Sharing is Caring

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It hurts me to title this post 'Sharing is Caring'. Sure, I could try to work in a Care Bears joke. There's probably even a Valley Girl hook. Whatever.

But with good old Vlad puttin' the 'what's yours is mine and what's mine is mine' back in communism, sharing this is definitely worth a thousand rubles:

So, in the spirit of sharing everything you have with mother Russia, let's share your apps with folks that aren't privileged members of the party.

Session Collaboration

If your administrator allows it and you're using the AJAX client, you can share your application with anyone, whether or not they have access to the document. It's a little similar to a WebEx session. You send invitations to those who you would like to attend a session, and those users get a temporary link to join you in your exploration of the data. Anyone on the 'call' can interact with the document as long as you keep your session open.

Step One - Enable Session Collaboration in the QMC

Just two clicks. First, enable it at the server level:

Then, enable at a document level:

Step Two - Share it like you're a Hippie on a commune

Start your session and collect the email addresses of the people on your call.

Click on the button "Share session", then "Start Sharing":

Next, click "Email this link"

Your default email client will open with something like:

Don't forget (because you're a professional)!

1. Add the addresses
2. Change the Subject
3. Add a message to explain the link

WARNING - Preachy Preaching ahead

There is a difference between information and understanding. Some will tell you that information is valuable.

Those people are stupid.

The Widget Company had sales of $10 million. That's information. It's 100% useless.

The Widget Company had sales of $10 million this year, which is a 50% increase over last year. That's knowledge. It's also a doubling of information.

The bottom line is that information becomes more valuable as you share it. It leads to knowledge that you may or may not want to share, because knowledge is power.

Bringing it home to your dashboards, it's value increases with the more folks that have access to it. Sharing it increases your value as an analyst. It increases the value of the data because it creates knowledge. 

P.S. If you complain about my lame segues in the opening joke, don't be surprised if Vlad riding a flying shark shows up at your next watercooler gossip session.