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Microsoft Blames Windows Explorer

Posted on February 26, 2006 ·

Windows Vista Feb CTP Performance Problems? Try removing Windows Explorer! (via Jerry)

Also see: A Dead PC is a Safe PC – says Microsoft     
 

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Filed Under: Humor, Personal Productivity, Software ·
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Patent Ransom

Posted on February 23, 2006 ·

AJAX Patented. WTF?

Tomorrow I am filing a patent for:

  • driving a car to work
  • eating breakfast
  • breathing fresh air
  • sleeping

…. you name it. I’ll hold the whole country hostage

Update (2/23):  Everyone responds in shock.

Update (2/24):  Rich Media patent hype – is AJAX safe?  – good article, originally showed up here as a trackback. Neil, where are your manners, trackback without a link?  I’m deleting the trackback, but since the article is worth a read, I’ll point to it – with nofollow.

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Filed Under: Business, Software, Technology ·
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BlogBeat Off(beat)

Posted on February 22, 2006 ·

TechCrunch recently featured Blogbeat, a nice-looking blog analytics solution, a’la Measuremap.  I have doubts regarding their business model: after 30 days trial, $6 month.  That’s not a huge sum in itself, but when a pro-level blog platform (TypePad, Blogware ..etc) costs $8–11 a month, an add-on to it for $6 is relatively expensive.

That said, I wanted to give it a try. It’s way off. This morning it showed 70 less visitors then StatCounter, but I thought it may  be caused by time zone differences (the new calendar day starting at different hours).  However, by the afternoon the gap between the two systems grew to 115, so BlogBeat is definitely missing a few “beats”.  

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Filed Under: Blogging, Software ·
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Web 2.0 & Enterprise, Round 3: Enterprise Software for Small Businesses

Posted on February 22, 2006 ·

(Updated)

This post is a continuation of Web 2.0 in the Enterprise – Round 2 in which I reflected on some thoughts brought up by Stephen Bryant in Five Reasons Web 2.0 and Enterprises Don’t Mix.

The Web 2.0 in the Enterprise TIE event I previously referred to was hectic, trying to cover way too many subjects in 90 minutes, with one common underlying assumption: Enterprise means large corporations. The theme of the night was how these Web 2.0 technologies and business/communication approaches will “seep in” to the large enterprise from the bottom up.
What is then Enterprise Software? Typically SAP, Oracle et al come to mind, and I can hear the roar “Enterprise Software is Dead” – well, is it?
If we define Enterprise Software as the traditional heavyweight, expensive, pay-huge-license-fees-upfront, then try-to-implement-forever model it is certainly challenged from two ends, by Open Source and the SaaS model. But there is another definition that is largely being overlooked:
Software that allows a company to conduct it’s everyday business, supporting most of the core, fairly standard business processes any company performs repeatedly.

With this definition, Enterprise Software has a whole new, largely unpenetrated market to enter: that of small businesses, referred to as the SMB or SME segment. Such enterprise functionality has traditionally been beyond reach for a typical small business, for two major reasons:

  • Cost (license, hardware, implementation, maintenance ..etc)
  • Lack of IT resources (integrating applications, designing processes, dealing with multiple vendors ..etc)

SaaS is the right answer for both, since it allows the SMB user to start using the functionality without an upfront investment, does not require implementation, upgrades, maintenance, worrying about backups and security ..etc.

Of course several Open Source packages are available completely free, which is a perfect solution for the cost problem, but I think most of these packages are by geeks for geeks; i.e. you really have to be quite IT-savy to implement, integrate, upgrade them, and as we stated most small businesses simply do not have that type of resource. Yes, that means the Silicon Valley tech-startups are not a true representation of the SMB world
Likewise, I don’t believe SOA, best-of-breed packages working together are an option for the SMB market, for the same reason. They will play an increasingly critical role in larger enterprises with a professional IT organization, but for a few more years SMB’s are far better off with integrated, All-In-One type On-Demand solutions.

