Posts Tagged 'web20'



Web 2.0 for Big Blue (aka ‘the Enterprise’)

I attended a semi education today, held by IBM’s GTU, part of their quarterly relationship events with the developers community. The education was titled ‘Web 2.0 for the Enterprise‘, and featured a lecture by David Boloker (Strategy CTO, Emerging Internet Technology, IBM SW Group) and a live demo by Vova Soroka (Senior Manager, Collaboration Technologies, IBM Haifa Research Labs).
David talked a bit about Web 2.0 technologies, especially the implications for the enterprise and how IBM is putting it to use, using the recently announced Lotus Connections. I’ve heard David in the past, at a recent Lotus event 3-4 months ago, and his insights are always current and up-to-date.
The second half of the education was a live demo by Vova Soroka. Vova and his team followed-up on David’s introduction to web 2.0 technologies (ajax, rss, web-services, mushups, wikis, etc) and took the audience through IBM’s web 2.0 tools:

  • Fringe (enhanced employee directory)
  • Connections (a shared, browser-based workspace)
  • SameTime SONAR plug-in (IBM internal IM with a ‘popularity’ plug-in that analyzes your interactions and scores your buddy list)
  • and a new QEDWiki platform, that’s available for download at IBM’s alphaWorks site.

I’m not a developer, so I won’t get into the technical details of each tool, but I will say that it has been an eye opener for me. I consider myself an early adopter, and like to test beta versions of different internal IBM softwares, but the possibilities of web 2.0 for the enterprise are endless. Especially if you’re working at IBM… 😉

You can see a video of Rod Smith from IBM, on ‘Mushing up Business Value with Web 2.0’, from the recent Web 2.0 Expo, held this April in San Francisco. You can access some of the sessions’ material over at the presentations archive.
Also, a 9 minute demo of QEDWiki:

Can’t see the video? click here.

Putting Web 2.0 to use, courtesy of the NBA and YouTube

Web 2.0 concept isn’t new, and I’m sure all of you are familiar with some of the technologies relating with that term. The question is not whether or not you’re familiar with it, but rather are you using it, how and why. And that’s the greatness of a new technology – it’s hard to appreciate it, until you actually use it.

For those not into basketball, the 2007 NBA Playoffs are on, at the semi-finals stage of each coast (east/west). Although we have 4-5 sports channels in Israel, the number of games available are very slim, about 1-3 per week. As a hugh basketball fan, and a player on the weekends, it’s something I won’t miss, no matter the time. I can watch basketball all night, in fact, basketball is the only thing that I would consider setting a clock for (say 4a.m.), and actually getting up. Yesterday I saw the Nets-Cavaliers game #3, which started at midnight (local time) until 2:30 a.m. At 4 a.m the Spurs-Suns game #4 started, but it was too much for me, although that game was also aired.
Thank god for YouTube and the NBA.

The NBA have opened up a user on YouTube, and during these difficult times of many highlights they upload some content to YouTube. That isn’t taken for granted. NBA Video is a new feature at NBA.com, that allows fans to watch complete games, but they still decided to upload some content, especially Top 10 and game previews.

This is how I put Web 2.0 to use. Personal use. And my appreciation to NBA and YouTube for collaborating to the benefit of the fans just increased. And that’s what it’s all about.

Catching up on some feeds

Happy Passover everyone..
You know how it is – holiday, vacation, dinners and lunches and all of a sudden your RSS reader is going nuts.. too many feeds, too many posts…
I’m at home today, keeping the work/life balance my employer encourages, and what a better time to read some posts than when you’re sitting in your living room, listening to some music.
Thought I’d give you a little roundup of some of the feeds I track. Here they are, no specific order:
Turbo Todd has couple of interesting posts:

  • The first one is about a new web 2.0 sports site, Ballhype.com, a Digg-ish style aggregator for sport fans and junkies. When will someone create a Digg-ish site for pictures? ’cause Digg can’t get a hint…
  • There’s also one about a recent BusinessWeek cover story, “Is Google too Powerful?” I read it – highly recommended.
  • IBM developerWorks site just won the Jolt Hall of Fame award. I don’t have much interaction with the site (after all it’s for developers, and I am, well, not a developer), but the site adhere to the needs of its viewers (developers), and the award only strengthen it. Congrats !
  • Last but not least is a post about a recent web 2.0 survey that was conducted by a security firm, Clearswift, on the productivity and sanctity of corporate data. Did you know that 50% believe that they are entitled to use corporate computers to access web 2.0 content during work? Entitled. However, only (yes, only) 46% have discussed work-related issues on social media sites and services (IM, forums, communities, blogs and web-based email apps). Fellow readers – start sharing… you should be ashamed of yourselves. only 46%..

Garr from PresentationZen is one of my favorite blogger on the web. His posts are insightful, eye-opening at times. It’s not the shortest of posts, but it’s worth the time. In his recent couple of posts he talks about the maximization of choices – good or bad? Can more choices make us happy or sad? is the freedom to choice really liberates or only complicates things? Free up some time before reading, it’s not your usual feed..

Pronet Advertising is another blog I like to follow, ’cause I can always find some interesting video or picture that serves as the best proof that marketing sells. Like this post from last week, on how to illustrate your value proposition: I think the image says it all.

And of course, can’t finish this wrap-up without Guy Kawasaki’s How to Change the World blog. Current views, interesting posts and insights on the latest and hottest in the blogosphere, and that’s not an easy task. Here’s a recent post about an interview with Google CEO, Eric Schmidt.

I think that’s enough for now. Although it holiday, but I have other things to do.. like having coffee with friends in the sun outside.. and I can’t bring my laptop, it’s not social.. 😉

World’s Best Presentation Contest at Slideshare.net

Slideshare.net, a site for sharing presentations, just announced a contest to find the world’s best presentation. Naturally I entered to the contest and uploaded a presentation I gave recently about Web 2.0.

If you can’t see the presentation, click here.

Feel free to digg it and vote for it… appreciate it :-))

Also seen at PresentationZen and How to change the world.

TheMarker Cafe’ (Beta)

For all of you who aren’t familiar with TheMarker.com, now is a good time to start.

TheMarker.com is the leading news website for everything relating to IT, Finance, Business, Advertising, Banking – everything that is Business is the world. The site is 6 years old (hope I got that right), but most important – leading the field in Web 2.0 features.

In TheMarker.com you can search by tags, look at stories in a Map, RSS feed (dahhh) and now – your own personal page, TheMarker Cafe!

TheMarker Cafe logo

Basically you can create your own page, edit your profile, invite friends to join your network, add favorite music, upload videos, add RSS links (to your blog e.g) and much much more…

See in at the Cafe…

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Mobile & Media Consultant. I help startup companies launch products to the consumer market. Reach out: dvir.reznik [at] gmail.com
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This is my personal blog. The postings here do not represent the thoughts, intentions, plans or strategies of my past employers or of my clients. It is solely my opinion.