December 2007
Year in Review: The 70 Best Lifehacks of 2007 -... →
8 Web Worker Wishes for 2008 →
Last year about this time, I offered 7 web worker wishes for 2007. None of my wishes came true, but that won’t stop me from wishing for more this year.
So here we go:
Web workers will revolt en masse against Vista and choose Linux instead. Readers tell me Vista ain’t that bad, even though it’s bloated and demands way too much hardware. Still, I’d love to see more people choose an open source...
$40K to fill an iPod? One third of PCs use... →
36 Startup Tips: From Software Engineering to PR... →
This is a collection of startup tips covering software engineering, infrastructure, PR, conferences, legal and finance. They describe best practices for an early-stage startup. We hope that you will find these tips useful, but also please remember that they are based on subjective experiences and not all of them will be applicable to your company. These tips originally appeared as separate posts...
Collaboration tools - the key to organizational... →
Effectively working together is the key to organizational success. Collaboration tools make that possible. This webinar will discuss the role of collaboration in the context of ECM 2.0 and how search, taxonomy, workflow, and ECM come together to enable document-based collaboration that means faster time to market.
Dude, Where’s My Market? →
First and foremost, props to Jevon MacDonald for inspiring the title of this post, indeed I may just have poached the title of something he is working on. The Irregulars had a thread over the last day that has been moderately commented on, but nonetheless serves as a catalyst for something I didn’t realize I was thinking about. Maybe it’s time to jettison the “2.0″ labels and made up market...
The 23 Best iTunes Add-ons [Feature] →
iTunes may not be the best media player on the market, but let’s face facts: with its tight integration with our iPods and its excellent playlisting tools, it’s very likely the digital jukebox you’re using every day to manage your music. With that in mind, it’s time you take iTunes to the next level. We’ve already tackled the 20 Best iPod Utilities, so today...
You Won’t Find Me in My Office, I’m Working →
13 DEC 2007 from the New York Times | Read the full story» Desks suffice for answering phones and filing forms, but when it comes to the creative or introspective aspects of a job, desks can be uninspiring at best, or formidable obstacles at worst. So we leave those desks. Because we can. We take our laptops and seek shelter (and WiFi) either elsewhere in the building… or farther away in...
Things that the IT Dept shouldn't be doing [The... →
I personally get allergic reactions when I experience in first person or hear about situations where the IT department create obstacles for employees, typically because it wants to enforce or prevent a specific kind of behaviour. All too often, these obstacles are created without any deeper understanding of what the employees need to be able to be productive and do their jobs in an efficient way....
The Death Of Online Office Suites Is Greatly... →
There’s a ton of buzz going around over a new study, saying that only a small percentage of people even know what Google Docs is, with an even smaller subsection actually using it. Some are interpreting this to mean that web-based office suites are DOA, and that Microsoft’s Office suite has things perfectly under control. While I agree that Microsoft Office isn’t going anywhere...
Online office suites barely register with public,... →
Ars Technica
Online office suites barely register with public, says study; that … Ars Technica, MA - 3 hours ago Based on these numbers, some have already written a eulogy for web 2.0 office suites, but that assessment might be a bit early. There are various reasons …
Why build desktop applications? Because no one has... →
Why build desktop applications? Because no one has heard of your … ZDNet - 4 hours ago I love Web 2.0 as much as anyone. I love the creative revolution that has come with empowering a whole class of web developers to create applications that …
Majority Of Americans On Google Docs: "What You... →
Majority Of Americans On Google Docs: “What You Talkin Bout Willis?” — A new survey by NPD has found that the 73% of Americans have never heard of Google Docs and other online office applications, but perhaps worst still only 0.5% of respondents have abandoned desktop office applications for an online alternative.
Source: TechCrunch
Author: Duncan Riley
Link: ...
R.I.P.: The Web 2.0 Office Suite (Joe... →
R.I.P.: The Web 2.0 Office Suite … In a recent survey, NPD asked nearly 600 PC users: “Have you heard about online, browser-based office productivity applications like Google Docs, Google Spreadsheets, gOffice, etc.?” NPD also asked, “If so, how often do you use them?”
Source: Microsoft Watch
Author: Joe Wilcox
Link: http://www.microsoft-watch.com/content…
...
The Office question →
eWeek’s Joe Wilcox is ready to say the last rites for so-called “Office 2.0” software after a report from NPD showed that relatively few consumers know about online productivity applications like Google Apps and Zoho. But Wilcox misreads the study. He writes that “94 percent of U.S. consumers have never heard of Web-based productivity suite alternatives.” Actually,...
