The Department of Medicine Group homepage on Workplace by Facebook.
The University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson launched a new collaborative platform this week to serve as a secure intranet, using the Workplace by Facebook app which was recently upgraded to add integration with Box, Dropbox and Microsoft.
Since its launch last October, the platform’s adoptees have grown from 1,000 to 14,000 organizations, mostly businesses. The college is the first U.S. public higher education entity on Workplace.
Workplace by Facebook is basically designed to apply a social media experience broadened to serve business needs enterprise-wide—allowing greater collaboration and, hopefully, reducing a need for email. Its use is as a secure intra-organizational collaborative communications tool that combines instant chat, video and group messaging, file-sharing a la Sharepoint, and open and closed groups for project management and team development.
Event listing for ice cream social on June 6 for Workplace by Facebook kickoff ceremony.
What Workplace by Facebook is NOT is a place for PHI (protected health information), confidential research information or private student data. It is not HIPAA or FERPA compliant. If you see someone posting protected data, please contact them, ask them to remove the post and report it to the group administrator.
Workplace by Facebook also is not Facebook. The two are not connected. You cannot automatically share between them.
For an overview of what Workplace offers, see this document [PDF]. Additional slides of what you’ll see and how to use it can be found at this PCMag article, which also is listed among reviews and analysis of Workplace by Facebook under EXTRA INFO at the bottom of this posting.
You’ll find the UA Department of Medicine Workplace Group here: https://fb.me/g/2aHFR3YBm/ybtkYgTy
Workplace by Facebook’s UA rollout starts with College of Medicine - Tucson faculty and staff first. Look for invitations and emails and Workplace posts offering suggestions on how best to organize your profile, join or create groups, and other insightful tips offered online once you log-in. Additional groups will be created for each division within the Department of Medicine soon. If you have any questions, please contact David Mogollon, DOM communications coordinator and Workplace by Facebook champion.
Most designated campus colleagues (DCCs)—i.e., joint UA/Banner Health physicians and staff who serve largely the UA’s clinical mission, not so much its academic or research ones—already are in the system, with others being added as needed. Opening a better channel of communication with these folks was a primary consideration by UA College of Medicine – Tucson Dean Charles Cairns, MD, in ensuring this platform would serve as an effective conduit to communicate with both sides of the UA/Banner Health academic medicine partnership.
The goal is to have fellows, residents and medical students on Workplace by the end of the summer.
Team-building activity promoted on Workplace by Facebook to celebrate National Egg Day – click image to watch video.
Workplace by Facebook has tools to allow you to “save” posts of interest to you, tag coworkers using “@”, do newsfeeds and newsletters, include images, video and audio, and “pin” items of interest so they don’t get lost in the shuffle. You can create discussions and track them by using keywords with hashtags (#LikeThis). Follow colleagues whose interests coincide with yours, join groups related to your work, learn about events you may want to participate in, and keep more in tune with the pulse of what’s happening across the entire UA College of Medicine – Tucson.
Currently, there is no way to link/send information via Workplace to folks outside of the organization who don’t have a way to log-in with a UA NetID. Eventually, Workplace may be expanded to all the UA Health Sciences colleges. It’s still being explored how UA or other colleagues outside the UA Health Sciences can be invited to collaborate within this platform.
EXTRA INFO
For background on the Workplace by Facebook online business communication tool, see the following:
- “Workplace by Facebook: The smart person's guide” | TechRepublic.com, Posted May 2, 2017
- “Facebook Will Start Charging for Workplace, Its Slack Killer, in September” | Inc., Posted April 18, 2017
- “Workplace by Facebook continues to mature” | TechCrunch.com, Posted April 18, 2017
- “Workplace by Facebook Review & Rating” | PCMag.com, Posted March 9, 2017
- “Can Facebook Workplace Kill Office Email?” | PCMag.com, Posted Dec. 21, 2016
- “Facebook's Workplace: How one company is making it work for them” | ZDNet, Posted Dec. 6, 2016
- “Why Facebook Workplace has no future” | BetaNews.com, Posted Nov. 18, 2016
- “Facebook's Workplace won't kill email, but nothing else will either” | ZDNet, Posted Oct. 12, 2016
- “Facebook's Workplace Could Replace All Emails Within Your Company” | Forbes, Posted Oct. 11, 2016
- “Facebook Workplace wants to replace your inbox and intranet” | WIRED, Posted Oct. 10, 2016
- “Here’s What Facebook’s Workplace Email-Killer Looks Like” | Fortune, Posted Oct. 10, 2016
- “Workplace by Facebook opens to sell enterprise social networking to the masses” | TechCrunch.com, Posted Oct. 10, 2016
ALSO SEE:
"Don’t Know What You’ve Been Missing on ‘Workplace’ App? Check here to see posts, video, photos and catch up!" | Posted Oct. 6, 2017
“The Fix Is In for Email Notifications – How to ‘Disarm’ Your Workplace by Facebook Account” | Posted June 28, 2017
“Our New 'Workplace' is Coming Tomorrow” | UAHS Announces, Posted May 30, 2017
“Getting Started on Workplace – Mark Your Calendar” | UAHS Announces, Posted May 26, 2017
“Message of the Dean: Workplace by Facebook coming to COM-T” | UAHS Announces, Posted May 16, 2017