Portals and KM

Mahalia Jackson on YouTube

I grew up listening to Mahalia Jackson in New Orleans as my mother was a big fan. She often talked about how Mahalia refused to sing the blues. Mahalia was born in New Orleans. I remain a fan of her music. One Sunday morning I put together this collection. Enjoy. The first two are my favorites and the ones I remember most as part of the sound track of my childhood in New Orleans. For some I could only find audio with a still image or series of images. I added a Little Richard version of my favorite at the end.

"Didn't It Rain"

Joshua Fit The Battle Of Jericho

Summertime/Motherless Child

Down By The Riverside

Steal Away - Mahalia Jackson & Nat King Cole

"Move On Up a Little Higher, Pt. 2" (1947) audio only

I'm On My Way (audio only)

Jesus Met The Woman At The Well (audio only)

Amazing Grace

Little Richard - Didn't it Rain

100 Abandoned Houses in Detroit

Here is a photo project covering 100 Abandoned Houses in Detroit. I worked there in the mid80s as a consultant to several firms, Burroughs and Ford mostly. I really enjoyed the city. It has great food and music. At the time it was also a place where people looked over their shoulder as they walked down the street. I am sadden by the further decline. Here is part of what the photographer said.

“As the number of images grew, and a documentary style emerged, I switched from mostly black and white, to color, and decided to name the series 100 Abandoned Houses. 100 seemed like a lot, although the number of abandoned houses in Detroit is more like 12,000. Encompassing an area of over 138 square miles, Detroit has enough room to hold the land mass of San Francisco, Boston, and Manhattan Island, yet the population has fallen from close to 2 million citizens, to most likely less than 800,000. With such a dramatic decline, the abandoned house problem is not likely to go away any time soon.”

Take a look. Thanks to PSFK for pointing this out.

GroupSwim Provides Three Enterprise 2.0 Offerings

I have covered GroupSwim before (see for example, GroupSwim Moves Deeper into Enterprise Collaboration). Last week I had a chance to catch up with Jason Rothbart, their VP of Customer Success. He covered how they have expanded their product line in response to market demands to provide three offerings, all built on enhanced versions of their original platform. There is now GroupSwim Collaboration, GroupSwim Community, and GroupSwim Workbench.

GroupSwim Collaboration is aimed at internal organizations and teams as a productivity tool. You can create a series of groups that map to your organizational structure, geographies, roles, or other factors. It is highly configurable so you can dynamically create and change groups as your business or project grows and evolves. There are many permissions levels so you can have groups that are totally open or ones that are hidden for complete privacy and security. You can set up wiki pages, store and share files, and have internal discussion forums. The wiki has WYSWYG editing and you can easily insert links, images or video. The Collaboration product is priced based on registered users. Here is an example of a collaboration screen.

GroupSwim Community software is designed to support external, customer-facing sites to provide a way for your customers to collaborate with you and each other. It has the same flexibility and ability to set multiple permission levels as the Collaboration product but is optimized for community use. You can set up discussion forums so customers and partners can ask questions, share experiences, and get work done. This process dynamically also creates a knowledge repository. The software automatically rates every single discussion, which helps you see what people are interested in or concerned about. The Community product is priced based on page views. Here is an example of a community page.

GroupSwim Workbench provides APIs and widgets to extend the base functionality. It is open to third party developers and IT departments who can produce customized white label versions of GroupSwim. The APIs are grouped by three levels of functionality: site, group, and user. You can also embed these widgets into other existing products and web sites. Creating a new widget is easy. The software generates html code based on your configuration choices so no coding is required by the user. Here is a screen showing a number of the widgets.

I like these moves as they have recognized the difference in enterprise and Web use and optimized both the features and pricing for both functions. GroupSwim has also moved the product completely to the cloud and has done away with their own servers. They now use virtual servers rather than a data center so they can scale indefinitely. More servers can now be added with the click of a button. Jason said their customer base has been doubling every few months so this capability is important.

Future plans include a question and answer capability. When users ask a question, the system can detect if the same question or a similar one has already been asked to avoid repetition. As a user is typing in a question, similar ones are displayed on the fly. The feature includes natural language processing to clarify issues. This feature will be especially relevant for discussion forums in both products. It is enabled by the GroupSwim auto-tagging capability.

It is nice to see the product line continue to evolve to meet market needs. Jason said that GroupSwim was named a Cool Software Vendor for 2009 by Gartner. Other new features include expanded search capability, an improved watchlist, and expanded ability for content moderation. Check out their blog, The GroupSwim Diving Board, for further release information.

Can Twitter Serve as a Personal Knowledge Management Tool?

Personal knowledge management can be very useful and when it is social it can serve many purposes. Can twitter serve this function?

Here is an interesting post from Andre Yee at eBizQ, Is Twitter's Growth Sustainable? He raises four issues: attrition, demographics, user experience and usage patterns, and monetization. I think that each of these are real concerns. However, I think the key in number three: user experience and usage patterns. If they get this right the others will take care of themselves.

