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TaDa! Lists

Let’s face it; people love to make lists. Shopping lists, party lists, honeydo lists. Heck, I make a list everyday of people I need to call. I recently started using a new application called TaDa List for just this purpose. TaDa List is a Web-based application (Web 2.0) for managing to-do lists. TaDa can be accessed via the Web browser on your PC, SmartPhone or PDA. On a mobile device like the iPhone, TaDa’s user interface is completely optimized, simple and clean. When tasks are created, TaDa places checkboxes next to each item so that when one is completed it can either be lined through or deleted. You can try TaDa Lists by visiting the Web site at www.tadalist.com.

TaDa Lists is only one product of 37signals, a software development company based in Chicago that also publishes several other fantastic applications such as:

Basecamp: a project management application
Highrise: a sales and lead management application
Campfire: real-time group chat
Backpack: information organizer and calendar

All these applications are accessed by your Web browser and initially are offered at no charge (based on usage levels) and as a hosted application alternative to on-premise, client-server-based applications from companies such as Microsoft, Oracle and SAP. These Software as a Service (SaaS) application solutions are the way of the future. They offer great functionality, with no technology investment and can be accessed from any Web browser, from anywhere.

These solutions are great for enabling collaboration across your organization either for free (advertising based) or on a pay-as-you go monthly or annual basis. Most small to medium-sized companies should have little to no problem integrating with this new model. Larger companies with established IT departments may find the transition a bit more challenging but not too difficult to overcome. The SaaS model is more easily adopted in the customer-facing areas of larger companies such as in sales contact management, project management and customer support.

Other companies that join 37signals in offering robust SaaS solutions include:

SalesForce.com: CRM (www.salesforce.com)
Gubb : list management (www.gubb.net)
SugarCRM: contact management (www.sugarcrm.com)
Quickbooks Online: accounting (http://oe.quickbooks.com)
NetSuite: CRM (www.netsuite.com)
Google: documents and spreadsheets (http://docs.google.com)

Let me know what SaaS solutions you’re thinking about using, or tell me why you don’t like the idea, by commenting below.

I'm engaged. Are you? Social Networking: Business's Next Big Thing

The latest phenomenon to hit the Internet is social networking.

According to www.wikipedia.org, “A social network is a social structure made of nodes (which are generally individuals or organizations) that are tied by one or more specific types of relations, such as values, visions, ideas, financial exchange, friends, kinship, dislike, trade, Web links, sexual relations, disease transmission (epidemiology) or airline routes.... In its simplest form, a social network is a map of all of the relevant ties between the nodes being studied. The network can also be used to determine the social capital of individual actors. These concepts are often displayed in a social network diagram, where nodes are the points and ties are the lines.”

When the media references social networking, they’re generally referring to the fun and leisure social networking Web sites such as Facebook, YouTube, MySpace and Flickr. In fact, a Google search for the phrase “social network” returns over 300 million results. And if you follow technology news, there’s probably a half dozen new social networking sites being announced everyday.

So what’s going on here, one might ask? The answer is: It’s about engagement and community. Humans have a natural predisposition to being part of a community and having rich engagements within those communities. What’s happening now is that new Web tools enable this type of environment very efficiently on the Internet. These are the new technologies referred to as “Web 2.0.”

Organizations are also paying attention to this trend. They know people are flocking in great numbers to social networks and they’re trying to figure out how to be there, too. One estimate I saw said that if the MySpace community was a country, it would be the 13th largest country in the world, just between Mexico and Japan.

The problem for organizations is that associating with Fun & Leisure Social Networks is risky. They risk dilution of the valuable brand they’ve spent years and tons of bucks building. This is so because F&LSN’s are unstructured, un-moderated and unauthenticated. You can’t control who links to you and what they have to say.

Therefore, the trend for organizations is to roll out their own social networks. These communities, which are accessed via the organization’s main Web page, generally have a business purpose, ranging from monetization of advertising, to deeper engagement with customers and partners, to reduction of product development life cycles, to lowering the cost of customer service processes.

The key element to success of these “enterprise social networks” is the enabling of discussion between the organization and the participant and also the discussion between participants about the host organization. Each scenario, of course, has value on its own. In order to move into the next generation of customer relationships, companies must find a way to connect the two, seizing the opportunity to build communities with their customers, employees and even partners—those “records” that are already part of the existing customer relationship management (CRM) system.

