US Army Wikified
Collaboration, SaaS March 17th, 2009
WetPaint is one of my early “discoveries”, three years ago I called them the “wiki-less” wiki, as it blended wiki-like, forum-like and blog-like features long before it became fashionable. I haven’t followed them closely, but apparently they’ve been growing nicely, and today I saw this post:
First of all, it’s a truly professionally maintained wiki, with a Wiki 101 for new users, then details of the Syllabus, Lessons and Assignements, Cadet Fitness Challenge..etc. They use text, photos, videos, podcasts – you name it, this is a fully featured interactive social site.
Second, I grew up in a country where anything even remotely related to the Army was surrounded with utmost secrecy, and I am still somewhat amazed at the level on information publicly available about the US military. Granted, there are no strategic plans or weapons specs in this wiki, but still … 
Third… quick IM reaction from the first person I shared this news with:
Cool. Why is US Army resorting to free sites? Credit crunch
What a perfect fit for the Power of Less theme I just wrote about earlier today, in my Web 2.0 Expo post. Major Rea and his cadets are using Wetpaint instead of Blackboard, the market leader commercial software for Education. No, the US Army as a whole did not replace Blackboard with Wetpaint – but this particular unit did. It’s a good start – just like corporations using Google Apps or Zoho Business services here and there … usage grows, initially it may just be leverage in licence negotiations with Blackboard, Microsoft and the like… but one day, who knows…
. It’s nice to see the US Army SaaS-ified.
Oh, and for that Power of Less: it’s certainly less when it comes to what hey have to spend on software – but I’m not even sure it’s less when it comes to usability, participation. Could this also become the case of Less is More?
(from the PE350 video page)
(Cross-posted from CloudAve. To stay abreast of news, analysis and just plain opinion on Cloud Computing, SaaS, Business grab the CloudAve Feed here.)
Tags: Army, Collaboration, less is more, military, power of less, Social Networking, US Army, User Generated Content, w2e, web 2.0, Web 2.0 Expo, web2expo, wetpaint, wikis
Google Health & Microsoft HealthVault: the Sorry State of Health 2.0
SaaS, Technology February 5th, 2009
Today’s joint IBM – Google announcement about enabling personal health monitoring devices to send data directly to Google Health gave me the grand opportunity for a (not-so) quick rant that’s been boiling in me for a while.
Ever since I started actively managing my parents’ health care I’ve been a heavy user of electronic health records and communication systems, and I am immensely frustrated. Frustrated at the paper-based world we’re facing in the 21st century, but also at the current attempts to change all that. Grand ideas, alliances, announcements, but they all feel like IT-talk, losing sight of the very people these systems supposed to serve: patients. That’s you and me and our relatives who have health issues.
Tags: Google, google health, health, health 2.0, health care, health records, healthvault, hipaa, microsoft, privacy, usability, windows live
Ma.Gnolia Data Loss – Is Your Data Safe?
SaaS January 30th, 2009
Ma.gnolia, a social bookmarking service is down, lost all their user data and they don’t know if / when they can recover.
This is as bad as it can get for any Web 2.0 service (and more importantly for users), and the backlash against Cloud services has already started. My first reaction is taking Stowe Boyd’s approach – a quick overview of how safe my own data is.
Update: also read Krish’s post @ ClouDave: Magnolia Effect – Should We Trust The Clouds?
Tags: backup, data backup, flickr, gmail, Google, live mesh, mozy, online backup, online sync, synchronization, syncplicity, web services, zoho
*Chirpy, Chirpy – New Twitter Client DOA.
SaaS, Startups January 28th, 2009
*chirp (won’t that asterisk in the front backfire with some search engines?) is supposedly the best, cutest, Twhirl-killer mother-of-all Twitter Client. Except it’s Dead On Arrival. Read the full story here…
..and in the meantime a little consolation prize:
Tags: chirp, fail, failed launch, failure, launch, Startups, twhirl, Twitter, twitter client
InfoWorld’s 2009 Technology of the Year Awards
SaaS, Technology January 21st, 2009
InfoWorld announced the winners of the 2009 Technology of the Year Awards in Applications, Middleware, and Data Management:
The Awards are presented in a slideshow format, and InfoWorld made it almost unreadable: there is an ad in between every single page, you either 20 second to flip a page, or have to click “skip” every single time, then click one more time to close another page that hides the slide. Frankly, I think they went way overboard with this.