Of the Web 2.0 companies Stephen mentions in Five Reasons Web 2.0 and Enterprises Don’t Mix two are offering Integrated On-Demand solutions:

  • NetSuite
    Stephen lists NetSuite along with Salesforce.com, and while they are in the same club, the significant difference is that Salesforce.com is only CRM, while NetSuite offers an integrated CRM+ERP package. They both are trying to become a “platform” via NetFlex and AppExchange, respectively. Both companies are definitely pushing upstream, going after the Enterprise market as in the first definition, i.e. large (or midsize) corporate customers.
  • 24SevenOffice
    Coming from Europe this company is lesser known. They focus on the SMB market and offer a modular but integrated system with a breath of functionality I simply haven’t seen elsewhere: Accounting, CRM (Contacts, Lead Mgt, SFA), ERP (Supply Chain, Orders, Products), Communication, Group Scheduling, HR, Project Management, Publishing, Intranet. Essentially a NetSuite+Communication, Collaboration. I’ve taken their test-drive (currently IE only) and liked it. I would debate how they structure their menu-system, as functions like Product, Inventory, SCM are all hidden under Financials.

Back to the economics: if SMB’s could not in the past afford Enterprise Software, the same held true for the Software Industry: they could not afford SMB’s, since there was just no way to make the numbers work. The cost of customer acquisition vs. the very low license fees made it an uneconomical model, whether via direct or channel sales.
Once again, technology comes to the rescue: the Internet, and largely Search Engine Marketing changes everything. Joe Kraus, Founder of JotSpot and previously Excite sums it up:
“ Ten years ago to reach the market, we had to do expensive distribution deals. We advertised on television and radio and print. We spent a crap-load of money. There’s an old adage in television advertising “I know half my money is wasted. Trouble is, I don’t know what half”. That was us. It’s an obvious statement to say that search engine marketing changes everything. But the real revolution is the ability to affordably reach small markets. You can know what works and what doesn’t. And, search not only allows niche marketing, it’s global popularity allows mass marketing as well (if you can buy enough keywords). “

Another benefit of SEM is that while traditional advertising can pick the right demographic groups, it cannot pick the right time, only a fraction of the target audience is in “change mode”, looking for a solution. That’s the beauty of Search Engine Marketing: obviously if you are searching, you have a problem and are looking for a solution, which is half a win from the vendor’s point of view.
Small Business Trends recently published a survey on “Selling to Small Businesses”, which supports the increasing importance of SEM: “A full 73% of vendors attract small business customers through search engine results”

Finally a quote from Ziff Davis again: “Products for the long tail and SMB market, where 72 million businesses spend $5k or less each year, are a much easier play” Wow, I don’t know where those numbers come from, but if I were a SMB-focused software vendor, I’d certainly like them … there’s a goldmine out there.

Update (2/22): Perfect timing for this report to come out just now: U.S. SMBs to Spend $2.2 Billion on Software in 2006, Says AMI-Partners

Update (4/17): Interprise Suite (recently debuted at Demo 2006) claims to be “The FIRST Accounting / ERP / CRM Solution to Bring the Power of the Internet to Small and Mid-sized Business“. While I take issue withe the claim to be “first”, considering the breadth of functionality it’s definitely an option to consider for SMB’s .

Related posts:


Filed Under: Business, Enterprise Software, ERP / CRM, Marketing / PR, SaaS, SMB / SME, Software · Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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Web 2.0 in the Enterprise – Round 2

Posted on February 22, 2006 ·

Stephen Bryant lists Five Reasons Web 2.0 and Enterprises Don’t Mix (hat tip: Espen Antonsen).  He cites his personal experience of having worked in an innovative small software company that could not close deals with the slow enterprise behemoths. “What we needed was a shorter sales cycle, a very, very big salesforce, or some combination of the two”

One of the key changes we’re experiencing today is that the traditional big salesforce becomes obsolete. 

