Behind Glass Walls

This post is a continuation from my previous post, looking at some of the issues in collaboratively constructing documents. There are a huge range of options available for collaboratively producing documents. From sharing a file via USB or file hosting website to online editing and annotation, each method is best suited to different purposes. The main considerations include:

• Control:  Where is the document stored? What happen when services/people are not available?
• Security: How easy is it to control who can access the document? What system is used for authentication?
• Versioning: Are different versions stored and are they clearly organised?
• Document Type: File/desktop app (eg. pdf, doc or odt)? Browser-based (eg. wiki, word processing)?
• Formatting, Layout and Markup Language:
  1. Plain Text (“lowest common denominator”) – no formatting
  2. lightweight markup (WikiText, BBCode, Textile) – simple to compose, easy to read in plain text form
  3. WYSIWYG (MS Word, OpenOffice.org, LaTeX) – document preparation systems with full formatting support

In looking at these attributes it is clear that using a Wiki for a sensitive or critical document may not be the best choice. Similarly, sharing a MS Word document via USB drive will quickly cause chaos through incomplete or confused revisions. It is necessary to determine the above attributes before choosing a method of creating the document.

I thought I might share some of the methods I’ve found for promoting my blog. This was prompted by reading this article by Jason Van Dyke. I’ve had experience in setting up other blogs, and through that I’ve found some useful tools and ways of doing things.One point to make is that promoting yourself and promoting you blog can be two very different things, depending on how you want to promote yourself.

I’ve tried to order these by priority – the number one suggestion below I’ve found to be better at driving traffic than later suggestions.

1. What’s a blog without content? This is the number 1 way to get visitors to your site, and to keep people interested. Without regular, original, interesting/useful (for your audience) content, other suggestions here aren’t going to help much. It also helps to use words that represent what your site is about, and links to other quality websites. This tells search engines (and readers!) that you’re actively involved.
2. Use your site’s URL when you comment, and comment often. I used to just surf around reading things, and never really had the inclination to comment. Now that I know a bit more about my particular areas of interest, I’m more willing to comment. This is also an opportunity to show search engines that your website is actually known/linked by other sites.
3. Use the webmaster tools search engines make available. These tools offer ways to submit you sitemap, so search engines can more easily crawl the entire site. They also let oyu know about any errors encountered on your website. If you are using wordpress, there’s a plugin that can do the work for you.
   • Google
   • Yahoo
   • Bing
4. Link to your website or blog from your accounts on web apps. Many allow you to enter one or two urls as your home pages. Make use of them.
5. When you have a new post, don’t be afraid of letting people know about it. Do this sparingly, as not everyone likes to have individual posts ‘spammed’ at them.

That’s the way I promote my blog. I hope that helps a bit.

Promoting myself is another matter. I prefer to simply put my name to things, and let people find them. I don’t want to force myself onto people – if they like the content, they’ll know who it’s by.

Well, I think everything that needs to be said about Twitter has been said.

You’ve got beginner’s guides galore.

Then you have advanced guides coming out of your ears (not literally, I hope).

There’s a bunch of apps for every platform under the sun. And you can make your own using their API.

I find Twitter very useful to keep up to date with friends. It’s kind of a “they use it a lot, so I will too to keep up with what’s going on” thing. It’s also good fun to discuss random things, like TV shows, the weather or copyright. Kind of like being able to text message a whole bunch of people, and never have to worry about the cost!

As to business use of Twitter, I see a few things that need to be addressed.

1. Twitter is not a broadcast medium. It is two-way. If you aren’t going to respond, don’t bother posting.
2. Post useful things. This will depend very much on the business’s audience.
3. Keep it relevant to the business. The personal stuff can go on a personal account.
4. You might not want to use Twitter to troubleshoot, but people will complain, and people will ask questions you can’t answer. Be ready to find out.
5. Investigate the use of complimentary websites (get satisfaction, for example).
6. Finally, treat everyone as your peer. Twitter puts the biggest company and the shyest child on equal footing.

There are many other takes on this.

There are a huge number of web applications, and more arrive all the time. Some of the ones I use on a regular basis:

• Google’s apps. I use these a lot. I know it’s not a god idea to put all your eggs in one basket, but Google’s Gmail, Calendar, Reader and Documents all work very well, and are more useful to me than some of the alternatives.
• I’m a developer, and the Internet has plenty of opportunities for free, open source software. Some of the better locations for finding software projects to tinker with are sourceforge, freshmeat, ohloh , launchpad and codeplex. Codeproject is not really an open source software host, it has many articles and examples on all sorts of programming languages and platforms.
• As to social networking, everyone knows the top couple – Facebook and MySpace. I’m quite partial to LinkedIn - it is a business-focussed network, which is very useful for professional networking.

I’ve found a few new ones recently that are quite good.

• Hunch is a decision helper – you choose you preference in a range of areas, and based on previous choices it gives you it’s Hunch.
• bit.ly is a url shortening service, one of the many built from the rise of Twitter. It takes things slightly further, offering analytics of the clicks.
• Youtube may be the most popular video hosting site, but there are other that take a more focussed approach. Vimeo is another video hosting site, dedicated to more polished and semi-professional videos.
• Geni is a genealogy website – a private family tree, that others in your family can add to as well.
• last.fm is a great place to find new music. (Pandora would be good too, if it was available in Australia). The last.fm scrobbler is a handy way to teach the site about the music you like.
• Whirlpool, while maybe not a web app in itself, is a great Australian-centric community for discussing all things phone and Internet related  (It has a very good wizard to help you find an ISP).
• And we can’t forget twitter, the top micro-blogging platform. I use it mostly to keep up with friends, and occasionally to post about something interesting I found.

If you know of a web app that does something cool, I’d love to hear about it.

Well, here we are.  Week 1 of uni has begun, and one of the units I’m taking is INB346 Enterprise 2.0. The idea of the unit is to investigate how new uses of web technologies are affecting businesses, and can be used by businesses to communicate with customers and clients.

I’m a heavy user of web apps, and one of the areas I think needs a lot more consideration is how businesses view and use new tools and opportunities.  While I know and accept that there is bound to be resistance due to the need to use proven tools and established workflows, the increased pace of information flow poses an equally as important consideration.

I’m not a fan of the ‘Web 2.0′ or ‘Enterprise 2.0′ terms. It’d be nice to find alternatives, but these terms convey the concepts in a very small space. That said, I’ll make some suggestions as I post more. ‘Communication platform’ for Web 2.0? ‘Equal discussion for business’ for Enterprise 2.0? Not great, but I’ll keep thinking.

Companies can no longer make their own timetables and broadcast a message, and expect customers and clients to go along with it. More and more,  the expectation is that a conversation will take place, with all on an even footing. No more black boxes. No more dividers. Companies don’t have to open up about everything. They might remain behind walls, but they aren’t brick any more – now everyone else can look in as they work behind glass walls.