That said, I did the work for you, here are the winners:
- Mozilla Firefox
- Zoho Writer, Sheet, Show
- Day Communique WCM
- Telligent Community Server 2008
- Oracle Database 11g
- Talend Open Studio
- Denodo Platform
Congratulations to the winners!
(Cross-posted from CloudAve)
Tags: applications, awards, data management, firefox, infoworld, middleware, zoho
The Tale of Two Notebooks, and Yes, It’s All About Earning a Buck
Business, Collaboration, Personal Productivity, SaaS, Startups January 15th, 2009
One down, one running better than ever. Thanks to the irony of TechMeme, the two news are juxtaposed almost side by side:
Stopping development on Google Notebook – as several blogs point out, this does not mean Google Notebook is dead. You can continue to use it as your scratch-pad, just don’t expect any further development. (Update: you won’t be able to use the web-clipping Firefox extension anymore.) Or if you’re cautious, start migrating your notes.- Multiple Enhancements in Zoho Notebook – yes, ironically Zoho announced a bunch
of enhancement on the very same day Google sent theirs to the deadpool. Kent Newsome calls it Zoho’s Lucky Day.
I’ve never considered these two Notebooks comparable, despite the common name. Google’s one was your web-based post-it notes, barebones, easy to use. Zoho’s version is a full-featured multimedia application to create, aggregate, share, collaborate on just about any type of content easily, be it text, database, spreadsheet, image, drawings, audio, video – you name it. It offers a lot more, but may be “too much” if all you want is the yellow stickies. The two apps serve entirely different needs. But I don’t want to focus on the products here, did it before: Not All Notebooks Are Created Equal.
Let’s talk about the economics: Google is simply ditching some of the money losers which is clearly the right strategy in a recession when it saw it’s primary revenue source, advertising drop radically. A while ago (before the economy collapsed) Zoho CEO Sridhar Vembu provided great insight into why getting into applications does not make much financial sense for Google, whereas it is Zoho’s primary business. Today we’re seeing that logic in action.
Of course Google is not the only one, we’re seeing startups shut down service, or give up the free-for-all principle and start charging for their services. Over at CloudAve we’ve discussed Jott as an example, but there are many others. We may have enjoyed all these free services, but deep down had to predict this bonanza would not last forever. It’s time for rationalizing business – after all, it’s all about making a buck.
Update (1/20/09): Surprise, surprise! (not really). Zoho came out with a tool to import your Google Notebook data into Zoho Notebook.
Update (1/22/09) Two days later here comes Evernote with an import process. Who’s next?
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Tags: free services, Google, jott, recession, revenue model, Startups, web 2.0, zoho
Under the Radar: Call for Startups in Cloud Computing & Business Applications
Business, Collaboration, SaaS, Startups January 12th, 2009
Under the Radar is the Silicon Valley’s most established startup debut platform: a conference series organized by Dealmaker Media, covering business applications, social media, entertainment, mobility..etc.
The 11th Under the Radar conference in Mountain View, CA on April 24, 2009 will focus on Cloud Computing and Business Applications and the organizers have issued a CALL FOR COMPANIES to present.
The general criteria for all UTR events:
- Unique value proposition
- Ability to monetize product/business
- Large market opportunity
- Must still be considered "under the radar" – launched in 2008
- Company must be an actual startup – not a new product from a large company
Typically 32 finalists are selected, who will present in a rapid-fire format – they are grouped in categories of 4 each, in two parallel tracks and each presenter has about 15 minutes. They get grilled by the judges and audience, and at the end of the conference the winners of each category are announced. Categories for the April event are:
- Cloud Infrastructure
- Platforms
- Virtualization
- Saas
- Mashups
- Collaboration
- Communication
- Business Apps
- Development Tools (Utilities, OS, etc…)
- Mobile Office
- Semantics
- Commerce
- Social software/ networks
- Sync (online/offline)
If you’re building a startup, meet the criteria above, will have a real product / service out by April, don’t hesitate: APPLY.
See you in April!
(Cross-posted from CloudAve – to stay on top of Cloud Computing news, analysis and just our opinion, grab the CloudAve Feed here)
Tags: cloud computing, Collaboration, DealMakerMedia, entrepreneurship, glue, IBDNetwork, marketing, mashups, networking, SaaS, startup pitch, Startups, Under the Radar, UtR, vc Funding, venture Capital
Zoho Creator Expands Google AppEngine’s Reach
SaaS December 16th, 2008
I’ve written about Zoho Creator before – being techno-challenged myself, the key value for me (and I suppose for millions of potential users) is the ability to generate database driven situated applications without the need for any programming. Zoho CEO Sridhar Vembu made an interesting statement back in April:
In principle, it would be possible to layer Zoho Creator on top of Google App Engine on top of Amazon EC2.