  • At the recent Web2.0 In the Enterprise event (references here, here, and here)  Ross Mayfield, CEO of Socialtext described his bottom-up grassroots approach: first a small team, typically a department, or an ad-hoc project team starts using the hosted wiki … then some other teams within the same organization … eventually Ross walks in to close a corporate level deal, but by the time it’s a fait accompli.  (more in the Wiki Effect).
  • Jeff Nolan of SAP related his experience after making an investment in Socialtext, and bringing the wiki “officially” in-house: he received dozens of emails from SAP-employees who had long been using the hosted version for their own project, just had not told anyone ,since it was “unofficial”.
  • One of Ross’s competitors, Joe Kraus of JotSpot said: “for the bottom-up effect to work, the price has to be expensable, not approvable”
  • Of course you could argue the above approach will only be feasible with communication / team collaboration tools, not with Enterprise packages that require the whole company to be on the same platform.  Well, it depends.. as Sales VP in a smaller (30 employee, $5M) company I found myself in a situation where not only my team needed a CRM solution, but the whole company needed some IT modernization. For budgetary and resistance reasons we decided the sales team will march ahead on its own, but we implemented NetSuite, laying the foundation for the rest of the company to join us on one integrated system.
  • Finally, a quote from SugarCRM’s John Roberts: “Software is bought, not sold.”  Nice punchline, not a 100% true, just like the “No Software” tagline from the other guy… but delivers the message: sales is replaced by demand generation, becomes a pull– vs. a push-process.

Next I will talk about how Enterprise Software “comes down” to the SMB sector – but for the sake of readability, it  is in the next post.

P.S. Stephen, perhaps one day we’ll hear about the pig-killing job in Tuscany

Update (2/23):  The Doctrine of Slow and Old: Big Business and New Applications 
Update (2/25):  Giving enterprise software practices an ‘angioplasty’   

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Filed Under: Collaboration, Enterprise Software, ERP / CRM, Open Source, SaaS, SMB / SME, Social Networking, Software, Startups ·
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Web 2.0 in the Enterprise – Blogging the TIE Event

Posted on February 17, 2006 ·

The Web 2.0 in the Enterprise panel discussion hosted by TIE was exciting.  In fact it wasn’t really a panel discussion, rather a most interactive group event.   Jeff Clavier as moderator with Charlene Li, Ross Mayfield, Jeff Nolan as  panelists quickly threw away the traditonal “moderated discussion followed by Q&A” format (that’s-so-web-1.0), and turned it into a vibrant, lively, interactive, “Web 2.0-style” conversation.

In fact the conversation was hectic enough that I’ll do this in a reverse order: first attempt to organize some of my thoughts, then just publish my rather raw notes. 

Key thoughts:

Far too broad subject.  Lots of different interpretations:  A technology?  Marketing label? Software delivery method?  New functionality?  Business Model? Human interaction, collaboration? ..etc.  As Jeff put it the day after in his blog: “It’s pretty hard to focus on the concept of mashups when you are also introducing blogs/wikis, or talk about the signifigance of scripting and hosted software delivery at the same time. “

Conclusions from the Panel:

  • Web 2.0 is people, collaboration, creating together.
  • Business Model change is more important than technology change.
  • The divider between consumer and enterprise software will blur.
  • Give up control, gain value.
  • Start small, grow bottom up. 
  • The question is not what new programs can do for us, but now that we’re enabled, what do we do together, better.

Now, my unedited, raw notes:

Intro Round:

  • Jeff Clavier
    Define Web 2.0:
    • Rich, easy-to-use user experience
    • Architecture for participation
    • Vertical Apps, mash-ups
Why these panelists:
    • Friends
    • Bloggers
    • Been living/doing Web 2.0 before they knew it
  • Jeff Nolan
    Expanding on definition:
    • Rich user interface.  Late 90’s move from client/server to Web-> gained access, lost usability (of interface)
    • AJAX. Scriptable client. Key is that developers use same tools that users can now have to extend functionality
    • Realization of SOA.
Having two different technologies for consumer and enterprise is nonsense. Web 2.0 technology started with consumers, as it matures, the line between the two will blur.
How do companies develop software: community concept.  Interesting example for partner effort: salesforce.com’s AppExchange . 

  • Charlene Li
    • Web 1.0: control was in center, by institutions
    • Web 2.0; small companies, few resources, power pushed to end-users.
Don’t need huge sharepoint installations, just use a wiki.
Business managers like it, IT fears it.  Ning ; do-it-yourself mentality.   Social Computing – Forrester report, being circulated, not exactly just to Forrester Clients (but that would be sooo 1.0!)