Andre points out that “Facebook, MySpace and other social networks have a richer user experience beyond broadcasting. This means additional usage patterns and these translate to greater user affinity and stickiness.” The simplicity of Twitter is a large part of tits power. However, I think there needs to be more for sustainability. One part is the actual interface itself, as TweetDeck has proven.

Another part is the ability to use Twitter as a personal knowledge management system. I do this with this blog so I naturally started doing this with Twitter. I tweet or retweet links to things I want to go back to. Since it is Twitter, a social tool, I am also sharing them but in many cases that is secondary. Twitter does the social part fairly well. But the archive part is very primitive. It reminds me of del.icio.us. Once I got a few hundred links it became clumsy and I stopped using it.

Do you use Twitter for personal knowledge management? How do you think it can improve in this area? Are their third party apps that help here?

Equilibrium MediaRich Digital Asset Management for SharePoint and Other Platforms

While I still say text is king on the web, the web is moving beyond text with an increasing use of visualizations in many media. I recently spoke with Sean Barger, CEO of Equilibrium, a firm that supports this transition. Sean said that the web and television are moving towards convergence and I would agree. He has been working in the automated media processing space for the past 15 years.

Equilibrium recently released MediaRich® Visualizer for SharePoint. This enterprise-class freeware server software provides instant visual enhancements to any SharePoint deployment, as well as high-volume media processing and distribution. It is a subset of their MediaRich Core product. It automatically creates thumbnails for all Microsoft Office, PDF, images, and videos in SharePoint. It supports more than 300 common file formats and includes a Zoom and Pan function to examine the the details of the file without having to download it first.

MediaRich Visualizer also helps integrate the use of Macintosh computers in a SharePoint environment. It provides batch uploading of assets, including the ability to upload complete folders while preserving their directory structure from both Windows and Macintosh.

Sean showed me how MediaRich Visualizer permits advanced searching on all media asset metadata throughout the enterprise. It upgrades Microsoft Advanced Search with IPTC, XMP and EXIF capability. When you upload media, all metadata is extracted and added to the Microsoft SQL Server database for search. This allows you to extend the search capability for media and have on-demand visualization of the results. Here is an example of search results before MediaRich Visualizer.

Here is an example of the search results after MediaRich Visualizer.

You see the media-related results faster and also see things that were not visible before. For example, in the past you would have to download and open a file to see if it was the right one. Now you can look into the file without downloading it. This is a great speed boost when you are searching for specific files and trying to find the right version.

Equilibrium offers a more comprehensive commercial product, the full MediaRich for Sharepoint, which has the same features offered by the Sharepoint freeware and the ability to turn on expanded API’s for for creating custom applications for web or intranet portal site. MediaRich is used by Disney for its internal content sharing and collaboration between all its business units. It also serves as the visualization platform for the Associated Press ENPS content distribution system which is used by 60% of online news sites.

Sean also showed me the zoom and pan feature that allows you to zoom in on any file in-page on in a popup and enabling automatic resizing to fit the window as you expand or contract it. This is not what happens on normal popups and is a useful feature and apparently very scalable because no pre-processing of the files are required to achieve these capabilities.

As the web, inside and outside the firewall, becomes more engaging, MediaRich becomes an increasingly useful platform. It also helps speed the transition to a more visually rich and self-service environment which should increase productivity.

MIT Sloan CIO Symposium: Notes from Four Panels

The MIT Sloan CIO Symposium is an annual one-day conference where CIOs and other senior execs gather to “explore how academic research and innovative technologies can help address the practical challenges in today's changing economy.” I sat through four panels and posted my notes on the FastForward blog. I found it interesting to hear what the various speakers are thinking but, with a few exceptions, did not hear much new stuff. Perhaps I am already following things too closely. However, I thought the day worthwhile.

Here are links to my posts on the four panels.

Part One: The Virtual Organization

Part Two: CIO Leadership and the Bottom Line

Part Three: Enterprise 2.0

Part Four: Cloud Computing

Five Things to Avoid with Your Company Blog

The strong interest in company blogs continues (e.g., Forrester Says Firms to Increase Marketing Investment in Blogs, Fortune 500 Blogging Study). The investment is largely one of time more than money but how do you best leverage this investment? Here is a useful list from Mack Collier”s post, Five reasons why your company blog sucks.

1 - You use your blog as a billboard.

2 - Your don't answer or encourage comments.

3 - You rarely have new posts up.

4 - Your blog has little or no pictures, and is visually boring.

5 - Your blog creates little to no value for your readers.

Mark provides commentary for each point and you should go to his post for the details. I certainly agree with this list. The last one is the most important and often results from too much of the first one. The company web site can serve as the promotional tool so there is no need to have the blog do the same thing.

One and five also apply to company Twitter feeds. You can use the blog and Twitter to occasionally promote something but if that is all you do, little interest will be generated. Like TV, you have to first provide good content before you can offer commercials.

Sometimes companies are hesitant to open a blog up for comments but to me a blog without comments is not a blog. You can always monitor them and delete spam but that task is part of the effort. You also need to have a consistent posting schedule. It does not have to be daily but it should be consistent. I also agree with the visuals. I have been taking pictures with this in mind but sometimes resort to Creative Commons images on Flickr. Thanks to Mark for this list.

