No kidding! It’s the Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate Limited Numbered Signature Edition!
Signed by The Man himself…
WTF? 
(hat tip: Engadget)
Archives for 2007
Finally! MWVULNSE has Arrived!
Posted on January 21, 2007 ·
Questions Leaders Ask
Posted on January 20, 2007 ·
Tamas Hevizi at Right Place @ Right Time shares his conclusion re. leadership:
“The difference between super-achievers and the rest has a lot to do with the questions they ask and act upon”
He elaborates further, and it’s worth a read, but his chart says it all:
24SevenOffice Acquisition Rumors
Posted on January 19, 2007 ·
24SevenOffice, the European SaaS provider of an integrated, All-In-One system for small businesses may be in acquisition talks with a major US vendor. The news went almost unnoticed, partly because it leaked just before Christmas, partly because the company is largely unknown outside a few European countries – not for long if a deal comes through.
I covered 24SevenOffice, a very promising SaaS provider for the SMB (SME) market several times. Their system is modular but integrated with a breath of functionality I simply haven’t seen elsewhere: Accounting, CRM (Contacts, Lead Mgt, SFA), ERP (Supply Chain, Orders, Products, Inventory), Communication, Group Scheduling, HR, Project Management, Publishing, Intranet. Essentially a NetSuite+Communication and Collaboration.
About the only thing I did not like was the lack of availability for US customers – this might change soon. The news release and blog post mentions three names: Salesforce.com, WebEx and Google, but adds a somewhat cloudy remark: “the companies here are only examples of what the rumors have outlined.” It does not explicitly confirm one of these specific companies as the potential buyer. I should also add that while I had in the past been in touch with Management, at this time I have no information whatsoever from the company, so the ideas below are purely my speculation.
Salesforce.com as suitor: A well-integrated All-In-One product would come handy to Salesforce.com which could dramatically expand their customer base this way. However, they’ve gone a long way in the other direction, trying to become a platform and extending their reach via the ecosystem built around the AppExchange. Acquiring 24SevenOffice would be a huge about-face for Marc Benioff, and essentially would mean admitting that archrival Zach Nelson of NetSuite was right all this time about the superiority of the integrated All-In-One approach.
WebEx: Their original market, the web conferencing space is being commoditized, they clearly are looking for more lucrative markets, as evidenced by the recently launched WebEx Connect (their “AppExchange”). I haven’t heard about much activity since the announcement – certainly owning a product like 24SevenOffice (btw., it really should be called 24SevenBusiness) would allow WebEx a powerful entry into the SMB applications market.
Google: No way, you might say. Google and business process / transaction oriented software are lightyears apart – at least today.
Yet unlikely as it sounds the deal would make perfect sense. Google clearly aspires to be a significant player in the enterprise space, and the SMB market is a good stepping stone, in fact more than that, a lucrative market in itself. Bits and pieces in Google’s growing arsenal: Apps for Your Domain, JotSpot, Docs and Sheets …recently there was some speculation that Google might jump into another acquisition (Thinkfree? Zoho?) to be able to offer a more tightly integrated Office. Well, why stop at “Office”, why not go for a complete business solution, offering both the business/transactional system as well as an online office, complemented by a wiki? Such an offering combined with Google’s robust infrastructure could very well be the killer package for the SMB space catapulting Google to the position of dominant small business system provider. Who’d benefit from such a deal? Google, millions of small businesses, and of course 24SevenOffice.
I admit I would feel somewhat sorry for 24SevenOfice though, as I clearly think they could have a shot of becoming a billion-dollar business on their own – the next NetSuite. Either way, if they make it to the US market this year, they’ll likely see explosive growth. When they are a well -known brand, remember, you discovered them here.
Wikis are Not Knowledge Management Tools
Posted on January 18, 2007 ·
No, this is not an anti-wiki pitch, that would be highly unlikely coming from me. But I am continually amazed how we tend to focus on features while missing the people factor. Knowledge Management is a prime example. KM projects typically do not fail due to software issues, but for human reasons: lack of input, or GIGO. Yet here’s an excerpt from a white paper by enterprise wiki vendor MindTouch::
“Wikis provide a flexible alternative to the rigidity of conventional
knowledge management software.
Why wikis work for knowledge management
Based on the features described above, wikis are a powerful replacement for conventional
knowledge management software, because they make knowledge easier to
capture, find and consume:
a. Capturing information: The information is there. Somewhere. Maybe on
a PC, maybe in a file attached to an email, maybe in someone’s head
undocumented. With a wiki, all documents are stored in one central
repository, and files are uploaded rather than attached to emails. Therefore
information is more likely to be captured, stored and made available for reuse.
b. Finding information: When a user has to search a network file server,
he or she must know exactly where to look. A wiki lets a user search
contextually. In addition, because the structure is not required to be linear—
as with KM software—cross-linking of pages helps users not only find
information, but find relevant information.
c. Consuming information: In addition to finding information more easily with
a wiki, a user finds that information in context, meaning the information
is in a location that gives the user some background and perspective relative
to the data. That enables the user to more quickly comprehend the meaning,
significance and relevance of that piece of information. “
All of the above is true – yet it misses the Big Picture. The real story is not about a better tool, but being able to work differently. When wikis are truly embraced in the enterprise, they don’t just make KM easier; they put it out of it’s misery. Yes, that’s right, the wiki is the end of Knowledge Management as we know it: the after-the-fact collection, organization and redistribution of knowledge objects.