  • Ross Mayfield
    Introduces himself as “ross dot typepad dot com”  (but that’s only natural for someone who employs guys with names like Ingy döt Net  )
Socialtext:

  • part open source
  • hosted system
  • appliance

Web 2.0 is People.  Ajax is a cleaning detergent. 🙂   Real change: how we sell software: bottom up.
Ad-hoc groups forming standards, foresaking institutions, e.g. mashup camp .
Evolution:

  • Mainframe: power to the Enterprise
  • PC: tool for individuals, personal empowerment. Create individually-> deliver, share.
  • Web 2.0: Create together

KM   failed us:  fill form -> contribute knowledge ->  some system magic processes, shares.  Now people have the tools, the social interaction and provide knowledge together.
You let go of control, get back value.

Q&A:

Q: Where is Web 2.0 in the enterprise today? Enterprise world living in the past.
Ross: It exists in email. Email is broken .  Occupational spam (CC; BCC).

Q: Can SAP, Oracle …etc absorb Web 2.0 ideas or will new companies emerge and displace them?
Jeff Nolan: History is against us, few companies make the transition.  But rules exist to break them 🙂  Today’s vendors invest hugely in technology. Story by Shai Agassi : CTO of Prcoter & Gamble told him if the SAP system goes down for 4 hours, it takes out the quarterly profit. 
Oracle is buying its own LAMP stack. They can only beat SAP by changing the game : removing licence revenue entirely… of course this is speculation only.  One could argue that Oracle and SAP are already in the subscription business: maintenance revenue.
Charlene: Microsoft is pulling pieces of Web 2.0 into Sharepoint.

Jeff Clavier: Enterprise tactic: as soon as there is a noted leader, they will make a move: acquisition.
Jeff Nolan: Sales is what’s broken, not the technology. Example: after SAP’s investment in Socialtext he receiveed dozens of emails from various groups inside SAP, who had already been using the hosted wiki,  just  hadn’t told anyone.

Q: VC’s don’t want to invest in Enterprise software …
Ross: Cycles back and forth.  Problem is the business model: 50-60% of cost is sales.  They have too much legacy in place.  Moore’s law does not matter. The disruption to watch for is not in the technology, but in the business model.  
Cost of personal publishing trends towards 0, cost of forming groups trends towards 0. Simplicity key for user experience.
Jeff Nolan: “lots of rounded boxes”
Ross: Wikipedia – no other software that gets a group of strangers together so effectively

Jeff Clavier to Charlene:  What will it take for IT to embrace web 2.0? 
Charlene: They ask: “How do I stop it?”

Q. (actually a remark) from an Ernst & Young Consultant: his Client is using Socialtext to document SOX compliance procedures.
Ross: Stages of penetrating a large Client:

  • small group using hosted system
  • IT starts having security concerns
  • get the appliance behind the firewall
  • CIO gets interested – > global use

Quote from Clay Shirky : Process is an embedded reaction to prior stupidity .
Clarification: transactions stay in SAP. We’re a conversation backbone, not a transaction backbone.

Q: Somewhat longwinded question, basically questioning the “Appliance” model, and outsourcing in general: “wholesale outsourcing is far-fetched”.
Ross: Appliance: it’s just a different way of SaaS, a matter of network topology.
Counter-example to the hosting Q:  One of the world’s top 10 companies want ALL their applications hosted.
Jeff Clavier: Look at some of the huge salesforce.com implementations.

Q: How will all Web 2.0 solutions work together? – e.g. put some Basecamp functionality into Wikipedia?  What’s the future role of a CIO?
Ross: Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, a huge investment bank appointed an Exec just to oversee usability testing, make sure all systems fit together.
CIO’s in the future will not only be concerned with driving down cost, but instead with driving innovation. They can go back to thinking more strategically.

