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Well this certainly clears things up

Gartner Group released their Magic Quadrant for Social Software towards the end of last year and I came across it today while doing some research.  It was great to see cool company Socialtext featured in the analysis although that is a bit hard to determine when you look at the quadrant itself.  Guess it's fair to say there are no true leaders in this market yet but definitely plenty of players.  Think they could have crammed any more companies in the bottom left?

Free text messaging...for you

Your friends, well, they still have to pay.  New capability lets you send a text message directly from the Gmail app but... 

"Keep in mind that all these text messages count as part of your regular mobile messaging plan and might incur fees. So unless you know your friends have unlimited text message plans, please be sensitive to their phone bills."

Pretty cool actually as more forms of communication are consolidated in a single application (email, IM, etc.).  I've enabled it in my Gmail and look forward to taking it for spin.

A framework for understanding personal messaging

I have been thinking through this a bit and am trying to get my head around all the ways we connect and share information (person to person).  As blogging is not only a great way to share but a way for me to sort my thoughts on topics, I thought a post would force my thinking a bit.

At this point, I have identified 10 different categories for personal messaging:

1. Email

• Corporate (Exchange/Domino environments)
• Webmail (free services like Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo! mail)
• 'Site mail' (closed network email like Facebook or LinkedIn mail)
• Email services (outbound where you can assign a "From" like email marketing systems)
  

2. Text messaging

• From a device
• From a browser
• From a system
  

3. Instant messaging

• Stand alone apps like AIM or Trillian
• Inside webmail like Gmail
• Site IM (like Facebook)

4.  Content sharing/distribution (Slideshare, Youtube, etc.)
5.  Blogs (includes web pages, RSS feeds, and comments)
6.  Wikis and other collaborative spaces (closed/invitation only)
7.  Micro-blogging (Twitter including its direct message capabilities)
8.  Voice (includes POTS, VOIP, and cellular)
9.  Video (new like Gmail feature)
10. Other social networking tools/sites (a laundry list of options here including Facebook, MySpace, etc.)

I'll follow up with a post around the twelve or so factors to consider when selecting one method over the other.

Something to remember about openness and collaboration

For each level of openness and collaboration, there is an equal or greater security concern. 

Keep your users' data sacred and make its protection a priority.

Your network is the platform

As I sort through the noise of all the forms of personal communication and connection available to me these days, it occurs to me that each of these platforms (personal & work email, my cell phone, CRM applications, social network du jour (Facebook, LinkedIn,etc.)) is disconnected from the other. 

The true "platform" is my active network and the actions I take during the course of the day. 

The fact that I have to jump between applications and devices to manage it all makes it almost unbearable.  I believe the answer to this is connectivity among all these disparate tools where no one platform is superior to the other.  They all serve some purpose for me ranging from critical to curiosity and it would be nice to manage them centrally.  This would shift ownership (and control) from any one of these platform providers to the individual but isn't that the way it should be?

Social media primer

Another clever video from Seattle-based CommonCraft.  This one covers the basics (and value) of much hyped social media (via Jeremiah Owyang).

Hyperconnectivity

New study out from IDC points to something many of us know well - we are connected via an increasing number of devices and applications to communicate, learn, and collaborate.  Interestingly China and the US are at the top of the hyperconnected stack.  Building on a theme for today, I am sure China will continue to surge ahead as its population gains greater and greater access.  A couple of interesting quotes:

"Almost two in 10 workers in 17 industrialized countries use a minimum of seven devices for work and personal access to communication networks."

"People in this category also use at least nine applications, such as instant messaging, text messaging, Web conferencing, and social networks, analysts found."

Pick up the phone

Picking up the phone and talking to someone is my preferred way to get a point across these days.  Email is the crutch of the business world where people can communicate in a way they would never contemplate in a direct conversation.  It dominates our daily communications and has changed the way we work (not necessarily for the better) where typing has replaced talking.

Here's a story from the NY Times (via Instapundit) on the demise of the office phone and how that is impacting both work dynamics and organizational learning.  I especially like this quote:

"That brings up another reason the office phone call is worth preserving: there’s no ready substitute for practicing the necessary summoning of courage for potentially fraught encounters. Advancing in business is often a matter of gaining capacity for confrontation; to the best of my knowledge, no one has ever had to steel herself before sitting down to type a tough e-mail message."

If you have ever made a cold call, the quote above should hit home.

In a related post, Fred Wilson does a nice summary here of the running discussion on money saving tips for start ups including this bit of advice "Don't buy a phone system. No one will use it."  Although the advice is based on the fact everyone already has a cell phone, I'll still give Fred credit for scooping the Times.

A crash course on how youth uses technology

Watched parts of this last night.  Frontline has a new program called "Growing Up Online."  You should watch it (which you can do via the site...very cool).

It reinforces many things I have picked up from previous research into Generation Y and their communication habits.  What struck me most is right at the end, one of the recently graduated high school seniors talks about the way he needs to unplug for bit because it is too much to deal with.  Wow.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the future.  Is it possible that we will exhaust our on-line preoccupation?  I now rarely use IM, email is broken for sure, and text messaging works best for close contacts. 

Google Apps go legit

The news (via The Guardian) that CapGemini is making Google Apps part of its solution set is making the rounds today and getting some good coverage including here and here. 

This statement by Steve Jones of CapGemini is a bit of bunk especially considering the long availability of productivity products like OpenOffice but I'll give him creative credit for the "haves and have nots" characterization around software access in the enterprise - I have been made aware of the "two americas" but was not aware of the "two enteprises."

"Up to now, says Jones, licensing and data-storage costs have prohibited these "disenfranchised employees" from being given access to Office-style apps."

Much of the talking points on the annoucement seem to be focused on moving from personal productivity to team productivity with the power of the internet.  Wow...that's a new concept.

"If you look at the traditional desktop it is very focused on personal productivity," said Robert Whiteside, Google enterprise manager, UK and Ireland. "What Google Apps brings is team productivity."

All in all this is good news for Google and its enterprise biz but hardly the death knell for Microsoft or IBM/Lotus.