Sate of the Internet
Mon, Mar 1st 2010 5:14p Karen Hobert Nice reality check.br /br /object width="400" height="300"param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=9641036amp;server=vimeo.comamp;show_title=1amp;show_byline=1amp;show_portrait=1amp;color=ffffffamp;fullscreen=1"embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=9641036amp;server=vimeo.comamp;show_title=1amp;show_byline=1amp;show_portrait=1amp;color=ffffffamp;fullscreen=1" type="applicatio [read] Keywords: application
blogger
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I've seen Buzz from both sides now
Fri, Feb 26th 2010 3:17p Karen Hobert I know these are another one of those cheesy slide-deck articles - but the span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0"HuffPo/span recently posted decks for a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/24/google-buzz-review-the-wo_n_474581.html?slidenumber=OEprau9XCTk%3Damp;slideshowamp;slideshow#slide_image"The 9 Worst Features About Google Buzz/a and a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/24/google-buzz-review-the-wo_n_474581.html?slidenumber=OEprau9XCTk%3Damp;slideshowamp;sl [read] Keywords: blogger
google
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Facebook Just Patented The Feed – What Does That Mean For Everyone That Uses Them?
Fri, Feb 26th 2010 2:18p Karen Hobert How's this for timing?br /blockquotebr /span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0"Facebook/span in 2006 filed for a patent covering ‘the feed,’ as it is known among the tech world. That patent was just granted. Something to note, span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1"Facebook/span filed this before feeds were in vogue, before some social darlings were even born./blockquotebr /This a href="http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2010/02/26/facebook-patented-feed/"The Nex [read] Keywords: blogger
facebook
google
twitter
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FriendFeed Goes Down Hard. Both Remaining Users Pissed.
Fri, Feb 26th 2010 1:47p Karen Hobert Interesting sing of t he times, Twitter activity gauges adoption - or lack there-of.br /blockquotebr /FriendFeed is down right now. It has been down for the past 30 minutes or so. Sadly, that’s not news anymore. Not because, like Twitter of old, it’s down all the time, but rather, because it seems like no one really uses it anymore. Case in point, it’s been down for over 30 minutes and there are maybe 50 total tweets about it (and several are from the same users)./blockquotebr /br /a href= [read] Keywords: blogger
twitter
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Ironic Sans: They Don't Make Computer Manuals Like They Used To
Thu, Feb 25th 2010 4:14p Karen Hobert When computer manuals were funny.br /p/pblockquotepThe Ace 100 manual goes on to describe three categories of crooks in the computer world. The first category is “Them,” the computer salespeople who overhype their products with advertising gimmicks. The second category is “You.” Franklin isn’t actually calling you a crook, but they say that software manufacturers will treat you like one:/p pimg src="http://www.ironicsans.com/images/ace06.gif" width="450" height="403" //p pThe last cate [read] Keywords: blogger
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WARNING: Google Buzz Has A Huge Privacy Flaw
Thu, Feb 11th 2010 2:14p Karen Hobert Chekcing out Google Buzz? Check this out first.br /br /a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/warning-google-buzz-has-a-huge-privacy-flaw-2010-2"WARNING: Google Buzz Has A Huge Privacy Flaw/adiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6973405408608267122-188334503198015165?l=khobert.blogspot.com' alt='' //div [read] Keywords: blogger
google
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Clay Shirky on information overload versus filter failure Boing Boing
Mon, Feb 1st 2010 4:44p Karen Hobert Nice - 24 min - lecture by Clay Shirky exploring the issues of filtering information overload. Good food for thought:br /br /blockquoteSome of it is going to be around re-thinking social norms...when you feel yourself getting too much information, I think the discipline is not to say to yourself 'what's happened to the information?', but rather 'what filter just broke? What was I relying on before that stopped functioning?'/blockquotebr /br /a href="http://www.boingboing.net/2010/01/31/clay-shir [read] Keywords: blogger
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SnappFiles for the iPhone
Fri, Jan 29th 2010 5:46p Karen Hobert a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Zmo4Z016Iu8/S2NkEzEq0CI/AAAAAAAABqU/iCk1phKp7LI/s1600-h/sfScreenshot.png"img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Zmo4Z016Iu8/S2NkEzEq0CI/AAAAAAAABqU/iCk1phKp7LI/s320/sfScreenshot.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5432295609130995746" border="0" //abr /A shameless plug for some good friends and programmers:br [read] Keywords: ibm
lotus
quickr
blogger
iphone
ipod
server
3
Mitigating Risk and Finding Opportunity in Software as a Service E-mail for Small and Medium Businesses
Wed, Jan 27th 2010 11:08a Karen Hobert pAnnouncing the latest CSG publication, "Mitigating Risk and Finding Opportunity in Software as a Service E-mail for Small and Medium Businesses." You can download the white paper a href="http://collaborativestrategyguild.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Mitigating-Risk-in-SaaS.pdf" mce_href="http://collaborativestrategyguild.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Mitigating-Risk-in-SaaS.pdf"here/a or go to the CGS a href="http://collaborativestrategyguild.com/research/" mce_href="http [read] Keywords: blogger
4
How to Destroy the Book, by Cory Doctorow | theVARSITY.ca
Wed, Jan 27th 2010 11:08a Karen Hobert A radical, peoples-approach speech on copyright and books!br /br /blockquoteAnyone who claims that readers can’t and won’t and shouldn’t own their books are bent on the destruction of the book, the destruction of publishing, and the destruction of authorship itself. We must stop them from being allowed to do it. The library of tomorrow should be better than the library of today. The ability to loan our books to more than one person at once is a feature, not a bug. We all know this. It’s [read] Keywords: blogger
bug
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The battle for your email in 2009 | Software as Services | ZDNet.com
Fri, Dec 18th 2009 8:50p Karen Hobert Nice post on e-mail in the cloud and 2009 trends. Looking back, it’s obvious that one titanic struggle has loomed large over the SaaS and cloud landscape: the battle for your email.I give Google kudos for getting its name into the top 3 e-mail vendors. Consistently in 2009 when I asked enterprises and SMBs about their e-mail vendor choices - without going into delivery models, costs, operations, and risks - the top three systems were listed as Microsoft, IBM, and Google. Since GMail's beta re [read] Keywords: collaboration
ibm
blogger
email
google
microsoft
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Philip K. Dick's kid howls over Googlephone handle • The Register
Fri, Dec 18th 2009 4:28p Karen Hobert Yea, it's a nice nod to a favorite SciFi hero... On Saturday, Google confirmed that it has developed a new phone around the semi-open-source mobile operating system it calls Android, and according to press reports, the company intends to sell the device under the name 'Nexus One.' The Philip K. Dick novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? concerns a bounty hunter charged with tracking down a group of escaped robots tagged with the name Nexus-6. These are said to be the sixth generation in a [read] Keywords: blogger
