Web 2.0 and social media technology is adding tremendous value in the workplace. Enterprise solutions for collaboration and social networking in the workplace are lagging far behind, work groups are venturing on their own to and using products like Basecamp, Facebook and Twitter. If you are interested in putting social media solutions to work internally here are some exciting Enterprise 2.0 solutions. Continue reading »
The Web 2.0 Internet economy has resulted in countless new innovative businesses and solutions. It’s never been easier to bring a product or solution to market. This sudden spike in new business development has made the market exceedingly competitive. Not because your competition is under pricing you or other typical market challenges; but more because its so challenging to get the right person at the right time to understand your value proposition so you can make a deal. I can’t tell you how many great companies I’ve met with, that after finally getting their one hour face-to-face meeting; left me wondering how I could work with them, what it will cost, how I can share the message with someone that may be able to use them. Honestly I can’t keep track of them all and I don’t try.
I understand that there are many special cases where you may be invited to a direct opportunity or have a inside connection; but for the majority of us the audience could be ice cold. Anything we can do to turn-up the impact and get a slight edge could mean the difference between a big payday and a big waist of time. Here’s a few points to help providers reach customers in the digital space:
The market for Internet video is exploding. Research firm eMarketer projects that by 2011 more than 85% of the U.S. Internet population will consume Internet video, up from roughly 63% in 2006. The last time this kind of viewership growth occurred in a new medium was when the television was first introduced in the early 1950s.
Last night I was on the MITX Technology Awards judging panel and got to see Visible Measures present VisibleSuite, their end-to-end solution for measuring the behavior of the Internet video audience. I saw Matt Cutler and Rishi Dean first unveil VisibleSuite at the DEMO 08 conference in Palm Desert, CA. The Demo conference is great; Continue reading »
Web 2.0 applications leverage social media and open technology to deliver rich user experiences. The most successful Web 2.0 solutions solve problems in unique ways. Commonly these are simple often free solutions.Consumers are trying to avoid marketers Too often marketers try to add social media tools to advertising, create viral games or other marketing content intended to entertain consumers. Consumers are looking for tools and applications that solve problems; that are useful. Here are some examples:
Flickr: With almost 10,000,000 registered users Flickr is an image/video hosting website, web services suite and an online community platform. It was one of the earliest Web 2.0 applications and one of the most popular social photo sharing sites (Alexa Rank 39). Flickr offers its service free for up to 100MB of uploads per month and unlimited uploads for pro users; the account cost $25 per month. Flickr was purchased by Yahoo in March of 2005. Continue reading »
I attended the Future of Web Applications (FOWA 08) conference in Miami and it provide d great insight into Web 2.0 and social media technology than. Most importantly is to see this trend through its leaders - the super stars of Web 2.0 represent a major shift in business values and culture. This list leaves out many more amazing folks than it includes; but it represent a new wave of values. Openness, passion, striving to make other peoples lives better, to add value. Web 2.0 makes that possible on many levels.
The open source technology frameworks and APIs to build and share services and information.
Infrastructure, cloud computing, scalability with open source platforms.
Market reach through networks of people and influencers nearly free of brand marketing, word of mouth, viral social media.
The common desire to see each other success and to mutually benefit from each other’s progress.
It comes down to making really great stuff that people can use, making it free, helping each other and if your ‘thing’ is really ‘all that’ you are going to be incredibly valuable. The whole movement seems to put significance behind something we used to reserve just for vacations and occasional weekends: Happiness.
David Allen isn’t the first time management guru to suggest that productivity is all about not keeping stuff in your head. I’ve used the Franklin Covey Planner for years; the trick has been keeping it all in the same system, a system you can trust so you don’t have to keep yourself from forgetting something. The DayPlanner would be great if that was our only calendar; but it doesn’t quite ’synch’ with outlook.
We have calendars, sticky notes, todo list; and just about everyone has had so much going on they had to stop and make a list. The real victory comes when you can maintain the list and stay in the habit of ‘never leaving the scene of a decision without taking action’. If you can’t immediately check “do it” you need to put it on the list (or forget it).
We are constantly making and owning commitments. Wether its verbal or mental, we make a decision and until we fullfill the committment its an open loop. Everything we are keeping on our mind is consious drain on our mental capacity and is subject to inadvertantly being forgotten, details lost, innacurate information etc.
Why Remember the Milk?
The right solution needs to be easy to use anywhere. It needs to be easy to take the next step and record it. Keep in mind this is a system for managing next steps, personal productivity, not a system for large scale project management. That’s a different topic.
Social E-Challenge is a business plan competition that promotes the creation of social ventures that use entrepreneurial tools to effect social change. Participants range from for-profit businesses with strong social responsibility to nonprofit’s with sustainable revenue generation models. The common denominator is that by being successful, these companies have a positive impact in our society and the environment.
An early pioneer in interactive media, Dean Whitney is a Web 2.0 and Social media technology evangelist. Start-up veteran, President of Garfield Group Interactive a Boston-based digital agency.