To give you a sense of the scale and importance of this new thing called social networking, you’ve got to remember that people love this stuff. People love the Internet, they love technology, they love new things and, in particular, they love new ways to connect, new ways to share, new ways to communicate—to be part of the network, part of the world. That's why there are more than a billion normal, regular people who have adopted the Internet in about 12 years from a nearly standing start, and that's a powerful predictor for what the next decade is going to be like with social networks.

The obvious conclusion is that most Internet users have not yet even heard of social networking, much less adopted it, much less decided that it has hit some kind of "natural saturation point."
One billion plus Internet users, all interconnected, and only one click away from your company’s community is a huge market.
Betting against a market that big, and betting against things that have reached critical mass, is a sucker's game.

Are you guilty of DWT? - Jott This!

As we all know, “DWT” (Driving While Texting) can be hazardous. I’ve seen many drivers sending or reading text messages from behind the wheel. It's bad enough that Americans eat, apply makeup or shave in their cars. Now, some drivers have turned these 2,800-pound machines hurtling down the highway at 65 mph into home offices.

It’s so dangerous, in fact, that this year, nine states have considered legislation specifically banning driving while texting. Washington became the first state to pass a law, which takes effect in January, making DWT a crime with a $101 fine.

OK, I admit it, I’ve done it as well and have also had a few close calls. Have you?

It was this fact that got me excited this week about using a Web-based unified messaging service named Jott. The company offers a free (for now) Web-based service for sending e-mail and text messages to others via voice phone calls. This means you don’t have to type the message on your cell phone, but simply call Jott’s automated voice command system. You tell the nice computer-voice lady to whom you want to send the message and then dictate the message and hang up. It’s that simple. You do all this without having to look down at your phone’s keypad to type while driving your car.

Jott can send your dictated voice message converted via e-mail and a text message as both text and as a sound file.

Setting up my Jott account was pretty easy. The only issue I ran into was during the process of importing my contact list. Jott lets you manually enter new contacts through your MyJott page but also supports importing of contact lists from Plaxo, Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Hotmail and Outlook.

I ran into a problem with getting all my contact information to import; it took first name, e-mail and cell phone number, but not last name for some reason.

Once I got all my contacts imported and organized, I began to poke around the application and discovered several additional features that I’ve found to be very convenient. These include the ability to create and store timed reminders and also the ability to place contacts into groups for group messaging and alerts. Imagine being able to send a group e-mail or text message from your cell phone without typing. So far, I’ve done this a number of times and found that it works great.

Jott also supports “links” to other Web-based services you may find useful. For example, if you have a blog that you publish on either Blogger, TypePad, WordPress or LiveJournal, you can use Jott to voice-draft a new blog and then post-publish to your blog page.

Jott also interfaces with real estate site Zillow.com and enables you to grab real estate property information via Jott voice call. You call Jott, say “Zillow” and then the name of the address you want to get information on. Jott sent me back a text message with all the relevant property information I was looking for.

It seems to me that Jott’s business model really can only take one of two paths. Either the service will continue to be offered for free and Jott will generate revenue through advertisements on its Web pages, or they will, at some point, offer the service through a paid subscription model.

It’s a terrific service and I encourage you to give it a try. Once you try Jott, let me know what you think by commenting below or by sending me a Jott.

See: www.jott.com

One Laptop per Child

Quick, let me ask you a question: How many unused PCs do you have at home or in your office that are just taking up space? When I last counted, not including the one I just FreeCycled (www.freecycle.org), I have two.

What if we could take our old PCs and provide them to Sarasota and Manatee families who normally couldn’t afford one? And what if we could also get those people connected to the Internet? Do you think it might have a profound impact on their lives? I do.

I got thinking about this again when I saw a story about the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) program developed by MIT Media Lab professor and “rock star” techie, Nicholas Negroponte.

Since you may not be familiar with the project, I’ll explain.

OLPC’s goal is to provide children around the world with opportunities to explore, experiment and express themselves. The not-for-profit organization has spent several years designing and developing a “ruggedized” laptop which can connect to the Internet, is powered by a crank handle, is wireless and uses open-source software for both its operating system and applications.

The goal was to create and provide a simple yet powerful system that would bring the world’s knowledge to Third World communities, all for $100 or less per unit. Although the cost of each laptop may be slightly more than $100, it’s projected that this cost will continue to decrease over time. OLPC plans to sell and/or donate the laptops to governments and schools directly. What I love about the project is its goal to bridge the chasm of the Digital Divide. Technology innovation in today’s world often becomes a breach between the haves and have-nots. Simply put, the haves have access to technology (and knowledge) and have-nots do not.

