Notable + Quotable: Going virtual the smart way, decreasing carbon emissions, and empowering the citizenry with technology

April 30, 2009 at 1:56 pm · Filed under Notable + Quotable

A Strategic View of Virtualization
Dana Gardner of TechNewsWorld interviewed HP’s Bob Meyer on virtualization’s potential to save money for businesses. “Right now, everybody is reacting to an economic climate. Those CIOs who are acting with foresight, looking ahead and saying, “Where will this take me?” are the ones who are going to be successful as opposed to the people who are just reacting to the current environment and looking to cut and slash. Virtualization has a couple of benefits that allow you to save and optimize, but also sets you up for that — to boomerang you whenever the economic recovery comes.”

World Wildlife Fund Looks at Telecommuting as Carbon Emissions Solution
If you ever wanted proof, WWF now presents hard numbers for virtual conferencing and telecommuting’s benefits to the environment, as Jaymi Heimbuch reports on Treehugger. “The difference in emission savings between the carbon world (lowest savings overall) and the smart world (highest savings overall) is significant – e.g., for teleworking about 1 billion tons of CO2 emissions differentiate the two scenarios in year 2030 (approximately equivalent to the total current CO2 emissions from UK and Italy combined) and almost 3.5 billion tons in year 2050 (almost as much as the EU’s total CO2 emissions or more than half of the US’s current CO2 emissions).”

The Future of Our Cities: Open, Crowdsourced, and Participatory
In a guest post on O’Reilly Radar, John Geraci shares stories of how technology is being used to involve citizens in decison-making. “Back in January, the city of Los Angeles announced a gap of $433 million for their 2009 budget. Instead of just cutting services however, LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa took the unusual step of posting a survey online for residents of the city to fill out. For each category of city service, the survey asked residents, “what program would you reduce to help balance the budget?”, followed by an itemized list of services they could choose from.”

Head in the Clouds or Head in the Sand? SaaS Faces the Facts
IT Jungle’s Dan Burger talked to top consultant Amy Wohl on the history of SaaS, obstacles to its success, its value as a money saver, interoperability issues and much more. “Conversations leading up to the difficult decisions between SaaS and traditional off-the-shelf software used on in-house machines are occurring much more frequently. The interoperability issue is a big one, and executives are continually griping about information silos cramping their decision-making abilities. Also, the current economic situation is SaaS-friendly. It may push things in the direction of IT outsourcing.”

IT Pros: Private Clouds a Good First Step to Cloud Computing
If industry experts had their way, businesses should first try building a private cloud as a test case before engaging the services of cloud computing providers, says PC World reporter Elizabeth Montalbano. “‘If you can’t do it internally, it’s tough to take it externally,’ said Jeff Birnbaum, [cq] the managing director of Merrill Lynch, who along with several other IT professionals discussed the issue at the 2009 High Performance Linux on Wall Street conference. He said before companies decide whether to deploy applications on an AWS or Microsoft’s Windows Azure, they should build a cloud network internally and see if they can make that work, then decide what assets they could run on a public cloud.”

Web 2.0: The End of the Beginning
Bob Thompson of CustomerThink looks at the state of Web 2.0, where it’s going, and what it means to a customer-centric business. “What’s most exciting to me is the potential for social media technologies to enable Customer Collaboration Management (CCM), which is all about joining the conversation with customers. CCM is the third major wave of customer-centric thinking, following CRM—which is mostly about managing customer information and maximizing revenue, and CEM—which is about creating and delivering great experiences to drive loyalty.”

Take control of what you have – you
Dr. Judith Krings offers up some tips on the right attitude for reducing stress. “The more you take care of yourself, the more you will have to give to others. Neglect you, and you, ironically, will neglect others. Today is all you have. Yes, I know this is easier said than done, but harness your optimism, tenacity and wisdom personality strengths. Focus on them to help you float over the waves of overwhelm.”

Book Review: Clara Shih’s “The Facebook Era”

April 29, 2009 at 10:58 am · Filed under Enterprise 2.0, Management, Networks + Networking, Web 2.0, Web 3.0, Web Apps, productivity, social media, social networks

Subtitled  “Tapping Online Social Networks to Build Better Products, Reach New Audiences, and Sell More Stuff” the book is a must read, and especially useful as a primer for those still needing to understand the fundamental changes in doing business as the Internet has matured  from Web 1.0 to:

“an entirely new level with Web 3.0- an era that is entirely about innovation and collaboration.”     (Foreword page ix)                        

An excellent overview of the book, in author  Clara Shih’s  own words,  is in 2 parts at the Entrepreneur’s Journeys blog .   Not surprizingly the book’s home page is on Facebook and 24 x 5 star Amazon reviews indicate the book’s value.