Singapore Restaurants Update 2009 Via Local Twitters

I wrote about Singapore restaurants a while back, see Singapore Restaurants: A Local’s Favorite, based on my friend Elizabeth’s Lian’s time there. Two local Twitters gave me tips on where to eat in their city.

@DrAlisonEyring said Makansutra is a good local publication. top rating is: "die die must try" Their site adds, “The 7th Edition of Makansutra Singapore is now out. It is the meanest, freshest and thickest by far - with over 1,100 eateries, all newly reviewed and rated and with over 200 photo illustrations. Read, see and taste why they said what they did about us…Singapore is known for its hawker food…The Michelin Guide will be out of its league in this. For cheap, good and nice, the home grown Makansutra is as good a guide as any, for locals as well as visitors seeking out the authentic Singapore”

@SameerPatel offered some specific suggestions.

Jumbo Seafood (chilli crab), “Apart from classic Jumbo specialties like Chilli and Pepper crab, Jumbo Seafood Gallery will also serve Lamb Chops, Roasted Duck served 2 ways, Fresh Oysters and BBQ delicaies like BBQ King Prawns, BBQ Red Tilapia, Satay and Otah.” 20 Upper Circular Road #B1-48 
The Riverwalk Singapore 058416
Tel: 6534-3435.

Wing Seong Fatty's (Albert) Restaurant Trip advisor says. “Been eating at Fatty's since it was in a shophouse at Albert Street in the 70's. try the deer meat (venison) with ginger and scallions and the braised fish head (heung sheu tao), the sweet and sour pork is always good more.” Address: 175 Bencoolen Street, Singapore, Singapore Phone: 63381087

Newton Circle hawkers – “Eating out at hawker centers is part of Singapore's culture. Newton Circle food center is probably better known to frequent Singapore visitors. On weekend evenings, it is usually very crowded.” Here are some pictures. Elizabeth Lian said, “Do try the great popiah at #68 – it lives up to its reputation. It is located at Scotts Road and Bukit Timah Road.”

Portrait of Two Italian Greyhounds

Here are our two new Italian greyhounds, Kira and William. They are both about a year old and rescue dogs. This is acrylic and is 18" by 24". It is my first painting in over a year.

Inmagic Presto 3.0 Supports the Social Side of Knowledge Management

Inmagic began in 1983 in the Boston area by providing what became to be called knowledge management solutions unlike many players in the Enterprise 2.0 market. The corporate library function was their first market. Many companies would purchase data from outside sources and the corporate librarian had to manage this unstructured data and make it accessible.

I spoke with Phil Green, the current Inmagic CTO, and Mike Cassettari, the VP of Marketing. With most of the traditional database tools available in the 80s, you had to make the data fit the structure of the data fields. Inmagic offered fields of unlimited length so you could make the database structure fit the nature of the content. They were one of the pioneers in handling unstructured data. They added the ability to handle imaging in the early 90s.

Then in 1996 Inmagic began offering web publishing tools and Web 1.0 applications. went with Web services at the front end level. As Phil and Mike said, their path reflects the ongoing changes in the industry. Some of their clients wanted a Web version to share data across locations. These clients and others discovered that this led to far greater data sharing on a global basis than anticipated. I also experienced this in several firms.

Next, Inmagic moved to a complete Web version with a .Net solution. They now provide both a hosted offering and an on-premise solution. Mike and Phil said it is about 50-50 in terms of client preferences. If the client is a business user and does not want to get IT involved, they often pick the SaaS version. If the client is within IT and/or concerned with security, they often pick the on-premise offering.

All this brings us up to the present and the advent of Web 2.0 and enterprise 2.0. Inmagic now has two product offerings. Their legacy Inmagic DB/Text still serves a large number of corporate clients in the library space. They now also offer Inmagic® Presto as a Web 2.0 offering. They recently announced Presto 3.0 that includes a number of features to make knowledge management more social. Below is a sample home page of a knowledge sharing system based on Presto.

Mike very rightly pointed out how the introduction of social media into the enterprise can add to the information silos. I have seen this before and agree. Presto provides access to a broad array of unstructured content within the enterprise to overcome these silos. It provides this access in a way that maintains the unique aspects of each data type (e.g. images, text multimedia). There is both a quick one field search and advanced search through categories. You can create virtual folders so items can be indexed in multiple ways.

Presto can also be employed in a Sharepoint environment. This enables firms to reduce the amount of costly and time consuming Sharepoint customization to get the capabilities that Presto brings out of the box. Here you can see Presto search results that bring forward to nature of each file type.

The four main social aspects that have been added with Presto 3.0 are the ability to tag, rate, and comment on content, as well as the abilty to Blog. There is also role-based access to these capabilities and the other features Presto offers. An administrator can decide who has the ability to place tags, as well as rate and comment on content, and they also have the ability to permission who can Blog. Below you can see the role-based options open to the administrator.

