The evolution of workflow learning follows the evolution of workflow automation. The reason is that, in order for workflow learning to…er…work, there has to be a way to look into the software system and find out what events are happening in the context of a pre-defined workflow. These are exactly the same things that you need for workflow automation to work as well, and while I suppose that in principle software could evolve to support learning before it supports automation, the truth is that there is bigger money in automation and therefore automation leads. (Teaching somebody how to perform a task in real-time is a great money saver, but making that person unnecessary to perform the task is an even bigger money saver.)
So. Apple and Microsoft both have automation scripting technologies. For Apple it’s Applescript. For Microsoft the choice isn’t as obvious. The clearest contender would be VBA, and Microsoft now has a new technology due out in its forthcoming Longhorn OS called “Monad.” (For a long and geeky explanation of Monad, check out this MSDN video show and fast forward to about 45 minutes into the program.) The existence of these technologies means that each OS is exposing ways for users (or, at least, developers) to find out what is going on in a process and manipulate it.
The thing is, in order for the vision of workflow learning to come to full fruition, you need for individual knowledge workers (ugh, I hate that term) to be able to access that information and influence the workflow (or at least comment on it) peer-to-peer. Remember, the goal we’re after is some magical emergent moment when we’re all flying the plane together in real-time. So having information about ongoing workflows exposed to the geeks isn’t good enough; we need workflow access “For the Rest of Us”.
Enter Mac OS X 10.4, the upcoming version to be released in the first half of next year. It’s visual scripting of workflows. And it’s simple and beautiful. Basically, Apple has exposed workflow events for just about anyone to understand and use. To see a demo of this technology, go to http://www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/wwdc04/ and fast-forward to about an hour and twenty-five minutes into the show. It’s a fairly small step from this demo to the notion of triggering peer-to-peer contextual commenting and support systems.
