It can be very difficult to get an organization to accept corporate microblogging as a means of facilitating closer collaboration. However, while I am the first to say that changing an organization’s communications model can be a challenge, it’s not impossible.

You and your team might be looking to a corporate microblogging platform to resolve some sort of communications issue. In this post we are going to take a look at how you can implement corporate microblogging for maximum benefit.

Run a pilot. Both Yammer and Present.ly have free versions, which make running a corporate microblogging pilot test for your organization a no-brainer — you aren’t dinging anybody’s budget to try it out. For the pilot, I advise choosing one project team — preferably one with vocal participants who are going to give feedback on the merits (or lack thereof) of the microblogging platform you are piloting.

Positively contrast microblogging vs. email. Failures in email communications abound in many geographically dispersed teams– and not all of those failures are technical in nature. I recommend auditing your team’s prior email communications to see where a corporate microblogging solution could augment and even replace email for project communications.

Communicate the successes. Changing from a communications medium like email requires some selling throughout the process. I’ve worked on communications software rollouts; you aren’t going to be able to escape those users who don’t want to change. This is the kind of user who needs to see your project team’s growing usage of corporate microblogging and its benefits.

Fit microblogging into an overall communications plan. Typically, project teams have just email and maybe instant messaging available to them. Above and beyond that, the organization might be using SharePoint or some sort of document management system. Making the jump to a new tool requires a plan; don’t just implement new tools for the sake of new tools. I often recommend a communications plan (informal or formal) that defines appropriate communications channels for team members..

Find a champion. As I mentioned in my previous post “Corporate Culture, Not Technology, Drives Collaboration“, rolling out a new technology like corporate microblogging requires management support to champion the cause.

Today’s online communications tools including corporate microblogging offer many benefits compared to corporate network-only email, faxes and telephone calls. However, your successful implementation of a corporate microblogging platform requires planning and strategy to ensure its adoption offers productivity to your team and a remedy to lingering project communications issues.

Have you implemented a corporate microblogging solution? Share your war stories, tips and advice below.

Corporate email is becoming increasingly less effective for project communications in today’s geographically dispersed work teams. It’s gradually being displaced by solutions like Microsoft SharePoint (s msft), instant messaging and even social media tools.

Following the lead of Twitter, microblogging has began to enter the enterprise with Yammer and Present.ly leading the way. Over on GigaOM, Jennifer recently wrote a post entitled “Social Network Use in the Office Could Spur Better Enterprise Technology” about the value of social media inside the enterprise and some of the benefits for companies.

The next step is taking corporate microblogging tools mobile. Both Yammer and Present.ly offer iPhone (s aapl) apps (available for free download from the iTunes App Store):

Yammer: The open-source Yammer iPhone application works similarly to many iPhone blogging clients. With Yammer on the iPhone, you have options to view your Yammer message feed securely; view received messages; view Yammer feeds including direct messages, sent messages, liked messages, bookmarked messages and RSS feeds; access to the directory of users;  and settings where you can view your push settings. The app is clean and easy to use.

Present.ly: Present.ly for iPhone provides secure remote access to the Present.ly microblogging platform. Its features include the ability to post updates; send direct messages to individuals or teams; view a timeline with replies, direct messages and updates; and support for attachments.  While I like using the Present.ly web interface, during testing it took me a couple of tries to get the iPhone app to connect to my account I set up for this post.

Do you currently use Yammer or Present.ly from your iPhone? Share your experience below.

You stand
on hardwoods in front
of a dirty
four pane window
with no curtains, head
tilted sideways
and up,
the faintest
hint of a smirk tugs
your mouth, bowed
and full bottom lip.
Eyes empty, you are somewhere
deep inside,
behind the creases
in the corners,
holding your life
steady
for someone
yet to come.

This is one of those that even baffles me. While I do know the difference and have no trouble using or understanding them I don’t know how this ever came to be.

“Presently” actually doesn’t mean “right now”. If you say, “We are going to do that presently.” You actually mean sometime in the immediate future or soon.  So you would never say, “We are doing that presently.”

