Archive for February, 2009
by Anita Campbell
February 28, 2009 at 12:20 am · Filed under
Webinar
No time, no budget, fewer people? We’ve got 5 big ideas for how to get all the work done.
Join us for a free webinar on March 11, 2009, from 2:00 to 3:00 pm Eastern time. I will be moderating the discussion and will be joined by John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing, and Jonathan Fields, author of Career Renegade. (In case you didn’t guess, that’s me in the middle of those two fine gentlemen.)
In this webinar we will cover:
1. How to automate what you hate — tasks and processes that are time sucks you never noticed or didn’t know you could offload to new tools
2. How going virtual can help – prudent outsourcing can make more sense than ever
3. Why getting “social” at work is good for business – seek technology applications with social media features and that connect you with communities that can provide speedy answers, serve as “free” extensions of your team, connect you to customers faster
4. Why and how to reframe how you think about your job – advice for doing more of what matters and less of what doesn’t
5. How to get your head in the cloud – move more work to the web and save more time and money
We be giving away some copies of our books. Please join us — and be sure to bring your questions too.
The webinar is free, but you do have to reserve a spot — space is limited.
Find out more and register now.
by Jim Ware
February 27, 2009 at 1:47 pm · Filed under
Communities, Distributed Work, Management, Talent Management, Web 2.0, Web Commuting
[This note is cross-posted from the Future of Work blog]
There’s a great new story just published today in Business Week detailing how some organizations are turning to “telecommuting” and flexible work programs as a way to reduce costs and retain employees in these difficult times.
The article (“Telecommuting: Once a Perk, Now a Necessity“), by Michelle Conlin (editor of BW’s Working Life Department), highlights how SCAN Health Plan, BDO Seidman, and Capital One are using flexible work options to cut real estate costs significantly.
The really encouraging side of the story, though, is how many employees relish the reduction in commute times and the rebalancing of their lives (no surprise to us, but still a benefit that’s not widely enough recognized).
Read the rest of this entry »
by Celine Roque
February 27, 2009 at 10:43 am · Filed under
AppGap Tips, Security
A recent survey conducted by the Ponemon Institute [found via DataTheft.org] had some startling information about data loss during times when businesses are downsizing:
According to our findings, 59% of employees who leave or are asked to leave are stealing company data. Moreover, 79% of these respondents admit that their former employer did not permit them to leave with company data.
Source: “Data Loss Risks During Downsizing” by Ponemon Institute LLC, February 23, 3009
The respondents were chosen among employees who were fired, laid off, or who left their jobs voluntarily. Since we’re seeing more layoffs across several industries each month, it’s no surprise that many employees who were let go are feeling vindictive.
But what seemed more alarming to me was that 67% of those who stole corporate data from former employees used the stolen data to leverage their new jobs. While it’s natural to feel angry and vengeful towards an employer when you’re let go during tough economic times, acting on them is another matter.
Obviously, this is bad news for companies as data theft might lead to security risks as well as loss of revenue. More importantly, the clients of these companies are threatened as well, since most of the stolen data includes email lists, customer information, contact lists, and other business information.
It is evident that security policies, non-disclosure agreements, and other contracts referencing data security are inefficient when it comes to preventing data theft. The study recommends several solutions to this problem, including auditing an employee’s electronic and paper documents as part of their exit interview, as well as monitoring the employee’s access to the corporate network before they leave.
Does your business prevent data theft? How worried are you about disgruntled employees stealing company data?
by Jenny Ambrozek
February 26, 2009 at 4:01 pm · Filed under
Web 2.0
February 23-24 I was a privileged participant at the Future of Web Apps (FOWA) conference in Miami. (This earlier post looked ahead to the conference.)
My mind is still sifting through conference impressions starting with the sheer talent in the room both among the speakers and attendees. However, for the look ahead to where the Web is headed, two presenters stood out:
1. Aza Raskin, Mozilla Labs
Aza introduced Ubiquity, an initiative launched August 2008 with the “modest’ ambition of:
“connecting the Web with language in an attempt to find new user interfaces that could make it possible for everyone to do common Web tasks more quickly and easily.”
During the demo Raskin talked about “intent based programming” and “seeing the Web the way you want to see it.” His presentation made it easy to believe, as Raskin’s bio indicates, that he “gave his first talk on user interface at age 10.” Ubiquity is an initiative to follow.
2. Francisco Tolmasky 280 North- Atlas for Capuccino
Applause filled the room during Tomalsky’s reveal of a new visual development platform called Atlas as an extension of Capuccino, an open source framework “to bring desktop-class applications to the browser with their new open source framework.” Ryan Carson, the conference host, observed following Francisco’s presentation:
“Web app development just changed forever.”
I’m not a developer but understand Atlas allows programming through a visual interface by capturing functions as buttons and using “controllers” to add action and speed programming through a visual interface. You can see a demo here: 280atlas.com/ The visual programming focus is not surprizing when you learn Tolmasky worked at Apple on the iPhone team.
My colleague Victoria Axelrod observed developments like Capuccino Atlas promise that kindergarteners will be learning application programming. I hope education systems are preparing.
Scanning the FOWA Miami Flickr photos gives a sense of the conference. Hats off to all at Carsonified for a tremendously thought provoking look forward to the Future of Web Apps and especially Jo Andrews for her hard work behind the scenes.
by Celine Roque
February 25, 2009 at 10:23 am · Filed under
Web 2.0
This week the web was abuzz, especially on Twitter, because Gmail was down for a few hours. Recently, AppGap co-blogger Anita Campbell also wrote about Ma.gnolia closing down. Let’s face it – as convenient and easy as it may be to do cloud computing, most web apps still have a long way to go when it comes to reliability. As users of these apps, what can we do to avoid the effects of app downtime?
