Yammer, a new venture startup that won TechCrunch50‘s contest this year is both something new and old.  A first glance will reveal little difference between it and a number of other micro-blogging services, especially Twitter.  

But if you take a look underneath the hood (and do a little creative thinking about Ministry applications…) there’s a surprisingly high-value that it could bring to the table. 

Yammer takes a shot at the internal corporate communications channel and provides Twitter-like service for your business.  Here’s the official 411:

Yammer is a tool for making companies and organizations more productive through the exchange of short frequent answers to one simple question: “What are you working on?”

As employees answer that question, a feed is created in one central location enabling co-workers to discuss ideas, post news, ask questions, and share links and other information. Yammer also serves as a company directory in which every employee has a profile and as a knowledge base where past conversations can be easily accessed and referenced.

Anyone in a company can start their Yammer network and begin inviting colleagues. The privacy of each network is ensured by limiting access to those with a valid company email address. The basic Yammer service is free. Companies can pay to claim and administer their networks.

To those that are already deeply entrenched in the twitter-sphere (and to the many tweeters @ Northpoint) this technology and communication medium is nothing new.

But I do see some very powerful applications for ministries… especially keeping everyone up2date with what’s going on.  

Cynthia Ware over @ The Digital Sanctuary had a great post about it as well and I second her thoughts.  In addition, Terry Storch over @ LifeChurch made the following comment:

Yammer has been a very powerful communication tool for the LifeChurch.tv staff in a very short period of time.

Currently about 1/3 of the staff has signed up and connected into the network with no “official” push or requirement.

Twitter or Yammer? For me I need both. Twitter is for personal and Yammer is a corporate communication tool… Yammer is a tool for me that is replacing some needs for Email and IM.

I’m surprised at the last part of his comment (emphasis added is mine) and how quickly the transition has occured.

My initial gut reaction?  *gaaaaaah* another service to keep updated…?! boo!  But upon reflection, the purpose and motivation is different enough to motivate me to sign up and try it.  

Yapper is for internal communication, keeping the business going, useful for keeping the team and project leads informed, etc… Twitter is for general communique and life-streaming, etc.  

*sigh*… (In other news I’m nearly complete with my personal dev project about an evangelical twitter-like application…  that makes 3…!  *doh*!)

So, Northpoint, are you guys up to try this out?  I’ve created 2 Yammer accounts already (one for the @northpoint.org and one for the @northpointministries.net)…  I suppose that’s the first big issue we should figure out.

Sign up and let me know your thoughts.  They’ve even got desktop clients for those who dig that.