google
mobile
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How Google became Microsoft: A decade of hits, misses and gaffes • The Register
Fri, Dec 18th 2009 4:28p Karen Hobert Fun article from The Register on the decade of IT. During the first decade of the millennium, it goes without saying that computing has changed in a big way, becoming cheaper, easier to use, more mobile, and - in the words of the Mountain View Chocolate Factory - more 'webby.' But it should also go without saying that the decade included its fair share of spectacular snafus. How Google became Microsoft: A decade of hits, misses and gaffes [read] Keywords: blogger
google
microsoft
mobile
3
Yahoo's How-To Guide For Big Brother Leaks (YHOO, NWS)
Mon, Dec 7th 2009 1:48p Karen Hobert If you're wondering what service providers do when the police ask for your personal information, check out these documents. Given all the controversy over copyright infringement, Internet child predators, and even simple cyber security, its obvious these companies had to create these documents. We suppose Yahoo and MySpace rivals Facebook, Google, AOL and all the rest hand out documents just like these to law enforcement.Go to the linked page to see samples from the Yahoo! and MySpace policy doc [read] Keywords: blogger
facebook
google
myspace
security
3
Understanding scam victims: seven principles for systems security
Mon, Nov 30th 2009 9:06p Karen Hobert Interesting University of Cambridge paper on how scams work and the psychological factors behind them. The authors essentially cover common scams and the reasons why they work but also take some time to explain how administrators need to consider these factors when designing system security. For example, one of the seven principles of a successful scam is called the Dishonesty principle, whereby a scam goes unreported because the mark would have to admit some dishonest act in order to expose th [read] Keywords: blogger
enterprise
network
security
6
Search engines are source of learning
Fri, Nov 27th 2009 3:45p Karen Hobert Search can make you smarter... The researchers sought to discover the cognitive processes underlying searching. They examined the search habits of 72 participants while conducting a total of 426 searching tasks. They found that search engines are primarily used for fact checking users' own internal knowledge, meaning that they are part of the learning process rather than simply a source for information. They also found that people's learning styles can affect how they use search engines. Searc [read] Keywords: blogger
7
Cisco Raises Its Bid for Tandberg of Norway - NYTimes.com
Mon, Nov 16th 2009 12:25p Karen Hobert Cisco going big on video for the UC as collaboration market. That was evident from John Chambers keynote last week (see my post). The network equipment maker Cisco on Monday raised its bid for Norwegian videoconferencing equipment maker Tandberg. The increase was backed by holders of more than 40 percent of Tandberg’s shares, few of whom had warmed to Cisco’s previous bid.I am reminded of Mike Gotta's work a couple years ago on different approaches IBM and Microsoft are taking to the UC mar [read] Keywords: collaboration
ibm
sametime
blogger
linkedin
microsoft
network
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Windows Mobe Marketplace sets its stall out • The Register
Fri, Nov 13th 2009 12:45p Karen Hobert More on the Mobile apps store front.... And Windows Phone applications are worth a little more: Handango noted in its last YardStick that while it was now selling more Blackberry applications by volume, Windows Mobile is where the profit comes in. The average price of a Windows Mobile Phone application is more than $20, making development worthwhile and profits possible. Just not for Microsoft. At least, not yet. So as a mobile phone app vendor do you go for volume or hope that users really wan [read] Keywords: application
applications
blackberry
blogger
development
iphone
microsoft
mobile
Cisco throws a collaboration party
Tue, Nov 10th 2009 12:26p Karen Hobert Cisco detailed it's Collaboration Strategy and emerging product line for collaboration at it's Collaboration Summit on Monday afternoon. Chairman and CEO John Chambers outlined Cisco's vision and plan which includes technologies from its collaboration and unified communications portfolio. Cisco today announced significant product introductions across all categories of its collaboration portfolio. The company also announced its entrance into two new markets, enterprise social software and hosted [read] Keywords: collaboration
blogger
community
email
enterprise
exchange
exchange
network
outlook
social software
unified communications
Judge jettisons lawsuit challenging Gartner's Magic Quadrant | NetworkWorld.com Community
Thu, Nov 5th 2009 5:46p Karen Hobert It's all a matter of opinion, even when the opinion is very influential. In essence, this case boiled down to a question of whether the Magic Quadrant is an objective presentation of quantifiable facts, or -- as Gartner argued and should be obvious to all -- simply Gartner's opinion based on its research. Judge jettisons lawsuit challenging Gartner's Magic Quadrant | NetworkWorld.com Community [read] Keywords: blogger
community
4
Design Criteria Defautls: SaaS
Thu, Nov 5th 2009 5:25p Karen Hobert Yesterday I wrote about vendors making mobility a primary design criteria when developing collaboration platform interfaces, today I want to focus on the SaaS. Still in it's 20o9 rage, the Cloud continues to pose issues for customers and vendors alike. Since late 2006 we've seen traditional software vendors, including IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, and Cisco, throw their hat and products into the Cloud and offering SaaS-based delivery of many of their popular solutions. Spurred on by Google's ambition [read] Keywords: collaboration
ibm
lotus
blogger
development
enterprise
google
integration
microsoft
office
oracle
security
sharepoint
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Design Criteria Defaults: Mobility
Wed, Nov 4th 2009 2:45p Karen Hobert A few weeks ago I wrote and article for SearchDomino on IBM Lotus' continued expansion into mobility. One of my predictions was that we'd "see increased dedication from IBM Lotus and other vendors to make designing for mobility a primary consideration when building future versions of software tools." As my article points out, the current state of the mobile device OS market means that are lots of moving parts for vendors to keep track of and strategic partnerships appear to be the preferred appr [read] Keywords: collaboration
ibm
lotus
application
applications
blogger
microsoft
mobile
sharepoint
Hierarchy of digital distraction
Tue, Sep 8th 2009 8:46p Karen Hobert Information is Beautiful is amazing site on visualizing information. Today's post is s a fantastic taxonomy on how we communicate based on the quality of the conversation. The author admits he did't include instant messaging in the mix - it's too distracting - although texting, twitter, and Skype messages suffice. [read] Keywords: blogger
instant messaging
skype
twitter
Collaborative Strategy Guild on NPR!
