Social network aids communication, collaboration

A new social network is available at UNMC.

Called Yammer, the new app, part of the university’s Microsoft 365 initiative, will allow anyone with a UNMC email address to set up an account, creating an internal business-social network that will allow collaboration and communication on the site.

The new app allows users to:

• Create private and public groups, either broad groups, such as “ITS” or “College of Public Health,” or smaller groups based around a project.
• Post an idea to a group and encourage interaction and discussion.
• Collaborate with a co-worker.

“Anyone can create a group and most are open for anyone to submit to,” said Harry Wines, associate director of technical service and network support. “You can log into Yammer from anywhere in the world from the 365 portal.

“Yammer is another of the many collaborative tools offered in Microsoft 365,” Wines said. “”As the university explores new initiatives in interdepartmental education and collaboration, Yammer can become a valuable and useful tool.”

Aaron Yoder, Ph.D., assistant professor of environmental, agricultural and occupational health in the College of Public Health, has been using Yammer, creating a group on wearable technology that has drawn other researchers from across the campus community.

“It’s been useful to me already,” he said. “It’s helped me to reach out across the university.”

Dr. Yoder’s use of Yammer illustrates how it can help break down siloes, and the fact that the service is internal provides a user with a finely targeted audience.

“I’ve even put things up on grant opportunities,” Dr. Yoder said. “I think it will really help internal networking as people get more used to it.

“It’s really topic driven,” he said. “You can pick who you want to follow, so if someone is working on something you want to keep up on, it’s easy to stay updated. And you can set how much you want to get contacted — there’s a lot of control for the user.”