Yammer closed micro-blogging vs open micro-blogging (i.e. Twitter)

February 11, 2010 · Posted in MUG 

Yammer

I have just had a play with http://yammer.com, marketed as the twitter for corporate organisations. What this means is anybody who has the @det.nsw.edu.au email (i.e. Everyone at TAFE) can easily log in and be a part of a DET microblogging network, no wrestling with set up .

What I liked about Yammer :

  • Enables easy access to a http://yammer.com using existing DET email
  • Provides networked communication between many as apposed to 1 to 1 communication (i.e Office Communicator)
  • Not blocked (Touch wood) via DET network
  • Enable file attachments
  • Enables threaded discussions around posts which can be hidden or expanded.
  • Enables creation of groups (i.e I created a DET group for the MUG Moodle User Group).
  • Yammer provides a desktop client for real time updates on DET network posts and targeted publishing to Yammer groups (built with Adobe Air), it’s really user friendly.
  • Yammer provides an Outlook integration app for updates and publishing  to network (Not as user friendly as Desktop app).
Yammer - Desktop Client Software - Very useful

Yammer - Desktop Client Software - Very useful

What I dislike about Yammer:

  • It’s a ‘Free’ CLOSED Environment, if you don’t have a @det.nsw.edu.au email you can’t join the network.
  • To manage the DET account more granually i.e to add guest accounts for users without DET email, change administration settings etc. it costs….$3 dollars per person per month! (They have to make their money I guess).
  • Posting directly to groups does not seem to be possible without downloading the Yammer Desktop Client.

Conclusion “Have your cake and eat it” – Publish to open and closed networks

Yammer as a closed Environment is both good and bad. Yammer is good for DET employees who want to talk shop on DET stuff in a closed environment and bad for those who recognise the benefits of being visible in open networks such as http://twitter.com but like everything it’s your individual choice what you want to do. Fortunately there are many tools which make publishing to your favorite open, closed space (Including Yammer) a sinch.

I like http://www.shareaholic.com/ with the plugin you can post to the network of your choice (Open or closed) via your browser of choice (IE or Firefox), you choose.

Shareaholic - Publish to your Network of Choice

Shareaholic - Publish to your Network of Choice

Have your cake and eat it

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Comments

3 Responses to “Yammer closed micro-blogging vs open micro-blogging (i.e. Twitter)”

  1. sparkered on February 12th, 2010 5:41 am

    For context: Good presentation from Michael Coglan on Micro-blogging (with survey results on Yammer use in SA TAFE).
    http://www.slideshare.net/michaelc/why-would-you-twitter-yammer

  2. Steven on February 12th, 2010 7:26 am

    Yammer Integrates with Twitter

    You can now import your Twitter updates into Yammer, using the #yam tag. After linking your Yammer and Twitter accounts, any tweet (message posted to Twitter) that contains the #yam tag will be automatically imported into your Yammer network.

    To add Twitter support to your Yammer account:

    1. Go to Account Settings.
    2. In the Contact section, add your Twitter username.
    3. Add the tag #yam to any tweet that you want to also share with your Yammer followers.

    http://blog.yammer.com/blog/2009/03/yammer-integrates-with-twitter.html

  3. Shane Jeffery on March 3rd, 2010 4:05 pm

    Just created a TAFE NSW network in yammer os that all poeple with either a @DET or @tafensw email address can communicate with each other

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