The book section titles– starting with “A Brief History of Social Media’ through “Transforming the Way We Do Business’ to “Your Step-By-Step Guide to Using Facebook for Business”–  reveal the key themes.  Reflecting the author’s hands on experience as the developer of FaceConnector and head of Enterprise Social Networking Alliances and Product Strategy for Salesforce, the book is filled with lived experiences of companies using social networking to “build better products, reach new audiences and sell more stuff.”

If there are gaps in the book they reflect the state of the industry. For example, “The ROI of Social” is addressed in half a page (205) beginning:

“Understandably, a large number of you are focused on ROI and  might feel frustrated that there has been no clear quantifiable data around ROI”

and concludes suggesting;

“ROI will become much more quantifiable  and standardized”.

Have you read “The Facebook Era?”  What did you take away?

~ Jenny Ambrozek

Being social at work: which communications model to adopt for the enterprise?

April 28, 2009 at 9:05 pm · Filed under Enterprise 2.0, Web 2.0, social media, social networks

Web 2.0 technology presents the modern organisation with a plethora of means for communicating new information to staff. While some of us are now running to install wikis and blogs as a vehicle to achieve enterprise 2.0 nirvana there are some important considerations that need to be given time before we jump for, say, Yammer over Twitter, that go beyond the fear of our internal information being communicated outside the organisation.

A very interesting article by Sinan Aral, Erik Brynjolfsson, and Marshall Van Alstyne [1] on access to information through social networks provides some food for thought on this issue. It’s a fascinating examination of how information flows from one person to another and complements a number of other similar studies that look at how social relationships can either block access to information or enhance access to it.

Obviously, traditional communications models focus on the delivery of information as a top-down process, and as a result, limit the amount of shared knowledge that can be passed between the organisational silos. Because of the linear nature of knowledge transfer blockers can be a significant problem in accessing new information.

Some organisations, though, have adopted various collaboration tools as a means of complementing existing traditional communications channels in an attempt to break-down internal silos and blockers that can limit access to new information. In some instances, these tools also facilitate collaboration with clients and stakeholders outside the organisation.

While there are some obvious advantages with this approach it still doesn’t fully address modern research on how people access information. Aral and Brynjolfsson et. al.’s research notes that:

• Network diversity is associated with higher levels of productivity for task based information workers
• Network diversity is associated with performance, in part because diverse contacts provide access to novel information and resources
• Age, gender, industry experience, education have little effect on access to diverse information, highlighting the importance of network structure for information advantage.

These findings support a more expansive adoption of social media tools within the workplace to more efficiently leverage the social networks that individuals have both inside and outside the organisation, particularly given the homogenous nature of networks within an organisation due to the constraints and norming factors of culture.

The important take home message is simple — the more you leverage individual’s social networks the greater their access to information and the higher the levels of productivity that will result for them and the enterprise.

M

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1. 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.

Predictions for the future of collaboration

April 28, 2009 at 10:57 am · Filed under Web 2.0

From the Learningtrends network, I found a series of posts byPadmasree Warrior, CTO of Cisco.
The 5 predictions for the future of collaboration are:

1. Collaboration networks will be to Enterprises what Social Networks are to Consumers.
2. It’s not about “on-premise” vs. “on-demand”, it will all be about the User Experience.
3. Innovation will be redefined by Operational Excellence
4. Organizations without boundaries will drive the next wave of productivity
5. Information technology will evolve into Information Fabric

Items #1 and #4 are all about networks, not surprisingly from the company that launched its “Human Network” brand campaign in 2007.  The information network enables the human network to communicate across distances of time and space and enables a single organization to achieve remarkable results by reaching out, establishing a network that crosses boundaries, and nurturing that network.

These posts are strong on vision from a company that has played and will continue to play a vital role in connecting us. Warrior’s example of an ad hoc expertise community in Cisco (Mac users) is self-referencing. Of course technies use tools!

The vision meets reality in the hard work of the social architecture, which includes attention to the following human elements:

• Getting over the barriers to adoption of the technology
• Designing collaborative spaces not just to serve the functions of collaboration, but the purpose of a specific network or collaboration
• Modeling and supporting the behaviors of collaboration

I am challenged and invigorated by the work of bringing organizations into this predicted future.

