Finger on the Pulse: The Value of the Activity Stream in the Enterprise

The activity stream, which syndicates user activities across social media, has been gaining popularity on the web. With social media infiltrating the enterprise and higher portions of the workforce becoming accustomed to consuming information through activity streams, it also has the potential to play a key role in shaping the workplace. This work provides a first comprehensive study of an enterprise activity stream. We analyze different characteristics of the stream, its usage through a faceted search-based application, and the way users search it compared to traditional enterprise search. We also discuss various use cases of the stream, both from an individual employee’s perspective and from an organizational perspective, exposing the potential value and role of the activity stream in the enterprise of the future.