Mar 20, 2007 | blog
Now this has little to do about being an email client, which is something I think will disappear in the coming years, but really about a big development in communications tools for productivity workers. Yes Microsoft is at it again, playing its hand at convergence, and positioning itself to again enter and then dominate a market.
While the established incumbents (Avaya, Cisco, Nortel, Siemens, etc…) have little to fear in the short term from Microsoft. The long term, on the other hand, is where Microsoft traditionally kicks ass. The advantage that the current situation presents for the existing vendors is that they have Microsoft’s playbook to learn from and adapt to, long before Microsoft’s product matures and penetrates the market to the point where they are no longer relevant. To do this, Microsoft has to have missed important features in the product, has stability problems out of the gate, does not scale well, and so on. Further, current vendors also need to take their existing products and cut costs, trim the need for hardwired phones, promote the utility of softphones, and demonstrate QoS on their system over Microsoft’s.
If the current vendors don’t change and adapt to the Microsoft “threat”, they’ll follow the same trend as other software and service markets Microsoft has entered. Microsoft dominates a market because it brings “good enough” functionality to large numbers of customers, at very competitive pricing.
No matter what, this is an important move by Microsoft, and will bring the competition to the IP Telephony market that it has long been missing. Innovation by all parties should follow with better products at better price points. The integration of VoIP (along with IM and Web Conferencing) into the Office System family products will bring another level of productivity and efficiency to productivity workers.
Via: ars technica – New Office Communications Server 2007—most important communications tool since Outlook?
Technorati tags: Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007, VoIP, IP Telephony
Mar 11, 2007 | blog
For the past two weeks or so I’ve been using Twitter; and up until the beginning of this week, I was struggling to understand it’s relevance. Then the light bulb when on. When I was in the fog trying to “get it”, Twitter seemed to be a jabbering hoard of irrelevant messages between strangers. Sometimes, it is that – but when you start using the service from the perspective that you are updating people you know on what you’re currently doing, it really comes into its own as a useful service.
Twitter is an interesting social presence service that allows a user to simply and quickly convey what they are doing at any given time. As people add each other as friends, you begin to see the rhythms in their day – when they’re available, when they’re hard at work, when they’re having fun, etc… The thing I’m trying to convey on this point is that many people who you know about via the blogosphere become more personable, more accessible, whether you interact more because of it is irrelevant. Because Twitter brings more personality to participants, it becomes a powerful tool for social interaction in an age where we increasingly isolate ourselves from each other.
There are many, many great posts and articles in the blogosphere about Twitter, and I’ve linked to several below that I believe capture what Twitter is about, or at least the perceptions of it’s power user base. Overall the enthusiasm and fun found in the Twitter community is undeniable and unlike any other web-service or social tool I’ve every used before.
Some Twitter community conventions to take note of:
- Use ‘@username’ when addressing someone specifically in a group
- Use TinyURL (http://tinyurl.com) when posting a link
Twitter Oriented Tools & Solutions:
- Twitter Tools – a WordPress plug-in currently being developed (Alex King)
- Twapper – a WAP-based service to monitor Twitter on your phone! (30 Boxes)
- Twitterific – a Twitter client for the Mac
- Post to Twitter – A FireFox search tool for posting to twitter!
- Twitter Search – A custom Twitter search engine (Steve Rubel)
- Twitter Fan Wiki – WOW!
Input from the blogosphere on Twitter:
Technorati tags: Twitter, Alex King, Robert Scoble, Steve Rubel, Steven Fettig, Ross Mayfield, Anil Dash, Brian Solis, 30 Boxes, Betsy Weber, Andy Carvin, Elizabeth Lawley
Mar 9, 2007 | blog
Well I’ve finally found the article that I was interviewed for by the Wall Street Journal – though I found it at The Baltimore Sun instead. The article by Jessica E. Vascellaro details the current crop of available online storage options from Box.net to XDrive.
WSJ interviewed me for my experiences using XDrive, though I also use Box.net as well. There are differences between them in usability and performance, but the simple ability to get at your most critically important files from anywhere is very powerful.
Link to The Online Storage Wars (at The Baltimore Sun)
Link to The Online Storage Wars (at The Wall Street Journal) subscription required
Technorati tags: Online Storage, XDrive, Box.net
Mar 7, 2007 | blog
Zoho Writer is now integrated with EchoSign. This kind of cooperation and partnering is what breads great products. The enhancements just updated on Zoho Writer entice me to use the product more than Google Writer for example.
Also updated/added is support for Box.net, another online service I use, and blogging tweaks to make posting from ZW easier.
Via: Zoho Blogs – Zoho partners with EchoSign & more
Technorati tags: Zoho Writer, EchoSign
Mar 7, 2007 | blog
Steve Rubel has created a basic Twitter search engine using the Google Co-op tools. So if you use Twitter and would like to be able to search all the entries – try this out.
Via: Micro Persuasion – A Basic Twitter Search Engine
Technorati tags: Twitter, Google Co-op