Fri, Aug 21st 2009 3:26p Karen Hobert Collaborative Strategy Guild member, Pete Lindstrom, is interviewed by Bill Radke on the APR Marketplace Morning Report for August 18, 2009: Pete Lindstrom, research director at Spire Security, talks with Bill Radke about what consumers can do to keep their credit cards secure Audio: Will electronic money transactions ever be secure? [read] Keywords: apple
blogger
php
security
2
Gauging the Real Value of SaaS E-mail
Wed, Jul 29th 2009 3:08a Karen Hobert I'm pleased to announce the publication of "Gauging the Real Value of Software as a Service (SaaS) E-mail for Small and Medium Businesses," a Collaborative Strategy Guild white paper on SaaS E-mail and productivity. You can download from paper via the CSG site. Here's the abstract: The e-mail market is rapidly evolving as new business-grade software as a service (SaaS) e-mail options become a viable alternative to the traditional on-site e-mail by competing on price and value. Information Techno [read] Keywords: apple
blogger
microsoft
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Spam Works
Mon, Jul 20th 2009 12:09p Karen Hobert Wondering why you get so much spam? Because it works. A recent Register article reports the following from a Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG) survey on email usage and spam: Almost a third of consumers admit responding to messages that might be spam emails. Some acted out of curiosity or by mistake but a puzzling 96 from a sample of 800 (12 per cent) said they clicked because they interested in the product or service advertised in junk mail messages. Filtering helps, a lot, but accor [read] Keywords: apple
blogger
email
security
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Google Beachhead
Tue, Jul 14th 2009 1:09p Karen Hobert Google continues to bolster its beachhead on the enterprise email market. Today it announced it is providing free of charge to Google Apps Premier and Education customers a "plug-in" that will migrate Notes mail and personal directory information to Google Apps. The new tool lets customers migrate mail, calendar and contacts from Notes to Google Apps. The syncing tool, which Google says is a native Notes application, can be installed and configured in less than 30 minutes, for multiple users at [read] Keywords: notes
apple
application
blogger
desktop
email
enterprise
exchange
exchange
google
microsoft
outlook
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What's in a word?
Tue, Jul 7th 2009 1:09p Karen Hobert Google has lifted the "beta" label from Gmail and other Google Apps, Google Calendar, Google Docs and Google Talk. Google makes it clear in its Official Google Blog announcement that they are making the move because enterprises are having a hard time getting around the "traditional definition" of the "beta" software label. We're often asked why so many Google applications seem to be perpetually in beta. For example, Gmail has worn the beta tag more than five years. We realize this situation puz [read] Keywords: applications
blogger
development
google
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Media in the 21st Century
Mon, Jul 6th 2009 1:49p Karen Hobert June 2009 TED video of Clay Shirky on the transformation of media in the 21st Century. I like the way he makes these ideas so clear and understandable. Things don't get socially interesting until they get technologically boring. [read] Keywords: application
blogger
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Is Your IT Guy Reading Your Email? - Digits - WSJ
Thu, Jun 11th 2009 2:06p Karen Hobert Ouch! In a survey of more than 400 senior IT professionals in the U.S. and the United Kingdom, Cyber-Ark Software, a Newton, Mass.-based security-software company, found that 35% of IT administrators admitted to accessing corporate information like human-resources records, customer databases and M&A plans, up from 33% a year ago. Moreover, if fired, 47% of the staffers surveyed said that they would take company financial reports and M&A plans with them, a sixfold increase from the pre [read] Keywords: document
javascript
blogger
email
security
AP Reporter Reprimanded For Facebook Post; Union Protests | Threat Level | Wired.com
Wed, Jun 10th 2009 2:26p Karen Hobert Remember when email flaming was all the ..er..rage? It took a while for people to learn to turn off the caps lock. Surely there is a learning curve with social sites. In the meantime the stakes are pretty high, like losing your job. The minidrama is an increasingly familiar one as companies and workers navigate the landscape defined by sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. Firings and reprimands over postings to social networking sites have become commonplace over the last year. Surely, as [read] Keywords: blogger
email
facebook
myspace
networking
social software
twitter
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Twitter Blog: Not Playing Ball
Mon, Jun 8th 2009 1:08p Karen Hobert More on the Twitter identity front. According to the Twitter blog, Twitter is launching a beta program for verifying account holders. I'm not sure how they'll deal with all the John Smith's of the cyberworld. I guess as long as you don't pretend to be someone or entity that you are not then it's on a "first come" basis. Does that mean my favorite @MarsPhoenix will be shut down? ;-) Likely not. Impersonation violates Twitter's Terms of Service and we take the issue seriously. We suspend, delete, [read] Keywords: blogger
twitter
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Bosses and Workers Disagree on Social Network Privacy - Digits - WSJ
Wed, May 20th 2009 1:28p Karen Hobert A very interesting article on the battle between the bosses and the employees. I suspect there would be different results outside the US where privacy laws and attitudes are very different than in US firms - favoring more or less employee privacy and tolerance depending on where you go. The survey was conducted in April with about 2,000 U.S. adults. Of the 500 respondents with managerial job titles (vice president, CIO, partner, board member, etc.), 299, or 60%, agreed that businesses have a ri [read] Keywords: forms
policies
blogger
facebook
myspace
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networking
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Google Says “Googlefail” Outages Are Over - Digits - WSJ
Tue, May 19th 2009 2:06p Karen Hobert Phew. Anyone else out there skeptical about this? “The issue affecting some Google services has been resolved,” a spokesman said. “We’re sorry for the inconvenience, and we’ll share more details soon.”Kudos to Google for working hard to solve their problems and continue to improve their services. Still you never know what's around the corner. I can't blame Google for doing the positive PR spin since they've been getting hit hard for outages by the press, blogisphere, and twitterati l [read] Keywords: blogger
google
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The Exploding Digital Universe - Digits - WSJ
Tue, May 19th 2009 1:26p Karen Hobert World data volume reality check... In 2008 alone, IDC says the world created 487 billion gigabytes of information, up 73% from 2007. That was 3% more than it forecast at the beginning of the year. The Exploding Digital Universe - Digits - WSJ [read] Keywords: blogger
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Daydreaming? You're actually solving complex problems • The Register
Fri, May 15th 2009 11:30a Karen Hobert Someone needs to call my 3rd grade teacher. They found that daydreaming 'is an important cognitive state where we may unconsciously turn our attention from immediate tasks to sort through important problems in our lives'. ... The upshot of the research is that, if you're struggling to solve a complex problem, you might be better off switching to something less taxing and letting your mind wander. Daydreaming? You're actually solving complex problems • The Register [read] Keywords: blogger
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Microsoft's software pipeline set to burst - Microsoft, sharepoint, TechEd, Windows 7 - Computerworld
Fri, May 15th 2009 11:08a Karen Hobert Nice take-away from TechEd 2009 from Network World's John Fontana. If there was one revelation at this week's Microsoft TechEd conference it was that the company's product pipeline is stuffed with new software timed for release in the next seven to 12 months that will force corporate IT to deftly plan and strategize how it wants to deal with the onslaught. Read the full article for more of his thoughts on how this may impact customers. Disclosure: I'm quoted in the article. Microsoft's softwa [read] Keywords: blogger