See? I Told You So →
I have another piece of evidence to support my theory that nobody gives a shit about Web 2.0 outside of the 619,000 readers of TechCrunch. The ‘crunch itself reports on a new study which finds that 94% of Americans have never tried an online productivity suite. Pure Virtual Method Called :-{ Ok, so this gets better. The study also reports that 0.5% of the respondents have completely...
Yes, There Can Be Life After Word (Damon... →
Yes, There Can Be Life After Word — AS the clerk at Circuit City rang up my purchase of a new notebook computer last month, she started her up-selling. — Padded bag? No. Security lock? No. Windows Office? — For someone who processes words for a living, Microsoft’s software would seem to be an indispensable tool.
Source: New York Times
Author: Damon Darlin
Link: ...
Majority Of Americans On Google Docs: “What You... →
A new survey by NPD has found that the 73% of Americans have never heard of Google Docs and other online office applications, but perhaps worst still only 0.5% of respondents have abandoned desktop office applications for an online alternative. 94% of Americans have never tried a web based productivity suite.
To be fair though, the survey was of “600 PC users” so it (possibly) didn’t count Mac...
Lifehacker's 2007 Guide to Free Software and... →
Sprinkled throughout Lifehacker’s archive of over 14,000 posts, we’ve featured hundreds of free web and desktop apps that help you get things done—but which are the best? As we wrap up the year 2007, it’s the perfect time to put together a quick list of our favorite pieces of free software and web services that help you get the most common computing tasks done on every...
How to Improve Your Skills at Office Politics →
The world is full of people who think they are going to get ahead by putting their head down and doing their work. It’s a myth that good work makes a good career. Really, good office politics makes a good career. But why is everyone so pissy about office politics? You know who is good at office politics, people with empathy, people who are great time managers, and people who see themselves...
People, Computers, and People People →
I spent half a day recently talking about Enterprise 2.0 with a group of senior human resources managers from very large organizations. I took away two broad impressions from the session, of which one was unanticipated and encouraging while the other was less surprising and less optimistic.
First, the good news: these executives were sincerely enthusiastic about E2.0, more so than I expected...
Great article on Google “Knoll” by Anil Dash →
http://www.dashes.com/anil/2007/12/google-and-theory-of-mind.html
Best article I have read this week - and I read a lot of articles …
“Google’s announcement of Knol shows that they understand some of their key business drivers very well; With as much as 5% of the search result links for popular terms going to Wikipedia pages, a solution to capturing some of that traffic in an environment that...
Google and Theory of Mind →
Theory of mind is that thing that a two-year-old lacks, which makes her think that covering her eyes means you can’t see her. It’s the thing a chimpanzee has, which makes him hide a banana behind his back, only taking bites when the other chimps aren’t looking. Theory of mind is the awareness that others are aware, and its absence is the weakness that Google doesn’t know it...
Add Life to Your Workspace [Workspaces] →
Setting up a workspace—be it a cubicle, desk or home office setup—with a strict focus on productivity can leave it feeling a bit lifeless. You might not go to the semi-crazy extremes shown in Wired’s photo gallery, but designer Kelly Moore has a few ideas you can pull from each concept. For example:
“If you think about it, the walls and floor are the largest spaces to...
Google Decides Organizing The World's Information... →
Google has always stated that its mission is to “organize the world’s information.” Of course, the problem with that is not all of the world’s information is online, meaning that Google has needed to reach out and try to pull more information online. That explains some of what it’s done with Google Maps/Local as well as Google’s various book scanning projects....
Google Knol: A Step Too Far? →
News broke late yesterday that Google was preparing to launch a new site call Knol that will combine parts of Wikipedia and Squidoo to create a new user generated authoritative online knowledgebase of everything.
All the details aren’t fully clear yet. What we do know is that Google will offer a revenue share from each page: “If an author chooses to include ads, Google will provide the author...
Zoho Show Is Why You Need A Dual Core CPU →
We’ve had a lot of fun at Zoho’s expense here at Uncov, but what do you expect? They’re the failingest bunch of fails that ever failed a fail. Now, Zoho’s goal is to re-implement every existing office application in Ajax, adding no functionality whatsoever, and in many cases, removing features (cuz, ya know, that’s like hard to code and shit). Zoho believes that an...
Good Things Take Time: New Tech Doesn't Go... →
A long time generally passes between the creation of any successful technology and its wide, mainstream adoption.
Ideas only evolve into solutions over time. What starts with innovation in startups and research labs
gets refined by larger companies, is simplified and perfected and only years later goes mainstream. My old boss
used to say: “Good things take time,” and he was right.