It is nice to see a long term player continue to evolve with the market and do well. Mike said that their performance continues strong in the down economy. He attributes this to three factors: their large client base and long standing clients, the appeal of the Web 2.0 features in Presto, and their focus on departmental solution with low cost points of entry.

Why You Should keep Blogging in the Age of Twitter

I think that twitter complements blogs and does not replace them. Here is a useful post by Adam Singer that goes into detail on this point, 19 Reasons You Should Blog And Not Just Tweet. Twiiter offers the sound bytes and blogs can go into depth. As noted in this blog post, many of the most useful tweets contains links to blogs and other content that goes into more depth.

I find Twitter a great way to exchange and discovery good content on a variety of topics. However, most of the content resides outside the 140 character limits of twitter. On the other hand, Adam notes: “Unscientific observation: most bloggers use Twitter, but many Twitter users do not blog.” I think these non-blogging Twitters are missing the chance to have a substantial conversation with their audience.

Case in point, the 19 reasons to keep blogging could not be conveyed in Twitter but the title should draw a lot of RTs and click throughs to the actual post. Which is better to be a RT pointer or the owner of the content where the reader ends up? I encourage you to check on Adam’s 19 reasons. I agree with all of them. Blog on.

TransUnion Provides Good Example of Social Media ROI

I read a nice case study, ROI on social networking? TransUnion is leading the way, on the LCG Enterprise Technology Blog. TransUnion implemented Socialtext. It makes three good points. First TransUnion is savings millions by leveraging social networks to develop creative solutions to overcome very real budget constraints.

In addition, as the post conveys, “CTO John Parkinson realized that if he didn't implement a social software solution internally, it was bound to happen on its own -- on Facebook or in some other public forum. This is perhaps the second biggest reason for implementing social technology within your organization. It's no longer 'if you build it, they will come' - it's 'if you don't build it, they will definitely go elsewhere.”

Finally, the LCG posts mentions that “TransUnion is using data from its internal social network to learn more about its employees. Who is my go-to person on a particular topic? Who provides the best answers? Who are the unsung leaders within my organization?” This looks like a win-win-win-win situation and a classic example of the multiple dimensions of enterprise 2.0 value. You save money, provide better customer service, maintain control over your collaboration process, and learn more about the capabilities of your employees.

Thanks to LCG for this example. A few days ago I Tweeted a link to their post before writing this piece. It was RTed five times within the first hour and this sets the record for RTs per first hour for anything I have Tweeted, putting the post link potentially in front of over 7,000 followers from the combined RTs not factoring for any overlaps. I do not know if there is a ROI new but it does show the power of social media.

Some Interesting Twitter Apps from New York Times

The New York Times published an article, Putting Twitter’s World to Use, that had some interesting applications. For example, Corey Menscher, grad student at New York University, developed Kickbee, an elastic band with vibration sensors that his pregnant wife wore to alert Twitter each time baby kicked: “I kicked Mommy at 08:52 PM on Fri, Jan 2!” Mr. Menscher is now considering taking the product to market.

There should be other uses of this alert concept. Ambient Devices, started before Twitter, provides Glanceable Technology to alerts you to all kinds of things. This could be hooked to twitter feeds of they have not already done it.

Here is another. At Detroit’s Henry Ford Hospital, the docs twittered throughout an operation to remove a brain tumor from a 47-year-old man. Tweest included: “A portion of the skull is being removed to allow access to the dura, the lining of the brain”. The article said that, “Medical residents and curious laymen following online asked the doctors what music they were listening to (Loreena McKennitt, a Celtic singer), whether the patient felt pain in the brain (no, just pressure) and how big the tumor was (the size of a golf ball). As is convention on Twitter, they tagged all their tweets with a keyword so anyone could search for the keyword and read the stream of posts.”

Not sure I want the docs to twittered during my surgery. Better to focus on task at hand and I hope they are not crowdsourcing the next step. I understand the music part. I work better to music also. What music would like to be operated to? I would pick some nice slow instrumental jazz ballads over Hendryx.

There is also the Portland Twisitor Center, where you can ask where to find the best brunch spot or coffee house and receive instant official responses from the center and anyone else who might be following. True Massage and Wellness in San Francisco, twitters when masseuses have same-day openings and offers discounts. The spa is often fully booked within hours.

The article states that Twitter’s most productive use has been for businesses that want to better understand their customers, citing Dell and Starbucks. This is something I have written about here during Twitter week. (see for example, Central Desktop Using Twitter for Sales, Service, and Brand Monitoring Conversations and Humana Demonstrates Good Transparency Through Twitter and Techrigy Mines IT.

What are the most innovative uses of twitter that you have seen?

Enterprise 2.0 Conference Panel on Business and Twitter

I am pleased to be part of a panel at this June’s Enterprise 2.0 Conference on business uses of Twitter, How Twitter Changes Everything. It will be held on Tuesday, June 23 - 3:30 pm–4:30 pm. My panel co-participants include Jessica Lipnack, CEO, NetAge (our moderator) Isaac Garcia, CEO, Central Desktop, Clara Shih, author of The Facebook Era, and Patti Anklam. Here is the session description.

