Thoughts for the day...

So I learned a great deal about collaboration software in terms of what is happening and
what could happen. And here are some random thoughts.

I looked at facebook and some of the discussions around Facebook. Where I think this will change is how facebook can take itself on the road into deeper places. A mobile version perhaps with presence information that can share location. Businesses using Facebook (with person's permission) to view their tastes in coffee. I think either Starbucks or a similar company will start offering advertising on facebook with coupons for coffee, and in turn people will use Facebook in coffee shops.


The next logical step is for facebook to start selling digital downloads on behalf of other companies. This includes Music. A rumor about this already has started. So first music then e-books, makes sense, download an e-book to read while surfacing facebook, maybe even use your Sony Reader book to download the book. Next is movies, but of course Apple has cleverly designed a way to now download TV shows and movies on their iphone so you could literally (with hooking up to iTunes) download a movie to your
iphone or perhaps even watch a movie. It makes complete sense why Fox bought MySpace however in the context of MySpace, they are now limited to a market from entertainment from Fox and perhaps that is how it will go, that established Media Channels like TV will look to take advantage of new platforms to reach people. But imagine from a consumer's perspective and here is where Google is smart. People with a
Myspace account will want to communicate about media other than Fox. The question is, will Fox embrace this and learn from it? Google is smart because they are trying to stay away from a specific media platform other than the internet. It is better to let the people choose what they like in terms of entertainment. After all, of all the shows you watched, were all of them on 1 network, and what about cable?. So Google is better at understanding the future than those other companies, even though those companies will still learn how to make a significant amount of money from their own platform of entertainment.

It reminds me of show and tell. Most companies get up to the class and show what they have brought, telling you about their product and why you should use it. Google on the other hand differentiates itself by clearly first illustrating the show and tell of the people in the classroom. They understand that while some objects will be the center of attention, time changes everything and most people all don't like the same thing. And just as important they enjoy discussing why each of them like or enjoy certain objects. Now imagine thousands of classrooms but now within all of these students groups start to evolve and experiences are shared. This is the essence of life, communication, collaboration, and enjoyment where ideas are born and people understand more about the world and eventually themselves. This is something Google understand will never change no matter what type of favorite TV drama is playing on Wednesday night at 9pm.

Keeping with that thought...Google understands that the people in the class aren't really looking at person in front of the class because they want to, they are doing it because it’s an activity decided by the teacher. The students in the classroom will pay attention to what they are interested in and the best way to do that is to let them explore just like many of us do when we search on Google to find documents, groups of people, video, etc.

I imagine what I just described in the last paragraph is an element of basic economic, behavioral and social theory. If not I am calling it Mike's theory :-)

Information is personal

Information representing our thoughts, emotions, feelings, ideas, inspirations, instincts, and sometimes opinions is personal.

No matter how many digital devices we create this will never change. There is an element of sharing because we enjoy communicating some of these things that make us unique.

Success will go to technology companies helping to demonstrate the people we are and not the people those companies think we will become.

This observation (though it may seems obvious) is a good reason why companies like Apple and Google succeed. They build something but let you create your life around their products and not the other way around.

Why there is hope for the Foleo

The Foleo recently introduced by Palm has had initial reviews that are mixed at best. But there is a silver lining in the device Palm has introduced.

Consider what the Foleo can provide using the suite of Google Services on the web today. With the Foleo instant on feature and a future hopeful announcement that Firefox supports Palm's linux os, you instantly would have access to everything provided by Google. For the business traveler that readily has access to the internet, the combination of the Palm Foleo and Google services would be very convenient.

This combination illustrates why Google itself might want to consider buying Palm. Google could leverage this unique device of simplicity to access all of the Google services. It could make bringing a laptop everywhere not necessary - making true the vision that the only thing you need is your smart phone and the Folio.

Interfaces that get out of my way:Why I use my Palm Z22 for my to do list

I am huge fan of ueber-devices and I have one. Its a T-mobile MDA and its the 3rd or 4th among my long list of convergent devices. I used to use it for my to do's and calendar. I only now use it for my phone and contacts. Why? Because the inherit complexity of the MDA does not align when I need to simply consider what I need to do this week. The steps I need to take on the device, while relatively short, are still much more complicated than doing this on a palm Z22. My MDA also represents a swiss army knife of things. I don't need a swiss army knife if I want to contemplate what I need to do this week. I need something clean and singular in purpose. There is something aesthetically pleasing about using the Z22 for certain things because the interface gets out of my way to do what I want.

Do I believe these ueber devices will eventually succeed for me and for many people? Eventually, yes. But in order to do so the interface has to be simply beautiful, clean and when I want to do certain things completely get out of the way so to speak. An example would be how the new iphone's screen rotates when you move the iphone from vertical to horizontal.

Another example would be voice activiation. If I say "todos" a device should immediately go to a master to do list. If I then say today, only show me those todo's with in the current date. Again, the action and behavior of the device is quick, straight to the point and gets out of my way.

Prediction:web 2.0 goes cellular (part 2)

This is a fictitious post and is the first in a series. It is meant only to show one possible scenario that COULD happen. It is my opinion that a news story headline like this will happen in the future.

Nokia announced today it will integrate most of its phones with leading video sharing websites like YouTube. Nokia phones will not only connect people by capturing life through pictures and video, but now provide the capability to immediatley upload pictures and video to sites such as YouTube to share with family, friends and the world. Nokia phones will connect people by providing the ability to access and play the latest videos from YouTube right on your phone.

Prediction:web 2.0 goes cellular (part 1)

This is a fictitious post and is the first in a series. It is meant only to show one possible scenario that COULD happen. It is my opinion that a news story headline like this will happen in the future. What is usually referred to as web 2.0 products (myspace, picasa, flickr, photobucket, etc) will partner with cell phone companies to enrich web content. Although you can send photos to Flickr through email from a cell phone its inevitable this process will be improved to be easier.


...
T-Mobile announced a partnership with Yahoo to use Flickr in facilitating the uploading of pictures taken on cameras within SideKick phones. Anytime a picture is taken on a SideKick phone an option will be provided to upload the picture to Flickr.

FW:I only use email to communicate with old people

I mentioned in a previous post titled "Web 2.0:Balancing collaboration and process efficieny through informal learning" that younger people are more adaptable to utilize informal learning through technology like wikis.

This post from Jeremiah Owyang's blog marks an exclamation point on my statement. Younger people are informally using technology to communicate differently and most times more efficiently.

I only use email to communicate with old people

Compare the statement of Jeremiah's post with the fact that all we use today in corporate america is email. (at least for those companies not adopting technologies like chat, wiki, etc)