Tips for Tough Times: Employee motivational techniques, how to set price points, and recession-proof technologies

April 27, 2009 at 9:35 pm · Filed under Tips for Tough Times

Motivating through un-motivating times
Jim Evans shares a few cost-effective employee motivators: “Promotional and learning opportunities: Ironically, layoffs and the resulting consolidation of work often creates learning opportunities that didn’t exist before. New work assignments can turn a negative experience into a positive one for employees who view the situation as an opportunity to learn new job skills or promote career growth.”

Pricing Strategies for the Downturn
Paul Nunes gives some pricing tips, from minding the paycheck cycle to offering financing, on HarvardBusiness.org. “Before discounting, companies should consider several factors to determine if they can instead hold the line. First, consider whether customers still need your specific products. Are substitutes readily available, and if so, how attractive are they? While demand may be down, the customers who are still buying might be brand loyal and willing to pay a premium for the smaller volumes they are purchasing. What risks do your customers mitigate by buying your products instead your competitors? Are you uniquely positioned because of your ability to provide timely deliver or servicing?”

Top 10 most recession-proof technologies
PC Authority’s Iain Thomson lists tech industries doing well despite the downturn. They include, not surprisingly, SaaS, telecommuting, and green tech, about which he writes: “Green technology is all about saving money, with a side benefit of helping to save the planet. As such companies are going to be investing in it to reduce the costs of running an enterprise. As an IT manager this is how you need to sell it to your board. Don’t go in there and witter on about the plight of the lesser spotted grebe. Tell them it cuts costs from the bottom line and funding will be yours.”

5 Ways You’ll Know the Recession is Over
On Mint.com’s blog, Jim Hu features the signs which, according to Stanford economics professor Jim Howell, spell the end of the current recession. “It seems like everything we read about the economy is either bad or getting worse. The measurements of economic health reveal a patient that requires a stint in the I.C.U. and some time to heal. Luckily, the prognosis isn’t terminal. The American economy is resilient, and since the 1960’s economic growth phases have dwarfed periods of recessions. So if you believe in history, what goes down eventually goes up. The big question is when.”

Succeeding in a downturn
Career One has tips on what to expect and how to navigate the job market in today’s environment. “Flexibility and a range of skills will win in this market, Mr Deligiannis says. “In some sectors, where businesses are becoming leaner, all-rounders are finding themselves in high demand,” he says. “For example, experienced design engineers with additional skills, such as drafting, and project-site supervision, are required. So broadening your skill base is a positive move to make.”

Aggregation of Marginal Gains: Recession Busting Analytics
Avinash Kaushik surmises, on his blog, that simple things can add up to big things, and that by using web analytics for online businesses, we’ll know exactly how to look for them. “We are constantly on a quest to conquer the next big thing. Mountain. Ocean. Planet. ‘Conversion Buster.’ The next million dollar opportunity. Not that there’s anything fundamentally wrong with that quest. The challenge is that frequently in that quest we ignore the immediately achievable. And that tradeoff is a crime. Back in the 1980’s Jan Carlzon was trying to breathe new life into an ailing Scandinavian Air Services. He was famous for saying “You cannot improve one thing by 1000% but you can improve 1000 little things by 1%”.”

My Weekly Personal Finance Routine
The author shares the weekly habits that help him ensure his financial security. “On the first Sunday of each month, I prepare a monthly personal finance statement. This usually takes about an hour or so, since it requires collecting a lot of data from various places, organizing it, and doing a lot of comparisons to earlier months (mostly for my own interest)… I engage my wife in discussions on some of these issues. We talk about our goals. We talk about how our investments and income are doing. We talk about our plans for big upcoming purchases. We talk about our dreams, too, and about how they’re constantly evolving and growing and changing.”

Quickoffice Brings Microsoft Word and Excel Functionality to the iPhone

April 27, 2009 at 5:30 pm · Filed under Web 2.0

Quickoffice has been in the business of supplying productivity software to mobile devices for a number of years with 100 million applications running on the Palm, Nokia’s Symbian, and other systems. They provide native viewing and editing of Microsoft® Office documents in over 47 languages. Quickoffice recently made available their full Office suite for the iPhone with Word and Excel editing capability. It is named Quickoffice for iPhone. I spoke with David Halpin, their VP of Engineering. David said they have applied the code and lessons learned with other systems to create the iPhone application so it is a mature application running on a new platform. 