If you want to say what you are doing right now, in this moment, the correct word is “currently”.

ΠΡΟΣ ΤΟ ΠΑΡΟΝ

PRESENTLY-ΕΛΛΑΔΑ-2008-111′

Σκηνοθεσία: Αντώνης Καλογιάννης

Πρωταγωνιστούν: Ειρήνη Θαλάσση, Γιώργος Παπαπαύλου, Ελεάνα Χορν

Παρακολουθώντας τον ήρωα να αποβιβάζεται στο νησί δεν φανταζόμαστε πως αυτός ο ιδιαίτερος άνθρωπος μπορεί να ανατρέψει γεγονότα και καταστάσεις που ταλανίζουν χρόνια τους κατοίκους του νησιού. Ο ήρωας γνωρίζει την οικογένεια του Ηρακλή. Ο Ηρακλής έχει κλείσει την ταβέρνα, η κόρη του έχει εγκαταλείψει το σπίτι ακολουθώντας ένα πλουσιόπαιδο ενώ ο μικρός του γιος πάσχει από ανίατη ασθένεια. Με αφορμή τη γιορτή των Αγίων Αναργύρων, ο ήρωας παροτρύνει τον Ηρακλή να ξανανοίξει την ταβέρνα, ενώ τον ερωτεύεται η κόρη του. Ανήμερα της γιορτής, χτυπημένος άσχημα από την παρέα του πλουσιόπαιδου, «παίρνει» την ασθένεια του παιδιού ενώ οδηγεί την κόρη στην ανεύρεση του θαυματουργού νερού. Όλα στο νησί δείχνουν πιο όμορφα ενώ ο ήρωας φεύγει για την επόμενη αποστολή του.

ΜΕ ΑΡΙΣΤΑ ΤΟ 5

ΡΟΜΠΙ ΕΚΣΙΕΛ (ΕΘΝΟΣ)-1

ΠΑΥΛΟΣ ΚΑΓΙΟΣ (ΤΑ ΝΕΑ)-0

ΧΑΡΗΣ ΚΑΛΟΓΕΡΟΠΟΥΛΟΣ (EXODOS)-1

ΘΟΔΩΡΗΣ ΚΟΥΤΣΟΓΙΑΝΝΟΠΟΥΛΟΣ (LIFO)-0

ΝΙΝΟΣ ΦΕΝΕΚ ΜΙΚΕΛΙΔΗΣ (ΕΛΕΥΘΕΡΟΤΥΠΙΑ)-2

ΗΛΙΑΣ ΦΡΑΓΚΟΥΛΗΣ (MAD)-1

ΑΡΘΡΟ

Ο Θεός ευλογεί το σινεμά

ΧΡΥΣΟΥΛΑ ΠΑΠΑΪΩΑΝΝΟΥ-ΕΛΕΥΘΕΡΟΤΥΠΙΑ-09/07/2009

Ενας ήρωας, που δεν ονοματίζεται, αποβιβάζεται σε ένα νησί επιφορτισμένος με μια αποστολή: να θεραπεύσει ένα αγοράκι από μια ανίατη ασθένεια, να φέρει την ευτυχία σε μια οικογένεια με προβλήματα και γενικώς να βάλει τάξη στο νησί.

Και τα καταφέρνει. Σωτήρας ή άγγελος σταλμένος από τον Θεό; Μάλλον το δεύτερο ισχύει. Γιατί η ταινία «Προς το παρόν» του πρωτοεμφανιζόμενου Αντώνη Καλογιάννη είναι ένας ύμνος στη θρησκευτική πίστη.