microsoft
network
sharepoint
Sizing up the Exchange 2010 Integrated Archives
Tue, May 5th 2009 3:46p Karen Hobert A couple weeks ago I posted information on Microsoft's Exchange 2010 beta announcement. Since this is Microsoft's first foray into email archiving as a product, let alone an integrated feature of Exchange, I was curious about the implementation and what customers could expect. I've now got some more answers and it looks like the new service falls somewhere between a local personal archive and an centralized email archival and records management system. Bottom line, the Exchange 2010 integrated [read] Keywords: archiving
archive
blogger
email
exchange
exchange
microsoft
outlook
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Agile working saves money | Gulliver | Economist.com
Tue, May 5th 2009 2:46p Karen Hobert A short example of how unified communications (UC) help save money. BRITISH TELECOM is saving itself £238m ($355m) a year through efficient use of conferencing... As a result of recent efforts to curtail unnecessary travel and focus ever harder on conferencing, BT says it’s reduced its expenditure on air travel and accommodation by around 70% in the last 12 months. Although UC requires planning, up front expenditures, and bringing together traditionally separate teams (namely telecommunicat [read] Keywords: blogger
unified communications
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Microsoft Vine To Connect Family, Friends When Crisis Hits
Tue, May 5th 2009 2:26p Karen Hobert It's a good idea; building a channel and infrastructure for people to keep in touch in the event of an emergency. It's interesting to note that the best way to endure an emergency is to be prepared, and in the case of Microsoft's Vine beta being prepared is made easier. Vine is designed to keep family and friends in touch when other communication methods are either broken or not particularly efficient. Times of crisis usually involve a breakdown in mobile phone or other key communication infras [read] Keywords: collaboration
blogger
desktop
email
facebook
microsoft
mobile
network
social software
Starting your own Facebook- Lessons Learned from NASA’s Spacebook Project » Socialfeds
Thu, Apr 23rd 2009 6:46p Karen Hobert I love the name, Spacebook. This is a very nice post listing lessons learned about launching a successful social network. Lot's of good resource links for further reading too. Spacebook is an enhanced Intranet designed around user profiles, forums, groups, and social tagging. The goal of the project is to use social media to help NASA be more competitive and innovative, encourage collaboration and information sharing, and take better advantage of the information & resources they already hav [read] Keywords: collaboration
blogger
facebook
network
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Lawyers Enter Twitter Tempest - NYTimes.com
Wed, Apr 22nd 2009 12:26p Karen Hobert I recently blogged about Identity Squatting and how it's been a problem for a friend of mine. The issue is now being challenged in the form of a "satirist" not only tweeting but also blogging using a Daily News food critic's byline and name. This situation pushes the argument that the fake posts are a creative writing exercise in parody and legitimate entertainment - you know like the Daily Show or Saturday Night Live. One question is whether Mr. Rucinsky’s writing exercise, with a few more t [read] Keywords: blogger
blogging
twitter
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Ages After Yahoo And Google, Microsoft Finally Enables Web-Based IM In Hotmail
Tue, Apr 21st 2009 9:06p Karen Hobert Better late than never I suppose. I’ve said this before: easily dismissed by geeks and savvy web users, Hotmail has a gigantic mainstream userbase who are not likely going to switch to an alternative webmail service en masse provided Microsoft keeps up with the times and lets Hotmail evolve the way its users are increasingly demanding it to. But make no mistake about it: Microsoft is ridicously late with adding this functionality to Hotmail. Ages After Yahoo And Google, Microsoft Finally En [read] Keywords: blogger
google
microsoft
Defending with Social Software
Mon, Apr 20th 2009 8:46p Karen Hobert Last week I had the pleasure to read this new study, Social Software and National Security: An Initial Net Assessment, by Mark Drapeau and Linton Wells II from the National Defense University. It was refreshing to see such clear headed thinking on these topics. What's more useful is that while some of the information was government oriented much of the assessment applies to non-government use. The study is a bit Twitter heavy on the examples, however, an interesting pattern emerged. In most exa [read] Keywords: collaboration
blogger
development
email
network
profile
security
social software
twitter
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The White House - Blog Post - Weekly Address: Efficiency and Innovation
Mon, Apr 20th 2009 7:26p Karen Hobert President Obama announces Aneesh Paul Chopra as the new US CTO: Chopra serves as Virginia’s Secretary of Technology. He leads the Commonwealth’s strategy to effectively leverage technology in government reform, to promote Virginia’s innovation agenda, and to foster technology-related economic development. Previously, he worked as Managing Director with the Advisory Board Company, leading the firm’s Financial Leadership Council and the Working Council for Health Plan Executives. Personal [read] Keywords: blogger
development
social software
2
Apples to Kumquats: Comparing Cloud Service Offerings
Mon, Apr 20th 2009 7:06p Karen Hobert I recently read through a new Google Apps Premier Edition (GAPE) Partner Guide called 7 Keys to Comparing Google Apps Premier Edition with Microsoft Exchange Server 2007. Discrepancies and misdemeanors aside, the biggest problem I have with the piece is that it's the wrong comparison if you want to sell Google Apps to customers. The piece is great collateral to demonstrate the differences between on-premises and hosted services but it does not say why way GAPE is say better than Microsoft Exchan [read] Keywords: ibm
blogger
email
enterprise
exchange
exchange
google
microsoft
security
server
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Thinning Clouds? Report Questions Value Of Cloud Computing - Software - IT Channel News by CRN
Fri, Apr 17th 2009 3:29p Karen Hobert Follow the link in the article to the McKinsey report, it's a highly worthwhile read. I think the last comment sums of the net effect of McKinsey's observations and how nascent the market is, especially for cloud services: But IBM said it is seeing many customers adopt a mix of public and private cloud models to reduce the cost of supporting specific applications such as business resiliency, information protection and collaboration services. Thinning Clouds? Report Questions Value Of Cloud Com [read] Keywords: collaboration
ibm
applications
blogger
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Cloud Services: What do you want?
Fri, Apr 17th 2009 2:49p Karen Hobert I ran across this IDC chart on what customers want with cloud computing service providers. The survey is from August 2008 so it's pretty current. Overall not so surprising that cost and performance are at the top of the list. I was a bit surprised that an established provider fell into a lower percentile. I guess that's mitigated by the #4 response, the ability to "move offerings back on-premise"; assuming that means being able to move data back on-premise. I would have figured that being an es [read] Keywords: application
blogger
google
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Microsoft Unveils Exchange 2010 With Public Beta
Wed, Apr 15th 2009 12:26p Karen Hobert Microsoft releases Exchange 2010 for public beta today. From the press release: A public beta of the server is available for download starting today at http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/2010...Exchange Server 2010 will become available in the second half of 2009. Microsoft Office 2010 and related products will enter technical preview in the third quarter of 2009 and become available in the first half of 2010.Information Week provides some more details on the release, including some hints at Out [read] Keywords: archiving
archive
blogger
exchange
exchange
instant messaging
integration
microsoft
office
outlook
server
Moderation in Moderation?
