By Susan Heid
As web workers who may lack daily contact with colleagues, it’s often up to us to figure out how to improve ourselves — work output, time management, prioritization. But maybe we should let others guide our efforts, just like the company suggestion boxes that have started cropping up online. What if we could put a personal suggestion box widget onto our blog or other website, soliciting ideas from our virtual associates?
Three companies are leading the way in repackaging the forum-as-suggestion-box and providing users with specific sites where they can post their ideas. The social twist is this: Others can promote or demote the suggestions to push those ideas to the forefront.
Salesforce.com led the charge with IdeaExchange, then turned around and sold it to Dell, which put up IdeaStorm, the same service that drove the company to finally begin offering Linux software on its boxes. But you don’t have to be in a big company to exploit this idea of customer as product manager. Ismael Ghalimi, who heads up open source business process management software firm Intalio, blogged about his company’s Demand Driven Development site, which was set up a full year ago — way before the big dogs implemented it. In this case, Ghalimi’s team can prioritize based on the monetary value customers commit to for a given feature.
What would a personal version look like? First thing, it would have to ensure anonymity. People may not post suggestions if they have to ‘fess up to it, so the ability to use an alias is a must. Second, it needs to be public so others can comment and push the idea up on the priority list or down. If everybody agrees that you need to do something about your habit of whistling while you work, it could be time to deal. Third, it needs to recognize major posters by offering a top-users ranking. Presumably, that’ll tweak their egos enough to want to come back for more.
Then, on the administrative side, you might want a filter so that particular IP addresses can be blocked from posting (such as the one your spouse works from).
I haven’t found a widget yet that addresses my wants. I’m still looking. But as a person who’s constantly seeking new ways to improve myself and what I create, why not cater to those we work, play and sleep with?
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