Πώς όμως προέκυψε μια ταινία θρησκευτικού χαρακτήρα; Οι πρώτες εικόνες του σεναρίου έρχονται αμυδρά στο μυαλό του σκηνοθέτη. Του μπήκε η ιδέα πριν από 3 χρόνια. «Δεν θυμάμαι πώς ξεκίνησε όλο αυτό. Ηταν μάλλον μια εσωτερική ανάγκη. Πιστεύω στον Θεό. Το πιο εύκολο πράγμα είναι να βγαίνεις και να φωνάζεις “κάτω η θρησκεία, κάτω η πατρίδα”. Το δύσκολο είναι να τα υπερασπιστείς γιατί το political correct της εποχής μας είναι να λες “κάτω… σε όλα”. Εγώ, λοιπόν, διάλεξα τον δρόμο της υπεράσπισης. Χωρίς πίστη, δεν μπορείς ούτε να… περάσεις στο απέναντι πεζοδρόμιο».

Ακόμα και η κινηματογράφηση έγινε κάτω από συνθήκες πίστης. «Παραμέρισα τη λογική και έκανα την ταινία με την καρδιά. Ακολούθησα τον δικό μου τρόπο, της απόλυτης άφεσης», εξηγεί ο Αντώνης Καλογιάννης. Και από τους ηθοποιούς του ζήτησε το ίδιο. Γι’ αυτό και επέλεξε πρωτοεμφανιζόμενους, «για να έχουν πάθος και πίστη», λέει. Η υποκριτική γραμμή που τους έδωσε ήταν «να παίζουν σαν να απαγγέλλουν». Κάποιοι δεν έμειναν κοντά σε αυτό που είχε στο μυαλό του, παρ’ όλα αυτά δεν κόπηκαν στο μοντάζ. «Και τα λάθη είναι αναγκαία», εξηγεί.

Ο τίτλος «Προς το παρόν» οφείλεται στο ότι όσο γυριζόταν δεν είχε βαφτιστεί. Ετσι όταν τον ρωτούσαν, αυτός απαντούσε «δεν έχει τίτλο… προς το παρόν». Είναι η πρώτη του ταινία. Ούτε μικρού μήκους δεν έχει κάνει προηγουμένως. Είχε σπουδάσει κινηματογράφο πριν από 20 χρόνια στη Σχολή Σταυράκου, παράλληλα με σπουδές Οικονομικών στη Νομική. Δεν ζει από το σινεμά και γι’ αυτό το βλέπει ως χόμπι. Μπήκε όμως στα βαθιά γιατί μπλέχτηκε με όλα τα στάδια της ταινίας του. Είναι ο αποκλειστικός παραγωγός, ασχολήθηκε με τη σκηνογραφία, την ενδυματολογία, το μιξάζ, το μοντάζ.

Την έζησε για τα καλά την εμπειρία της πρώτης ταινίας. «Είναι σαν να ανεβαίνεις ένα βουνό. Μόλις φτάσεις στην κορυφή, κοιτάς πίσω και τότε πιστεύεις τι έγινε. Το επόμενο βήμα είναι παιχνιδάκι», λέει. Εχει ήδη στο μυαλό του μια ακόμη ταινία. Γιατί όμως κάνει σινεμά; «Δεν με ικανοποιεί να βλέπω μόνος μου τις ομορφιές του κόσμου. Θέλω να τις μοιράζομαι».

ΔΕΛΤΙΟ ΤΥΠΟΥ

Αστυνόμος: Τα τραπέζια θα φτάσουν ώς εδώ. Ίσα-ίσα να ακούγεται ο παφλασμός από τα κύματα. Θα τα βάψεις καφέ σκούρο.

Ηρακλής: Θαλασσί.

Αστυνόμος: Θαλασσί, για ποιο λόγο Ηρακλή;

Ηρακλής: Ο κόσμος από καφέ καρέκλα δύσκολα σηκώνεται να χορέψει. Ένα καλοκαίρι τις είχα βάψει καφέ – αν θυμάσαι καλά, με δικό σου διάταγμα είχαν βαφτεί όλες οι καρέκλες στις ταβέρνες του νησιού καφέ – κι ο κόσμος εκείνο το καλοκαίρι δε σηκώθηκε να χορέψει.