Thu, Apr 9th 2009 2:07p Karen Hobert I moderate my comments, mostly to ensure that there's no spam getting through. But sometimes I end up in a quandary about whether to publish a comment that does not participate in the conversation and is aimed to incite or sell some other service. I tend to not publish these types of posts. Maybe I should (more later). Here's an interesting case in point. Last night a comment came in on a post I made about LotusLive Engage last week. The comments were more of an anti-IBM and LotusLive rant and [read] Keywords: ibm
blogger
community
google
microsoft
social software
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Putting a Price on Social Connections - BusinessWeek
Wed, Apr 8th 2009 12:48p Karen Hobert Looking forward to reading the entire study (link in article). Researchers at IBM Research and MIT's Sloan School of Management found that the average e-mail contact was worth $948 in revenue. To unearth that and other data, they used mathematical formulas to analyze the e-mail traffic, address books, and buddy lists of 2,600 IBM consultants over the course of a year. (Their identities were shielded from researchers, who viewed them only as encrypted numbers, known as hash codes.) They compared [read] Keywords: connections
ibm
beehive
blogger
facebook
social software
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iCloud Adds Collaborative Features, But Browser Support Lacking - NYTimes.com
Wed, Apr 8th 2009 10:47a Karen Hobert Another sign of the collaboration times; take everything, even the desktop, to the cloud. That way you get defacto synchronization to any device with a browser (in this case only IE for now). iCloud is an impressive web application. It’s an OS-like desktop, complete with storage space and a Microsoft Office-like application suite, that runs in a browser that you can access from anywhere. iCloud Adds Collaborative Features, But Browser Support Lacking - NYTimes.com [read] Keywords: collaboration
application
blogger
desktop
microsoft
office
3
Why You Should Pay Attention to the National Broadband Plan - NYTimes.com
Wed, Apr 8th 2009 10:27a Karen Hobert Broadband is an important channel for communications; not just for economic reasons but also for security and safety purposes. Follow the embedded link to read about how Australia is approaching national broadband. The Federal Communications Commission will open up on Wednesday a Notice of Inquiry for the forthcoming National Broadband Plan, kicking off what interim FCC chair Michael Copps calls “an open, participatory, public process.” I hope it is, but traditionally our citizens have been [read] Keywords: blogger
security
6
5 Ways to Get Your Clients to Follow Your Work Process - NYTimes.com
Tue, Apr 7th 2009 1:10p Karen Hobert Generally this is article is a high-level lesson in good project management but it's a useful reminder to me. I know a lot of freelance people who would appreciate the reminder too. “Just do your work and then I’ll pay you.” I couldn’t believe what I was reading. My client had told me to just do (my) work, yet he didn’t want to discuss any of the things that I needed to know to get the work done in the first place. He wanted to do away with the needs analysis stage and just get me to [read] Keywords: collaboration
blogger
email
google
instant messaging
7
Microsoft SharePoint Team Blog : SharePoint Designer available as a free download
Thu, Apr 2nd 2009 9:46p Karen Hobert Designers like free tools. Today we are excited to share with you some news about SharePoint Designer 2007. Starting now (April 2, 2009), SharePoint Designer 2007 will be available as a free download! We want more of you customizing SharePoint and feel that this a good way to put the tool in the hands of more people.Although the heavy lifting still requires Visual Basic, SPD is more helpful to web site designers and publishers. Still the audience is limited by the SharePoint design policy and [read] Keywords: designer
archive
blogger
microsoft
sharepoint
MyID.is Now In Public Beta, Aims To Become The Digital Certification Standard
Sat, Mar 28th 2009 2:06p Karen Hobert A potential solution to Identity Squatting? Digital certification platform MyID.is is taking a crack at offering a way for people to claim their real identity online, in order to be able to prevent ID theft and to verify content they publish on their blogs, social networking accounts, photo & video sharing sites, and so on. As the article points out, it's an ambitious plan and would require not only users signing up and trusting the service but also tools providers offering identity verif [read] Keywords: blogger
networking
3
Cloud Computing: Understand the Risks - BusinessWeek
Fri, Mar 27th 2009 3:29p Karen Hobert Business Week chimes in the risks to consider when evaluating cloud services: There are two kinds of risks in putting your data online. One is that you can never be quite sure who has access to your information once it has migrated beyond the hard drives and backup storage devices in your home. The other risk is that the information, and sometimes the applications you need to make use of it, may be available only when you are connected to the Internet and the service is up and running. Cloud C [read] Keywords: applications
blogger
5
The Fog of Cloud Services