“Nearly impossible to describe without experiencing it (though countless try through analogy), Twitter has soared in popularity. Its 7 million-and-counting users seem to agree that it facilitates a kind of communication previously unknown, allowing large numbers of people to exchange ideas in extremely short bursts in nearly real-time. Among its appeals: tiny posts demand succinctness and clarity; you can reach tons of people/colleagues/customers in a second; it's superb in emergencies; communities of vaguely-connected folks can form quickly and naturally around shared interests; you can test ideas through instant polls...the list goes on. Join this group of dedicated Twitterers for a participatory session about how Twitter differs from other social appliances and how your business, organization, practice, and/or communication style can benefit. Come with stories!”

So we hope you do come with your stories. You can find much more on Twitter by looking at the Twitter category in this blog’s right side column.

Aretha Franklin on YouTube

I think Aretha is the most powerful R&B singer and my favorite. I had fun a few days ago putting together this list of YouTube videos with her. I picked ones that had some of my favorite songs and show her at different points in her career. I hope these links last.

Aretha Franklin - Baby I Love You (1967) - From her 1967 album "I Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You", a young Aretha Franklin performs on the streets of New York.

Aretha Franklin - (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman (1968)

Aretha Franklin - 'Mockingbird' (60s) young Aretha really rocks this one

Aretha Franklin - Don't Play That Song For Me (1970)

Aretha Franklin - Rock Steady (early 70s)

Aretha Franklin – Groovin (70s?) not best tape but great performance

Aretha Franklin - Night Life (70s?) same tape as Groovin

Aretha Franklin - Do Right Woman, Do Right Man - Introduction by James Brown (80s?) Aretha sings that James says it’s a man’s world but you cannot prove that by me as long as we are together you have to show some respect for me James comes out at the end as says you got that do right man right here and dances with her

Aretha Franklin - Respect (1990)

Aretha Franklin & Mariah Carey - Chain of Fools (2005)

Aretha Franklin - 'I Never Loved A Man' 2006 with an introduction by Robert DiNiro

The Battle of Essex Fried Clams – Woodman’s versus Farnham’s

The fried clam was first created at Woodman’s in Essex Massachusetts in 1916. “Chubby” and Bessie Woodman opened their roadside clam shack on the causeway in Essex, MA in 1914. The fried clam hadn’t been invented. The made fresh fried potato chips. Business was slow and one day a customer jokingly suggested they throw a clam in the batter to pick up sales. They actually tried it and the fried clam was born.

A year after the Woodman’s experiment a Boston fish market advertised that it was "now equipped to serve the new taste treat—fried clams." And Howard Johnson—owner of a chain of restaurants that at one time had 100 spots across the East Coast—came himself to learn how to fry clams from "Chubby." Here is the rest of the story from the Woodmans’ site. Below is a Woodman’s fried clam strip plate with rings.

Woodman’s continues to offer fried clams and I go there whenever I am in Essex. It is located at 121 Main Street, Route 133, Essex, MA 01929. 978-768-6057. Their main rival for the area is Farnham’s. It is located at 88 Eastern Ave., Essex, MA 01929 (978) 768-6643. I tired them a few weeks ago for the first time. Here is their clam strip plate.

While Farnham’s was excellent, I continue to prefer Woodman’s especially for the onion rings. They have a unique way of doing them with more batter than the Farnham’s style but not too much as you sometimes find. Farnham’s is usually less crowded and has a nice place to sit outside and view of the salt marsh. Now that I have had both I will go back to Woodman’s on the basis of the food.

Here is a clam strip plate with rings from Marc Anthony’s in Onset MA. It is in the style of Farnham’s, especially the rings. I actually found it fresher than Farnham’s but still consider Woodman’s tops. Marc Anthony’s is at 190 Ocean Ave, Onset MA 508-295-5956.

If you get to Rhode Island, here is the place for fried clams - Evelyn's Drive In.
 What are your favorite fried clam places?

Tweepz brings Exalead search to Twitter

I have written about Exalead before, see Exalead’s CloudView Offers Integrated Search Capabilities. They have a web search tool like Google that is used in widely in France and other parts of Europe. The CloudView product looked inside the entoerise. Now they have a new web tool addressed at Twitter.

Exalead’s Jochem Prins built Tweepz in about five man-days. It went live quietly on March 16, 2009. It currently indexes about a quarter of Twitter users. Tweepz, allows users to find people on Twitter by name, location, or bio and navigate and refine these searches further by extracted metadata, language, follower ranges, etc. It’s built on Exalead technology to employ full-text search, natural language processing, and smart classification.

You can also filter your results. You can narrow your results by number of followers, the language they speak or extracted entities (key words which show up in their bios) all of these divided into percentile ranges. RSS feeds for specific queries are available, as is the simple ability to tweet the results you are seeing.

Tweepz also hopes to index the content of Twitter users’ nominated URLs in the future, thus offering a larger scope and capacity to return meaningful search results. I wonder of they will take this into the enterprise also and look at enterprise micro-messaging tools?

