Web 2.0 « Doriano Carta

Pop Goes the World?

March 7th, 2008 Posted in Web 2.0

The pundits are still doing their best impression of chicken little and firmly believe that the web 2.0 bubble is going to burst any moment now. Despite this constant falling sky warning there are new startups popping up all over the place. Are we headed for another disaster? Who knows. In the mean time, keep blowing them bubbles!

I’ve covered this topic before in Bubble 2.0 which includes the popular bubble music video. Here’s a new anthem that I am proposing for all you startups living on the bleeding edge:

bubble, Internet, men without hats, pop goes the world, Web 2.0

e-Graveyard

March 5th, 2008 Posted in News, Web 2.0, Websites

6 Comments »

e-Graveyard is a wiki that I started a long time ago. Its primary purpose is to become a digital museum of all the amazing technologies that come and go in our lives. There are some new sites that cover some of this ground like the TechCrunch DeadPool but they just focus on dead websites which is just one element of the E-graveyard, which covers much more, for example:

Software Cemetery
This area is for honoring the memory of software applications that are no longer with us like Microsoft BOB and even utilities like the Microsoft Binder which I still miss to this day!

There will be links to downloads if they exist and screenshots whenever possible to show what they looked like during its prime.

Hardware tombstones
We cannot neglect the importance of hardware technologies that come and go. How can we forget things that were so important to the evolution of our internet experience such as the Hayes modem? What about the US Robotics USR Sportster 56k modem!

Burial Ground for Websites & Companies
Another section of the museum covers those websites/companies that have gone to the big 404 in the sky such as these two fabled startup failures: WebVan & Kozmo

The Geek Mausoleum
This wing is a tribute to all those people who contributed much to the technological progress of mankind. Some will still be alive while others not so much physically but their memory and their work still a part of our digital lives. Examples, Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Marconi, Tesla, etc.

Last Rites:
Some might consider this idea a tad bit morbid or negative, but I totally disagree! This is actually a celebration of all the contributions that have been made to our technological experience in history. This is my attempt to document everything and everyone that has made some sort of impact in our digital lives, however big or small it might have been. Also, I think this is an inspirational place to visit because sometimes we have to look back at where we came from before we can fully understand where we are today which will only assist us with envisioning our future.

Post Mordem:
I chose the wiki platform so that everyone can contribute to the e-graveyard and help build the museum into a hall of fame for all things technological.

deadpool, e-graveyard, museum

Virtual Clipboard

February 27th, 2008 Posted in Freeware, Web 2.0

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ControlC is a unique new service, that’s for sure. In a nutshell, what it wants to be is your virtual clipboard, allowing you to copy and share (instead of paste) via the web.

I like the concept and the way that it saves everything in one place for easy retrieval from anywhere any time you want it again. Best of all it’s free and easy to use.

The only downside to the experience is that it requires a small download and installation of a tiny utility that needs to be running at all times in your system tray.

The good news is that it is indeed so small that it doesn’t appear to impact your computer at all. The downloads page has versions for different operating systems including Linux

and Mac OS and of course windows.

As for security concerns, some will be hesitant when it comes to openly sharing what they dump to their clipboard and rightfully so. Sometimes those items can be login names and passwords or account numbers or credit card numbers, etc. Well, ControlC realized that much and provides encryption automatically for everything you copy which is a great move on their part.

Personally, I love using my JingProject account to take screenshots and immediately sharing it via the web to anyone I want but I might use ControlC more just to see what else it can do in comparison.

Note: The free basic version only allows you to access things you’ve copied in the last 5 days. You will need the premium version to access anything older than that.

clipboard, controlc, Web 2.0

You 2.0

February 23rd, 2008 Posted in Social Aggregators, Social Media, social networks, Web 2.0

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It can be overwhelming when you consider the magnitude of your digital life today. In the past, you just needed to know your name, social security number and perhaps some other basic information such as your phone numbers and home address. Today, thanks to the amazing Internet and all that it has to offer us, we have an ever-growing mountain of “stuff” to remember or manage.

How does one do this without going nuts or losing great big chunks of precious time? I will try to share some thoughts on how to make your digital life more managable and thus all the more enjoyable. Ultimately, it will mean more free time for your offline life. These articles will be part of my Quality vs Quantity series which will adhere to the “Less is More” school of thought. Think ZenHabits meets LifeHacker with a sprinkle of twitter fairy dust (No, nothing to do with Robert Scoble!)

Here’s my You 2.0 map from MindMesiter that will give you an overview of what I plan to cover. I will continually change and update this map as it is, just like us, a perpetual work in progress.

