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  • Invest in Collaborative Tools, Get More Than Double Return, Study Says

    Last week, I reported on the surprisingly low numbers of American information workers using collaborative technology (just one in four uses IM at work, for example). Another study, released today, shows why businesses should be adopting these tools: Businesses that invest in advanced collaborative technology perform better, and they net a good rate of return on their investment.

    The Frost & Sullivan report, “Meetings Around the World II: Charting the Course of Advanced Collaboration,” sponsored by Verizon and Cisco, surveyed 3,662 decision-makers in organizations in 10 countries. It found that 44 percent of organizations had deployed collaborative tools (VoIP, document sharing, videoconferencing and IM). The study found that as businesses invest more in these technologies, their return gets proportionally greater.

    return on collaborative investment

    While the study shows that companies investing in top-of-the-range telepresence and telephony systems get the most return, even organizations deploying just basic collaborative tools (like IM and web conferencing) reap a return on collaborative investment of over two times. The study suggests this is because teams using collaborative tools can benefit from a network effect — the more users on a network, the more value is realized from it.

    The study revealed some other interesting findings:

    • Collaboration technologies can help reduce stress. More than half of respondents say collaboration tools allow for greater balance between work and personal life and help them gain more control over their busy lives.
    • Confidence in virtual meeting is growing. More than half think conferencing tools are a good alternative to visiting business contacts face-to-face.
    • Telecommuting is becoming more popular. Almost half (47 percent) of respondents report having a formal telecommuting policy in place. However, less than a third (27 percent) telecommute at least once a week, and 22 percent telecommute on a daily basis. This tallies with the numbers in a Forrester study, which reported that one-third of workers telecommuted at least some of the time.
    • The environment is top of mind. More than half (53 percent) say reducing an organization’s carbon footprint and other environmental concerns are important factors in determining collaborative technology requirements.

    This report shows why businesses need to move with the times, start taking advantage of the technology and tools that are available, and improve on those numbers that I reported on last week. The good news is that more than 80 percent of organizations surveyed that have not adopted collaborative tools plan to deploy some form of them in the next two to three years.

    Does your experience tally with these figures — has investing more in collaborative tools had a positive impact on your business?


    As Q4 begins, online video is now mainstream. Read the, "Connected Consumer Q3 Wrap-up."

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  • Judgment Day: Birther Taitz Fined $20,000 For Misconduct

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    A better read than the coverage of the Judge's fining Orly Taitz $20,000 is the 43-page order he wrote doing so: http://www.scribd.com/doc/20996403/Gov-uscourts-gamd-77605-28-0

    Finally fed up with Orly Taitz's repeated frivolous and conspiracy-ridden filings in a Birther lawsuit, the judge in the case has fined the crusading attorney $20,000.

    Opening with a quote from Justice Cardozo on the privilege of bar membership, Judge Clay Land of the U.S. District Court in the Middle District Of Georgia goes on for some length -- the order is 43 pages -- explaining his reasoning:

    When a lawyer files complaints and motions without a reasonable basis for believing that they are supported by existing law or a modification or extension of existing law, that lawyer abuses her privilege to practice law. When a lawyer uses the courts as a platform for a political agenda disconnected from any legitimate legal cause of action, that lawyer abuses her privilege to practice law. When a lawyer personally attacks opposing parties and disrespects the integrity of the judiciary, that lawyer abuses her privilege to practice law. When a lawyer recklessly accuses a judge of violating the Judicial Code of Conduct with no supporting evidence beyond her dissatisfaction with the judge's rulings, that lawyer abuses her privilege to practice law. When a lawyer abuses her privilege to practice law, that lawyer ceases to advance her cause or the ends of justice.

    Land continues:

    Regrettably, the conduct of counsel Orly Taitz has crossed these lines, and Ms. Taitz must be sanctioned for her misconduct. After a full review of the sanctionable conduct, counsel's conduct leading up to that conduct, and counsel's response to the Court's show cause order, the Court finds that a monetary penalty of $20,000.00 shall be imposed upon counsel Orly Taitz as punishment for her misconduct, as a deterrent to prevent future misconduct, and to protect the integrity of the Court. Payment shall be made to the United States, through the Middle District of Georgia Clerk's Office, within thirty days of today's Order. If counsel fails to pay the sanction due, the U.S. Attorney will be authorized to commence collection proceedings.

    [Late Update: Taitz tells TPMmuckraker: I have no plans to pay the fine.]

    Our full coverage of Taitz suit, which began as an attempt by an Army captain to defy an order on the grounds that Barack Obama is not legitimately president, is here.

    And here, as first posted by the Washington Independent, is Land's full order. He builds on and expands the fine work in his 14-page order last month that denounced not only Taitz, but her misguided movement:

    Taitz Fined $20,000

    Late Late Update: Commenter Nim notices that the judge on pg. 42 ordered a copy of the order to be sent to the California state bar, where Taitz is a member, and, in fact, already has problems.


