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Real-Time, Productive Communication
12. Aug, 2009 by Adii Rockstar in WooCamp
For about 2 months now, we’ve been using the Prologue2 theme for WordPress as an internal Twitter- (i.e. Yammer) and Campfire-like communication method. Why? Well, the team was working slightly different hours (so Skype not always an option and sometimes too demanding & in-your-face) and e-mail became too much.
We still needed to keep up to date with what the team was working on at any given stage though. So Prologue2 was our solution. (Preferred over Yammer or Campfire, because it’s awesome and it’s free.)
Before I tell you how we’re using P2, here’s some extracts from Matt Mullenweg’s blog post on the matter:
We found a solution in Prologue which added a posting box to the home page and gave it a Twitter-like feel. Now Automattic had a pulse, a place where the incredible amount of activity was chronicled and captured. It was low-friction and hassle-free, we all started using it more.
It completely transformed how Automattic works internally and I think is one of the most valuable things we’ve adopted in the past year.
Suffice to say, I think the whole WooTeam would agree with me when I say that P2 has changed the way we communicate as well. We currently average almost 30 updates (or comments) / weekday since we started using P2 and those updates generally relate to what we’re doing at that moment, sharing a link or asking a question. And all of this in real-time.
Here’s how it’s changed our communications:
- Less e-mail which is CC’ed to the whole team;
- Less Skype conversations (and talking rubbish);
- We’re more up-to-date with what everyone on the team is doing;
- P2’s mobile-friendly version, means we stay up to date wherever we are; and
- We still have a record of all communications.
Are you using a similar application / system to stay updated? Or still haven’t made the switch from e-mail / IM? We’d love to hear your thoughts on the matter…
Fore more information on the web apps we use at WooThemes: Better Startup (Part 3): The 15 Web Apps that powers WooThemes
12 August 2009 at 3:12 pm #
We are using P2 also for communication here at rocketgenius and with Gravity Forms development. We like it. You can also easily set it up so that it emails you when a new post is made using the WordPress settings. This is handy so you receive email notification that something is new on your P2 site. Very handy.
12 August 2009 at 3:15 pm #
I use P2 on my membership site as a way of answering member’s questions, in lieu of a forum. So far, so good. I’ve thought about using it for managing individual projects, but if it’s just me and one other person, email seems sufficient at this point. (I’d love to hear what people use for one-on-one projects, if not email…)
I also use P2 as a workout/nutrition log for myself. I’m the only one updating it, but it gives me an easy-to-use way to track my workouts. I use tags for the different exercises, so if I wanted to know my best front squat, for example, the tag archive gives me a fast record of all the times I’ve done it, and what my weights were. Much faster than a spreadsheet, or hunting through paper records.
12 August 2009 at 3:15 pm #
Whoops, sorry – wrong link. Shoulda linked to here.
12 August 2009 at 3:16 pm #
Good to see that you guys are using P2 in this way and i can see how this would be a much more concise way of communication between the team. Their are so many uses for the microblogging format other than simply “What are you doing” conversations and as always with using opensource it virtually negates any unwanted business costs.
No doubt you will also have heard of http://laconi.ca/trac/ which is an opensource twitter clone, it may although have more features than what you actually require from your system of WP and P2. If anyone is thinking of starting a twitter clone for business or as a public side project Laconica is a system worth researching.
12 August 2009 at 3:32 pm #
I guess this is the kind of thing the new Google Wave application is intended for.
It looks like a mash of gmail/facebook/twitter to me.
…so it should be awesome : )
12 August 2009 at 5:11 pm #
Has anyone added upload functionality to this? P2 is great, but it would kick ass if you could attach documents to the discussion. For one on one communication IM clients are fine, and sending files is no problem (for the most part). But for groups, P2 is looking like the best alternative to Campfire, though their free service is pretty solid too!
12 August 2009 at 8:53 pm #
Didn’t know about P2 before, but i’m very sure i can implement this soon in our company (about 20 employees) to reduce the amount of short emails that don’t need to clutter our inboxes.
Thank’s for the hint!
14 August 2009 at 2:42 pm #
I also found P2 to be a great tool fore internal communications and collaboration projects.
I like it so much that I even went ahead and used P2 along with Lifestream plugin to aggregate all my social network activities and twitter as part of a microblogging experiment.
14 August 2009 at 6:01 pm #
Wow cool.
This must be saving time too !!
14 August 2009 at 7:28 pm #
Do you still use something like Basecamp in addition to this? What kind of customizations (if any) did you apply to P2? Would love to see a screenshot of your implementation.
17 August 2009 at 5:36 am #
I love the idea of P2 and have been aching to use it for all my “post it notes,” article ideas, and whatever else comes to mind. Since you and Automattic use it for internal purposes only, what have you done to make it inaccessible from the public and search engines? That’s what I haven’t figured out yet. I need my install to be totally private.
Thanks!
18 August 2009 at 11:11 pm #
We started making use of the “Status” featured within ActiveCollab recently and it has helped cut down on the numbers of Skype messages and calls.
12 August 2009 at 3:22 pm #
My e-mail would be full if I did that…
12 August 2009 at 3:25 pm #
I’m with Magnus on that one… Trying to totally declutter my inbox and this would just clog it up again.
12 August 2009 at 3:30 pm #
Nice!
But I don’t think that we’d be able to use P2 as a forum system, considering we do about 150 new posts on the forum daily… Kinda overload for P2 me thinks…
12 August 2009 at 3:31 pm #
Thanks for the link. Didn’t know about Laconica before, but looks kinda interesting!
12 August 2009 at 3:37 pm #
Sure, but I’ve found that the more stuff I have happening in one, central place; the more it feels like overload. So instead, I’m trying to compartmentalize everything I do in terms of different projects vs personal.
12 August 2009 at 6:34 pm #
Agreed – P2 definitely needs upload functionality. ASAP.
15 August 2009 at 1:09 am #
I agree too!
Easily attaching files would be nice, that kinda reminds me of Posterous and how you can easily insert picture, videos, pdf, etc…
A P2, Posterous mashup would be ideal
12 August 2009 at 7:32 pm #
You guys could add in the uploaded from the WooFramework, that’d do the trick!
14 August 2009 at 11:24 am #
And, I hear it’s coming soon
12 August 2009 at 11:14 pm #
I think P2 is probably perfect for a team of that size. Hope it works out for you.
15 August 2009 at 12:53 am #
Yep, we still use Basecamp, but I think it’s more for record-keeping i.e. for design mockups, we’ll put them on Basecamp to keep record of feedback. P2 is more of a status-update / keep everyone informed in real-time thing.
And we haven’t modified it one bit. We’ve got the 100% default theme installed!
15 August 2009 at 12:54 am #
Wow – sounds great! Would love to see the P2 + lifestream modification!
17 August 2009 at 8:16 am #
We have just used core WP functionality to password-protect it and hide it from the search engines.
So dunno whether we may still be a little exposed, but I don’t think so…