Google's Mission – Collaboration
Google's mission: to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. In other words, their specialty is collaboration. Recently there were two projects that I was working on that required me to research two of Google's product offerings, the collaboration tools for Small Businesses and their latest Google Wave product.
Several months ago I started a business with which required that document sharing along with other collaboration tools with both my internal customers (my salespeople and management) along with my external customers (clients). As a project manager I conducted the comparison between Google’s and Microsoft’s Collaboration offering for Small Businesses .The tests included both my personal use and evaluation along with online research for outside developer’s reviews of each offering. Although Microsoft’s application was based on the very popular Sharepoint application used by many larger organizations the Google application was, in my opinion far superior for a number of reasons. First and foremost they keep their mission in mind their focus which is collaboration is where their expertise lies.
1.The product offerings were more robust with features that allowed document sharing, the creation of a company intranet and many many more.
2.Ease of logging in to the application. The interface is direct. A gmail account is required and access is given by the administration
3.Completely free for the small business applications but scalable by virtue of a premium subscriptions to grow with you into what hopefully can be your huge enterprise.
A new Google application that takes personal and business collaboration to a new level was announced last year in April and they are still working on it. The group that created Google Maps announced the pre-release of Google Wave. This application is the ultimate application for personal and business collaboration; bringing email, instant messaging, video and other media into a real-time application written in HTML 5, and the whole application runs in a browser. The hour and a half video that demonstrates this application show and application that is simply awesome. See video at http://wave.google.com/about.html. Unlike some of their other applications they released this early, incomplete application to select developers so that by the time this completed project/application is released to the public there will be additional applications, plugin's etc. written for the app. The Google site http://wave.google.com/using-wave.html mentions a couple of ways that the application can be used (organizing events, running group projects, sharing meeting notes, brainstorming, interactive games) but there will be many more because the app appears to be so much fun to use. T
To summarize, the Google applications are clean, well thought out, and robust. Another very key aspect of Google's approach to application development is that, “As with Android, Google Chrome, and many other Google efforts, we plan to make the code open source as a way to encourage the developer community to get involved.” I have requested an invitation to be able to use the Google Wave application in its' beta stages because it just looks so exciting. I can't wait to use it.
References:
http://www.google.com/corporate/index.html
Went Walkabout. Brought back Google Wave, Retrieved February 25th 2010 from http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/went-walkabout-brought-back-google-wave.html
http://wave.google.com/about.html
http://wave.google.com/using-wave.html
How do you like them Apples? by Jennifer D.
In January 2010, Apple Inc. posted it’s all time highest revenue and I was not at all surprised to learn this (Apple, n.d.). Apple offers top of the line technology products including the MacBook, iPhone, iPod, iPad, and Apple TV. I own an iPod and this is one of my favorite technology gadgets because it allows me to transport all of my songs when I am away from home. A few years ago I made the switch from a PC to a MacBook and I could not be happier with my choice. Apple products combined with various other software and applications not only enhance the use of technology, they also provide opportunities for collaboration.
The iPhone is a unique phone that includes an iPod, the internet, and various applications (Apple, n.d.). By combining contacts, calendar, and email applications into the iPhone, Apple is helping international business team members to collaborate seamlessly on architectural projects (Apple, n.d.). The iPhone Facebook application allows groups of people to collaborate via this social networking website even when they are away from home. Additionally, the movie editing software, Final Cut Pro, allows professional movie editors to collaborate with directors over the final cuts in major motion pictures by discussing the edit in iChat Theater (Apple, n.d.). I was surprised to see that many movies I have seen recently were edited using Final Cut Pro including, 500 Days of Summer, Benjamin Button, and Traitor.
In conclusion, Apple has enhanced technology and made it possible for people to connect with others and collaborate on projects. I look forward to seeing what Apple has in store for us in the future.
