Vision

The future of collaboration is in distributed networks, not hierarchical portals

The industrial age model of communication is over. It's about time the monolithic portal was pronounced dead.

See, most organizations today are still structured around hierarchical collaboration, rely on centralized broadcasts and struggle with information silos, isolated knowledge workers and a limited understanding of organizational expertise. And, sad but true, most employees still rely on email as their primary content and collaboration tool.

But, the way we work is messy. It doesn't always follow an organizational chart or fit nicely into little silos. In reality, our relationships at work cross departments, business units and time zones. These relationships cannot be rationalized and optimized for efficiencies - they must emerge and disband as employees see fit.

That's why, in this next generation of collaboration, control lies with the masses and knowledge, talent and relationships flow freely between borders and boundaries. And, more and more, organizations will begin to deploy multiple intranets or extranets that are networked together in a decentralized, social and non-hierarchical way that makes knowledge sharing and networking that much easier.