Blogs are Most Influential Social Media for Women (and Men)

Here is an interested study, 2009 Women and Social Media Study by BlogHer, iVillage and Compass Partners, that was reported in the Small Business Trends post, 42 Million U.S. Women Use Social Media: Blogs Most Influential. The study found 42 million women in the United States (53% of US adult women who are Web users) are participating in social media at least weekly. As they spend more time with social media, “women are spending less time with traditional media: 39% less on newspapers, 36% less time reading magazines, and 30% less time watching TV.” Here are the main findings:

“More women use social networks like Facebook and MySpace than anything else, with blogs their second choice. Forums and discussion boards come next, with Twitter bringing up the rear.” The study was done in March 2009 so it is recent but Twitter continues to rise in number of users. I think it will get out of last place soon.

However blogs are more influential for purchasing decisions than other social media. In addition, “those who blog are more likely to be tech savvy, on the leading edge of trends, and invest time searching for new products online. Those who participate in social networking sites like Facebook are motivated to spend time there more as a matter of staying in touch with family and friends.” This makes sense and is not a surprise. I also think the same would hold for men.

“Women Look to Blogs for Business, Politics, Cars and Technology… Women are more likely to go to social networks for beauty, entertainment and dating advice. But for the majority of other categories they look to blogs.” Again, I think the same would hold for men.

Thanks to BlogHer for this comprehensive study. These findings are consistent with the research across gender such as the Jupiter Research study I covered in Business Blogs Trump Social Networking Sites as New Business Drivers. Businesses are also recognizing this as Forrester Says Firms to Increase Marketing Investment in Blogs. Here is another supporting report: Blogs Still Matter for Social Media Marketing in 2009.

Zoho Apps Go Mobile

We are getting more powerful mobile devices with bigger screens setting the stage for the movement of more desktop apps to mobile devices. Zoho is expanding its mobile support for the iPhone and Windows Mobile to include the Android, BlackBerry, and Symbian mobile platforms. Zoho Mobile applications include Zoho Mail, Zoho Writer and Zoho Sheet and work for all these platforms. Zoho offers a comprehensive suite of applications (see Zoho: A Suite of Many Online Apps for Small to Midsize Business).

All of their future mobile initiatives will be available under Zoho Mobile as they expand mobile support for all their upcoming applications. Zoho Mobile is available now, free of charge. Here you can see Zoho apps on an iPhone, an Android, and Windows Mobile.

Currently, Zoho Mobile lets users view their Zoho Writer, Zoho Sheet, and Zoho Show files. Users can also view, compose, and send email via Zoho Mail and access their Zoho Creator applications. Going forward, the company plans to expand both the feature functionality and the portfolio of Zoho applications available in Zoho Mobile. Zoho Mobile is also localized to Japanese. They plan to make this available in additional languages soon.

This is a smart move. I might actually get an iPhone soon and one reason would be to use desktop productivity applications such as these that Zoho offers.

Future of Search?

Here is an interesting bit from Liz Ruskin, contributing editor of SmartBrief on Leadership taken from a panel on Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles.

“Greg Papadopoulos, CTO of Sun Microsystems, said that now we’re impressed when Google searches a sea of information for us in mere seconds but we should be dissatisfied with this mode of search. In the future, he said, search will be done for us. Every electronic device we buy will connect to a network and our search results will be based on things like our location to our preferences and past behaviors. Search engines will know what we mean, not just the definitions of the words we use to describe it.”

This is an interesting tease. I tried to find more on Google but only found references to his views on cloud computing and open source. He likes them. Does anyone know more about this?

Get Microsoft Word and Excel Functionality for Your iPhone

Here is another app for your iPhone. I like this application. I might be getting an iPhone soon and if I do, I will be sure to get Quickoffice also. Quickoffice has been in the business of supplying productivity software to mobile devices for a number of years with 100 million applications running on the Palm, Nokia’s Symbian, and other systems. They provide native viewing and editing of Microsoft® Office documents in over 47 languages. Quickoffice recently made available their full Office suite for the iPhone with Word and Excel editing capability. It is named Quickoffice for iPhone. I spoke with David Halpin, their VP of Engineering. David said they have applied the code and lessons learned with other systems to create the iPhone application so it is a mature application running on a new platform.

He showed me how it worked. We first looked at Word functionality. Quickoffice for iPhone has an intuitive user interface and supports comprehensive functionality including cut, copy and paste, font formatting, content selection and bullets within Word documents. You often use finger taps instead of moose clicks. You can single and double tap. You can even triple tap to select a paragraph. You can zoom in on text to make your finger taps more accurate by holding your finger down. This is a feature I need with my fat fingers. I like the way the text word wraps so you do not have to scroll from side to side but just scan down. You can vary the text size and the screen redoes the word wrap. Here is a sample screen with some editing functions.

Users can also bring up a wider keyboard to edit and create documents in landscape mode (see below).

