Slack (software)
| Slack
|
|
|---|---|
|
|
| Basic data
|
|
| Maintainer | Stewart Butterfield , Eric Costello, Cal Henderson, and Serguei Mourachov |
| developer | Slack Technologies |
| Publishing year | 2013 |
| Current version | Android 11/19/10 iOS 19.11.10 |
| operating system | Android , iOS , Windows , macOS , Linux , Windows Phone , Commodore 64 |
| category | Collaboration software
Communication software |
| License | Proprietary software |
| www.slack.com | |
Slack is a web-based instant messaging - service of the US company Slack Technologies for communication within work groups ( groupware ). Slack Technologies was founded in 2009 in Vancouver , Canada . The company headquarters were later relocated to San Francisco .
Slack can be used to exchange messages and chat with individuals or in a group.
The joint editing of documents is only possible if you have an account and an activated login for other external services such as Dropbox , Google Drive or GitHub . Collaborative document editing ( native ) is not possible directly within Slack .
In addition to the web application, there are clients for the Windows , macOS , Linux , Android and iOS operating systems .
Development and marketing
Slack can be used free of charge in a version with limited functions and also has a monthly fee of 8 US dollars per user. According to the company, 750,000 workgroups used Slack every day in 2014. At the beginning of 2016 there were already 2.3 million users, 675,000 of them paying customers. In 2019, the company had more than ten million daily active users. For non-profit organizations there are discounted and partly free price models.
One of the founders of Slack is Stewart Butterfield , who also started the Flickr photo service .
The name "Slack" is a backronym ; it means "Searchable Log of All Conversation and Knowledge".
"Slack" means buffer time, time reserve in project management .
Hundreds of millions of dollars were invested in Slack in 2014 and 2015. As a result, Slack was estimated to be worth over $ 2 billion. In early 2016, Microsoft board member Qi Lu wanted to take over Slack for eight billion dollars, according to media reports. The takeover was stopped by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Microsoft chairman of the board Bill Gates . Microsoft released its rival platform Microsoft Teams in October 2016 , which offers similar functionality. In December 2016, it was officially announced that Slack was entering into a strategic partnership with Google Cloud. This relates to jointly developed software functionalities and deeper integration into various Google services, for example a Google Drive bot that posts comments and requests for access to Drive documents on Slack. 2019 it was announced that Slack the direct placement of shares on the New York Stock Exchange prepared. According to Bloomberg , the goodwill after the financing round in August 2018 is over $ 7 billion. After losing $ 40 million in 2017, Slack posted a loss of nearly $ 139 million in 2018. The IPO took place on June 20, 2019 under the symbol "WORK".
On February 11, 2020 it was announced that the American IT company IBM would like to introduce Slack for all of its 300,000+ employees. Shortly thereafter, it was also announced that the American technology company Uber will also use Slack for its almost 40,000 employees. Slack's share price rose 4% after the announcement.
Organizational description
Slack is designed as collaborative software and thus corresponds to the definition of groupware . The core functions are organized like a chat program: discussions are open and closed channels (Channels) organized or over private and group messages directly between the members of a working group (workspace) out. This leads to strong, sometimes confusing ramifications in the course of the discussion.
Threads can be used within the channels to reduce confusing ramifications in the course of the discussion. Contributions can be marked with reactions in the form of predefined and freely configurable emojis in order to obtain a mood picture. Different workspaces can be connected via shared channels in order to refine the collaboration of several work groups or the contact with customers. This feature is still in beta.
Complete discussion tracking is only possible if the user either reads every status change in constant readiness or - at a freely chosen point in time - checks and repeatedly reads through all the interlinked discussions. A clear display of all changes between two freely selected times is not possible. There are also no other elementary administration tools as known from other collaboration tools - versioning, rights management, activity status and much more
Slack is optimized for displaying continuous text. There are limited options for writing award , this includes bold, italics, strikethrough text, quotes, inline code and lists .