Fri, Mar 27th 2009 1:09p Karen Hobert I spent a good part of the last hour following links to stories about security and privacy lapses in Google Docs. I started out with a TechCrunch article detailing additional security loopholes that a security expert had recently uncovered including: * Embedded images in protected documents that never go away and that get saved to an open server * The new diagram feature of Google Docs saves all previous versions of the diagram and makes them available to anyone who can read the doc, even if [read] Keywords: document
lotus
notes
blogger
bug
development
email
enterprise
google
microsoft
security
server
5
The iPhone Excuse - Gadgetwise Blog - NYTimes.com
Thu, Mar 26th 2009 6:26p Karen Hobert Hear, hear! For all its abilities and powers, the iPhone is a tremendous pocket computer, but a lousy phone. I also converted to the iPhone from Verizon last Christmas. I'm in the 213/323/818/310 zone, and although CDMA isn't the same juggernaut here as in the Northeast, the A&TT network has plenty of bad moments. Of course we also have canyons for an excuse. The iPhone Excuse - Gadgetwise Blog - NYTimes.com [read] Keywords: blogger
iphone
network
5
Redux: "Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose"
Wed, Mar 25th 2009 4:06p Karen Hobert - Kris Kristofferson (made famous by Janis Joplin)UPDATE 3/25/2009: After several conversations with colleagues about putting your life on public record coming back to haunt you and the recent identity squatting incident my friend is suffering, I decided to re-post this entry I made in February of 2007. I think the issues continue to become more important than ever. The issue of broadcasting your activities in social networks raises the risk hackles of the X-Gens but will it become tolerant when [read] Keywords: collaboration
blogger
social software
Does Cisco Have Its Head in the Clouds? - John Sviokla - HarvardBusiness.org
Wed, Mar 25th 2009 11:06a Karen Hobert Interesting article on the business reasons for chasing a cloud market. Many pundits are railing about Cisco's move into the server market because the company's current gross margins are 10-20% less in the server market than in their core router market. What these critics miss is that the evolution of computing is to create corporate clouds of functionality and storage — and those who control the architecture of the cloud will dominate the commercial relationship.Read the entire article for t [read] Keywords: javascript
ajax
application
applications
blogger
server
3
Web Ink Now: Top ten tips for incredibly successful public speaking
Tue, Mar 24th 2009 6:07p Karen Hobert I know a lot of people who do presentations and public speaking. I found this WebInkNow blog entry with some good practical tips for speakers. Most of us have an opportunity to speak, perhaps at your industry event, or your company's sales conference, or to a local club. Make the most of your opportunity. Web Ink Now: Top ten tips for incredibly successful public speaking [read] Keywords: blogger
3
Why Microsoft Continues to Chase Internet Search - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com
Tue, Mar 24th 2009 12:47p Karen Hobert Last week I blogged about a NYT interview with Steve Ballmer and his diagram for the future. In case you missed the follow-on article, Mr. Ballmer explains more (emphasis added by me). Getting people hooked on using Office in a collaborative mode at home is super-important to getting them to use it that way at work,..If you lose the consumer, you lose the enterprise.This is an extremely interesting comment, not just for the top-down approach Microsoft is taking to gaining/maintaining market shar [read] Keywords: collaboration
blogger
enterprise
microsoft
office
3
Going Live: Collaborative Stretegy Guild
Mon, Mar 23rd 2009 10:27p Karen Hobert I'm pleased to announce my participation in The Collaborative Strategy Guild™ and am excited to show off our new web-site and blog. We plan to post more interesting topics and pieces. The Collaborative Strategy Guild comprises independent analysts and thought leaders. For more about our individual work, please click on the links to our individual websites below. Karen Hobert, Top Dog Diana Kelley, SecurityCurvePete Lindstrom, Spire SecurityPeter O’Kelly, Peter O’Kelly’s Reality Check W [read] Keywords: collaboration
blogger
security
2
Identity Squatting
Mon, Mar 23rd 2009 7:46p Karen Hobert This morning I heard that a mutual colleague and friend has had their name and likeness "borrowed" by someone for a twitter account and is posting items as "the fake - insert my friends name here -". The faker has not only used my friends full name but they have also posted a photo of my friend in the profile. The thing is that the only way users know that the tweeter is "the fake" is by opening the account profile and reading the description that says they are a fake. In other words, in the twi [read] Keywords: blogger
myspace
network
profile
twitter
As Jurors Turn to Web, Mistrials Are Popping Up - NYTimes.com
Wed, Mar 18th 2009 1:09p Karen Hobert Interesting sign of the times. The use of BlackBerrys and iPhones by jurors gathering and sending out information about cases is wreaking havoc on trials around the country, upending deliberations and infuriating judges. Last spring I was dismissed from a jury selection panel for an intriguing criminal case that included police officers from 2 counties and 5 towns. It sounded big, like a car chase, and included firearms and gangs. You can be sure I was online that night trying to figure out wh [read] Keywords: blogger