Excel functionality is similar to Word but tailored for spreadsheets. It includes extensive mathematical and statistical formulas, with 125 functions. Other useful features include file sharing capabilities via Wi-Fi desktop connectivity and access to one's MobileMe iDisk account. Editing is done while maintaining perfect data integrity, in addition to 'auto-save' to ensure none of your work is lost on-the-go. This auto-save is important on the iPhone, as it can only do one thing at a time. If a phone call comes in, it will quit Word. After you finish the call Quickoffice takes you back to where you where in Word. Here is another editing screen.

I asked David about the main uses of Office applications on a mobile device. He said it has primarily been for viewing documents and making minor edits. Now there are also netbooks, sized between mobile phones and laptops, that allow for more editing. Quickoffice is increasingly providing capabilities for these devices. More editing occurs with these larger devices.

Since Quickoffice connects to the cloud, you can access data in such sources as Apple’s MobleMe. This opens up the future possibilities of adding collaborative features and this is part of the vision for Quickoffice. David said they will not try to rebuild the many collaborative features in the multiple platforms already on the market, but rather allow you access to these platforms. They want you to get to your data from a mobile device and work with it regardless of where it is stored.

Quickoffice for iPhone will also make its functionality available in separate applications to cater to an individual's needs. Quicksheet, formerly MobileFiles Pro, includes only Excel editing functionality and Quickword features only Word editing. Quickoffice Files, formerly named MobileFiles 2.0, enables users to access and view documents.

David said that Microsoft has been opening up access to Office functionality. The 2003 and 2007 releases make it easier to connect with these tools. Quickoffice for iPhone is available through the Apple App Store for $19.99. Many of their other offerings are shipped on Symbian devices. The changing economy is putting pressure on many of these device suppliers and business models in this market are adjusting. However, overall the market remains robust.

London Pictures March 2009 Part Two

Here are more pictures from my visit to London in late March of this year.

London Pictures March 2009 Part One

Here are some pictures I took while in London late March of this year. The first picture is Cambio de Tercio in South Kensington where we had lunch our first day. The next one is their calamari. The after that is their cod tapa. This is followed by a shot of King's Road in Chelsea, my old neighborhood. You can click on the picture to enlarge it.

Fortune 500 Blogging Study

Nora Ganim Barnes at the University of Massachusetts and Eric Mattson at Financial Insite recently released a study on the Fortune 500 and Blogging. The study found that eighty-one (16%) of the 2008 Fortune 500 have a public-facing corporate blog. What is more interesting is that the higher you are in the standings, the more likely you are to have a blog. The study reported that of the top 100 Fotune 500 companies, 38% (31 companies) have a corporate blog. Those listed 101-200, 25% (20 companies) have a corporate blog. The top 200 companies account for 63% of the Fortune 500 corporate blogs. In contrast, the bottom 200 (those listed 301-500) account for 26% of the Fortune 500 corporate blogs.

They are open to interactions as over 90% of the Fortune 500 blogs take comments, have RSS feeds and take subscriptions. The study says that, “these blogs are kept current with frequent posts on a range of topics. It appears that those companies that have made the decision to “blog” have utilized the tool well. There is frequent posting, on-going discussion and the ability to follow the conversation easily through RSS or subscriptions.” In addition, 23 (28%) linked to a corporate Twitter account.

However, the Fortune 500 lags behind over sectors as the 57% of charities, 41% of higher education institutions, and 39% of the smaller Inc. 500 have institutional blogs. But many seem to be trying. I would like to see a comparison on revenue and profits with blogging. Not that you can claim a cause and effect but you can see if the most successful companies are ones that have the vision to operate blog. Has anyone looked at this?

Using Twitter to Build Your Small Business

Business Week recently provided this article, Twitter: Building Businesses Tweet by Tweet. I learned about it from Twitter via JaimeSF. It starts with a case from Chris Savage from Wistia. “Savage frequently trolls Twitter looking for sales leads for his five-person, $1 million company, which makes software that facilitates video sharing through a private network. Although Savage has been using Twitter for only a year, it's already helped him find 12 new clients…”

This is very similar to my earlier post: Central Desktop Using Twitter for Sales, Service, and Brand Monitoring Conversations that described, among other things, their 27 tweet one phone call close. There was also a post on how Filtrbox Monitors Twitter with it Own Tool Set. I have been talking to a number of small IT firms in the enterprise 2.0 space that are actively using Twitter in the same way as Chris Savage.

This is not limited to IT firms as some San Francisco-based coffee shops and bakeries have sent tweets to tell their customers about specials and one Los Angeles taco truck uses Twitter to tell customers where its location for the day. Positus, a consulting firm based in Charleston, S.C, has gotten 10 paying customers through Twitter in the first months.

Here is a creative use. BlueCotton allows customers to design shirts online. “For the past two months, two of Coffey's factory workers have used iPhones to snap pictures of completed shirts, and then to send photo tweets to customers right before shipping.” The tweets have helped customer feel good about their efforts before shipping and, perhaps more importantly, the social nature of Twitter has allowed BlueCotton to win new customers who spot the designs on Twitter.

How have you used Twitter to help your small business?