References:
Apple (n.d.). Apple reports first quarter results. Retrieved February 25, 2010 from http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2010/01/25results.html
Apple (n.d.). Architecture in motion. Retrieved February 25, 2010 from http://www.apple.com/iphone/business/profiles/rtkl/
Apple (n.d.). Facebook. Retrieved February 25, 2010 from http://www.apple.com/webapps/socialnetworking/facebook.html
Apple (n.d.). iPhone. Retrieved February 25, 2010 from http://www.apple.com/iphone/
Apple (n.d.). What is Final Cut Studio. Retrieved February 25, 2010 from http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/finalcutpro/
The iPhone is a unique phone that includes an iPod, the internet, and various applications (Apple, n.d.). By combining contacts, calendar, and email applications into the iPhone, Apple is helping international business team members to collaborate seamlessly on architectural projects (Apple, n.d.). The iPhone Facebook application allows groups of people to collaborate via this social networking website even when they are away from home. Additionally, the movie editing software, Final Cut Pro, allows professional movie editors to collaborate with directors over the final cuts in major motion pictures by discussing the edit in iChat Theater (Apple, n.d.). I was surprised to see that many movies I have seen recently were edited using Final Cut Pro including, 500 Days of Summer, Benjamin Button, and Traitor.
In conclusion, Apple has enhanced technology and made it possible for people to connect with others and collaborate on projects. I look forward to seeing what Apple has in store for us in the future.
References:
Apple (n.d.). Apple reports first quarter results. Retrieved February 25, 2010 from http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2010/01/25results.html
Apple (n.d.). Architecture in motion. Retrieved February 25, 2010 from http://www.apple.com/iphone/business/profiles/rtkl/
Apple (n.d.). Facebook. Retrieved February 25, 2010 from http://www.apple.com/webapps/socialnetworking/facebook.html
Apple (n.d.). iPhone. Retrieved February 25, 2010 from http://www.apple.com/iphone/
Apple (n.d.). What is Final Cut Studio. Retrieved February 25, 2010 from http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/finalcutpro/
Skype Date?
Over the past several years I have noticed myself becoming more and more reliant on electronic communication as a form of contact. Whether it is for an online class, work, or for social networking I am slowly becoming a cyber-freak.
In the past when I would wake up the first thing I would so is get the paper to get my local news and forecasts. Now I roll over and grab my laptop to get all the info I could possibly want. For me my two pound netbook is pretty much all I need. Technology has changed drastically in the past several years. It has certainly changed my life and I know it has changed the way we communicate globally.
This past year my company has embraced change and it came in the form of skype. Skype has changed the came for use. It was too funny to see our seventy year director get on skype and go from having the most difficult time one could imagine, to getting the hang of it.
Skype was founded in 2003 and is a video conference program. Skype is a great tool to have face to interactions without being in the same room or even the same country. I have had great success with this technology, because it eliminates the impersonal aspects of web communication.
Instead of bouncing e-mails back and forth from person to personal or group to group, skype give people face to face interaction. Being able to see what a person is saying physically is a huge advantage and eliminates the awkwardness of cyber-communication.
It is a really encouraging thing in communication to be able to directly see a persons facial expressions. Nonverbals are a large part in communicating and often they are lost with web based interactions. Skype is a great tool to interact with individuals and groups.
I have been using skype now for over two years and it is perfect for business as well as staying in touch with your wife on a skype date when your away on business. Great technology that you should check out.
In the past when I would wake up the first thing I would so is get the paper to get my local news and forecasts. Now I roll over and grab my laptop to get all the info I could possibly want. For me my two pound netbook is pretty much all I need. Technology has changed drastically in the past several years. It has certainly changed my life and I know it has changed the way we communicate globally.
This past year my company has embraced change and it came in the form of skype. Skype has changed the came for use. It was too funny to see our seventy year director get on skype and go from having the most difficult time one could imagine, to getting the hang of it.
Skype was founded in 2003 and is a video conference program. Skype is a great tool to have face to interactions without being in the same room or even the same country. I have had great success with this technology, because it eliminates the impersonal aspects of web communication.
Instead of bouncing e-mails back and forth from person to personal or group to group, skype give people face to face interaction. Being able to see what a person is saying physically is a huge advantage and eliminates the awkwardness of cyber-communication.
It is a really encouraging thing in communication to be able to directly see a persons facial expressions. Nonverbals are a large part in communicating and often they are lost with web based interactions. Skype is a great tool to interact with individuals and groups.
I have been using skype now for over two years and it is perfect for business as well as staying in touch with your wife on a skype date when your away on business. Great technology that you should check out.
The Book of Face: Communication, Collaboration & Our Digital Lives - By Russ Smith
When founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, began the social networking site Facebook back in 2004, he was a Harvard sophomore, and had to know he was onto something that would change the face of social networking forever (New York Times, 2009). Just how big it would grow was anyone’s guess, but Zuckerberg was right about one thing; Facebook has not only changed the world of networking, it has become the second most widely used site just after Google (New York Times, 2009). Furthermore, Facebook continues to rack up the numbers as the company continues to grow and pull in record numbers of participants. But what are the numbers behind this social network, and how does one use it to their advantage?
