XAuth is a new initiative from Google, Yahoo!, Meebo, etc. - an open platform for extending authenticated user services across the web. It could help as a bridge between 'individual' & 'community' social channels as per our SCRM vision diagram & in the User Components section of the SCRM IT Landscape diagram.
It is still not clear to me how much of a value it provides in terms of the functionality that it believes it provides to the end users. One clear value is that it will make the existing Open ID, OAuth, etc. very usable for the end users & thus could get wider usage. Businesses need to use it if they want to provide a good user experience, but wonder if it would be easier or tougher to get profile information into the enterprise systems. Because XAuth is supposed to be very good with Privacy implementation. The users' id even is not shared with anybody, just that the user is logged into some site that uses XAuth.
Links for further reading:
What: http://xauth.org/info/
Why: http://googlesocialweb.blogspot.com/2010/04/simplifying-social-web-with-xauth.html
http://developer.yahoo.net/blog/archives/2010/04/xauth_oauth_and_yahoo_openid.html
http://www.fastcompany.com/1621779/xauth-explained-solving-a-real-social-net-problem-you-may-never-know-you-had
How: http://googlecode.blogspot.com/2010/04/using-xauth-to-simplify-social-web.html
It's great to see people like you think through the architectual implications of Social CRM. I like the way you integrate the social media sites, data models, processes into one chart. Maybe it's just picking on words but I was a bit overwhelmed by the many occasions of "Management" - I know you are thinking collaboration maore than many others - maybe something you also weave into your chart?
ReplyDeleteSidenote to Prem: This Friday we finaly debut our Social CRM system. Hope you can join.
Thank you for the kind words Axel. :)
ReplyDeleteNot sure why you are overwhelmed by the word 'management', could you pls elaborate? the word 'management' comes only three times in the above diagram, and all are in context of the traditional CRM system. What does the word 'management' denote to you? May be it is the interpretation/perception of the word that is an issue? Which again means, as per neuroscience, our past experiences differ? May be you are referring to the 'command & control' aspect that is associated with the term 'management'?
Unfortunately for me, I have not worked in a company with a liner org structure, I have only worked in a matrix organization. In Cognizant, we middle managers are empowered to a very high degree to take various business decisions. We bid, win, execute & deliver projects on our own, without having to move up & down the command chain for each & every approval. Been doing so from the time I had only three years of work experience.
For me 'management' means organizing stuff. Even when you are collaborating with partners, vendors, suppliers, distributors, agents, customers, members, consumers, communities, whatever, there is need for organizing various stuff like data, processes, responsibilites, metrics, reporting, systems, etc.
Organizing helps in making routine things efficient. It is only the adhoc or out of the ordinary things that have not been planned for that need adhoc respones/processes. These things requirement empowerment. It depends upon the corporate org structure & culture if a person experiencing this novel incident is experienced &/or empowered enough to respond to it in a timely & appropriate manner.
Last but not the least, congratulations & best of luck on the launch! :) I will try to join if the space/time continuum can work in our favor! ;)