Transcript: Working together "swarm style" with Swarm-it

This transcript is from a PodTech.net podcast at:
http://www.podtech.net/home/technology/1691/working-together-swarm-style-with-swarm-it

Guest: Ken Thompson - Swarmteams Ltd.
Host: Robert Scoble - ScobleShow

Ken Thompson - Swarmteams Ltd
So, that's a message from a guy who was at the conference yesterday, a guy called Richard Jones. The conference had a Swarm Setup called LPF. He sent a message to all the other guys saying, "Sorry, I can't be here, hope today is as stimulating as yesterday". So, he's sent that from his mobile phone probably this morning. That message was then distributed to everybody at the conference.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
Sorry.

Ken Thompson - Swarmteams Ltd
Oh look there is another one, just come in.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
Okay.

Ken Thompson - Swarmteams Ltd.
Debbie Colton is the conference organizer. She has just broadcast the message. I'll be building consensus...

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
Right.

Ken Thompson - Swarmteams Ltd.
...to reply to that, all I do is hit reply and if there is not a lot of messages you just hit reply, but if its multiple messages, each message has an ID in it and make sure you're replying to the right one because text messages don't have IDs built into them automatically, we generate IDs. So, this is message 634. So, to reply I do reply or a 634 on my message and she said, "Are we building consensus on my reply as I hope so". So that all the messages go on a Web-based message board.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
Yeah. Now how long did you train all the other people involved in this?

Ken Thompson - Swarmteams Ltd.
At the conference, it probably took about half-an-hour to get them trained up. It's amazing actually and even highly technically competent people are not always that competent around texting. It's kind of like a generational thing. So, one of the things to get them, is to hand a first few texts and you keep them light like, "What country are you from, and what did you have for your breakfast." That goes in the server, and we can analyze their replies and work out the most popular breakfast. So, you have a few things to get them going and if you get any ideas during the rest of the conference; instead of just asking questions, they broadcast to the group and everybody is sitting there gets a -- so it's to get a lot more engagement but it is quite a behavior change.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
Without having to raise your hand and ask the speaker?

Ken Thompson - Swarmteams Ltd.
Yes and anything they do goes up on a Web message board and within five seconds, the thing will be up and people will responding to -- it could be very challenging for a speaker. I have done this in Swarm Group because you could have somebody making a funny remark about you. "Did that guy not brush his hair this morning?" So speakers don't generally like it and you can do it with, live with the speaker or you can do it a general feedback on the conference as a whole, as a less threatening way to do it but what I could demonstrate is, I'll send a message now to the conference.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
Okay.

Ken Thompson - Swarmteams Ltd.
Okay, now I am registered as two different users on that conference. I've registered with this phone and I'm registered to this phone.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
It's a red phone.

Ken Thompson - Swarmteams Ltd.
Yeah it's a red phone. So, what I am going to do is, I am going to send a message to the conference from one of these phones, that will go to my server and then it will be sent out, so it should arrive in the other phone.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
Okay.

Ken Thompson - Swarmteams Ltd.
So, let's see how...

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
And would it arrive in all the other phones that people are carrying too?

Ken Thompson - Swarmteams Ltd.
Yes, so I have to a wee bit careful here, not to be flippant.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
Yeah.

Ken Thompson - Swarmteams Ltd.
So, there is only one number, that's one of the great things as well. You don't have -- there is only one number you have to remember. So instead of somebody having all their mobile phones numbers on their phone, they only need the one number, we move their contacts directory on to the server. So it means if you lose a mobile phone and you are not getting -- you are not losing confidential details or anything like that. So I'm going to do a message 'All' and that means broadcast it, LPF is the name of the swarm and my message is 'I hope you find this tool -- it's been good to meet you all.'

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
Okay.

Ken Thompson - Swarmteams Ltd.
So, if I send -- I'm about to send that off; now 'All' means send it to the server and broadcast it. If I put 'All plus', it will also as well as putting the replies on the server or put the replies back in my mobile phone, kind of follow me. If I was foolish enough to do 'All *', it would put -- it would copy everybody's replies to everybody in the swarm. So effectively you could have a massive quick chat session and so I am going to send that off now.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
Now if you were, you don't need to send that. If you were actually using this in a development team, what kinds of things would you be sending back and forth?

Ken Thompson - Swarmteams Ltd.
Well, the best example would be, maybe not the development team -- say if I am a pharmaceutical sales person and you are the rep, I come into you one morning and on your desk there is a new toy, it's a promotional item for one of my competitors and I noticed. When I finish, I go into reception and I send the message as swarm 'Glaxo' or whoever have brought out some new product, find out about it. That will go to the whole swarm of the other reps and maybe a sales administration researcher, that researcher can go on the Web, find out some competitive information about that product and send to the whole team.

So, the concept in sales is once one person knows, everybody knows. So no putting up of a laptop, literally go to your, set in reception, nobody is looking at you and all of a sudden you've informed the whole team. So one way is, once one person knows, all knows. The other possibility is collective intelligence. Ask the team a question, because knowledge management, I think, a practical knowledge management is not finding the knowledge but finding who knows. So does anybody know about the latest version of SQL Server?

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
Now, does this breakdown as the team gets bigger?

Ken Thompson - Swarmteams Ltd.
As a team...

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
Because you are getting 'n2' number of messages, right. So you've two people on a team, it's probably easy to deal with than if you have 50 people, you are going to get so many messages.

Ken Thompson - Swarmteams Ltd.
Yeah when a team gets above a certain size, it really becomes a crowed. So what we say is multiple swarms, see enough as many swarms as you like, virtually in all of them. So yes, I think swarm size is generally we find above about 12, the dynamic starts to break down and you start to feel a relevance test we are telling people about things that they aren't relevant to...

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
Interesting.

Ken Thompson - Swarmteams Ltd.
...so you can have a whole -- you end up with what I call a (Inaudible) system. All the different swarms you are part of and so in a sense, you are building your own social network but not -- as a natural byproduct of the people you communicate with as groups.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
Interesting.

Ken Thompson - Swarmteams Ltd.
Yeah.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
Well thanks for spending a little bit of time.

Ken Thompson - Swarmteams Ltd.
Yeah it's a pleasure Robert.