Can't Help It - Interesting Article (But perhaps un-informed)

So the Editorial Board at WSU's Daily Evergreen published an interesting editorial piece on the failure of MySite.

While I think there are definitely criticisms to be made, I think the writers missed the real issue, or at least most of it.
First, let's see where I agree:

1. Cost! Yes, MySite is expensive and I think there are other technologies such as Plone, Alfresco and others that could do what we want at a fraction of the cost.


2. Simplicity: MySite is complicated compared to the other technologies mentioned in the article. However, so are the technologies, I mentioned above. And yet they aren’t as simple as apps such as FaceBook or Google products like Blogger. That is because a CMS is more than just a blog.


3. What is MySite for? I think most people are unsure and perhaps that is because of the misconceptions of what it is. Perhaps the name makes everyone think MySpace or FaceBook. I think the complexity of what it is and the inability to express what it is, makes for problematic adoption.


4. The notion of providing more public web-space is great. I think both could serve a very useful purpose. However, WSU already provides free public web space for students! I would suggest more disk-space and dynamic scripting support, like PHP, support for Ruby on Rails and Django, and of course a back-end option with MySQL or even SQLite.

Ok, where I find the article a bit misguided.

My General Response:
To equate MySite to MySpace or FaceBook is misrepresenting what each application does. MySite is more than a social networking site. It is a student's own implementation of an Enterprise-Level content management system (CMS). The kind of thing many people are being forced to adopt in the work place. Using MySpace or FaceBook usually gets you the evil stare from your boss, not the "Wow, he/she is being productive!"

And while there are cheaper applications that can do many of the same things as MySite (Plone, Alfresco, Drupal), the fact remains, these are all CMS applications with a related paradigm. This related paradigm is utilized in nearly every organization that is adopting CMS technologies to deliver and manage content within their organization. This is across the board, regardless if you are in the for-profit or non-profit sector.

Now, for some direct responses -

The Evergreen:

"It’s difficult to place MySite in a distinct subgroup of functionality, as it does so many things but falls flat on its face when it comes to implementation. While MySite does have some of the same features as Facebook or MySpace, it’s limited to those with WSU Network IDs or Friend IDs only. Perhaps that sounded like a good privacy or security initiative when it was first proposed, but there’s no benefit to having a “walled garden” system restricted to WSU."

Response:
Funny, MySpace and Facebook both require passwords for use! In a sense you have to be a part of their club in order to benefit from the service. In reality there is no difference, NetworkID/Friend ID, MySpace User ID, ummm unless I missed something. Also, your MySite doesn't have to be walled; mine is completely open to anonymous users (see here), nothing is private. The only problem is right now you can't leave comments, but that is only because I haven't added a message board.

Also, I can aggregate all my other social-net sites into MySite and create a mash-up of my relevant content. So I can place a web-part viewer in my MySite that brings in content from MySpace and FaceBook. I had a MySpace page in my MySite, but removed it as I don't go there as much. Now, I just have some RSS for my blog, but if I wanted I could embed my blog and all inside a MySite.

The Evergreen:

"There are other services out there that students already use to perform the tasks that MySite is designed to handle. Not only are they better in many cases than MySite’s offerings, but they’re familiar and thus easier for students to use. For educational purposes, services like Blackboard and WebCT – which are used by colleges all over the country – seem to be working fine."

Response:
Again, I agree with the issue of simplicity, but again you will NEVER USE BLACKBOARD in the real-world. Also, the easy of Blackboard makes easy candidate for assimilation. We could port the Blackboard model into MySite.

Conclusion:
While some frustration is warranted, I think the frustration is misplaced and perhaps there is a solution to find before we go claiming a technology didn’t work when we have just learned about its potential. That’s like saying, “Damn, PHP what the hell is this? It is too complicated! Why not just stick with HTML?”

I think what is really needed is focused training on how to utilize the MySite/SharePoint technology. It seems by judging from the article that even the authors do not know what is available through the technology, or how to do what they may want.

In fact, I think this is WSU’s fault totally. For instance, you can find numerous end-user training sessions on Plone, Drupal, Alfresco and even SharePoint going on around the world at any given time. Why? Because it is complicated and there is a learning curve before someone can become a power-user. Unfortunately, WSU has not had any sort of Boot-Camp to get people educated. There seems to be more talk about what the system is capable of, but little on how you can harness that capability.