Σημείωμα σκηνοθέτη

Η ανθρώπινη λογική έχει όρια. Εγκλωβισμένος στα όριά της, ο άνθρωπος αδυνατεί να συλλάβει το νόημα της ύπαρξης. Η υπέρβαση επιτυγχάνεται όταν ο άνθρωπος, ακουμπώντας στην πίστη, παραιτηθεί από τις βεβαιότητες που υπαγορεύονται από τα πεπερασμένα όρια του κόσμου της φθοράς. Έτσι, ο άνθρωπος ανακαλύπτει ένα νέο τρόπο ύπαρξης, όπου η κυριαρχία της χαρισμένης από το Θεό αγάπης μεταμορφώνει και ανανεώνει όλο τον κόσμο. Μια σύγχρονη καλοκαιρινή ιστορία, μια ταινία για τη δύναμη της πίστης, για την αγάπη, για τη γενναιοδωρία και τη συμπόνοια. Αυτά προς το παρόν.

Αντώνης Καλογιάννης

Γεννήθηκε στην Αθήνα το 1969 και μεγάλωσε στην Ύδρα. Σπούδασε οικονομικές επιστήμες στη Νομική Σχολή Αθηνών και στη συνέχεια κινηματογράφο στη Σχολή Σταυράκου. Ασχολείται με επιχειρήσεις.

Φιλμογραφία/Filmography

2008 Προς το παρόν/Presently

ΚΡΙΤΙΚΕΣ

Ν.Φ.ΜΙΚΕΛΙΔΗΣ-ΕΛΕΥΘΕΡΟΤΥΠΙΑ

Η άφιξη ενός ξένου σ’ ένα νησί προκαλεί διάφορα γεγονότα σε μια ταινία δοσμένη με ποίηση και σουρεαλιστικά στοιχεία.

Μπορεί στα πρώτα λεπτά της ταινίας αυτής του Αντώνη Καλογιάννη να μην ξέρεις προς τα πού θέλει να σε οδηγήσει ο σκηνοθέτης, από κάποια όμως στιγμή κι ύστερα όσα συμβαίνουν στην οθόνη σε κάνουν ν’ αναγνωρίσεις πως έχεις να κάνεις μ’ έναν σκηνοθέτη με πρωτότυπο κινηματογραφικό μάτι. Οπως έγραφα και στην ανταπόκρισή μου από το Φεστιβάλ Θεσσαλονίκης, η ταινία του δεν έχει κάποια συγκεκριμένη ιστορία, εκτός από την άφιξη ενός ασυνήθιστου νέου (ίσως σωτήρα) σ’ ένα νησί όπου παρακολουθούμε να συμβαίνουν διάφορα, συχνά άσχετα μεταξύ τους, πράγματα: ένας γέρος, εξαιτίας της αρρώστιας του γιου του, έχει εγκαταλείψει την ταβέρνα του, ένας παπάς, στη γιορτή των Αγίων Αναργύρων, ελπίζει να βρει άγιο νερό στο βουνό, ένα παιδάκι εστιάζεται στα παράξενα παιχνίδια του, ένας πρωτότυπος αστυνομικός είναι έτοιμος να βοηθήσει όλους, μια τραγουδίστρια περιφέρεται τραγουδώντας ένα όμορφο τραγούδι, και πολλά άλλα. Ο σκηνοθέτης παραθέτει τις σκηνές του, αφήνοντάς μας να τις απορρίψουμε ή ν’ ανακαλύψουμε την ομορφιά τους: όπως η ποιητική εκείνη μ’ έναν κόκορα που βγαίνει από το κοτέτσι και περιφέρεται σ’ ένα χωράφι πριν επιστρέψει σ’ αυτό -από τις πιο όμορφες, με μια δόση μπουνιουελικού σουρεαλισμού, σκηνές που έχω δει σε ελληνική ταινία. Από τους ηθοποιούς ξεχωρίζει ο Θέμης Σερμιέ στον ρόλο ενός απολαυστικού αστυνομικού.

