Beyond hype

Here’s some interesting current thinking on Twitter.

If we accept the above ‘Hype Curve’ to be true then where does Twitter adoption now lie? I kinda think that we are still heading down towards the Trough of Disillusionment. Now whether Twitter does pull out from this dive seems to be what all the talk is about. Will it reach a bottom and then start actually being used for improved productivity?

So where does the future for Twitter lie? It seems clear now that it has past the hype phase and turned the corner down to disillusionment. As I said before it will be interesting to see if it manages to pull out of this dive or simply ploughs into the deck in a flaming wreck.

Bottom line? I was the owner of Twitter, now is probably a really good time to sell!

Now that’s interesting

Was reading the following from Microsoft:

 

Makeover for Groove: SharePoint Workspace 2010!

Heads up – Groove is getting a new name as of the coming release of Office 2010.  Please welcome SharePoint Workspace 2010!

 

The name makeover is in concert with the direction the product is going.  SharePoint Workspace will provide easy access to SharePoint content (or content from any server that implements the publicly documented protocols) in an effort to provide a seamless online/offline experience.

SharePoint Workspace 2010 will be easier to deploy and easier to manage, and it supports a new set of scenarios to help Office and SharePoint users be more productive.  It will also make it easier for IT folks to implement a consistent information strategy based on SharePoint technology throughout the organization.

There will be changes in the way the product is delivered, as well – e.g. SharePoint Workspace (and OneNote, for that matter) will be added to the Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010 release.  Keep an eye peeled for further announcements from Microsoft on new product plans for Office.

 

You sort of get the impression that Groove will become an offline reader for SharePoint which would be really great. I always thought that Groove was kinda off on a path of its own and really wondered whether it would survive. However, incorporating it into the SharePoint makes a lot of sense.

 

Can’t wait to get hold of all the new things coming down the line with Office 2010, now more than ever!

SMBITPro presentation

Did a quick SharePoint presentation last night to the Sydney SMBITPro group. I have posted the slidedeck up on my SlideShare for download.

 

Apart from the six secrets of selling SharePoint which I have covered in a previous blog post I made the following analogy:

 

If

Word = is a tool for entering information

Excel = is a tool for calculating information

Browser = is a tool for viewing information

Outlook = is a tool for sending information

Google = is a tool for finding information

 

Then

 

SharePoint = is the one tool to rule them all

 

Thus

 

SharePoint is Lord of the Tools!

 

Silly I know but a good way to pitch it to clients who don’t appreciate what SharePoint can do for them.

 

As always, if you have some feedback I’d love to hear via director@ciaops.com.

Future videos

If you take a trip over to Microsoft Office Labs you find some really interesting videos about potential ways that we might be using technology in the future. They are all worth a look but I would recommend you especially have a look at Productivity Future Vision.

While you are at Microsoft Office Labs also have a look at Canvas for OneNote. I’m a real OneNote fan and I really like the added functionality this brings to the product and hope they incorporate it soon. Have a look at some of the video demonstrations to get a better idea of how different an interface can be. If you really like what it does you can download and start using it.

Selling SharePoint

I’m giving a SharePoint presentation at the upcoming Sydney SMBITPro meeting. Part of that presentation will be about the ‘Six secrets of selling SharePoint’. As such I have created a short document covering this document that you can download from here.

 

In summary when looking to implement a SharePoint solution remember the following:

 

– Start small.
– Solve a problem.
– Keep it simple.
– Seek a champion.
– Show the possibilities.
– Search.

 

For more details download the document (in PDF format) or view it below and let me know what you think.

Six Secrets of selling SharePoint

View more documents from Robert Crane.

Future of email

Came across an interesting forecast on email. “Email Statistics Report, 2009-2013” from the Radicati Group contains some interesting numbers:

 

The number of worldwide email users is projected to increase from over 1.4 billion in 2009 to almost 1.9 billion by 2013.

 

a 36% increase in users but

 

Worldwide email traffic will total 247 billion messages per day in 2009. By 2013, this figure will almost double to 507 billion messages per day. 

 

So the amount of email you receive, on average is going to double in the next four years. What will that mean for your productivity? If you haven’t taken steps to limit the interruptions that emails can cause then you are going to get interrupted twice as much and only get half as much work done logic would seem to dictate.

 

The message is that if your emails are out of control now they are only going to get worse so it’s never too late to start looking at you system of email processing. The first is to configure your email program to prevent interruptions by turning off all alarms that activate when a new email arrives. From there you should spend time learning the feature of your email program like using message rules, categorizing and search. The more time you invest in learning your email program the better you can make it work for you. Too many people simply use their email program with its default configuration which may be fine for some IT programming guru somewhere but isn’t for ‘normal’ people.

 

Don’t fool yourself into thinking that ‘you will’ get around to dealing with all those email in your inbox one day. Unless you decide to take control of your email then you are never going to get to the bottom of you inbox and the situation will only get worse as email volumes increase. For more information about working effectively with emails see www.doemailless.com.

Oops

Chalk up another win for the bad guys. If you read “Computer spies breach fighter jet project” you’ll find the following:

 

“In the case of the fighter-jet program, the intruders were able to copy and siphon off several terabytes of data related to design and electronics systems, officials say, potentially making it easier to defend against the craft.”

Yup, you read that right, 7TB of data. Roughly 7,000GB! Where from? The Pentagon no less. You have also gotta love this:

 

“The spies inserted technology that encrypts the data as it’s being stolen; as a result, investigators can’t tell exactly what data has been taken”

 

Talk about a “prefect crime”!

 

What is clear these days is that the latest developments in technology are not only being used for good but also bad. Like most tools, the Internet is neutral but it provides a platform that can be used in many different ways, which many people seem to overlook in their rush to get systems ‘online’.

 

As the standard law of computer security goes:

 

Q. How many vulnerabilities do you have to defend against?

A. EVERY SINGLE ONE

 

Q. How many vulnerabilities does someone need to find to exploit your system?

A. ONE

 

The odds are certainly not in your favour. That’s why you have to keep working so hard to keep the bad guys out but with odds like that do we ever really stand a chance? It certainly doesn’t seem so does it?

BPOS links

Here are some handy Microsoft Business Productivity Online Service (BPOS) links that I have found and reviewed lately:

 

– Microsoft Online Services FAQs: covers some of the most technical questions asked about BPOS.

 

– Migrate to Microsoft Online Services: This document describes how to migrate your on-premise Exchange Server mailboxes and POP3 and IMAP4 mailboxes to Exchange Online.

 

– About Using Your Domain with Microsoft Online Services: If your company has registered an Internet domain name, you can add that domain to Microsoft Online Services.

 

– Microsoft Online Services Trial Guide: Step-by-step instructions for setting up and using a trial account for the Business Productivity Online Standard Suite from Microsoft Online Services.

 

– Microsoft Online Services Team Blog

 

There is plenty of information out there and in some cases probably too much. As I work through what I find I’ll post up what I think has the most value.