The wiki becomes the primary platform to conduct work, the fabric of everyday business, where people create, collaborate, and in the process capture information. While not a Knowledge Management tool, the wiki resolves the KM-problem as a by-product.
Update (6/15/08): Now we have pretty good terms to describe the above, instead of my clumsy explanation. See the discussion on In-the-Flow and Above-the-Flow wikis by Michael Idinopulos and Ross Mayfield.
Ross Mayfield talks about similar ideas in Manage Knowledgement (MK):
“Turns out, users resisted and the algorithms didn’t match reality. With MK, through blogs and wikis, the principle activity is sharing, driven by social incentives. Contribution is simple and unstructured, isn’t a side activity and there is permission to participate. Intelligence is provided by participants, both through the act of sharing and simply leaving behind breadcrumbs of attention.”
Update (5/1): What Happened to Knowledge Management? – by Stewart Mader
It’s Yahoo Week
Posted on January 17, 2007 ·
Finally, the iPod Week is gone, Techmeme becomes Techmeme again. Unless… it’s becoming Yahoo week.
Wired’s How Yahoo Blew It piece is in the top spot for now, and I expect within hours blog reactions to it will take up half of Techmeme. Perhaps Gabe needs to develop some sort of overload safety valve to prevent one subject from overtaking the entire site…
Anyway, mine may be perhaps the shortest summary of the article – actually, it’s not even mine, Wired’s Fred Vogelstein sums it up for us:
“At Yahoo, the marketers rule, and at Google the engineers rule. And for that, Yahoo is finally paying the price.”
OK, that’s the conclusion, but read the story for the juicy bits.
Finally, a “contrarian” take from Brad Feld, who reminds us Yahoo isn’t dead yet and may just have a real shot with Panama.
California Citrus Frozen
Posted on January 16, 2007 ·
No, this has not turned into an agricultural blog, but the photo of frozen Oranges in California was too shocking not to share
About 70% of the crop is expected to be frozen, so we can expect a price hike in a few weeks.
(full story at the SF Chronicle)
SVASE VC Breakfast in San Francisco
Posted on January 16, 2007 ·
I’ll be moderating another SVASE VC Breakfast Club meeting this Thursday, Jan 18th in San Francisco. As usual, it’s an informal round-table where 10 entrepreneurs get to deliver a pitch, then answer questions and get critiqued by a VC Partner. We’ve had VC’s from Draper Fisher, Hummer Winblad, Kleiner Perkins, Mayfield, Mohr Davidow, Emergence Capital …etc.
These sessions are a valuable opportunity for Entrepreneurs, most of whom would probably have a hard time getting through the door to VC Partners. Since I’ve been through quite a few of these sessions, both as Entrepreneur and Moderator, let me share a few thoughts:
- It’s a pressure-free environment, with no Powerpoint presentations, Business Plans…etc, just casual conversation; but it does not mean you should come unprepared!
- Follow a structure, don’t just roam about what you would like to do, or even worse, spend all your time describing the problem, without addressing what your solution is.
- Don’t forget “small things” like the Team, Product, Market..etc.
- It would not hurt to mention how much you are looking for, and how you would use the funds…
- Write down and practice your pitch, and prepare to deliver a compelling story in 3 minutes. You will have about 5, but believe me, whatever your practice time was, when you are on the spot, you will likely take twice as long to deliver your story. The second half of your time-slot is Q&A with the VC.
- Bring an Executive Summary; some VC’s like it, others don’t.
- Last, but not least, please be on time! I am not kidding… some of you know why I even have to bring this up. (Arriving an hour late to a one-and-a-half-hour meeting is NOT acceptable.)
Thursday’s featured VC is Steve Reale, Principal, Levensohn Venture Partners. For details and registration please see the SVASE site.
Here’s a participating Entrepreneur’s feedback about a previous event.
See you in San Francisco!
Tags: Venture Capital, VC Breakfast, Funding, VC Funding, Startups, Entrepreneurship, SVASE, SDForum, TiE
Pentagon Sells Arms to Iran
Posted on January 16, 2007 ·
The US Military is selling fighter jet parts to Iran. No, this news is not from the 70’s, it’s from 2005.
The process is really simple: sell > confiscate > resell.