Θ.ΚΟΥΤΣΟΓΙΑΝΝΟΠΟΥΛΟΣ-LIFO

Μια ταινία που αποτελείται από γνωμικά και παροιμίες και καταλήγει σαν ανέκδοτο επιπέδου σχολικής παράστασης. Αντί να κυλάει σαν το νεράκι, με το καλοκαιρινό φόντο της και τους καθημερινούς ανθρώπους που επιθυμεί να ιχνογραφήσει, ρέει σαν παχύρρευστο υπαρξιακό υγρό.Παρακολουθώντας τον ήρωα να αποβιβάζεται στο νησί δεν φανταζόμαστε πως αυτός ο ιδιαίτερος άνθρω- πος μπορεί να ανατρέψει γεγονότα και καταστάσεις που ταλανίζουν χρόνια τους κατοίκους του νησιού. Ο ήρωας γνωρίζει την οικογένεια του Ηρακλή. Ο Ηρακλής έχει κλείσει την ταβέρνα, η κόρη του έχει εγκατα- λείψει το σπίτι ακολουθώντας ένα πλουσιόπαιδο ενώ ο μικρός του γιος πάσχει από ανίατη ασθένεια. Με αφορμή τη γιορτή των Αγίων Αναργύρων, ο ήρωας παροτρύνει τον Ηρακλή να ξανανοίξει την ταβέρνα, ενώ τον ερωτεύεται η κόρη του. Ανήμερα της γιορτής, χτυπημένος άσχημα από την παρέα του πλουσιόπαιδου, «παίρνει» την ασθένεια του παιδιού ενώ οδηγεί την κόρη στην ανεύρεση του θαυματουργού νερού. Όλα στο νησί δείχνουν πιο όμορφα ενώ ο ήρωας φεύγει για την επόμενη αποστολή του.

Π.ΚΑΓΙΟΣ-ΤΑ ΝΕΑ

Για να κάνεις μια ταινία «φευγάτη», έξω από την κλασική δομή και την αφήγηση ενός φιλμ που να απογειώνεται, χρειάζεται να κατέχεις τα εκφραστικά σου μέσα. Αλλιώς το αποτέλεσμα μοιάζει γραφικό, αφελές και ανούσιο. Αυτό ακριβώς, δυστυχώς, συμβαίνει με το ανεξάρτητο φιλμ «Προς το παρόν» του Αντώνη Καλογιάννη. Ήρωάς της ένας νεαρός άγιος, που φτάνει «ουρανοκατέβατος» σε κάποιο νησί κι αφού κάνει το θαύμα του και βάζει τάξη στις καθημερινές αντιπαλότητες και εκκρεμότητες των κατοίκων, φεύγει για την επόμενη αποστολή του. Ο Αντώνης Καλογιάννης ήθελε να κάνει ένα φιλμ για την «υπέρβαση» της καθημερινότητας των ανθρώπων με όπλο την πίστη, «μια ταινία για τη δύναμη της πίστης, για την αγάπη, για τη γενναιοδωρία και τη συμπόνια». Μεγάλα λόγια και στόχοι, που στην καλύτερη περίπτωση σε κάνουν να πεις… το μεν σώμα πρόθυμο, το δε πνεύμα αδύνατο!

CNet’s Webware blog covers topics of interest to people whose working lives are concentrated on the web. Once a year, Webware readers cast their votes for the best web sites and services in the Webware 100. Webware has posted its list of 100 winners for 2009, which is based on nearly 630,000 votes. The winners include a number of sites to take note of, including newcomers. Here are some of the more interesting sites and services I came across in the list.

Maxthon is an interesting alternative browser that happens to be hugely popular in China. In the Webware 100, it was cited as getting a “disproportionately large number of votes.” One of its claims to fame is that you can hold down your right mouse button and use gestures to navigate online. That alone sounds worth a try.

Probably the most interesting application I noticed in the Webware 100 is Aviary (shown above). No, it’s not a site for bird lovers. The application won the Webware 100’s Technical Achievement award for this year, and according to the editors: “Aviary started as a photo editor built into a browser, but since we first covered the app its developers have rolled out a vector editor, a color palette editor, and a tool for creating visual effects.” They describe it as a “layer-based image editing application implemented within a browser.”