Information sources outside of Slack are shown as a small icon or link, and a preview is generated for some services such as external videos or posts in social networks. A native integration is not possible. The search function is selectively set and only searches within the chat texts - registered persons cannot be found using the search.
People can pause notifications, they will then no longer be actively informed about news and are marked for other users with Do not disturb . If you send a private message to a person who has paused notifications, you will be notified of the pause and can decide, in urgent cases, to initiate a notification anyway.
Logging out is theoretically possible, but is not registered by the system. In other words, people who send messages to a person who has been logged out will not receive any status reports about the cancellation.
Until successful registration, the user cannot deactivate Slack's tracking and analysis tools, which Slack uses to collect personal data and forward it to third parties.
After that, he could continue working without these tools. However, the basic functions of Slack are limited to the offers of a messenger service. Only by integrating several external services can Slack be used in the intended form (as a collaborative tool). The integration of these external services requires the consent of the user for analysis and tracking by the external services.
Since most of Slack's collaborative services cannot be used without this consent, the Slack user can only choose between a clear restriction or consent to tracking and analysis tools.
Slack Technologies
| Slack Technologies
|
|
|---|---|
|
|
|
| legal form | Incorporated |
| ISIN | US83088V1026 |
| founding | 2009 |
| Seat | San Francisco, California United States
|
| management | Stewart Butterfield (CEO) |
| Number of employees | 1,664 (April 2019) |
| sales | $ 401 million (2019) |
| Branch | Internet |
| Website | www.slack.com |
Slack Technologies, (formerly Tiny Speck 2009-2014), is a US (formerly Canadian) software company founded in 2009 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada by Stewart Butterfield, Eric Costello, Cal Henderson and Serguei Mourachov. The team consists mostly of the founders of Ludicorp, the company that started Flickr. Outside of its headquarters in San Francisco, California, Slack has offices in Dublin, Vancouver, New York, Toronto, Denver, London, Tokyo, Pune, Paris, Istanbul and Melbourne. Slack Technologies developed the Slack software.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Greg Kumparak: Slack's Co-Founders Take Home The Crunchie For Founder Of The Year. In: TechCrunch . February 5, 2015, accessed June 13, 2016 .
- ↑ Slack: Slack apps for computers, phones & tablets . Archived from the original on April 3, 2015. Retrieved on April 19, 2015.
- ↑ Jeffrey Harris: Slack client for Commodore 64 . Retrieved November 29, 2016.
- ↑ List of Internet services that can be integrated into Slack via a link on the Slack.com website
- ↑ Price overview on Slack.com as of August 2015
- ↑ a b Report on the Internet business portal T3n.de from April 23, 2014 ( accessed : August 10, 2015)
- ↑ a b Jon Russell, Ingrid Lunden: Source: Microsoft mulled an $ 8 billion bid for Slack, will focus on Skype instead. In: TechCrunch .com. March 4, 2016, accessed March 9, 2016 .
- ↑ Slack self-reported. February 7, 2019, Retrieved February 25, 2019 (American English).
- ↑ Slack.com: Slack for Nonprofits. Retrieved December 14, 2018 .
- ↑ Business Insider , accessed September 29, 2016
- ↑ Jörn Brien: Together against Microsoft and Facebook: Slack cooperates more closely with Google . t3n . December 7, 2016. Accessed December 23, 2016.
- ↑ Messaging service Slack wants to go public via direct placement. heise.de March 27, 2019.
- ↑ Company chat: IBM wants to use Slack for over 300,000 employees - Golem.de. Retrieved February 27, 2020 .
- ↑ Slack wins customers of 38,000 licenses with Uber. Retrieved February 27, 2020 .
- ↑ Slack.com: Create Shared Channels in a Workspace (Beta). Retrieved December 14, 2018 .
- ↑ Slack.com: Format Messages. Retrieved December 14, 2018 .
- ↑ Slack.com: Do not disturb notifications. Retrieved December 14, 2018 .
- ↑ Slack privacy policy
- ↑ Slack Terms and Conditions