Similar to that of other social networking sites, Facebook pulls in record numbers by giving their users a chance to connect, collaborate and stay in touch through a carefully designed interface. The blueprint behind the scenes literally restricts how users may change the appearance of the page, thus cutting down on visual clutter and threats of spam, which plague all of the other rival network sites including MySpace and Twitter (New York Times, 2009). Currently, Facebook has more than 200 million active users worldwide, and adds more than 5 billion pieces of content, including photos, links, notes and albums each month. Those figures alone push Facebook past its rivals with great tenacity and speed (Reisinger, 2010). In 2007, Facebook unveiled an initiative to allow third-party software designers to create programs while advertising their applications on the site (New York Times, 2009).
Facebook now has everything from games to music, to photo and file sharing tools, which allows for user collaboration and has fueled even more activity on the site. By enhancing their site, Facebook continues to add new users to its league of social networking junkies. As for collaboration, I’ve noticed colleagues that I work with at the university in San Diego and how they use Facebook to communicate with faculty who teach at other campuses around the globe. They set up team-building pages, such as French, German and Latin foreign language clubs, which are all virtually connected to the main campus in San Diego. With Facebook’s music and photo sharing features, my photojournalist and indie-musician friends are able to swap photos, images, and music sheet scores with one another no matter where they live around the globe. Furthermore, colleagues can share ideas, issues and concerns using Facebook, which adds a layer of personality to their otherwise mundane or tedious daily tasks when using traditional email applications. Sure, these numbers may be impressive, and it’s true many people are now using Facebook to collaborate, but in what other ways does Facebook lend its recipe for success to the rest of the world?
Conscious of the power of social networking sites, like that of Facebook and the Internet, fashion brands are seeking to engage dialogue with their consumers long before they actually purchase any product or walk through the doors of a brick and mortar store. Creative director, Frida Giannini of Gucci, said that they recently introduced an iPhone application that not only let’s users share music, but connects each of their fans through their Facebook page, which currently has 500,000 fans (Pfanner, 2009). Ms. Giannini also stated in the article that “In six months, a million things can happen” (Pfanner, 2009), which tells the story of how the economy can turn in the blink of an eye as it did, leaving Gucci stores and other merchants vulnerable to the economic struggles of the world. Giannini noted that it is extremely important to keep their consumers informed of new items, sales and upcoming events, and those online applications, such as Facebook, allow her to do just that. While Facebook permits merchants to advertise their brand, what other ways can one use that same technology to succeed?
Location, location, location! That’s the word that is synonymous with event planning and coordination, and what other city has more to offer for an event than San Diego? That’s where Facebook comes in. Elaine Pritchard, an event planning specialist in La Jolla, California, uses Facebook everyday to communicate with her current clients about their upcoming events. She also uses the social networking site to obtain new clients, display images of her events, and provide quotes to potential clients. Ms. Pritchard noted most recently that, “Facebook literally keeps me in business.” She admitted that without Facebook, she would have to hire a web- development company to design a website for her, which she feels is a waste of money. “Why bother creating a website when Facebook can do everything that I need?” she said in my recent interview. Not only does Ms. Pritchard use Facebook to run her business, she uses it to stay in touch with her clients from around the world who have used her services to plan their special events. “It’s like my little window to the world that I can open and close anytime I want to,” she said.
While Ms. Pritchard uses Facebook to run her business, it’s clear that other social networking sites, such as MySpace and Twitter, will most certainly have to rethink how they can keep up with such an innovative tool as Facebook. And just as the technology continues to evolve, Internet sites that allow for communication, collaboration and networking, they too, will have to evolve or they will cease to exist or will simply be taken over by the behemoth known as Facebook.
References:
New York Times, (2009). Business: facebook, inc. Retrieved on February 22, 2010, from
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/facebook_inc/index.html
Pfanner, E. (2009). New York Times: global business: luxury brands and the case for $4,000
sunglasses. Retrieved on February 23, 2010, from
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/19/business/global/19lux.html
Pritchard, E. (2010, January 28). Event Planning Specialist, La Jolla, California. Interview.
