Fusion

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Fusion

• A Unified Application for Communication and
  Knowledge Sharing

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April 26, 2000Brad Neubergbneuberg_at_randomwalk.c
omRahul Joshirj144_at_columbia.eduMonique
Girardmds54_at_columbia.edu
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Goal

• Create a tool that unifies
• Email
• Newsgroups
• Source-control/versioning systems
• Knowledge Bases
• Distributed File-Sharing (FTP, Napster, etc.)
• Instant Messaging

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Problems With Email

• Originally was used only for point-to-point
  communications
• Group communication was layered over using
  listserves.

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Problems With Email

• Causes problems
• Inefficient to send large files to groups since
  everyone gets a copy
• Difficult to track annotations since there is no
  source-control everyone in group changes
  local copy
• Difficult to unsubscribe from groups
• Hard for ordinary people to create groups
• Flat namespace mixes every groups emails
  together

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Problems With Email

• Other problems
• Cant reliably send large files
• No way to know if recipient is currently online
• Email has very little structured knowledge makes
  searching difficult
• Has lack of integration with knowledge portals
• Non-threaded

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Problems With Newsgroups

• Difficult to setup
• Difficult to administer
• Even with its strengths, email groups are used
  over newsgroups
• Email is easier to work with

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Problems With Knowledge Bases

• Rarely used
• Fall out of sync with email groups and
  source-control systems
• Most knowledge is generated through email and is
  not placed into knowledge base

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Problems With Distributed File-Sharing

• Examples
• FTP, Windows Networking, Napster
• Hard to set up FTP server
• Windows Networking is easy, but
• Only works with other Windows machines
• Only works in local LAN
• Napster is easy to set-up, but only shares MP3s

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Problems With Instant Messaging

• Not used in corporate settings yet
• Difficult to get messages to someone when theyre
  not online
• Cant import groups of people based on a
  discussion group
• Difficult to create archives of files usable by
  others

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The Big Problem

• Existing tools are hodge-podge of solutions that
  developed over time
• Divisions between tools based more on historical
  reasons than rational decisions
• Every tool has its own interface
• Tools have difficulty sharing with each other

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Field Study

• Goal
• Collect data on how people are currently using
  email, newgroups, source-control systems,
  knowledge bases, distributed file-sharing
  systems, and instant messaging

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Target Group

• Random Walk Computing
• Development and integration organization
  delivering Java and CORBA technology for the
  financial services market
• Founded in 1995 in New York City
• 60 people
• One office

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Work Groups

• Work is partitioned into groups, with each group
  assigned to a major project
• Groups consist of
• two or three developers
• project manager
• client liason
• meta-manager
• Two developers and one-project manager were
  interviewed

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Examples of Questions Asked

• What tools do you use for communication and
  knowledge sharing?
• What are your primary and secondary tools for
  communication and knowledge sharing?
• What characteristics of your primary tool makes
  it useful? What gives it its problems?

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Major Results

• Email, email, email, email!
• Everyone chose email as their primary
  communication tool

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How Was Email Used?

• Question and Answer resource
• Broadcast questions to the list
• Personal questions
• Bug reports and change requests from clients
• Archival and searching for contact numbers,
  change requests, and questions and answers
• Past emails used as Personal Knowledgebase

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Problems People Had With Email

• Difficult to sort and categorize
• Non-threaded discussion groups
• Cant handle large file attachments
• Not quick enough for some cases
• When sending out a document to a group, revisions
  come back from each person non-integrated

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Other Results

• People relied on the source-control system for
  sharing files
• The knowledge on the mailing lists fell out of
  sync with the knowledge base

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Fusion Requirements

• Based on findings, what requirements must Fusion
  have?
• Email must be central interface
• A mechanism to ask questions and to get answers
  is needed
• Deeper integration between messaging and
  knowledge portal needed

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Fusion Requirements

• Messages should be threaded
• Have mechanisms to handle large files
• Be able to send out link to file that is actually
  in knowledge portal
• Know when someone is online and available
• Messages should be automatically sortable based
  on content and groups

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Fusion

• Fusion solves these problems
• Fusion used to present this
• The side-bar is very important
• Provides remote-control to control a users
  contacts, files, messages, and conference halls