  • HTC's First Born Official Windows Mobile 6.5 Upgrade

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    ROM Hackers of World Unite. WinMo 6.5 Updates Online Now >>>

    HTC has just released the first official Windows Mobile 6.5 Upgrade for the HTC Touch Pro2, initially a Windows Mobile 6.1 device with promissed upgrade.

    The update is a ROM update that will clear all data on your device and replace the current Operating System with the new one. Not much info on that, except for the fact that is is ROM version 1.86.401.0.

    Download from the official HTC website, run the application and follow the instructions carefully!

    Note: Make sure to backup contacts, emails, messages, call history.

    Hint: use PIM Backup for all the above.

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  • Google Wave And The Dawn Of Passive-Aggressive Communication

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    TECHCRUNCH: Point of view on the meaning of Google's Wave & How We Communicate >>>

    3424729981_b0be0eb101We’re now a little over a week into the extended roll-out of the preview build of Google Wave. This is an important time for the service because many people can now finally start using it as they eventually may — which is to say, with their friends and colleagues. Of course, the backlash is also already in full-swing, as expected. But I can’t help but wonder if this backlash and the hype that it is a byproduct of, is blinding some to the larger picture. Google Wave is not just a service, it is perhaps the most complete example yet of a desire to shift the way we communicate once again.

    The Wall Street Journal has a long article about this today, noting “The End of the Email Era.” But most of that article is spent focusing on how Twitter and Facebook, which is to say, status updates and the streams, are replacing our need for much of what email has provided in the past. Only very briefly do they mention Wave. And I think that overlooks something.

    For many of us, email is simply not cutting it the way that it used to. It’s a sedentary beast in a fast-moving web. It uses old principles for management, and this is leading to overload. I think the key statement in the WSJ is this:

    We all still use email, of course. But email was better suited to the way we used to use the Internet—logging off and on, checking our messages in bursts. Now, we are always connected, whether we are sitting at a desk or on a mobile phone.

    That’s absolutely true. But that also implies that we want some sort of always-on communication connection. I don’t think that’s the case. I think we want the option to communicate in real-time at will, but also the ability to communicate at our leisure at times. I would consider this to be a desire for a “passive-agressive” method of communication. Perhaps it would be better stated as a “passive/active” method of communication, but passive-aggressive sounds better, so we’ll go with that.

    I would consider email to be a passive form of communication. I don’t mean that you don’t respond to it, I mean that you don’t have to respond to it right away. Instant messaging is at the other end of the spectrum. If used correctly, it’s supposed to be an “aggressive” or “active” form of communication in which you respond immediately. Twitter is very passive because the use of it is such that people don’t even necessarily expect a response of any kind, even if they point a message at you. Facebook is a mixture of all of those things (more on that below).

    Google Wave is attempting to be a passive-agressive form of communication. You can actively (aggressively) engage in threads in real-time, or you can sit back and let messages come to you at your leisure (passively). Having used the product for a few months now, and after using it quite a bit more actively with my friends these past few days, I really think that Wave is onto something with this method of communication. I would argue that Google Wave’s new message alert system needs to be somewhat reworked or re-imagined, but I do think the desire to blend passive and agressive methods of communicating is there.

    Screen shot 2009-10-12 at 1.54.03 AMWe’ve been slowly building up to a system like this. Gmail has for a while offered users a nice blend of email and instant messaging on the same page. And while it is nice that there is also the option to archive all your chats for searching purposes later, there is no good way to say, see that you missed an IM if you have a computer with Gmail open at home while you’re away and checking it remotely. You also can’t check these easily via IMAP on your phone, and the like.

    And while there is the option to reply to emails by chat if that person is online, there’s no real integration between the email message and the IM message, they exist as two totally separate things. It seems like we’re at the point now where that shouldn’t have be the case.

    Others, like Yahoo Mail, are now trying to tack-on status updates and the stream to email services too. The result is a Frankenstein-like service.

    Facebook is another interesting example in that, as I mentioned, it combines all of these elements: Email, IM, status updates, and a stream. But the connection between all of these things in that system is loose at best. From a unified communications standpoint, Facebook is really kind of a mess. There are whispers of changes, and I hope that’s true, but I’m not holding my breath for a service with 300 million users to do something new and drastic that will alienate a certain (probably large) percentage of its base.

    That’s why Wave is interesting. It’s backed by a huge company, Google, but it’s not trying to shove this upon all of its Gmail users. Instead, they’re going to slowly roll this out and see how users end up using it. And maybe more importantly, they want to see how developers start using it.