D. Reisinger, (2010). Los Angeles Times: technology: the business and culture of our digital
lives. Retrieved on February 23, 2010, from
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2010/02/twitter-tweets-rising.html
Similar to that of other social networking sites, Facebook pulls in record numbers by giving their users a chance to connect, collaborate and stay in touch through a carefully designed interface. The blueprint behind the scenes literally restricts how users may change the appearance of the page, thus cutting down on visual clutter and threats of spam, which plague all of the other rival network sites including MySpace and Twitter (New York Times, 2009). Currently, Facebook has more than 200 million active users worldwide, and adds more than 5 billion pieces of content, including photos, links, notes and albums each month. Those figures alone push Facebook past its rivals with great tenacity and speed (Reisinger, 2010). In 2007, Facebook unveiled an initiative to allow third-party software designers to create programs while advertising their applications on the site (New York Times, 2009).
Facebook now has everything from games to music, to photo and file sharing tools, which allows for user collaboration and has fueled even more activity on the site. By enhancing their site, Facebook continues to add new users to its league of social networking junkies. As for collaboration, I’ve noticed colleagues that I work with at the university in San Diego and how they use Facebook to communicate with faculty who teach at other campuses around the globe. They set up team-building pages, such as French, German and Latin foreign language clubs, which are all virtually connected to the main campus in San Diego. With Facebook’s music and photo sharing features, my photojournalist and indie-musician friends are able to swap photos, images, and music sheet scores with one another no matter where they live around the globe. Furthermore, colleagues can share ideas, issues and concerns using Facebook, which adds a layer of personality to their otherwise mundane or tedious daily tasks when using traditional email applications. Sure, these numbers may be impressive, and it’s true many people are now using Facebook to collaborate, but in what other ways does Facebook lend its recipe for success to the rest of the world?
Conscious of the power of social networking sites, like that of Facebook and the Internet, fashion brands are seeking to engage dialogue with their consumers long before they actually purchase any product or walk through the doors of a brick and mortar store. Creative director, Frida Giannini of Gucci, said that they recently introduced an iPhone application that not only let’s users share music, but connects each of their fans through their Facebook page, which currently has 500,000 fans (Pfanner, 2009). Ms. Giannini also stated in the article that “In six months, a million things can happen” (Pfanner, 2009), which tells the story of how the economy can turn in the blink of an eye as it did, leaving Gucci stores and other merchants vulnerable to the economic struggles of the world. Giannini noted that it is extremely important to keep their consumers informed of new items, sales and upcoming events, and those online applications, such as Facebook, allow her to do just that. While Facebook permits merchants to advertise their brand, what other ways can one use that same technology to succeed?
Location, location, location! That’s the word that is synonymous with event planning and coordination, and what other city has more to offer for an event than San Diego? That’s where Facebook comes in. Elaine Pritchard, an event planning specialist in La Jolla, California, uses Facebook everyday to communicate with her current clients about their upcoming events. She also uses the social networking site to obtain new clients, display images of her events, and provide quotes to potential clients. Ms. Pritchard noted most recently that, “Facebook literally keeps me in business.” She admitted that without Facebook, she would have to hire a web- development company to design a website for her, which she feels is a waste of money. “Why bother creating a website when Facebook can do everything that I need?” she said in my recent interview. Not only does Ms. Pritchard use Facebook to run her business, she uses it to stay in touch with her clients from around the world who have used her services to plan their special events. “It’s like my little window to the world that I can open and close anytime I want to,” she said.
While Ms. Pritchard uses Facebook to run her business, it’s clear that other social networking sites, such as MySpace and Twitter, will most certainly have to rethink how they can keep up with such an innovative tool as Facebook. And just as the technology continues to evolve, Internet sites that allow for communication, collaboration and networking, they too, will have to evolve or they will cease to exist or will simply be taken over by the behemoth known as Facebook.
References:
New York Times, (2009). Business: facebook, inc. Retrieved on February 22, 2010, from
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/facebook_inc/index.html
Pfanner, E. (2009). New York Times: global business: luxury brands and the case for $4,000
sunglasses. Retrieved on February 23, 2010, from
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/19/business/global/19lux.html
Pritchard, E. (2010, January 28). Event Planning Specialist, La Jolla, California. Interview.
D. Reisinger, (2010). Los Angeles Times: technology: the business and culture of our digital
lives. Retrieved on February 23, 2010, from
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2010/02/twitter-tweets-rising.html
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