Q: Flickr… etc are in the consumer space, Socialtext is a tool. What are the emerging applications for the Enterprise?
Q: Collaboration, but inside a “walled garden” is not Web 2.0, is it?
Jeff Nolan:  Brings example of blogging inside SAP,  IT was stonewalling, so he went ahead, bought a bunch of licences and started it himself.  But now he starts seeing “entrepreneurial” opportunities inside the corporation: if there is a large enough blogging community, he could start using Adsense inside. Basically it’s not about creating new applications, but discovering new opportunities.
Charlene: It’s not about tools, it’s about people, collaboration.

Q: How do I use my “old” transactional data in a wiki-type environment?
Jeff Clavier: Integration layers, RSS ..etc.
Charlene: RSS Transport, open formats…   Business managers can pick data, make his/her own “application”.
Q: (more a remark): Microformats: great, but not enough standards agreed upon.
Charlene: Give it a little time …

Q: Haven’t heard what problem Web 2.0 solves.. other than being a gateway to VC’s 🙂  What will it change?
Jeff Nolan: There is this mistaken expectation that whoever is doing Web 2.0 will do something new, change things.  It’s not “Web 2.0” , it’s YOU.
Ross: Do you interact socially online differently than before?  (yes, and a lot of commotion  from the audience).  There you go …
Q: (actually a remark) from the audience, that  sums up the essence of the night: “We just did  Web 2.0 here, getting an answer from the panel would have been Web 1.0, now you got 25 answers from all of us, that’s 2.0″ 🙂
Ross: Fostering of transparency will change management principles. 
Kids are doing homework on MySpace.
Jeff Nolan: Craigslist+Google Maps mashup: a third person brought it together, it was not initiated by Craigslist, not by Google.

Jeff Nolan: There are about 1500 major business processes in any company, of which 20 impact revenue.
Ross: Process going away.
Jeff Nolan: Disagrees.  (actually me, too .. or I am in between … but that belongs to another post)

Jeff Nolan: Value of IP is not in code, but in community -> Open Source.
Charlene: Enterprise has identity, authentication, reputation system, which does not exist out in the open – i.e. consumer space.
Ross: Build Wikipedia inside a corporation, a.k.a “SAPedia ”  Goes on explaining how Socialtext can give away a good deal of its software and get paid for related service.

Q: Will the Web be able to handle the incerased traffic?
Ross: On issue of Attention: I don’t have to read the New York Times, I have trusted friends who will refer to what’s interesting… point is, use feeds, subsrcibe selectively, use the “unsubscribe” button.

Q: On small businesses adopting blogs for marketing, for customer acquisition
Charlene:  SMB:  Office Live, Basecamp..etc  > not apps, but platforms.  Hosted Services.    (this is where I left the room for 5 minutes, if anyone has notes, pls, contribute…)
Jeff Nolan: We may think of a stripped-down giveaway version of CRM, supported by advertising. In fact, we could by our own ad network.

Q: (more a remark): Companies are run like command economies . Technology empowers workers to be more entrepreneurial.
Charlene: Mindsets will change. Enterprises need to start small, bottom-up.
Jeff Nolan: Quotes a story from SAP, when one of his employees new to blogging sent him a draft blog post for approval. “No, I don’t want to approve, just post it”

Q: We talked about enterprises adapting to new Web 2.0 technology. How about existing “old” products?  Is the current IT infrastructure a bottleneck?
Charlene: Everybody is using a browser, there is a lot of information in those sessison that we don’t know about, don’t share.
Ross: Just do it in a socially acceptable manner.

Q: Will viruses come to Web 2.0? What standards will safeguard community?
Charlene: Pollution comes with social interaction.
Jeff Clavier: Splogs: companies work together fighting it, in a collaborative way, not alone.
Ross: Blogs are individually owned-> individual policies for fighting spam.
Wikipedia is figthing spam not using some feature, but through human intervention, collectively.
Digg is another example for collective filtering.
Charlene: Comment-based reputation systems don’t work.  Pulling identiy info from various systems through API’s better.
Jeff Nolan: Microsoft gave up the Passport concept when they realized it won’t work.

Q: For time critical info, e.g. in Customer Support, how can Web 2.0 help?
Ross: There should not be escalation, the system should be better organized, i.e. wiki for Help Desk: make it available to more people, not jus the Help group.  A group of people have to agree on how to use it.