He showed me how it worked. We first looked at Word functionality. Quickoffice for iPhone has an intuitive user interface and supports comprehensive functionality including cut, copy and paste, font formatting, content selection and bullets within Word documents. You often use finger taps instead of moose clicks. You can single and double tap. You can even triple tap to select a paragraph. You can zoom in on text to make your finger taps more accurate by holding your finger down. This is a feature I need with my fat fingers. I like the way the text word wraps so you do not have to scroll from side to side but just scan down. You can vary the text size and the screen redoes the word wrap. Here is a sample screen with some editing functions.

Users can also bring up a wider keyboard to edit and create documents in landscape mode (see below).

Excel functionality is similar to Word but tailored for spreadsheets. It includes extensive mathematical and statistical formulas, with 125 functions. Other useful features include file sharing capabilities via Wi-Fi desktop connectivity and access to one’s MobileMe iDisk account. Editing is done while maintaining perfect data integrity, in addition to ‘auto-save’ to ensure none of your work is lost on-the-go. This auto-save is important on the iPhone, as it can only do one thing at a time. If a phone call comes in, it will quit Word. After you finish the call Quickoffice takes you back to where you where in Word. Here is another editing screen.

I asked David about the main uses of Office applications on a mobile device. He said it has primarily been for viewing documents and making minor edits. Now there are also netbooks, sized between mobile phones and laptops, that allow for more editing. Quickoffice is increasingly providing capabilities for these devices. More editing occurs with these larger devices.

Since Quickoffice connects to the cloud, you can access data in such sources as Apple’s MobleMe. This opens up the future possibilities of adding collaborative features and this is part of the vision for Quickoffice. David said they will not try to rebuild the many collaborative features in the multiple platforms already on the market, but rather allow you access to these platforms. They want you to get to your data from a mobile device and work with it regardless of where it is stored.

Quickoffice for iPhone will also make its functionality available in separate applications to cater to an individual’s needs. Quicksheet, formerly MobileFiles Pro, includes only Excel editing functionality and Quickword features only Word editing. Quickoffice Files, formerly named MobileFiles 2.0, enables users to access and view documents.

David said that Microsoft has been opening up access to Office functionality. The 2003 and 2007 releases make it easier to connect with these tools. Quickoffice for iPhone is available through the Apple App Store for $19.99. Many of their other offerings are shipped on Symbian devices. The changing economy is putting pressure on many of these device suppliers and business models in this market are adjusting. However, overall the market remains robust. I like this application. I might be getting an iPhone soon and if I do, I will be sure to get Quickoffice also. 

The Three M’s of Twitter (Everyone’s on Twitter – Now What?)

April 27, 2009 at 12:09 pm · Filed under Web 2.0

I believe that in the past couple of months, Twitter, the microblogging service, has been overexposed in the media. With that said, I’m aware that writing a blog post about Twitter creates an uncomfortable paradox. But I’m writing this post to ask myself a question: now what?

A recent TechCrunch article noted that Twitter’s global visitor count shot up to 19 million more last March. The number of active users, though, is the subject of speculation, since Twitter won’t release actual figures. Some say they have 5 to 10 million users, while others say there are 14 million users in the US alone. Many marketers – from the spammer to the sophisticated soft-sellers – are probably out there salivating at these statistics.

But using Twitter to get the word out – about your new blog, web site, product, or service – isn’t as simple as it seems. You’re not automatically going to reach those millions of new users. With the increasing number of users out there, it’s not enough to just have an account and post all you want. Since there’s more “noise” out there, increased effort is needed to show others that you’re broadcasting high quality “signal”. And how does one do that?

Meaning. I know it’s just 140-characters, but we shouldn’t equate brevity with lack of depth. Since there are many tweets out there competing for your audience’s attention, you need to find a way to stand out. You can only do that by delivering something unique, something they’ll truly want to hear. If they’re interested enough to visit your Twitter page regularly just to read anything they’ve missed, then you know you’re doing something right.

Measurement. The more activity there is in Twitter, the more we have to measure what works. Tim Ferriss wrote an extensive post on his blog, explaining how he measured the best time to publish his tweets, as well as which types of headlines are the most “clickable”. This is a smart move for anyone who is seriously considering Twitter as a marketing tool.

Mutuality. Twitter is not a megaphone, although it may give off that impression. If most users just publish tweets without replying to others, it’ll be more like a virtual soliloquy convention. Initiating conversation, no matter how short, is essential – especially if you want to convert your Twitter followers into business contacts or clients. I find that Twitter is the easiest way to establish rapport with someone if they’re outside your existing circle.

In an ideal world, everyone would tweet according to these 3 M’s. If that were the case, then the focus would be on high quality communication rather than high quantity. For now, though, I’ll be crossing my fingers in front of my TweetDeck, hoping for the best.