I’m continually learning and growing so look for this information to do likewise. The goal is to provide a detailed breakdown of each module on the map, eventually. Please feel free to contribute to the project by sending links and suggestions whenever you think you might have a better way to do thing. After all, this is called YOU 2.0.

The Road Map to your reinvented digital self: You 2.0

Identity Management: Identity Crisis covers ways to take control of your online profiles and personal brand. Using OpenID is the key to the fine art of Less is More.

Contact Management: How do you manage your ever growing list of contacts? Identity Crisis also covered this ground with Plaxo and its powerful contact management and sync features.

Favorites: I Got Your Favorites Right Here covers the best social bookmarking sites around today.

Instant Messaging: Meebo: IM Legend covers the ways Meebo can reduce the headaches of multiple messenger accounts with a single login.

Email Management: Inbox 2.0 covered the future of email aggregation by spotlighting fuser.com and its ability to consolidate numerous email accounts and social networking messages into one one.

RSS: Feed Me, Seymour revealed a unique way to make Google Reader grab all of your own personal RSS feeds and share them.

News: Is it better to Digg your news or Mixx it up? This will examine the future of news delivery.

Blogs: Finding ways to improve managing your blog(s).

Websites: Streamlining your website. Registering your Personal Brand with a domain name.

MicroBlogs: What are the differences between all of the micro-blogging services? Twitter, Pownce, Jaiku, Tumblr, Utterz, etc.

Social Networks: Social Networking Aggregation is the key to controlling this runaway train of digital information. Identity Crisis covers Plaxo with Pulse and some other aggregators.

Music: Virtual DJ shows the best ways to stream your music library and access it from anywhere in the world.

Photos: Is Flickr still king or can PhotoBucket or some other challenger dethrone them?

Videos: YouTV examines some of the best ways to manage your video collection and broadcast it from one place.

LifeCasting: What’s the right tool for you? Seesmic, Utterz, Ustream, Qik?

Phone: The future of the phone is extremely exciting as I will look at services like GrandCentral, YouMail, Pinger, Jott and more.

Message Forums: Forums + Web 2.0 = Tangler covers the new age message forum. It isn’t your father’s message board anymore.

Summation: The Quality vs Quantity (less is more) Series will strive share the best aggregation tools and services available today in an effort to make your online life more managable and thus more enjoyable.

You 2.0 map

Chat, Email, Social Aggregation, Social Media, social networks, Web 2.0

Dream on Dreamer

February 19th, 2008 Posted in Inventions, Music, Web 2.0

2 Comments »

We are living in exciting times and all eyes are on the incredible technological future that awaits us all. However, I enjoy looking back as much as I do looking ahead. It’s especially fun to see what people from the past thought was coming in regards to technology.

Jim Rasenberger, author of America, 1908 wrote a fascinating piece for the January, 2008 issue of Smithsonian Magazine. As Rasenberger contends, in 1908 it seemed that anything was possible. This illustration of a man with wireless telephone is from Harper’s Weekly in 1908, 100 years ago!

Isn’t it amazing? History is replete with visionaries and dreamers who helped invent our world today. Obviously, they needed men of courage and action in order to turn those crazy ideas into the reality we enjoy today. Don’t you wish you could jump one hundred years into the future to see what the world will be like then? The possibilities are endless and as boundless as the limits of our imagination. We all need to think outside the box and stop letting the “dream-killers” and nay-sayers rain on our parades. Nothing is impossible, so don’t let anyone or anything get in your way. Be daring. Be Bold. Always remember that the only thing worse than failure to make a dream come true is the anguish of regret over never truly trying at all!

I think the Brand New Heavies say it best. Dream on, dreamer!

Brand New Heavies, Dreamers, Innovators, Inventions, Inventors

boy meets url

February 13th, 2008 Posted in Web 2.0

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How many URL shortening services do you think there are? Believe it or not, Mashable just did a roundup of 90 URL shortening services! Holy smokes, batman! How can there be so many solutions for such a simple task? Aren’t they all the same? Well, not really. While most of these services are very similar, there are some that offer some unique special features. I will reveal my favorite from these 90 services.

Anyone who uses Twitter knows all about TinyUrl and appreciates its shrinking abilities because it allows us to get more bang for our buck with our 140 character limit. I’ve been using a service called MooURL.com because it was the only service that allowed you to create customized shortened URLs, which made remembering them much easier. They aren’t the only ones offering this unique customizable short URLs.

SnipURL not only allows you to create your own unique shortened URLs but it goes beyond that. They actually let you create an account so that you could actually manage every shortened URL you create and use. This neat little feature makes re-using shortened URLs so much easier. Here is a screenshot of its management interface.

