Author Archive
by Jenny Ambrozek
June 20, 2009 at 7:05 am · Filed under
Web 2.0
Are you headed to Enterprise 2.0 in Boston this coming week, June 22-25?
Exploring the program it appears there are a host of not to be missed sessions. From a Twitter exchange with industry analyst Larry Hawes I understand Tuesday’s 10.30am “Enterprise 2.0 Reality Check” is essential. My list starts with the timely panel “How Twitter Changes Everything” convened by Jessica Lipnack and including TheAppGap contributors Patti Anklam and Bill Ives.
Other sessions on my schedule include:
i. Learning what emerged from Stowe Boyd and Oliver Marks Open Enterprise research initiative
ii. Presentations from the 4 Launchpad finalists Bantam Live, Brainpark, Manymoon and Youcalc
iii. Attending Enterprise2 Open sessions
iv. Seeing what’s new in the Expo Pavilion.
The conference is @e2conf on Twitter and using tag #econf.
If you are attending please take a moment to share your conference expectations and essential sessions. And if your schedule suddenly allows you to attend code CNAPEB04 provides a 30% discount or free pavilion pass.
~ Jenny Ambrozek
by Jenny Ambrozek
June 3, 2009 at 5:23 am · Filed under
Enterprise 2.0, Management, Web 2.0, government 2.0, productivity, social media
While Jim Ware’s recent post reminded us about Keeping Technology in Perspective listening to long term venture capitalist Fred Wilson speaking at Google about “Disruption” indicates technology change will continue, demanding that we as individuals, organizations and industries adapt.
Wilson’s Union Square Ventures current investments include Tumblr, Feedburner, Boxee, Twitter and Etsy. He blogs at www.avc.com and sought feedback on his Google talk before delivering.
Fred Wilson’s “Disruption Talk” begins with the media industry, the changes to which we’ve all watched and experienced as online and empowered individuals have emerged as driving forces and taken power from large institutions.
He proceeds to outline the industries seen as targets for future “disruption”: Consumer Finance, Education, Energy, Health Care and Government.
The presentation is an hour but recommended viewing if you are interested in what’s next.
How does your view of what’s ahead in technology and the industries to be “disrupted” jibe with Fred Wilson’s? Please share your reactions.
by Jenny Ambrozek
May 14, 2009 at 8:12 am · Filed under
Web 2.0
Fellow TheAppGap contributors Jim Ware and Celine Roque are my usual sources of the latest in the future of work spaces and teleworking. However, the Financial Times Weekend House & Home section, May 9 has an interesting piece by New York area based “global trendspotter ” Marian Salzman on what the house of the future might look like. Relevant here is the author’s forecast for attention to home workspaces.
Under the timely heading ” Online and employed” Salzman begins:
“Thanks to the economic crisis, we’ve seen growing interest in the efficiencies of working at home via online networks linked to internal office servers. If your tasks are primarily computer-based and you aren’t needed for hour upon hour of in-person meetings, what’s the sense in commuting several hours a week just to sit in a different room in front of a different screen to do the same things?”
then points to attention getting human resources group WorldatWork, projections indicating:
“more than 28m Americans now work from home at least one day per month and the number is expected to rise to 100m by 2010.”
The article cites a recent Economist magazine report to make the case for the ecofriendly nature of telecommuting:
” if the 33m Americans who have jobs that could be done from home were to stay there instead of driving to work, US oil imports would drop by more than one quarter and carbon emissions would fall by 67m metric tonnes a year.”
Listing two further trends:
“Growing numbers of consultants and freelancers are assembling careers from multiple projects and using a laptop as a business portal.”
And,
“although women are still demanding top education and job options, they are increasingly willing to stay in the house more, taking a break for a few years to start a family or to work part-time from a home office, redefining the workday as one that happens during their children’s naptime and after bedtime, for instance.”
the writer concludes that private home offices are an essential element of future homes.
