The End Has Come

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“The end has come.” Recalling Gandalf’s deep resonant voice in The Lord of the Rings seems like a good way to start this, my last Messaging News blog post for 2009. The end of the year is upon us, the holiday season is but days away, and then after the end of year celebrations, we’ll get back to the office for a new year of challenges and opportunities. Before going any further, I’d like to express my thanks to you for being part of the Messaging News family during 2009. I hope that all of us here have kept you suitably informed about current happenings and opportunities in the messaging and collaboration spaces, and that as a consequence of our work, your work has been easier.

In anticipation of writing this blog post, I have been casting my mind back over the happenings of the past 12 months, looking for the “most significant happening” in the collaboration arena. I haven’t reviewed my blog posts, either here or on my own Web site. I haven’t trawled back through copies of the Messaging News magazine. I haven’t posed the question to online or offline friends … I’ve just contemplated.

So what did I conclude?
- Was it that SharePoint kept on growing by leaps and bounds? No, that wasn’t it for me.
- Was it the new energy that Cisco is planning to throw around in the collaboration space in 2010? No, not that.
- Was it something to do with Google? No.

The most significant event for me in 2010 was observing the adoption and use of Twitter. The technically correct explanation of “saying what you’re doing or thinking in 140 characters or less” has been enthused with people all over the world sharing observations, sharing links to blog posts and articles, engaging in conversations with others, reaching out for help, forming groups around shared interests, telling jokes, goading others publicly, and a whole lot more. Talk about huge opportunities for serendipitous discovery! It’s become the new place to communicate, coordinate and collaborate—in some ways—with other people. If you’re not there, you’re missing out on a lot of insightful conversation and banter. Head over to twitter.com; you’ll find me there as @collabguy.

So the year has — or is about to — end. I have some big projects on the books for 2010; what are you looking forward to?