    And that’s really a key that a lot of early users are overlooking. Right now, when people hear “Google Wave,” everyone seems to want to place emphasis on the “Google” part of it. But the truth is that the grand goal of the team behind the project is to emphasize “Wave” as both a platform and a new communication standard.

    Whether Google Wave succeeds is really irrelevant. More important is if the idea of Wave does. Again, the idea of passive-aggressive communication.

    Wave, the Google web-based client, will only ever appeal to a certain number of users. Does anyone really think that Twitter would be where it is today if they only had twitter.com? No. Wave desktop apps, and mobile apps, internal company Waves, and public Waves; it’s the platform, not the product, that’s interesting. Or, more to the point, it’s the key communication idea behind it.

    [photo: flickr/matheus sanchez]

    Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.




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I recently submitted a proposal for a new class I'd like to teach in a nearby graduate communications program. Here's the gist:

CLASS PROPOSAL: Social Change Through Social Media:

1.ABSTRACT: In practice, Click-to-Buy differs little from Click-to-Signup. But these similar looking online behaviors differ significantly in their potential for offline impact. One can deliver a book to your door; the other can mobilize a nation for an election. Why? How? What systemic and behavioral factors apply when digital & social media succeed in effecting social change? What kinds of change can social media effect, and how can that change be sustained measureably? This class will explore these questions in three ways: (1) a theoretical basis for understanding change in human systems, (2) case studies of successful and unsuccessful attempts to change human behavior using digital and social media, and (3) small-team projects to effect change using digital & social media.

2. STRUCTURE & TOPICS:

  • General Systems Theory (von Bertalanffy) and Network Theory (Barabasi)
  • Communications in Complex Systems (Capra)
  • Chaos Theory (Gleick) and Tipping Points (Gladwell)
  • Change Agent Styles (Coblentz) and Technical & Adaptive Change (Heifitz)
  • Learning Styles (Kolb) and Innovators & Laggards (Rogers)
  • Online Collaboration (Scholz) and Distributed Teams (Jassawalla)
  • Case Studies (2 from each field):
    • Politics & Democracy
    • Social Good & Philanthropy
    • Education & Research
    • Games & Law Enforcement

3. OUTCOMES: The objective is to equip students with models, methods, and experience with which they can (1) understand responses to change (including their own), (2) evaluate the effectiveness of change initiatives that rely on social media, and (3) design sustainable change initiatives using social media. By participating in this course, students will be able to:

  • Describe a set of related human behaviors in terms of inputs, outputs, loops, and waste streams
  • Articulate the spectrum of behavioral responses to change, and their preferences on that spectrum
  • Indentify opportunities to convert waste streams into closed feedback loops to effect change
  • Design and implement a sustainable change initiative using digital and social media tools
  • Identify meaningful measures of change effectiveness

4. BACKGROUND: Alex M. Dunne was a founding columnist and contributor to the noted online magazine Blue Ear Daily in 2000. He later became its managing editor, followed by managing editor for Microsoft’s portfolio of business-audience web sites. He was also a launch advisor to Crosscut magazine (www.crosscut.com). He currently consults on communications and collaboration for Microsoft and other clients, and relies on digital and social media daily to manage diverse projects for them. He is an experienced presenter and instructional designer, and holds an MA in Applied Behavioral Science and a BA in Regional Science. A fuller profile is available at LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com/in/alexmdunne). He can be reached via email , Twitter, or via his blog, now it its 10th year.

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httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78MfMeWBE_U

The awesome Nokia N900 just hit the Nokia USA online store less than an hour ago. This 3G phone follow-up to the popular N770 and  N810 Internet Tablets was scooped last month (by Engadget) passing FCC certification in the US with T-Mobile compatible 3G frequencies. Check the encyclopeidic PDAdb.net for specs, but in short: Same processor as the iPhone 3GS, 3.5mm headphone jack, 32Gigs of storage, but an open Maemo OS and lots more. Excitement in the Maemo community is palatable.

According the online-chat representative, I am the first in the US to buy it! Nokia threw in a Nokia BH-703 Bluetooth Headset and free 3-day shipping with the device. FTW: delivery by the end of September! I followed this up with a very honest, friendly chat with a TMobile Tier3 support rep who expressed interest in the phone himself, and offered to help test its connectivity to T-Mobile 3G network when it arrives. "We're here for you 24X7, so give us a call when you get the phone." Thanks, T-Mo!

N900-Purchase

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I tried something different with the Orca Card this month (I’ve written about Orca Cards before). Since I knew I'd be away for a little bit, instead of buying a full monthly pass, I just added $20 to the card. Would that be enough?

With only 13 recorded trips (hop-ons and Ride-Free zone trips not included), it was.

And special thanks to Tobias Bäthge who's awesome WP-Table Reloaded plugin for WordPress enabled the tabular data below.

