(~1 minutes to read)
The Kilntown and District Soup Can Collectors Society is planning its first annual expo. But like most organizations these days, its members have schedules that look like the spandex at a Weightwatchers meeting—overstuffed. So in an attempt to minimize or eliminate planning meetings, the secretary suggested they use one of the many online collaboration tools available.
In case you don’t know, there’s a bunch of such apps out there, with weird-sounding names like SOHO-HOHO, Blitz69 and GroopHugg[i]. And the 362.9kg[ii] gorillas in the room are Skype for Business and Slack.
But so many online collaborations lose their way in the butterfly house of random thoughts and cerebral detours. People ask questions that don’t get answered; people ask questions and give answers that are ambiguous; people get sidetracked; people neglect the forum for hours or even days.
These are the symptoms; frustration is the disease. Frustration becomes passive aggression. And apathy would creep in if it could be bothered. Instead of the desired result of the work being spread among eager members of a team, the normal result of the same few usual suspects doing everything occurs, and one or two of the regulars give up and quit.
In the interests of avoiding litigation, I’ve imagined a new collaboration product called “LooseGoose”. It’s like Slack in that “slack” and “loose” are near-synonyms, and it’s not unconnected with Skype, because geese fly through the sky.
Here’s how the Kilntown and District Soup Can Collectors Society’s stroll through the lepidopterarium[iii] went.
[i] I said “like”; I haven’t found evidence of products with these names, but if you’re the owner of one of these product names, let me know and I’ll make the appropriate edits.
[ii] That’s 800lb to you non-metric luddites.
[iii] Butterfly house