4
A bigger Microsoft cloud
Tue, Mar 10th 2009 3:07p Karen Hobert Since its announcement of the Software+Services strategy in 2006, Microsoft has been steadily refining and growing it's online offerings. Over the last two years Microsoft has unveiled it's strategy at regular intervals. Thus far we've been taken from the S+S strategy in the summer of 2006 through the general availability of US-based consumer and business grade hosted messaging, communications, and collaboration services in November 2008. Last week Microsoft's cloud got bigger with the general a [read] Keywords: calendaring
collaboration
enterprise
exchange
exchange
instant messaging
microsoft
office
sharepoint
2
The Broadband Gap: Why Is Theirs Faster? - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com
Tue, Mar 10th 2009 2:46p Karen Hobert I can't wait for the follow-on articles. This is an interesting assessment of the state of Broadband in the US as compared to the rest of the developed world. I don’t know about manners, but it’s easy to find examples that American’s broadband is second-rate: In Japan, broadband service running at 150 megabits per second (Mbps) costs $60 a month. The fastest service available now in the United States is 50 Mbps at a price of $90 to $150 a month. In London, $9 a month buys 8 Mbps service [read] Keywords:
6
I broke up with my cell phone company and now they are stalking me!
Fri, Feb 27th 2009 10:09p Karen Hobert I’ve decided that service providers are like co-dependant relationships. When you ask them for something, you know since you’ve been a very good customer for over 3 years, just a little something like upgrading to a smartphone (which will mean $50 more a month in data charges) and they tell you to take a hike. Cold. Yet, when I finally break up with them and move to a carrier that is half the price (with data) and has a phone I really like, I start getting letters every day begging me to com [read] Keywords:
2
7 Questions to Evaluate SaaS
Thu, Feb 26th 2009 12:54p Karen Hobert Nicely put (emphasis added by me). The key point, however, is that features on day one don’t matter as much as the efficiencies and cost savings you can squeeze out of the SaaS tool within 30 days of adoption — and how confident you are that those efficiencies and cost savings will endure.7 Questions to Evaluate SaaS [read] Keywords:
4
Google Responds To ‘Gfail’ Outage With Apps Status Dashboard
Thu, Feb 26th 2009 12:33p Karen Hobert Now in the more transparency department...much better then blog posts. In response to its extended Gmail outage yesterday, Google has just launched the Google Apps Status Dashboard. The dashboard offers an at-a-glance look at the system health of most popular Google services, including Gmail, Google Calendar, and the company’s suite of web-based document editors. Google has been pretty good about responding to down time with blog posts alerting users with status updates, but having a dedicate [read] Keywords: document
google
4
When Gmail Fails, Users Adapt - NYTimes.com
Tue, Feb 24th 2009 1:49p Karen Hobert Two striking things in this article; 1) we're adaptable and thanks to free stuff we can be, 2) we put up with a lot of poor service, even when we're paying for it. Thanks to free (but less reliable) web services, we can face a failure and move on to the next tool in our arsenal with only a few minutes of complaining. Yes, it’s a lowering of standards to accept nothing but the fabled “five nines” provided by the wireline phone business, but it’s a road we’ve been on for years. Think a [read] Keywords: connections
ibm
blogger
blogging
email
enterprise
google
microsoft
4
Software Is the Attraction at Cellphone Show - NYTimes.com
Wed, Feb 18th 2009 10:10a Karen Hobert The sabre rattling continues... While dozens of new smartphones are being introduced at Mobile World Congress here this week, the industry’s biggest players — and the newcomers that have shaken it up — are less likely to be promoting their latest devices than what makes them run. Software Is the Attraction at Cellphone Show - NYTimes.com [read] Keywords: mobile
3
Facebook Withdraws Changes in Data Use - NYTimes.com
Wed, Feb 18th 2009 9:33a Karen Hobert Kudos to Facebook for reconsidering (albeit under huge pressure from it's users) it's TOS changes and and shame on them for trying to slip in significant licensing changes with little notification to it's users. As much fun as it is, I was ready to leave the social network had they not reconsidered. After a wave of protests from its users, the Facebook social networking site said on Wednesday that it would withdraw changes to its so-called terms of service concerning the data supplied by the ten [read] Keywords: facebook
network
networking
2
Cloud formations
Tue, Feb 17th 2009 11:49p Karen Hobert Lots is being said about Cloud Computing these days. How it can cut down overhead, make costs more predictable, and is attractive to many customers. All of this is true, whether it's a sign of the economic times, the overwhelming noise of hosting vendor marketing and sales drives, or back-to-basics common sense of network-based computing that is now more accessible due to lowered barriers to entry. Whatever it is, Cloud Computing, SaaS, hosting, you name it is a popular topic. Like Web 2.0 - wh [read] Keywords: ibm
ajax
application
applications
archiving
enterprise
google
microsoft
mobile
network
security
server
web 2.0
xml
2
Ole!
