Linked-In for Conversation?

Last week's post on how Twitter could monetize by providing its services as a medium of Intranet Communication brought some interesting responses. Not directly on the particular post, but an excellent array of answers from some very smart people all the same, albeit not on the medium that I expected: LinkedIn.
As a follow-up and to showcase these answers, I thought I'd post the responses to the Question which I posted on LinkedIn a week back: "Would you consider using Twitter for Intranet Communication?"

Note: Some scrolling may be required. Blogger's Wysiwig editors aren't quite as perfect, but they did to an impressive job of copying most of the content from LinkedIn correctly nevertheless. Kudos to Evan Williams, Pyra Labs and Google.

Would you consider using Twitter for Intranet Communication? Clarification added: The question here is with reference to this article: http://retwt.me/OebZ It concerns the use of a medium such as Twitter, and whether it can be utilized for faster Intranet Communication, provision of short-burst updates to anyone and everyone within a company if necessary, something which would Highly increase Efficiency in an environment with rapidly changing requirements. Clarification added: Adding another little idea based upon the answers. If not publicly, would an independent deployment of Twitter, as discussed in the aforementioned article, on your own company's server, which is perfectly private and which can be tweaked, be more acceptable? posted 6 days ago in Project Management, Telecommunications Good Answers (8) Keith M Experienced and versatile Telecoms/OSS Consultant see all my answers Best Answers in:Telecommunications (26)...  This was selected as Best Answer Bear in mind Twitter isn't all the special or unique as a technology platform. If it is "special" in any way it is because of its viral nature. A viral nature isn't really that beneficial in the app you describe as you can, to a degree, mandate usage of whichever application you prefer. The main advantage of Twitter would be that some may already use it, and you can leverage the existing application support on mobile platforms. Other options which make sense for this sort of application include Google Reader, RSS, and Jabber. I would also question the need for such an application. I think there is a trend for people to be obsessed with "real-time" communications for the sake of it, not because there is a real need or requirement to fill. This sort of irrational obsession is what has driven tools like Blackberry. Real-time messaging can be useful for a small subset of applications (share trading, monitoring apps, etc.) where the necessity for fast communications is a key part of the application, but it is totally unnecessary for most of the usage people promote it for, including email (where the "real-time" aspect of push-email systems is often a marketing illusion anyway). In fact this sort of real-time messaging can be immensely disruptive (in a bad way) as very often distracts people from being productive. Robert M Information Technology and Services Professional see all my answers The whole world can see twitter - I wouldn't want my internal stuff broadcast in this way. You could have a look at 37signals - they have some interesting collaboration tools: Basecamp; Highrise; Backpack; Campfire; Whiteboard. Subscription-based so low-risk to try. Links: http://37signals.com/ Clarification added: There's also Google Wave in beta Simon Cornelius P. U Code Ninja see all my answers It depends. If you want publicity, then communicating using a public medium is desirable because it piques people's interest. People will follow you because they want to be in the know. Otherwise, you're better off using internal IRC, e-mail, or other (secure) IM protocols. Clarification added: To answer your second question, my answer would be no. Twitter is just a web app that reinvents existing technologies for enabling real-time communication. Other mature protocols are suitable for this. Tom O New Business Manager at www.skive.co.uk see all my answers This is a "try it and see situation" and wont suit everyone, it's not a topic for discussion but one for trial. The privacy issue could be easily solved with private profiles. And yammer are already making a business out of this and have been for a while. Links: http://www.yammer.com/ http://www.ale2.co.uk Rob M Senior Technical Project Manager at AT&T Government Solutions see all my answers Best Answers in:Advertising (1)...  I don't think so. In a business context immediate communication is usually two-way. Someone needs something from another person. Twitter is more of an asynchronous "This is what I am doing now" type of platform. Not sure how helpful this can be in the context you describe. Best, Rob Erica F Social Media Optimizer, Publisher at ALC Publishing, President of Yuricon see all my answers Best Answers in:Blogging (16)...  I would suggest something like Yammer or Ning for an Intranet social network. These are closed spaces that can be controlled by an administrator for your organization. Yammer has a desktop client and runs on phones, as well, so it is like a Twitter for your company only. Cheers, Erica Friedman Yurikon LLC Social Media Without Delusion http://socialoptimized.blogspot.com http://www.visualcv.com/elfriedman Chris C Optimizing Security Operations see all my answers Best Answers in:Using LinkedIn (9)...  If more people adopted Twitter's brevity in email, we wouldn't need to consider a new tool to improve communication. Ken Davis' Business Writing and Communication: Manage Your Writing should be required reading. I also recommend Seth Godin's short but relevent blog post on writing simplicity. Short simple sentences spread ideas farther and faster. That's why Twitter works. Links: http://www.amazon.com/McGraw-Hill-36-Hour-Business-Writing-Communication/dp... http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2007/10/the-secret-of-w.html http://www.manageyourwriting.com/ Daniel K IT Consultant at Baker Security & Networks see all my answers I think a much more comprehensive set of tools would be Google Apps/Google Chat. Google Sites makes adding content to an Intranet child's play and means that responsibility for content can be handed off to individual staff members or departments. Google Docs makes collaboration on documents so much easier to control. Google Chat allows for the instantaneous communication, be it one-on-one or one-to-many

The answers were impressive, and literally shot down almost every aspect of my idea of using Twitter as an Intranet Communication, and the fact that Twitter might actually make money out of such a service. I agree with some of it, and I hadn't been aware of the services that Yammer provides, but then again, as Tom put it so well, its more of a "try it and see situation". If it works, it works. The whole point of using Twitter and not anything else had simply been because of the fact that its catching up and people are adapting it fast. Whether the trend dies down, as Gartner's Hype Cycle usually predicts, is of course, plausible. But nevertheless, its worth a shot, if not for all companies, then for those who might actually require this kind of dynamic conversation.
For it not being able to facilitate a Two-Way Communication, that's an excellent point, and I still can't think of a loophole for that point. But in spite of that, Twitter conversations aren't uncommon though, are they?

So what about LinkedIn?
Last of all, I would like to say a big Thank You to everyone who posted their views. I truly appreciate it. LinkedIn might just be the perfect way of getting instant professional feedback, and that also from the very best, in such a manner. Perhaps allowing users to add more elements to the Questions which they post, other than just Links, might be something to think about. Make it slightly more like Facebook, but not completely. Add Link Previews, that helps a lot. There are many ways of going about it.