Case Story: Switchingchannels

Summary	Flag to others why you are leaving one communication channel and moving to another
Group / workshop	Digital Identities	Status	seed
Project details...	Original contribution: Jonathan Poole

Situation

What was the setting in which this case study occurred?

Within Finance, where we have a broadcast "Hoot" for voice this pattern exists - the broadcast is used to make initial contact with people who might be interested in something, but then someone will say "Calling you on the outside" to transfer from broadcast to phone so confidential (client name) information can be discussed, and to avoid clogging the broadcast medium. An analogy from public talks would be when a speaker asks to take a question from the audience "off-line".

Task

What was the problem to be solved, or the intended effect?

To move smoothly from one communication space/channel to another without leaving others disorientated as to why you have left. Having multiple communication channels available from public to private allows normal workflow processes to be carried out effectively.

Actions

What was done to fulfil the task?

Use the established protocols to announce movement from a public channel to a private and then again use the protocol to announce appearance back within the public channel with a summary of what happened.

Results

What happened? Was is a success? What contributed to the outcomes?

Once the protocols are established then everyone understands what is happening and can manage their own workflows in relation to the shared business operations.

Reputation is protected in that other's do not assume you are being rude when disappearing from a particular communication channel.

Another analogy was given to me by someone in networking. In networks there is broadcast mode and unicast (point-to-point) (as well as other special cases like multi-cast). Error messages should always be sent point-to-point to avoid "Broadcast Storms", where each nodes broadcast of errors interferes with the shared channel and causes cascading errors.

Lessons Learned

What did you learn from the experience?

Licensing

This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.