My App Gap Posts for April 2009

Here are my App Gap posts for April. In addition to the Fast Forward blog (see side bar for links), I am writing in another Corante blog, the App Gap, sponsored by QuickBase, The posts began toward the end of January 2008. In this case, I am primarily doing product commentaries with a few other things thrown in. Below are the ones for April. There will be more in May.

Wyndstorm Builds Web Communities In A Variety of Markets

Tethys Solutions Makes Business Process Automation Accessible

VistaWiki Provides Example of Enterprise 2.0 Knowledge Sharing

Equilibrium MediaRich Fills the App Gap for Digital Asset Management

Central Desktop adds MS Outlook Integration to its SaaS Social Technology Platform

MindTouch 2009 Provides Enhanced Development Platform for Rich Collaborative Applications

DreamFace 2.0 Brings Social Networking and Mobiles Services to Enterprise 2.0 Applications

Quickoffice Brings Microsoft Word and Excel Functionality to the iPhone

Legal Issues for Bloggers from Blog Herald

Here is a useful post by Jonathan Bailey, 20 Law-Related Questions Every Blogger Should Know, in the Blog Herald. I learned a number of things from the post, including you are legally responsible for what you write in terms of libel, etc. but you are not responsible for what others type. In the case of blogs, I assume this means comments.

Also, a blogger can use a logo and name of a company when you write about them so long as there is no confusion created or any implication of a relationship that does not exist. This is good as I often use logos as an illustration when I write about a company or a site.

A plaintiff in a defamation case must prove three elements: publication to someone other than person defamed, false statement of fact that is understood as about the plaintiff and tending to harm the reputation of plaintiff. I have not heard of a defamation case against a blogger but it is legally possible.

There is much more. As the post concludes this information, “can keep you out of court and keep you on the right side of the verdict if you are sued. It’s worth spending some time to learn and understand.”

Is a Business Blog Right for Your Company?

Ray Guluck recently put up a useful post on Social media Today, What Kinds of Businesses Can Benefit from Blogging? He asks three questions and I agree with all of them. Below I repeat them in his words followed by some of my comments.

Are your customers searching online for your products/services? This goes way beyond low-ticket consumer items. A recent survey by Tech Target asked the question. “In the past three months, which of the following information sources have you looked to for information on a new product or technology that your company is potentially going to acquire or implement?” It yielded these top four results: Search Engines—66%, IT Publishers – Websites—58%, IT Vendor Websites—50%, IT Newsletters—41%. Blogs play to the number one source, so by increasing the effectiveness of the blogs and taking more of your content into a blog format you can be a better player in the top two sources. So recommenders, influencers, and even buyers look to the web for information on high ticket IT items.

Is there expertise or a knowledge base that you could share, and is it knowledge or expertise that your customers would find useful? Many firms already have much of the content for a blog. They just need to fit it into this channel. But they need to make sure they are more conversational and not simply giving out PR materials.

Do you like your customers? If you do not like your customers you should not be in business. But the point here is whether you also like to communicate with them. Which should also be a prerequisite.

Ray asks if there are any other questions. I would add:

Do you like to write?

Can you make the commitment for a consistent publishing rate?

Can you be open, spontaneous, and informal in your communication?

Do you want to add others?

Twecipe Provides Recipes on Twitter

There is a wide variety of interest niches and services on Twitter. Being interested in food, I was interested when Twecipe followed me so I looked and found this description, “You Follow me and send me some ingredients like this @twecipe chicken, carrots, basil and I DM you back the perfect recipe :) Yum Yum.”

I tested them with some ingredients: shrimp, cilantro, green onions, and said they could pick three more. I got this DM response within a few minutes. “Try Bloody Mary Shrimp Cocktail http://twecipe.com/kqsb”

So it works. I will try more soon. Good thing to do with leftovers or when you want to try something new.

ifbc – International Food Blogger Conference

The International Food Blogger Conference – aka ifbc – will be held in Seattle on Mya 15-17. Ruth Reichl from Gourmet Magazine is one of the keynote speakers. Now this is a conference from heaven, blogging and food. If you read this blog you know I would like this one. . There is also Renee Behnke of Sur la Table and
Molly Wizenberg of Orangette & Bon Appétit. In additioin you get “Gourmet Food and Beverages,
along with a Fantastic Goody Bag.” I wonder if you can get a blogger press pass to cover it as I have gotten at blues and jazz festivals.

Thanks to my friend Don Lesser for telling me about this one.

My Fast Forward Posts for April 2009

Here is the monthly listing of my Fast Forward blog posts. I find it helps me with an archive and hopefully is also useful to you. There is a separate category for these summaries in my right side column on this blog. There will be more in May.

Should Enterprise 2.0 Software Vendors Provide Professional Services?

The Future of Web Search

Nice Comparison of Enterprise 2.0 and Web 2.0

With Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Multiple Blogs, is There Any Reason to also use FriendFeed?

Scientists Warn of Twitter Dangers But Perhaps Jumped to this Conclusion too Fast

Components of Social Media Marketing: The Moogis Case by Wyndstorm