Wed, Feb 11th 2009 3:05p Karen Hobert Elizabeth Gilbert on developing a relationship with your creative genius. Worth listening to the whole ~20 mins. [read] Keywords: application
2
Motivating minds (The Economist Jan 24th - 30th, 2008)
Fri, Jan 30th 2009 4:05p Karen Hobert A recent study on why people procrastinate produced some interesting results, specifically (emphasis added by me): ...those who were presented with concrete tasks and information responded more promptly than those who were asked to think in an abstract way. I suppose this all makes intuitive sense but applying these principals in our work is, well, usually left till later on. [read] Keywords:
Network World: Notes Traveler iPhone Support
Thu, Jan 22nd 2009 3:08p Karen Hobert Good news for iPhone and Windows Mobile users who also use Notes Mail. John Fontana at Network World scooped this on Monday IBM/Lotus for the first time will provide users of the iPhone -- and other mobile devices that support ActiveSync -- with real-time access to their e-mail, calendars and contacts. ...and now the Press Release is out. In related news, which some might think this is old news (as old as two weeks ago), the recently released Notes/Domino 8.5 came with a revamped iNotes interf [read] Keywords: domino
ibm
inotes
lotus
lotusphere
notes
traveler
ajax
blackberry
desktop
interface
iphone
mac
mobile
network
widget
Leaving on a jet plane...Jan 17
Sun, Jan 18th 2009 9:45a Karen Hobert As I jet across the lower half of the US I’m studying the slide decks from the Lotussphere 09 (LS09) Analyst pre-briefs (yes, more than one) that were held late this week. There’s quite a bit of content in the presentations, so LS09 attendees be prepared for an information-packed OGS. No need for spoiler alerts, I’m not giving up anything until IBM says it’s OK (that would be Monday January 19th). My studying is going to include building matrices of products and offerings. I tend to do [read] Keywords: bluehouse
collaboration
domino
ibm
lotus
notes
symphony
application
enterprise
network
office
"2009 is going to be a bloodbath"
Tue, Jan 6th 2009 8:45p Karen Hobert Clay Shirky makes his media forecast and predictions for 2009 in a recent Guardian interview. His thoughts are likely to (or should) give media producers pause as he calls 2009 a "bloodbath" for traditional media delivery. "Radical action" and industry "clarity" driven by tight economic times and"mass democratization" of the web stand behind the assault. As always Mr. Shirky taps into trends with aplomb and wit, such as his forecast on the future of magazines: The great advantage magazines hav [read] Keywords: office
2
NetFlix: Netflix Watch Instantly For Mac Now Available For All Subscribers
Fri, Dec 19th 2008 5:32p Karen Hobert Missed this one in my more-than-usual frenetic end-of-year schedule: Netflix's Silverlight-based Watch Instantly feature for Macs is out of beta, and activated for all subscribers. Drat, I could have used it on my last trip! It's coming along with me and my MacBookPro next time. Ok Netflix keep working on that catalog. [read] Keywords: mac
4
Giz Explains: Everything You Wanted to Know About DRM
Fri, Dec 19th 2008 5:11p Karen Hobert Gizmodo does a fine job of explaining the difference between copy protection and DRM. Plus you get a handy guide to DRM for all media types. Digital rights management is copy protection's sniveling, more invasive cousin—it isn't designed simply to make it harder to steal content like straightforward copy protection—you thieving bastard you—but to control exactly how and when you use media. Like my friend Volker says, "Repeat after me, DRM is bad for the customer." [read] Keywords:
2
And another thing...
Sun, Nov 30th 2008 8:48p Karen Hobert Guy Creese, Research Director at my former post at Burton Group, blogged about Peter de Haas taking eWeek to task over a recent article estimating the savings that Serena will realize moving from Exchange to Google Apps. A third blog entry from Phil Wainewright on ZDNet also examines discrepancies and assumptions. A few more things jumped out at me while reading the eWeek article that I thought I'd add to the picture. First, I'm wondering if the $562 Radicati per user cost of on-premises Exchan [read] Keywords: calendaring
collaboration
formula
workflow
applications
archiving
exchange
exchange
google
microsoft
office
outlook
sharepoint
smtp