What a phenomenal idea. Imagine the power of bringing Internet connectivity to areas of the world where people today can’t even conceive of being able to send an e-mail, watch a video or instant message, let alone access the vast archives of the world’s knowledge or take an online study course.

Of course, every new technology also offers an “opportunity” for disruptive behavior and this is evidenced by Intel’s entry into the segment by providing a “competing” laptop solution called Classmate. Intel also plans on marketing and selling its rugged sub-notebook to students in developing markets. Negroponte claims that Intel is trying to kill his project and wonders why it would want to compete. It took me about five minutes to figure out the answer, which is that OLPC’s systems use AMD (Intel’s rival) chips and not chips from Intel. So go figure.

And while all this is great news, regardless of whether these systems are provided by either Intel or OLPC, it brings me back to one of my initial questions: What can be done locally to bridge the Digital Divide? The answer is that the program already exists and you can get involved by donating either money and/or your old computers.

Through a new partnership called “Texellence” between 82Degrees Technology (www.82degreestech.com), Sarasota County government, the Sarasota school board, the Education Foundation and local entrepreneur Dale Ott (Vitil Solutions) we’re already providing several hundred PCs per year to K-12 students in need.

It’s a good program that results in enabling all of the good things technology affords to the rest of us and about which we mostly take for granted. Want to get involved? See the following links: www.laptopfoundation.org

Bringing the Sun to Night

One of the interesting things about technology is that, for the most part, it relies on the ubiquitous source of electricity. Yes, laptops, cell phones and iPods run on batteries but, as we all know, they need to be recharged. It’s electricity that really makes all of our technology and access to the world’s information possible. What a luxury! It’s always there, always on…until it isn’t.

Living in Florida, I’ve become accustomed to the occasional storm-related power outage. And living in The Landings, I’ve grown accustomed to these outages during just about every weather event we have (of course, it’s usually just my side of the street that goes dark—never the neighbors’). As much as I hate to admit it, it’s only at those times that I really come to appreciate the fact of electricity.

So what would it mean if we couldn’t count on electricity, or worse, didn’t have electricity? We’d quickly find ourselves living like…well, like a number of people who live in Ethiopia and other developing nations.

These folks live in the worst of conditions, with no running water or electricity. Not only that, but their current sources of light include kerosene, candles and single-use batteries. All of which are harmful to the environment.

It’s this fact which drives home the value and importance of electricity. The electricity I’m referring to is the electricity derived from the sun. The sun’s rays, powering a tiny solar panel integrated into a LED flashlight. Sun shines into solar panel, panel converts sunlight into electrical charge, electrical charge recharges flashlight battery.

Bada bing. Light at night! Free, safe, reusable and environmentally sound light at night provides many opportunities for safety, education, economic development and much more.

It gets better. A Houston entrepreneur is driving this effort and has set up a Web site where when you buy one, he’ll donate one to one of several charities you can choose from. I bought two and they work great.

Visit: www.bogolight.com to get involved.

Gifts from the Web

I recently stumbled upon an innovative community on the Web called Freecycle. Freecycle is a not-for-profit group, founded in 2003 by Deron Beal in Tuscon, Ariz. Its goal is to easily enable goods to be transferred (“gifted”) from one individual, who no longer wants to own the item, to another individual who would be happy to receive it.

You may have noticed that I used the word “gifted.” That’s because all items on Freecycle must be transferred for free. Hence the name. It is the main tenet of the organization.

As the Freecycle Web site states, “By giving freely with no strings attached, members of The Freecycle Network help instill a sense of generosity of spirit as they strengthen local community ties and promote environmental sustainability and reuse. People from all walks of life have joined together to turn trash into treasure.”

So Freecycle is a Web community that transcends the Web; it’s a technology-driven organization that ends up facilitating offline “transactions.” What I love about the concept of Freecycle is that it literally takes garbage out of the bin, turning it into something useful for the new owner.

Freecycle uses Yahoo! Groups and its threaded discussion system as the backbone technology platform. Freecycle groups are geographically dispersed; there are currently over 4,000 groups and over 3.5 million registered community participants.

It was with much anticipation that I joined the Sarasota Freecycle group. To join, you must register for a free account on Yahoo!’s Web site, then submit your request to join to the site administrator. My acceptance took a couple of days and, once in, it was really easy to list. There are only three ways to list on Freecycle, which keeps things very simple: 1) wanted items; 2) offered items; and 3) taken items. By sorting the views using these three tags, I was easily able to navigate through the various postings.

