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CERN Ends Trial of Facebook Workplace

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Re: CERN Ends Trial of Facebook Workplace

#21

Post by filmgirlcw »

They only had 150 active users (despite 1000 signups), so choosing not to pay for the offering makes sense.

I have the utmost respect for CERN as an institution — I want to make that clear. What I don’t love, however, is this trend that seems to be using a PR offensive of “price shaming” whenever contract or license terms change. I understand CERN is publicly funded and that it doesn’t have an unlimited budget. But I’m not sure how necessary the passive-aggressive jab at the three-year free trial now becoming paid is to the fact that CERN is dropping a tool only 150 people actively used.

The critiques of the product (and I’ve never used Workplace and hope I never have to) seen to be totally inconsequential, because CERN seemed to be happy doing the IT work to keep it running/integrated as long as it was free.

It’s fine to drop support for a communication tool — especially one that doesn’t have a lot of adoption. But there seems to be an insinuation that Facebook should continue to give CERN access for free, and that I just don’t like.

Re: CERN Ends Trial of Facebook Workplace

#22

Post by arethuza »

filmgirlcw wrote: post #21

They only had 150 active users (despite 1000 signups), so choosing not to pay for the offering makes sense. I have the utmost respect for CERN as an institution — I want to make that clear. What I don’t love, however, is this trend that seems to be using a PR offensive of “price shaming” whenever contract or license terms change. I understand CERN is publicly funded and that it doesn’t have an unlimited budget. But I…

Given what was invented at CERN you think Facebook would have the decency to give them a free license!

Re: CERN Ends Trial of Facebook Workplace

#23

Post by np_tedious »

> Reactions were not always positive.

It would be cool to hear what these reactions were. How did it suit their workflow, compare to alternatives, etc

Right now all this article says is that they had data privacy concerns (valid) and that the free trial ran out.

Re: CERN Ends Trial of Facebook Workplace

#24

Post by deugtniet »

filmgirlcw wrote: post #21

They only had 150 active users (despite 1000 signups), so choosing not to pay for the offering makes sense. I have the utmost respect for CERN as an institution — I want to make that clear. What I don’t love, however, is this trend that seems to be using a PR offensive of “price shaming” whenever contract or license terms change. I understand CERN is publicly funded and that it doesn’t have an unlimited budget. But I…

I read this as an announcement of the 'why' they dropped it for their own 150 active users. There's nothing wrong with saying you stop something because it has become too expensive.

It's not price shaming, it's saying that you're not willing to pay the price that has increased. It would've been price shaming if it said that it was so much money for so little services.

Re: CERN Ends Trial of Facebook Workplace

#25

Post by keanzu »

coder1001 wrote: post #5

Interesting! "Reactions were not always positive. Many people preferred not to use a tool from a company that they did not trust in terms of data privacy." So the issue is just trust or the tool is not as useful? How would the results differ had someone else offered them a similar tool?

> Reactions were not always positive.

Universally true: Reactions are never always positive for anything. A non-statement which will also be true of whatever replaces Workplace.

> Many people preferred not to use a tool from a company that they did not trust in terms of data privacy.

Many other people used the tool for 3 years during the free trial; how is this advisable if there are genuine data privacy issues? Seems negligent on CERN's part.

The decision point came at the transition from free to paid, not due to a change in trustworthiness of Facebook.

Re: CERN Ends Trial of Facebook Workplace

#26

Post by gonzo41 »

arethuza wrote: post #22
filmgirlcw wrote: post #21

They only had 150 active users (despite 1000 signups), so choosing not to pay for the offering makes sense. I have the utmost respect for CERN as an institution — I want to make that clear. What I don’t love, however, is this trend that seems to be using a PR offensive of “price shaming” whenever contract or license terms change. I understand CERN is publicly funded and that it doesn’t have an unlimited budget. But I…

Given what was invented at CERN you think Facebook would have the decency to give them a free license!

Corporate social media is like having your parents try and hang our an be cool with you. It just won't ever work they way they think!

I used an earlier version of this stuff at a bank, an it was very monitored. The way we were instructed to write, like and shares things made me feel even more oppressed by an already pretty stuffy job.

Re: CERN Ends Trial of Facebook Workplace

#27

Post by jld89 »

arethuza wrote: post #22
filmgirlcw wrote: post #21

They only had 150 active users (despite 1000 signups), so choosing not to pay for the offering makes sense. I have the utmost respect for CERN as an institution — I want to make that clear. What I don’t love, however, is this trend that seems to be using a PR offensive of “price shaming” whenever contract or license terms change. I understand CERN is publicly funded and that it doesn’t have an unlimited budget. But I…

Given what was invented at CERN you think Facebook would have the decency to give them a free license!

Exactly. That would be great publicity for Facebook, it's a win-win situation.

Re: CERN Ends Trial of Facebook Workplace

#30

Post by keanzu »

pdpi wrote: post #9

If I read it right and they had around 1k users after 3 years of trialling Workplace, I think it’s less a case of “ending the trial” as it is “pulling the cord on life support”. The article distinctly makes it sound as if they only trialled because they were offered a generous free usage period, without a clear desire to actually integrate it into their daily routine. The timeline suggests that they were onboarded in…

They fail to mention how many potential users there were and whether this was high or low take up.

"The acronym CERN is also used to refer to the laboratory, which in 2016 had 2,500 scientific, technical, and administrative staff members, and hosted about 12,000 users."

Is it 1000 out of 2500 or 1000 out of 14500 or am I using an invalid source and the actual staff count is completely different?

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