Q: (from a consultant): Web 1.0 made a lot of people rich.  Where is the money, what are VC’s investing in.. what should I start tomorrow?  (huge laughter in audience)
Charlene: VC’s keep on asking me the same. If I knew the answer, I would not be here 🙂
Concern: they all chase the consumer Internet… should look towards the Enterprise.
Jeff Nolan: Joshua Schachter , founder of del.icio.us is a good example, he was thinking more  like an investor than a founder … keen on building something he can scale up.
Ross: Entrepreneurism is just experimenting. Start small, use open source, build, test.  Company, business model, $$$ comes later. 
SugarCRM as example of disruptive business model
Jeff Clavier: Companies that are successful are all built around large communities.
Don’t try to be 10% better than and existing one, do something new.
Charlene: Nobody is providing Social Networking for companies. (debated by some in the audience)
Platforms are big, see NING.
Ross: NO! Start with an application, which becomes succesful -> then convert it into a platform

There was an endless stream of questions, the host had to cut it, due to time constraints.

 

It was a lively, intense discussion, special thanks to Prashant Shah , TiE SV Charter Member.  I am told the video will be available in about a week.

Update (2/17): Other Blogs on this event:


Update (4/10):  Jeff will moderate another session on the subject at IBDNetwork.

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Filed Under: Blogging, Business, Collaboration, Enterprise Software, SaaS, Software, Startups, Technology ·
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Tomorrow’s Blogging Platforms – Today (?)

Posted on February 17, 2006 ·

Tips on how have “multiple blogs” in one…

Michael “TechCrunch” Arrington long ago started his personal sideblog, CrunchNotes;   “GigaOM” Malik also felt compelled to launch The Daily OM, both feeling that the occasional lighter, shorter tidbits they feel like writing about are a distraction from the main theme of their professional blogs.  Others will likely follow:  “In the year that I’ve been blogging in a daily basis, I’ve also felt the need for an alternative page where I could have shorter, pithier posts, focused perhaps on a broader range of subjects.”   says Michael Parekh. 

He does not want to start a new blog though, instead wonders when blogging platforms will offer multiple tabbed sections, more flexibility to present content, essentially becoming full-fledged publishing platforms: “We need to break out of the strait-jacketed approach to blogs to date and think more out of the Blog box.  It feels like we’re overdue for some change.”

I’m looking forward to the dream platform (as long as it’s still simple to use), but until then here are a few tips to get more or less of what Michael is looking for.

  • B2evolution offers tabbed blogs, here’s an example.   This is the SQLFusion corporate blog, where individual authors  have their own tab, and all posts roll up to the main tab.   Of course nothing compels one to use it in a corporate, multi-user environment; tabs can represent major subject headings which could be further structured into sub-categories, or one could use just use two tabs for the “main theme” vs. the tidbits.
  • We could achieve similar results on the major platforms today, by  simply using categories creatively.  Create categories for your major subject matters, and one for the hodgepodge. Now, I don’t know if TypePad allows this, but on Blogware I can prevent entire categories, or individual posts from “bubbling up” to the Main category, which means those posts would not show up for someone who casually scrolls down on my main page, you’d specifically have to click the relevant category to see the article. 
    • Taking this concept to the extreme, you could decide to NOT have any posts in the main category at all; instead create a single page with  bulletpoints, or graphical icons if you like, pointing to the URL of your categories.   This page becomes your table of contents, and categories serve like the tabs Michael is looking for.
    • A less radical implementation is to use categories as you do today, let all the “professional” ones flow up to the main page, but create ONE category that does not bubble up to Main for all the hodgepodge.  Then create a graphical badge on your sidebar, with the URL to the hodgepodge category – this will be the link to your other, virtual sideblog.

Have more creative ideas?   Please comment or trackback.

Update (2/17):  I did not expect this discussion to rise to Memeorandum, but it’s there, as well as on Megite. Others on the subject:

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Filed Under: Blogging, Personal Productivity, Software ·
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The Third and Best Comment Tracking Tool

Posted on February 14, 2006 ·

(Updated)

This has been quite a week for all of us unhappy about missing the other half of the Conversation:  in rapid succession three comment-tracking products were announced.