This may sound like common sense, but the most preventive measure we can take against web apps or services closing down is to back up our data. From downloading archives into your hard drive to using online data storage services, there is no shortage of ways to do this. Gmail users should’ve enabled Offline Gmail so that they could do some email tasks while the service was down. If you have a professional blog using WordPress, you can use plug-ins such as DB Backup or Backup WordPress to do backup your database automatically. For professional Twitter users, you can even backup your Twitter data. For every web app you use, find a way to back up your data as easily automatically as possible. Doing it manually tends to be a deterrent to making it a habit.
Once a week should be enough for average users, but for those who are dealing with an overwhelming amount of data, daily is preferable. Personally, I make a habit of downloading my Google Docs files every other day so that I don’t get stalled at work even when my internet connection fails.
Also, before choosing an app in the first place, the reliability of the company behind it should be a major factor. It may not be a foolproof factor considering Ma.gnolia’s demise, but it’s often always safer to choose an app from a big-named company with full funding and a reputation to protect, rather than a new startup that just released a beta version of their app last month. New apps are fun to test drive, but wait a while before you become dependent on them.
It’s also useful to have a Plan B in place whenever your favorite apps are down. During Gmail’s downtime, some companies switched to Google Apps for collaboration and online communication. If you have your own self-hosted Wiki or other collaboration tools, you and your team can turn to them whenever your usual apps are down.
There may be no such thing as a 100% uptime app that lasts for all eternity. The best we can do is to protect ourselves and our businesses by performing regular backups and having alternative plans.
by Matthew Hodgson
February 25, 2009 at 12:38 am · Filed under
Enterprise 2.0, social media
Sadly, you don’t have to look too far for statistics on how people using social media at work are wasting time and money.
A survey conducted by information security consultancy Global Secure Systems (GSS) and Infosecurity Europe found that 776 office workers admitted to spending at least 30 minutes a day visiting social networking sites while at work. This equates to 3 weeks per year or £6.5 billion annually in lost productivity [1] through people throwing sheep and checking out people’s hotness on Facebook. Similar research in Australia by internet security company, SurfControl, estimates that Australian employees spend approximately one hour a day on the social networking site — costing employers approximately $5 billion Australian ($4 billion US) a year in lost productivity [2]. With these statistics, surely you’d want to be firing, not hiring people who use these tools!
Researchers for Gartner, though, suggest that there are huge opportunities for improving the management of large firms by using social media.
“Businesses which harness how employees use these sites stand to increase savings, productivity and profits” — Jeffrey Mann, Gartner.
One area that may tend to be overlooked is the value of social media in recruitment.
At a recent corporate executive summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, PR company Edelman revealed that social networking shaved 1% off its bottom line by encouraging its staff to use such websites as a recruitment tool [3]. UK CEO Robert Phillips said it was cheaper than using recruitment consultants and more beneficial at tracking down the right person.
“We get a better quality recruit. They are much more engaged with the firm and who the firm ‘is’”
With studies on social networks indicating higher productivity for those who use virtual networks, recruiting individuals through Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, may in fact yield higher quality candidates who are better able to use social media to share, collaborate and find information much more quickly to the benefit of the organisation. They may even be able to help break down the silos and social barriers within organisations that limit knowledge flow [4] . . . wouldn’t that be good!
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1. The Birchley Hall Press News, 2008. Online social networking costs £6.5bn in lost productivity and opens security risk, 13 Feb. Online at: http://www.bjhcim.co.uk/news/2008/n802015.htm
2. Aune, S. P. 2007. Fuzzy Math: Facebook Costs Australia $4 Billion in Lost Productivity, August 20, 11:57 am PDT. Online at: http://mashable.com/2007/08/20/facebook-productivity/
3. Shiels, M. 2008. Firms ‘miss’ social site success, BBC News. 07:01 GMT, Friday, 11 July. Online at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7501073.stm
. Aral, S., Brynjolfsson, E. Marshall Van Alstyne, E. M. (2006) Network Structure & Information Advantage: Structural Determinants of Access to Novel Information. Workshop on Information Systems Economics. Online at: http://digital.mit.edu/wise2006/papers/3a-3_aral,%20brynjolfsson%20&%20van%20alstyne%20-%20network%20structure%20&%20information%20advantage.pdf
by Anita Campbell
February 24, 2009 at 9:27 pm · Filed under
Enterprise 2.0, Web Apps
Gartner, the Research firm, conducted a survey about usage of SaaS (software as a service). It confirmed what many of you already know or suspect: that usage of SaaS is growing. Nearly 90% of organizations expect to maintain or grow their usage of SaaS.
But what I wanted to know was this: what types of software services are companies using? That’s why I found this chart to be particularly helpful, because it shows the categories of SaaS services being used:
The top usage is accounting software (which appears to be used largely by small businesses). That category is closely followed by sales applications and email applications.
Interestingly, Web conferencing services did not rank as highly as I expected, falling near the bottom. I would have expected them to be among the more utilized services, especially among enterprises and midsize businesses that need to collaborate.
What the survey suggests is that there is plenty of room for more growth of SaaS, especially among the lower-ranking categories.
You can download a copy of the full Gartner report here.
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