Well, it’s no longer just in principle: today Zoho announced the ability to use Zoho Creator to generate applications which are then deployed on Google’s AppEngine. Here’s a short video explaining the process:
The video focuses mostly on the process of how to create an app, convert it from Zoho’s own Deluge scripting environment to Python, then installing it on the Google AppEngine. You will get more detailed explanation elsewhere, let me just focus on why I find this an important step.
Zoho essentially expands Google’s reach, making it available to users without programming skills. It’s a perfect marriage: Zoho brings the ability to create programs without coding in a user-friendly graphical environment, while Google brings security for those who might worry keeping their apps and data with a smaller provider: now they can use the Zoho-generated apps in the safety of GoogLand. .
The other important aspect is portability, and to quote Zoho’s Raju Vegesna, first they let data be free by releasing CloudSQL, and now they let your applications free.
We’ve already seen Zoho adapt Google Gears first, even before Google Apps; this is now another example of friendly coopetition with Google.
(Disclaimer: Zoho is the exclusive Sponsor of Cloudave, my main blogging gig.)
Related posts:
Tags: appengine, cloudsql, coopetition, data portability, force.com, Google, google appengine, zoho, zoho creator
Google Layoffs May Affect 30k Workers. Sort of…
Blogging, SaaS November 24th, 2008
Google Layoffs – 10,000 Workers Affected reports WebGuild with a bombastic title. I can beat that: all Google workers will be affected, at least emotionally.
As to what the real numbers are, several sources point out that while employee headcount is around 20K, Google has about 10K temporary workers, so whichever way you count, laying off 10K workers would equate to:
- eliminating all the temp positions
- letting go 30% of the (extended) workforce, which seems to be the Silicon Valley rule
- cutting the employee headcount to half (if we ignore temps)
Either way it sounds way too dramatic, a step companies in deep structural trouble would resort to. I seriously doubt this is really coming, but let me be clear: I have no factual information, am simply speculating, or actually responding to speculation.
But there’s something else worth noticing here: the source. WebGuild had a bit of a clash with Google this spring, when Google withdrew their support of the WebGuild events it used to host. Their stated reason was WebGuild’s refusal to change the name of their Web 2.0 Conference & Expo, at O’Reilly’s request. Here are the juicy details in a WebGuild post aptly titled Shame On You Tim O’Reilly. Without getting into details of the original conflict, suffice to say that WebGuild has been on somewhat of a vendetta against Google ever since. They’ve been a little bit too trigger-happy with posts reflecting negatively on Google.
Once again, I do not have factual information, but if this indeed turns out to be false information, I wonder if WebGuild went a step too far this time. (Remember the Steve Jobs death story?)
Read more in PC World, HipMojo.com, VentureBeat, ChannelWeb, Valleywag, Search Engine Land, Google Watch, CNET News, Alley Insider, Beyond Search, Tech Beat.
Tags: false news, Google, job market, layoffs, o'reilly, speculation, web 2.0, webguild
Gmail Themes Go Beyond Cosmetics
Personal Productivity, SaaS November 19th, 2008
I couldn’t care less when Gmail added those cute smiley, but the newly released themes go beyond cosmetics, they can actually increase your productivity. How? By helping you differentiate between multiple Gmail accounts.
I have branded (Google Apps, using my own domain) accounts for business and personal use, and a few generic @gmail.com types for subscriptions, lists, online purchases. It’s all neatly tied together by Gmail Manager, the excellent Firefox extension. Even then I sometimes find myself typing an email in the wrong account window. Here’s the solution: give all your Gmail accounts its own distinctive theme.
I don’t really care for the fancy themes, but at least the top row are all subtle, minimalist styles. Pick one for each of your accounts, you’ll get used to the colors fast and never mix up your accounts again.
Well.. almost. As usual, Google rolled out this new feature to the generic, @gmail.com accounts only. Google Apps users will have to wait – lets’ hope not too long.
Related articles:
- Spice up your inbox with colors and themes
- Gmail Gets Themes
- Gmail Themes. That’s Totally Ninja.
- Gmail Themes as Productivity Tools?
Tags: gmail, Google, productivity, skins, themes
Zoli Erdos