Final Thoughts

Yes, I know that URL shortening services aren’t that important in the grand scheme of things, but if you need them for activities such as microblogging or chatting, then why not use something that gives you the most features. SnipURL appears to be the best of breed thus far to me. Yes, Pistachio, I know all about http://is.gd and how it’s the shorterst URL for any url shortening service, but it doesn’t have all of the bells and whistles that I want and need.

tinyurl, URL Shortening Service

How to Build Your Own Social Network in the Enterprise for Free

February 1st, 2008 Posted in Enterprise, social networks, Web 2.0

18 Comments »

Believer it or not, you can actually build a social network for your enterprise for free. Thanks to Microsoft’s free Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) and free SQL Server 2005 Express database, you can design and deploy an entirely new collaborative intranet or social network for your company that features many of the hottest web 2.0 features such as wiki’s, blogs, RSS feeds, calendar sharing, document sharing and more. Not only is it all free, but it can all be setup and ready in just a couple of hours. I know because I’ve done it.

WSS vs MOSS
There is confusion when it comes to Microsoft SharePoint. Most people automatically think of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 Server which is extremely expensive and not Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) which is free! Obviously, you get what you pay for when it comes to features and performance, but WSS is perfect for many companies, especially small to medium-sized organizations that cannot afford the expense that a fullscale SharePoint deployment costs. One of the reasons that makes SharePoint so expensive is its reliance on Microsoft SQL server, which isn’t cheap. The good news about the free WSS is that it uses the free Microsoft SQL Express 2005 database, which is robust enough for most environments.Here are the most important differences between WSS and MOSS.

Search across site collections – In WSS, each site collection is an island unto itself. MOSS adds the portal umbrella that pulls together those separate site collections and allows for searching across them.
Personalization – MOSS allows users to have individual, personalized sites; WSS doesn’t.
User Profiles – MOSS allows you to import, store, and update personal data on your users, it’s not available in WSS
Audience Targeting – MOSS allows you to target content to specific user groups; WSS doesn’t.
Crawl and Index sources outside of SharePoint for searching- MOSS allows you to return search results for indexed sources such as file shares, web sites, Lotus Notes databases, and much more; WSS can only crawl and index WSS sites.
Search administration and customization – MOSS gives its admins much more control over the configuration of its search engine; WSS doesn’t.
Extra Site Templates – MOSS provides additional site templates (and workflows) for content management and portals
Business Intelligence – allows you to track key performance indicators and build BI dashboards into your team site. The dashboards can assemble and display business info using Excel spreadsheets, SQL, or integrate with line of business applications. Excel Services in MOSS go beyond simply displaying Excel spreadsheets, you can actually stream parts of a spreadsheet, showing or hiding various parts.

Note: The crawling, indexing and searching ”weaknesses” of WSS can now be resolved by using Microsoft’s Search Server 2008 Express which is also free! Here is an exhaustive feature comparsion matrix for all SharePoint versions. Also, keep in mind that you can always upgrade from WSS to MOSS if/when the time (and BRINKS truck) comes!

Best Features for the Enterprise Intranet (Social Network)
It is amazing just how many features there are in the free SharePoint version (WSS 3.0 SP1). Most companies make SharePoint their intranet, thus becoming ground central for communication for all employees. Here are the most popular and useful features that you can use with your new SharePoint intranet.

Top Navigational System
There is usually a tab for the main home page and each department. This is merely an example, so the names of the departments and tabs will be different for each company. Here is what the typical navigational system for a SharePoint intranet looks like:

Quick Launch Components
Here are the most popular components used in SharePoint on the leftside of the browser and called the Quick Launch. Keep in mind that these components can all be used within each department’s portal! For example, you will find all of these elements on the intranet’s home page for all employees as well as in each department’s private area. Thus, H.R. can post public news and events on the main site for all employees to see and private information within their locked down area.

Announcements: Usually placed on the home page at the very top. Company news and announcements go front and center here.
Calendar: All company events and activities go into this public calendar. Holidays are usually added as well.
Contacts: All contact information is centralized in this public address book. It can include information on employees, vendors, partners, clients, etc.
Tasks: Action items and people assigned to them.
Projects: Basic tracking information for project tasks, including Gant charts
Wiki: Yes, you can launch wiki’s at will in the enterprise! They can be public wiki’s or private wiki’s for projects.
Blog: Yes, blogs are part of this free SharePoint as well. Companies use them for news updates or for project status updates.
Message Board: If you need a good old fashioned message forum then here it is.
Image Library: Control all authorized images, logo’s, etc.
Forms Library: Maintain all official forms and templates in the forms library.
Shared Documents: Ah, my favorite feature of them all. Companies can now have their own ECM (Enterprise Content Management) system for free!
Create centralized depositories for all company documents and files and let SharePoint control versions and updates. Makes searching and finding documents much easier.
Surveys: Excellent way to take company polls on any subject matter.
Meeting Workspace: Powerful feature that assists with meetings. Documents decisions made, task assignments, agenda notes, and more.
RSS Feeds: Just about everything can have its own RSS feeds and email alerts!