In...
The POST Method: A systematic approach to social... →
by Josh Bernoff What do most companies do wrong when they enter the social world? No, it’s not that they’re being fake, or don’t “get it.” It’s that they don’t really know their objectives. Is your company doing its social strategy backwards? If you started by saying “we should do a blog” or “we should create a page on a social...
Facebook's marketing bible -- the 100-word version... →
From the looks of things, pornographers are the only people who have really figured out how to advertise on Facebook. No worries, Inside Facebook’s Justin Smith is on the case. He’s written The Facebook Marketing Bible: 24 Ways to Market Your Brand, Company, Product, or Service Inside Facebook. But, as you can tell from the title, conciseness is not Smith’s strong point. Here are...
Newsvine - Energy Source of Northern Lights Found →
6 Simple Steps to Achieve Laser Like Focus →
“If you chase two rabbits, both will escape.” - Unknown Does focus elude you? Do you multi-task at the cost of focusing on your more important projects? Have you ever wished that you could have laser like focus? Ever thought, “Hmm, I wish I could just take a pill that would help me focus.” Well, as we all know, there is medicine for this type of need. But I think even...
Sync OpenOffice.org Docs with Google Docs... →
Windows/Mac/Linux: The OpenOffice.org2GoogleDocs extension imports documents from Google Docs and Spreadsheets to OpenOffice.org and exports from OO.org to GDocs so you can work with your docs both online and off as you see fit. Whether you’re primarily a Google Docs or OO.org fan, this desktop-to-web integration seems like an excellent way to take your docs with you whether you’re...
The 4 types of community →
You’re thinking about creating or extending your customer or member community because it’s central to increased word of mouth and evangelism, but community is a broad term. What type of community, exactly, do you want to create? Here’s four ways to think about it.
Six Lessons for Succeeding in Enterprise 2.0 →
The mandate has come down from on high that your organization needs some Web 2.0 tools. However, since you are tasked with implementing Web 2.0 technologies internally, what we are really talking about is Enterprise 2.0. So you figure you will just throw up a wiki or setup a forum and call it a day, right? Wrong. There’s some thinking that needs to go into this implementation if you really want it...
Google Docs the Clear Leader in Web Office Market →
Yesterday I requested some comparative data from Compete about Web Office products, as a follow-up to our 2007 review of the Web Office space. Specifically I wanted to know how Google Docs & Spreadsheets compared to Zoho or ThinkFree’s word processing and spreadsheeting products. Also how Google Apps compared to Zoho, ThinkFree and others. The charts below answer both questions:
This...
Google Spreadsheets Edges Out Google Docs in Usage →
Google Docs and Spreadsheets has hit a bit of a growth curve since June. About 1.6 million people used the Web-based service in October, compared to 635,000 in June, according to Compete. That is a nice jump, but 1.6 million is still a marginal number compared to the desktop productivity apps (on just about every PC) that it is trying to replace. But, hey, it is still early days.
Notice in the...
Web Office: 2007 Year in Review →
Over the next few weeks we’ll be reviewing a number of Web product categories on Read/WriteWeb, summarizing what’s happened in 2007 - and what to look forward to in 2008. We’re starting with the Web Office, a market that underwent a lot of changes this year. Our definition of Web Office is: A Web Office suite is a combination of productivity, publishing and collaboration...
Loic Le Meur’s Ten Rules For Startup Success →
The Financial Times has a profile of French (now Silicon Valley) entrepreneur Loic Le Meur today.
Loic is an accomplished entrepreneur - he founded uBlog (merged with Six Apart), organizes the annual Le Web conference and has now created Seesmic (note that I’m an investor in Seesmic). So even though he’s French, his advice, when given, is worth listening to.
Included in the article are his ten...
3.3 Billion Mobile Phone Subscriptions; 35% of US... →
A couple of amazing stats have been released about mobile phone use. Firstly industry analyst Informa Telecoms & Media revealed recently that worldwide mobile penetration will hit 50 per cent - or around 3.3 billion subscriptions. Informa estimated that mobile networks covered 90 per cent of the global population by mid-2007. According to the Telecoms Blog, this means that some 40 per cent of...
Open Work Spaces →
There are two factors at work here, the first being expensive commercial real estate is forcing companies to rethink how they utilize the space they have, but more significantly, people have less stuff. While I may be atypical, I would wager that not by much. My “office kit” consists of my laptop, my mobile phone, a file folder that I keep my expenses in, and a notebook to scribble in. I have gone...
