I see no one has responded to this but it has been a while. If anyone is using Slack in their architecture practice I would love to find out how it is used (how the structure is set up too). I looked at it quite extensively last night and I'm not quite sure it is the right fit for how we work as architects. It may be good for in-office messages about general office things and may be a place for company updates internally. But is it right for projects? They say it reduces emails but it looks like it may decrease emails only to increase smaller pieces of chatter ten-fold. I don't think that is helpful. I also wonder if it also decreases the formality of correspondence even further (and this is already an issue to a certain extent in email) to the point where clarity or other important parts of the correspondence might be lost. I keep in mind that in a lawsuit these posts will likely become a part of the suit if they are pertinent - will it show us to be thoughtful and providing a professional service?
In my mind, I think an email program (or add-on) that keeps emails organized by project / client / marketing, etc might be better. You receive emails from clients and although it seems you can invite out-of-the-office team members to a channel, I still think most clients will need to communicate through email. They receive an email from a Tenant or Vendor and forward it to you. It doesn't make sense to me to then paste that into slack or rewrite a request without forwarding the context.
I'd love to hear what people are doing and if they are using this! Although I'm quite skeptical above I do see some potential here and it is definitely something I'd love to try to make work.
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Thomas Fallon AIA
Benner Stange Associates Architects, Inc.
Portland OR
Original Message:
Sent: 09-15-2015 17:36
From: Pamela Leonard
Subject: Slack
Is anyone using Slack for their internal and/or project teams communication?
If so, how is that working? Read an article about it today on FastCompany that suggested it might be the next generation of email and the concept intrigues me.
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Pamela Leonard AIA
Architect
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