Yes, I know that it is very dense. My next goal is to expand it into a 350 page book.

Once again, I clicked my way around the system [reading your letter]

To make Communication Metrics into a product that would interest me, two things come to mind.

First who would lead the effort, and how would one's team of users control access to its data. I cannot picture a team of workers wanting the world to read quotes of their comments. Naturally, I see lots of contexts in which it is very valuable for a team to have access to one another's words--particularly in the context of software's analysis and design phases. But how would that be controlled?

Until I see the control issue more clearly I don't see how I could become a product advocate. I know in a bookkeeping system it requires the differentiation of a set of contexts within contexts that that would enable us to limit who can access data in a particular context. The same, of course, happens in banking.

Also in the case of Communication Metrix, as I see its application so far, not everything should go into the record. How do you picture a community of users deciding what should be a part of the time journal, and what should not?

Second, how do you propose to tie this service to the workings of real people, working toward specific goals. My information is a function of my personal goals. My community of coworkers are, possibly, in some contexts, an extension of these personal goals. How will I combine my use of Communication Metrics to my personal needs and desires, relative to my personal goals?

Right now the system looks to me like big brother looking over my shoulder.

Sincerely,

Dan

Dan Palanza
dan@capecod.net