Date/TimeDescriptionTxn ValueE-purse Balance
7/30/2009 19:20Route 21-6
7/30/2009 17:25Route 22-26
7/30/2009 14:41Route 18-1.758
7/30/2009 8:28Route 15-29.75
7/28/2009 11:03Purse Use Entry -2.5011.75
7/28/2009 11:03Purse Use Entry 2.5014.25
7/28/2009 11:02Purse Use Entry -2.5011.75
7/28/2009 11:02Purse Use Entry 2.5014.25
7/28/2009 11:02Purse Use Entry -2.5011.75
7/16/2009 18:23Route 18-14.25
7/16/2009 17:52Route 13-214.25
7/16/2009 8:39Route 18-216.25
7/15/2009 8:19Route 18-218.25

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Still getting the hang of riding the bus, a behavior promoted by my recent purchase of an Orca Card (I've written about Orca Cards before. Data for the month of June is below, and reveals 17 rides total, not counting transfers or trips in the Ride-Free Zone of downtown Seattle (for which you don't have to tap the card on the reader.

One tip I learned this month: if you replenish your card online, instead of at an Orca Sales kiosk, then there's a trick to getting your updated balance sent to the card: When next you get on the bus, hold the card perpendicular to the Orca reader when you tap it (instead of flush). Apparently this 'loads' your new balance onto the card, and then you can resume tapping it flush against the reader to register your ride.

Date/Time                              Location     Product
06/26/2009 06:15 PM     Route 13     KCM, KCM-BUS-4160
06/26/2009 05:45 PM     Route 15     KCM, KCM-BUS-2625
06/26/2009 09:01 AM     Route 15     KCM, KCM-BUS-2733
06/26/2009 08:17 AM     Route 18     KCM, KCM-BUS-2607
06/22/2009 01:22 PM     Route 15     KCM, KCM-BUS-3611
06/19/2009 09:18 AM     Route 18     KCM, KCM-BUS-2803
06/18/2009 05:22 PM     Route 18     KCM, KCM-BUS-2686
06/18/2009 04:00 PM     Route 15     KCM, KCM-BUS-2317
06/18/2009 09:01 AM     Route 18     KCM, KCM-BUS-2678
06/12/2009 11:38 AM     Route 18     KCM, KCM-BUS-2689
06/12/2009 08:58 AM     Route 18     KCM, KCM-BUS-2734
06/11/2009 05:27 PM     Route 18     KCM, KCM-BUS-2680
06/11/2009 09:05 AM     Route 15     KCM, KCM-BUS-2470
06/05/2009 04:19 PM     Route 18     KCM, KCM-BUS-3612
06/05/2009 09:18 AM     Route 18     KCM, KCM-BUS-2630
06/04/2009 07:01 PM     Route 18     KCM, KCM-BUS-2334
06/04/2009 05:39 PM     Route 56     KCM, KCM-BUS-3693

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Imagine you are the two guys behind this summer's diabolically bad Terminator: Salvation movie. Your film of humanity's destruction also destroys a solid 3-picture franchise and any hope of a better future (who's gonna make a sequel after that?). Then you declare bankruptcy and run from your creditors (who include among them the lead actors from both the original and your  re-imagined celluloid dream: Christian Bale AND Arnold Schwarzenegger. Take it away LA Times:

The producers of "Terminator Salvation" have filed for bankruptcy and their list of creditors is a veritable "who's who" of Hollywood.

Just a day after the duo sued their investors for allegedly pushing them into a series of bad business decisions and placing what they claim is an illegal lien on their property, three companies belonging to Derek Anderson and Victor Kubicek, owners of the "Terminator" franchise rights and the producers of May's "Terminator Salvation," filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Tuesday.

via 'Terminator' producers file for bankruptcy, creditors include Schwarzenegger, Christian Bale, McG | Company Town | Los Angeles Times.

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For years, my browser-of-choice has been Flock, the social media browser built on Firefox. Last month I switched my browser to Firefox 3.5 with the Yoono plug-in to see how it compared w/ Flock, and to learn what using a 'more standard' browser experience felt like. Aside from using all the same plugins and addons as Firefox, the experience was very similar.

But I couldn't get comfortable with using Yoono. It's UI feels disruptive, cluttered, and less useful than Flock's built-in social media enabling features. Now that Flock has added more functionality for Twitter (easy re-tweets, replies, and direct-messages) and integrated Facebook chat into the chrome (so you don't have to be on a Facebook page to access it), I've switched back. I've even explored the "My World" page built into Flock. With just a few simple customizations, I was able to reproduce the same functionality as TweetDeck, which can now be removed (right after I un-instill Firefox).

Way to go Flock! Be sure to check out it's new version 2.5.1 available for all platforms