Transforming the Way People Collaborate

In last month’s #CollabTalk tweetjam we discussed Microsoft’s reinvention of the authoring experience across its on prem and cloud platforms. Little did we know what was coming this month at their Worldwide Partner Conference (#WPC15) held in sweltering Orlando. Ok, I’m sure some of you out there were in the know, but for most of us, the vision keynote demo of Project GigJam, formerly known as “Magic Glass” was a clear representation that Microsoft means what they say when CEO Satya Nadella talks about transforming collaboration. Leveraging the Office Graph and integrated with Cortana, the demo as given by Office GM Julia White (@julwhite) was truly  a mashup of business processes, communications tools, and collaboration capabilities, all with the goal of reinventing and transforming collaboration. Move over Apple – Microsoft just sat down at the cool kid table.

If you’ve not yet seen GigJam at work, its well worth a view. You can find Julia’s demo on both YouTube and, through the Microsoft Partner Network. And during this month’s #CollabTalk tweetjam, we’re going to discuss how GigJam impacts what we’re all focusing on today. Aside from being an impressive demo, there are some huge questions to be answered – and, as we’ve learned from past demos – there is often a large gap between vision and practical application. But unlike a new incremental feature on SharePoint, this news feels like Microsoft has leapfrogged the competition, and I’m sure we’re all interested to share our ideas and hear more from others within the community. And that’s what #CollabTalk is all about.

This month’s CollabTalk tweetjam takes place on Friday, July 31st at 9am PST, bringing the community together once again to hash it out over Twitter to discuss the topic “Ambient Computing with Microsoft’s Project GigJam.” You’ll hear from a panel of experts, as well as interested members of the community, as they share opinions and customer experiences to share their thoughts on this new technology, and how it impacts current plans (if at all) and strategies, or may impact the partner ecosystem. Simply follow along on Twitter, or join the conversation at Twubs.com/CollabTalk

If you’ve never participated in one of these tweetjams, they can be a lot of fun – and for those like me who do a lot of blogging, they are also a great source of material for future posts. Within each hour-long session using the Twitter UI of your choice (Twitter.com, Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, Twubs, whatever) we will go through a series of questions over the course of the hour, responding to Q1, Q2, Q3 and so forth with A1, A2, A3 and always including the #CollabTalk hashtag with your answers. Feel free to reply as often (or as little) as you’d like, ask your own follow up questions, share relevant links, retweet others, and engage with the audience.

The questions we will discuss during the session include:

• Project GigJam: what are your initial thoughts and/or concerns?
• Does collaboration "need" to be reinvented?
• How does this vision of productivity impact (positive or negative) Microsoft Office?
• In real world scenarios, what are the barriers to GigJam’s ability to perform?
• In which scenarios do you think GigJam would improve productivity in your daily tasks?
• Just as NASA drives innovation outside of the space program, is GigJam just an enabler for other tech?
• How do you envision GigJam fitting into existing collaboration deployments, like SharePoint?
• GigJam is such a huge idea — where should Microsoft focus first?

Participating on this panel are a number of MVPs and experts on SharePoint, Yammer, and a number of other social platforms. Of course, this is open to the public, so please join in the discussion!

• Naomi Moneypenny (@nmoneypenny), Office365 MVP and cto at ManyWorlds
• Jeffrey Schwartz (@JeffreySchwartz), editor at 1105 Media, including Redmond and Redmond Channel  
• Marc Anderson (@sympmarc), consultant at Sympraxis Consulting
• Alan Lepofsky (@alanlepo), vp at Constellation Research 
• Eric Riz (@rizinsights), SharePoint MVP and ceo of Empty Cubicle 
• Benjamin Niaulin (@bniaulin), SharePoint MVP and evangelist at ShareGate 
• Jussi Mori (@JussiMori), SharePoint MVP, social expert and consultant at Peaches Industries
• Jordi Plana (@joplana), founder and ceo of Beezy
• Gokan Ozcifci (@gokanozcifci), SharePoint MVP and IT infrastructure consultant at Neoxy
• Kevin Conroy (@seattlerooster), ceo at Blue Rooster
• Martina Grom (@magrom), Office365 MVP and co-founder and ceo of atwork information technology 
• Agnes Molnar (@molnaragnes), SharePoint MVP, founder and managing consultant at Search Explained 
• Richard Harbridge (@rharbridge), cto at 2toLead
• Treb Gatte (@tgatte), Project Server MVP and principal at Tumble Road
• Michal Pisarek (@michalpisarek), SharePoint MVP and founder at Dynamic Owl and Bonzai Intranet
• Damon Tompkins (@damontompkins), svp of corporate and business development at Metalogix
• Gina Montgomery (@ginammontgomery), vp of corporate strategy at Softmart
• Russ Edelman (@russecm), president and ceo at Corridor Company
• Noah Sparks (@noahsparks), customer success manager at Microsoft
• Jussi Mori (@JussiMori), SharePoint MVP, social exp
  ert and consultant at Peaches Industries 
• Brett Hill (@bretthill), Office365 MVP and manager of technical marketing at Riverbed Technology 
• Eric Lytle (@sharepointmastr), SharePoint MCM and cto at BrightStarr 
• Kanwal Khipple (@kkhipple), Office 365 MVP and founder of 2toLead 
• Robert Bogue (@RobBogue), author, speaker, strategist and consultant at Thor Projects
• Jeff Willinger (@jwillie), director of collaboration and social business at Rightpoint  
• and your host, Christian Buckley (@buckleyplanet), Office365 MVP and chief marketing officer for Beezy

The panel size will increase over the next couple days, but as always everyone is invited to participate whether or not you’re part of the panel. Simply join the conversation using the #CollabTalk hashtag and share your thoughts!