I have long used to-do lists, although mine have always been on paper. I recently read an IDG article, 'To-do' software makes comeback, welcomed by enterprise IT, that covers how social task management applications are on the rise. They cater both to project leaders and team members are on the rise. This makes sense. I have already written about Putting Social Media to Work and Integrating the Interactions with the Transactions. Even closer to this theme is my post, Giving Social Media a Good Job. In this post I commented on Luis Suarez’s writing, Social Task Management - When Social Business Got Down to Work.
What is the reason for this rise in task management? Enterprise social software helps people collaborate on projects, but is not particularly good for assigning and tracking who is responsible for doing what by a specific date. So in the “past two years demand has risen for a new type of collaboration software that combines enterprise social features with functions for leaders to plan and supervise projects and for team members to track their tasks. It's known as social task management (STM).”
This new breed of apps is a great addition to the social software suite. The transparency of social software encourages accountability which, in turn, encourages productivity. Now the social task management takes this accountability and likely productivity, a step further.