pre-selecting a social software product, should have a future perspective because the decision which tool to implement is a strategic decision with long-term implications. Against this background it is more valuable for companies to get information about SharePoint 2010 than about SharePoint 2007. The 2010 beta was mature enough to make an evaluation and the rating aspect of the website should be understood as an indicator of strengths and weaknesses rather than an absolute scientific comparison.
Best regards,
Bernd
Frank/Bernd
I’ve added your widget to my blog:
http://hollingsworth.posterous.com/social-software-matrix-via-stuartmcintyre-cc
Thanks for creating this, I think it’s a great way to invite debate and help others in the process of tools-selection. I appreciate you being open and transparent about the matrix not being a scientific comparison.
Are you able to track the use of the widget in other blogs? It would be useful to get a good feel for all the comments/tweets/mentions/blogs talking about your matrix – maybe you are already doing this?
Cheers
Tony Hollingsworth
Sydney, Australia.
PS: Frank, a friend of mine Matt Moore from Sydney (@innotecture on Twitter) is attending the E2.0 conference in Boston too. I’d recommend meeting Matt, he’s a great guy and very knowledgeable in this space.
Hi Tony,
thank you very much for embedding the widget to your blog. Yes we are able to track usage of the widget as you know it from Slideshare. But at this time we aren’t analysing our database regularly. We are working on it.
Best regards
Christoph