Note: These are just some of the many features and components that are available for Windows SharePoint Services! See the links section below for more template examples available for free from the web!

Outlook Integration
WSS allows users to access just about any information thru their Microsoft Outlook 2007 client with seamless integration and synchronization.
Users can link SharePoint calendars, tasks, contacts and document libraries. Watch the videos below to see just how easy it is to do.

SharePoint Links
Here are some useful links that will provide information and tools that will make your new SharePoint intranet more stable and powerful.
Official WSS Homepage
WSS Overview
Download WSS 3.0 with SP1
Download All Free Templates
Template Previews
Installation
SharePoint TechCenter

SharePoint Videos
Windows SharePoint Services Overview:
Here’s how to setup a SharePoint Wiki.
Here is a video that demonstrates how easy it is to link a SharePoint calendar with the Outlook calendar.
Here is how to link Outlook 2007 with SharePoint Document Libraries.

Final Thoughts
Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) is powerful set of tools for the enterprise at any cost. The fact that WSS is free and easy to install makes it a no-brainer when it comes to deploying a versatile intranet or social network in the enterprise. If nothing else, WSS can help lead the way to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 solution which has even more enterprise class features with greater levels of load balancing, availability and complexity. In the mean time, deploy your own Enterprise 2.0 today!

Enterprise 2.0, sharepoint, social networks, WSS

Bubble 2.0

January 20th, 2008 Posted in Movies, Web 2.0

7 Comments »

All of the web 2.0 pundits and so-called experts are predicting another bubble burst like what took place in 2000 when the dot com phenomenon came to a cataclysmic end. Who is to say for sure what will happen for sure? In order to predict the future it is always wise to examine the past to study and learn possible explanations for a certain conclusion. By learning from the past mistakes of others, one could possibly avoid the same fate, but it doesn’t guarantee success either. Still, it might be fun to take a stroll down memory lane. Shall we?

Startup.com is a documentary that captured the fate of a dot com startup called GovWorks.com. Many entrepreneurs and universities use this film as a training guide for online businesses. The film has won numerous awards thanks to its voyeuristic approach to the subject matter, giving an inside look at the world of dot com startups that was up till that point totally unknown.
Here is the Trailer and a Charlie Rose Interview with Cast and Crew

Kozmo.com is considered the poster-child for the dot com bust. They offered a one-hour delivery service for items such as Starbucks coffee and Blockbuster DVDs. While the concept was simple and appealing, the execution of the business became increasingly perplexing and astonishingly destructive to its long-term success. Somehow, despite a business model that most financial experts criticized, Kozmo managed to raised over $250 million dollars and burned thru it in record time!

e-dreams is a documentary that chronicles the rise and fall of Kozmo.com. Some have criticized the documentary itself for being to sympathetic to the Kozmo executives, painting them as victims of sorts when they were the primary factors for its historic demise. Instead of pointing fingers they just needed to look in the mirror.

WebVan is another perfect case study for demonstrating how to take a sure-fire can’t miss business idea and totally blow it up into millions of pieces in no time at all. For those of you who don’t remember, WebVan delivered the groceries you ordered online right to your house! Here is one of their TV Commercials:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7gmb9ZD5t4 ]

I loved WebVan because we used it on a regular basis in Atlanta, GA. Their website was excellent and easy to use. The food was usually fresh and almost always in stock and available. Heck, even the fish was fresh and tasty! Still, I know something was wrong when I noticed all of the shiny new vans zooming around town and all of the ultra expensive palm pilots (hey, this was way before the iphone, kiddies!) that every driver carried around including portable printers for receipts! When I saw their warehouse on a television special my mouth dropped open and I knew they were doomed. We later learned that WebVan spent over $1 Billion just on their warehouses alone!

Eventually, WebVan managed to offer their services in nine U.S. markets, but had planned to service 26 before they went bankrupted in 2001. The autopsy of their financials would become historic for examples of blatant excess and carelessness. One example being the purchase of 115 Herman Miller Aeron chairs (at over $800 each)!

Here is a mockumentary of WebCan called IceVan:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHSqySa3Bvo]

Final Thoughts:
I’d like the end this piece with the clever Bubble Song that everyone’s seen by now but still worth a glance:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dr3qPRAAnOg]

Movies, Web 2.0

Doriano Carta

Renaissance 2.0

Pop Goes the World?

e-Graveyard

Virtual Clipboard

Dream on Dreamer

boy meets url

Bubble 2.0

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