“In one case, convicted middlemen for Iran bought Tomcat parts from the Defense Department’s surplus division. Customs agents confiscated them and returned them to the Pentagon, which sold them again — customs evidence tags still attached — to another buyer, a suspected broker for Iran.”
Now, you might say the Pentagon’s surplus store (Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service) is not selling directly to Iran, only to middlemen. That’s certainly the bureaucrat’s defense:
“”The fact that those individuals chose to violate the law and the fact that the customs people caught them really indicates that the process is working,” said Baillie, the Defense Logistics Agency’s executive director of distribution.”
Hm… let’s think for a minute. Is it safe to assume that only those who operate F-14s would be interested in buying spare parts? I thought so. The only problem is, that since the Pentagon retired the F-14 Tomcats, Iran is the only country still flying them.
The process is working, after all. (read the full story on CBS News)
Read/Write Intranet 2007
Posted on January 15, 2007 ·
Rod Boothby is running a Read/Write Intranet Idol – it’s a poll I invite you to participate in, so I am attaching it at the bottom. But first, it gives me a chance to share some of my (wiki)-thoughts.
The list is a mix of industry behemoths (Microsoft, IBM Lotus), emerging but established brands (Atlassian‘s Confluence, Socialtext, WordPress), relatively known startups and quite a few obscure names. The latter probably not by pure chance: both Rod and I are on the Selection Committee for the next Under the Radar Conference on Office 2.0, and scouting for candidates we have made quite a few new discoveries, including some of these “obscure” names, that likely won’t remain obscure for long.
Perhaps the biggest “discovery” for me was Brainkeeper, a user-friendly enterprise wiki startup that officially launches today. Totally out of left field, they aim to be like market-leader Confluence in functionality yet have a friendly UI like Wetpaint. Oh, and add niceties like Workflow (Itensil?) and an API. Like I said before sometimes it pays to *not* be first on the market …
It was really interesting to watch the poll dynamics change yesterday and this morning. First, with only a handful votes cast unknown little Brainkeeper was leading the chart. Another leader was Koral, a content collaboration startup I’ve been planning to write about way too long now (until I pull my act together, see two reviews by Ismael and John Wilson). What’s content collaboration? It’s content management without the pain of “management”. As much as I am a fan of wikis, not all companies will embrace them: Koral helps those who mostly work with desktop documents (MS Office) share, update, collaborate painlessly.
Back to the poll: as more voters came in, predictably the “brand names” strengthened their position and the “obscure” ones fell somewhat behind. Still with 117 votes cast, I believe it’s mostly InnovationCreators’s primary reader-base, where Microsoft Sharepoint or Lotus Notes Blogsphere are not exactly popular. Like it or not those products will make a killing on the corporate market. So “brand name” here means the likes of Confluence by Atlassian, Socialtext, WordPress, Movable Type…etc.
Confluence’s #1 position on the list reflects it’s real-life market position: absolute leader in market share, revenue, functionality. Of course to maintain that position they can’t just sit on their laurels and they know that. At a really productive meeting with the San Francisco team recently we discussed their development plans, most of which I cannot share for now. However, I am happy to share that in the not-so-distant future Confluence will offer a hosted version – something I’ve repeatedly asked for:-).
As for competitor Socialtext, they revamped the product a few months ago: while I was fairly critical of some of the functional misses, the single biggest improvement was the UI: they went from an outright ugly product to a pleasant-looking, clean, friendly one. In fact this, along with other players (JotSpot, Wetpaint, Zoho, Brainkeeper) has turned the table: formerly good-looking Confluence now feels a bit … well, 2005-ish (?) Still the best, but somewhat boring. They are keenly aware of this and improving the UI is one of Atlassian’s key priorities.
JotSpot is in hibernation in the meantime, although TechCrunch speculates it may open up soon. Zoho is a newcomer to the wiki space, but not one to underestimate: they may just leapfrog all other players when they tightly integrate their full Suite (Write, Show, Sheet, Create) thus creating a truly powerful read/write/collaborate platform online.
Last, but not least two smaller wiki-players from the list: Itensil combines workflow with a wiki (now, religious wiki-fans deny the need for any structure or workflow, which is probably OK for a small group, but workflow is the way large corporations work), and System One combines a wiki with relevant enterprise search.
Without further ado (wasn’t this enough?) here’s the poll, please cast your vote:
You can click “view results” after you cast your vote, then “Complete results” to se more stats on the Zoho Polls site. Once there, click the “Rating” header to sort the list in ranking order – right now, with 117 votes cast Confluence is #1 with an average of 3.54, closely followed by Brainkeeper’s 3.50.
MIG-21 for Sale on eBay
Posted on January 12, 2007 ·
Current bid is $21,000 and you can arrange for low monthly payments… what a deal! Not necessarily risk-free, the seller only has one feedback, and wants 50% of the price transferred upon closing the auction.
Bonus: buyer is promised a magic transformation:
“We speak you the number of transport, you becomes the aircraft etc.”
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