(2010-01-31) Gartner Collaborationware Generations

Gartner is defining 4 generations of Collaboration Ware. Gen1, states the report, covered the decade of 1990 to 2000 with the establishment of email and calendar software. Gen2 ran from 2000 to 2005 and added Instant Messaging (IM), web conferencing, and shared workspaces. Over the last five years, Gen3 has brought us tools for easy content creation, publishing, and sharing, including blogs, Wiki-s, Really Simple Syndication (RSS), and Social Networking, and for the most part, the Gen3 tools are still undergoing adoption, even as Gen4 is upon us... According to Matt Cain, Gen4 will mash up these individual applications in easy-to-use “DashBoard-s” from which all of your favorite collaboration tools can be launched. That’s right, he is predicting not so much a ground-breaking new approach to collaboration, but rather “more of a repackaging of existing collaboration.” (Portal Collaboration Roadmap?)