Two-person Idea Incubator

That is why I invited her for an interview and here is how she introduces herself:

Colleen 'Communicatrix' Wainwright. Photo by Josh Ross Creative

Vladimir: So, Colleen, please tell your story.

Colleen: I use it solely for a kind of correspondence with my friend and fellow blogger, Dave Seah. The inline commenting, the ability to highlight striking passages, to upload photos, are all helpful in facilitating this.

Dave: It is almost like writing a letter back and forth between two pen pals, except the letter is a shared document and we can expand each section as much as we like. The resulting document, when we go back to read it, then captures the depth of the interaction. This is what I love about in-line comments in this document model.

Vladimir: What do you do in Rizzoma?

Colleen: We share frustrations we're having with clients, with our writing (we both blog and use writing a lot), with workflow, with our living environments, with cash flow, and even with romantic relationships. Most of this (I'm thinking especially of romantic relationships!) is done in a less whiny/gossipy way than in trying to puzzle out where things break down, if that makes sense, and also to find similarities with ways we're breaking down, communications-wise, in other areas.

Colleen: We share recipes (we both love to cook and eat!), exercise strategies, stuff we're learning about meditation or other kinds of more "spiritually-based" things, theories on Life. It really is like one gigantic, nerdy, grownup, co-ed slumber party conversation at times.

Vladimir: Any examples how you use Rizzoma?

 

Dave: At the beginning of the week, one of us will write something, and then the other will highlight the bits that spark something important. I use the green highlight color, and Colleen uses the yellow highlight.

Photo credit by B. Chappel

 

Here is an example of Colleen and Dave conversation: Week 027.0 It Came From TBD Week (2012_0915)

 

Vladimir: Any tips for newcomers?

 

Dave: One of the best things about Rizzoma is the ability to do these in-line comments to expand on an idea. The ability to see WHAT'S NEW by clicking on the NEXT button in the upper right is helpful for picking off where we left, without having to wade through everything.

Next button

 

Dave: One thing I liked about Google Wave was that it made the in-line replying easy, and it didn't create nested threads or require a lot of quoting, as you might do in email. This keeps the document free of redundant text, and it also preserves the original flow of the text as the context for all the sub-topics that pop up. To me, it is like a way of capturing a non-linear conversation pattern into a linear document, which is great! Although I rarely go back to read what we've talked about in weeks past, it's comforrting to know that it's there in a form that will be easy to read. 

Example of inline reply

 

 

Colleen and Dave, thank you for the interview and your ideas.

P.S: Colleen and Dave also told me some other interesting things which do not fit in this post, and you can read them in the full interview in this topic in Rizzoma.