First came coComment with a spontaneous (?) yet well-executed viral campaign that spread around the Blogosphere like wildfire.  Other than the “big names” supporting the launch, key to their overnight popularity was the fact that it really was the long-awaited  first (so we thought)  solution to a problem that’s been bugging so many of us.  I do like coComment, it has a lot of bells and whistles, and potential to do more.

Then I received an email from Diego who had launched MyComments a few days earlier, but only on Spanish-speaking blogs.  The original launch went pretty much unnoticed but when it got Scobleized, word got around fast … 

Originally I favored coComment, since it places the “burden” of a click on me, the commenter, whereas MyComments is dependent on the blog owner implementing a plug-in.  However, I did not realize that coComment still needs all other commenters to click their coCo-button, otherwise I get nothing…   That said, I really don’t know which approach is better, both leaving me dependent on others

Third time’s the charm:  today without much fanfare Robert announced co.mments, the third, and IMHO best solution.  Simplest and best.  No more dependency on plug-ins, other people clicking ..etc… it just tracks the thread and sends me RSS updates.  I still need a bookmarklet to mark the comment threads I’d like to follow, but that’s OK with me, at least I can be selective with which threads I really want to follow.

(While I am writing this, the site went down .. .at this point only the author’s blog is available.  I guess that’s what happens when your server capacity is not ready to be Scobleized… ) 

Related posts:

 Update  (2/14):  What a coincidence; just as soon as I declared co.mments the winner, my coComment box disappeared…  (Yes, I know, cheap shot, it’s just an error, but I couldn’t resist…)

Update (3/14):  Now that TechCrunch profiled co.mments, perhaps they will receive due attention    Talk about attention, here’s Steve Rubel. 

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Filed Under: Blogging, Collaboration, Software ·
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3Bubbles – a Bubble 2.0 Indicator?

Posted on February 11, 2006 ·

3bubbleslogo(Updated)

I’m not trying to be funny with the title.  I think a pretty good indicator of being in Bubble 2.0 is when we see cute new applications that everyone likes yet very few use.  3Bubbles, announced by Stowe Boyd, featured at TechCrunch is a really neat idea: adding real time chat to blogs. 

But how many blogs are there to support a lively chat?   My guess is less than (the Technorati Top)  100.

When I wake up early morning (PST) the little flags on my MapStats view are all over Europe, Asia and Australia.  Later the day as we wake up here most of my visitors are from the American continent. Blogs do for conversation what wikis do for collaboration: enable a dialogue between people who are far apart not just  in terms of geography but in time, often in different time zones. Only hugely popular blogs will have the critical mass of readers coming together for a real time chat.  My feeling is that even with enough participants around, chat is  not an easy way to convey a coherent message.  I’ll be happy to be proven wrong though.

That said, I’m sure it will work on TechCrunch – and  a few others.  Is the business model than to deliver ads to a handful (a few dozens?) of blogs?  

Update (2/12):

Update 2. (2/13).  TechCrunch reports 3Bubbles is (are?) open for a limited beta.  Right now there are 16 chat participants… I’m sure some of them expressed their opinion, but I can’t see that, since they all are in the chat session instead of leaving comments.  It looks to me that 3bubbles’ instant “achievement” is to reduce the conversation that used to span over days and different timezones to only the people that are present at the same time.

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Filed Under: Blogging, Collaboration, Personal Productivity, Social Networking, Software ·
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VoipStunt – Free Landline Calls – Better than Skype (?)

Posted on February 10, 2006 ·

Logo_voipstuntVoipStunt is a Germany-based service that allows  free phone calls from your computer to landlines in a number of countries.  After downloading the application and creating a user account, you can make 1 minute test calls – I did, and the sound quality is excellent.

There is a one-time “upgrade” of 10 euros which does not expire, so as you make more and more calls, they really become close to free.  Almost too good to be true, and definitely beats the already low Skype-out calls, or the announced but not-yet-available Yahoo IM calls.  Here’the link to the list of free countries, as well as rates to other destinations.

Update (5/15):  Skype announced free calls to landlines within the US and Canada.

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Filed Under: Business, Personal Productivity, Software, Technology ·
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