Did Marian Salzman get it right in describing future societal and work trends and implications for home building? All your insights welcomed.
~ Jenny Ambrozek
by Jenny Ambrozek
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
by Jenny Ambrozek
April 23, 2009 at 11:06 am · Filed under
Distributed Work, Web 2.0
While this story dates from March 12 for anyone interested in the future of technology and work to me it is still worth sharing. The Futurephile article title “IT built into jewellery” featured Dr. Henry Tirri, Nokia’s head of research forecasting, not surprizingly, significantly increased use of mobile, and by the year 2050 that:
Information and physical reality are becoming deeply interwined. It is only a matter of time before we can take the information from one location–such as the pattern on the shirt I am wearing– and reconstruct far away.
Based on MIT’s Pattie Maes & Pranav Mistry’s TED presentation of their “Sixth Sense”, “game-changing wearable tech”, the ability to mesh information and physical reality is closer than 2050. Here’s the video .
Just imagine the implications for working when information can be summoned and displayed in the ways the “Sixth Sense’ promises. Thoughts anyone?
by Jenny Ambrozek
April 3, 2009 at 2:48 pm · Filed under
Web 2.0
At Carnegie Hall, April 15, 90 musicians from 30 countries will assemble to perform just days after meeting for the first time. What distinguishes this orchestra is how they were recruited: through YouTube.
According to the Financial Times, March 28, the YouTube Orchestra is the brainchild of a junior staffer in Google’s London office. From December 1 to February “around 3,000 video auditions had been uploaded from 71 countries” with some places organizing submissions with help days and instruction. Visit the YouTube Symphony Channel to view the auditions
and meet the successful orchestra members.
Turn 8 pages in last weekend’s FT Life & Arts section and find Google also changing the way life and work are lived. An article titled “Farewell to the Office“ describes how Google Chrome lead developer, Lars Bak, “from his farmhouse in the Danish countryside… quietly cleared the way for the next internet revolution”. If you are interested in the changing world of work, life work balance and how Google innovates, the story is a must read. Highlights include bicycling to work, banning sugar from the office and having the work day end at 5pm.
What does it say about Google that its reach and innovation extend from developing a new Web browser out of a Danish farmhouse, to assembling an orchestra of individuals from around the world via YouTube auditions? And let’s not overlook it’s latest announcement: Google Ventures.
by Jenny Ambrozek
March 7, 2009 at 11:01 am · Filed under
Collective intelligence, Enterprise 2.0, Networks + Networking, Web 2.0, productivity
Appropriately via Twitter this morning I found a post by @johnt both marking the occasion of Twitter’s 3rd birthday and making the case for why Twitter is the Killer App.
Can Twitter really be 3 years old? Wikipedia confirms and provides this history:
“Twitter was founded by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams. It began in March 2006 as a research and development project inside San Francisco podcasting company Odeo.[4] Odeo was co-founded by Noah Glass and blogger Evan Williams. In October 2006, the company was bought out by management, and Williams, Stone, and other Odeo employees started another company named Obvious Corp. to operate Odeo and Twitter, another startup Williams had been testing in the offices for about a year.[5] Twitter had been initially used internally by Odeo’s employees and became a product of Obvious at this time.[6]
The service rapidly gained popularity: In March 2007, it won the 2007 South by Southwest Web Award in the blog category.[7] Dorsey, the man behind the concept of Twitter,[8] gave the following playful acceptance speech at SXSW: “We’d like to thank you in 140 characters or less. And we just did!”
John Tropea’s blog post scanning the Twitter landscape and spelling out the case for microblogging as a productivity tool is recommended reading. (The AppGap’s Jon Husband is quoted.) However, the assertion catching my attention was this:
“Most of all it is the perfect example of defining a new generation, away from the economic model of self-gain, and more to a social connection, collective, and engaged model.”
Does Twitter’s rapid rate of adoption and popularity in fact signal the arrival of an economic model based on engagement?
If so, what are the implications?
~ Jenny Ambrozek
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