Jumping right in, the first thing I listed was an old Dell PC that for the last few months had been relegated to a corner of my garage. I listed without remembering any of the Dell’s technical details about RAM, processor or hard drive size. Didn’t matter. Within several hours I had over 30 responses to my offer.

I immediately realized the power of Freecycle. There were people out there who would greatly benefit from something that I was happy to give away. One of the toughest things about gifting is selecting the “winner” of the gift. This is because people are encouraged to explain to you why they want the item and/or how they will use it. The “giver” has to sort through all the entries and “pick” the winner.

Eventually, I ended up selecting someone who rebuilds PCs and was looking to use my old Dell clunker for parts. I met the fellow in a public parking lot near my house (which is what Freecycle recommends; that, and bring a friend along for the handoff—never can be too safe). We were both pleased with the process and how easily it all worked.

The next item I listed was an electric keyboard that had been sitting in my closet for the past two years. This listing attracted over 60 responses! I ended up selecting a local musician named Carmela who was looking for another keyboard for her work. She was thrilled. You can bet that we’re looking forward to seeing our old keyboard in action at Metro Coffee and Wine.

You can easily get involved in Freecyle-ing as well. It feels good, and it’s good for the environment.

For more information visit: www.freecycle.org.

Why I Love My Mac

By way of introduction, let me tell you that I’m a technology entrepreneur living in Sarasota, and I am the Vice President of Sales for Neighborhood America. Neighborhood America acquired my mobile marketing technology company, Movo Mobile (now part of www.neighborhoodamerica.com) in October 2006. Prior to my role at NA, I've been involved in a number of technology related companies including: BizTank (www.biztank.com), Pongo Software (www.pongosoftware.com) and StartupFlorida (www.startupflorida.com).  Of course, these companies flavor my experiences and my opinion.

I’ll be happy to share all of this with you!

Why I Love My Mac!

OK, so the first thing you have to know is that up until the summer of 2000 I was a Mac Guy. In fact, the company I sold in 2000 (PlanetResume) right before the sucking sound happened in tech in 2001 was all Mac-based. This included everything from desktops, laptops, to web, FTP, CRM and fax servers.

After I sold the company someone sent me a Toshiba laptop PC running Windows 98 and said, “Use it”…and I did…but for the last six years I’ve been wishing I was back on a Mac.

Then, about 4 months ago, my three-year-old Dell Inspiron (Which I upgraded to run Windows XP) started showing its age, and without looking back I switched.

I’m now the (very proud) owner of a Mac Laptop Pro…Wow!

Mac Laptop Pro

So, in a nutshell, here’s what I love about my Mac:

I love my Mac because it doesn’t crash. No rebooting. I don’t think I’ve needed to restart once in the past two months. The core of this OS is UNIX with a very prettied-up user interface and so it’s stable, stable, stable—and fast. Did I say fast?

I love my Mac because stuff just works. Applications are intuitive and connected to each other in a way I never experienced on Windows before. Data flows between applications and is completely in sync and up-to-date. I’m even connected to Apple’s Dot.Mac online community that provides me with anywhere e-mail, calendar (sharing), document collaboration, Web site development tools and publishing/hosting and Internet data back up.

I love my Mac because it is elegantly designed. I’m actually proud to show off my Mac in a meeting. Apple has control over everything so all hardware design just makes sense from keyboard to magnetic electrical connector, to the glowing LED when in sleep mode, to the fact that there’s no loud fan humming noise (rumor has it that Jobs hates fans).

I love my Mac because of the creative applications that come with it, such as Photo Booth, IDVD, GarageBand, Comic Life, iPhoto, iMovie and iWeb. These Apps entice me to let my creative juices flow.

I love my Mac because of widgets. Widgets are mini-single-purpose-applications which can connect to the Internet (or not), that launch and are fun to use. Most widgets are supplied for free and are loaded via the Mac’s Dashboard. I use widgets for printing envelopes, checking weather, and checking stocks. An array of other widgets can be found at http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/.

And finally, I love my Mac because I can run Windows on it. Yes, it’s true that there are still moments when I need Windows….and running Windows on a Mac is so easy, it’s cool…like having two computers in one. So, if you’ve recently switched or are thinking about it, let me know. I’d love to hear your experiences and share your thoughts with others.