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Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Brandon Hall Network - Nicely Done?

I just saw a post by Mark Oehlert - The Brandon Hall Network - nicely done who said:
The functionality set looks good. The UI is pretty good - I find the initial color set to be a bit jarring but they do make the CSS available to you which will allow folks to really customize their profile page. So congrats on a nicely designed, functional network!

Maybe I'm in a grumpy mood because Brandon Hall got rid of their Yahoo Discussion Groups to provide this network. The network UI is hardly "nicely design and functional." It will take you a while to understand what you are doing and where you go to do what. Part of the issue is that there's not much content today so it feels a bit hollow.

Part of my reservation is that it is yet another social networking tool and a blogging tool. Do I need to use it in addition to Linked In and Blogger? Part of my reservation is that unless it achieves a large number of active users and displaces existing means of community, then it won't hold enough value.

Maybe I'm grumpy and missing the point? But my guess is that this is going to be a big failure.

Am I wrong? What does Mark see?

6 comments:

Harold Jarche said...

YASNS, YASNS, YASNS, need I say more?

Something more original would have been something like EduRSS (as Stephen Downes has done) but specifically for the business market.

Mark said...

I hear you all and Jesse - I posted a note about the very promising People Aggregator yesterday - check out the podcast here (http://www.itconversations.com/shows/detail1073.html)

Harold - I think that the People Aggregator could go a long way to answering your cry of YASNS.

I also wanted to say that while I hear everyone's comments on useability and security - I will still stand by my assessment especially when compared with other efforts not in SNS in general but in the e-learning field in particular.

Tony - Mark sees an effort made....

Tony Karrer said...

I doubt that BH's thing is "from scratch" - there are a bunch of platforms out there for SN. I've looked at PeopleAggregator before, but unless it becomes the defacto standard hub, then its value is small.

Mark - I agree that they are making an effort, I'm just questioning the implementation, viability, and model of centralization vs. aggregation.

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