The award for “Best Twitter Rip-Off” went to Present.ly, a microblogging application that includes features for business users not found in Twitter. Notably, Present.ly can be installed as software rather than just used as an online service, which could be of interest to anyone who wants to privately collaborate.

There are also a lot of familiar names on the Webware 100 list. One winner that I was happy to see is OAuth.  Somewhat similar to OpenID’s approach to password and identity management, OAuth is an open-source development standard that allows web services to interact with each other without users having to compromise their passwords and identities. It’s widely used to avoid having to give up Twitter passwords and credentials in order to use third-party Twitter-centric applications.

It’s worth spending some time checking out the winners from the Webware 100 for 2009, with the complete list found here.

Which apps didn’t make the Webware list that should have? Which apps do you think were worthy winners?

1. Determine Relevant Motivations in the Culture: What needs are fulfilled with the product in the minds of members of the culture? How these needs are presently fulfilled? Do members of this culture readily recognize these needs?
2. Determine Characteristic Behavior Patterns: What patterns are characteristic of purchasing behavior? What forms of division of labor exist within the family structure? How frequently the product of this type purchased? What size packages are normally purchased? Do any of these characteristic behaviors conflict with behavior expected for this product? How strongly ingrained are the behavior patterns that conflict with those needed for distribution of the product?
3. Determine What Broad Cultural Values Are Relevant to This Product: Are there strong values about work, morality, religion, family relations, and so on that relate to the product? Does this product connote attributes that are in conflict with these cultural values? Can conflicts with values be avoided by changing the product? Are there positive values in this culture with which the product might be identified?
4. Determine Characteristic Forms of Decision-making: Do members of the culture display a studied approach to decisions concerning innovations or an impulsive approach? What is the form of the decision process? Upon what information sources do members of the culture rely? Do members of the culture tend to be rigid or flexible in the acceptance of new ideas? What criteria do they use in evaluating alternatives?
5. Evaluate Promotion Methods Appropriate to the Culture: What role does advertising occupy in the culture? What themes, words, or illustrations is taboo? What language problems exist in present markets that cannot be translated into the culture? What types of salesmen are accepted by members of the culture? Are such salesmen available?
6. Determine Appropriate Institutions for This Product in the Minds of Consumers: What types of retailers and intermediary institutions are available? What services do these institutions offer that are expected by the consumer? What alternatives are available for obtaining services needed for the product but not offered by existing institutions? How are various types of retailers regarded by consumers? Will changes in the distribution structure be readily accepted?

 My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir - Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, Line of Sight

Would you like to have a Twitter-like service that only your board or staff could view?

Let me introduce you to Present.ly. Present.ly allows individuals to post short, frequent updates that are tracked or “followed” by others. Unlike Twitter, Present.ly provides a secure and private way to share updates among members of a company or organization, without them being visible to the outside world.

I came across this this morning and wondered if anyone has used this for their own agency? If so, please share your feedback in the comments section.

Twitter’s meteoric rise in popularity – particularly over the last year – has been widely covered, and indeed the simplicity and flexibility of the 140 character-based microblogging platform continues to attract people all over the world in huge numbers, while a thriving community of developers build add-on services using its open API. We’ve also heard a lot about the power of Twitter as a communications, promotional and marketing tool.

(via TechCrunch)

Twitter and other microblogging services are radically shifting the ways in which people communicate and share information. And that shift is now entering the workplace on a large scale, particularly for web workers and for companies who are embracing the ways in which microblogging platforms can save time while increasing productivity.

Yammer, which plays off the already classic Twitter call to action, “What are you doing?” by asking, “What are you working on?” is an easy-to-use microblogging service that is tailored to the workplace and organizations in several important ways.

As Hutch Carpenter boldly states, in a piece called Microblogging Will Marginalize Corporate Email, “As more companies take up microblogging with services like Yammer, Socialcast, Present.ly and SocialText Signals, employee communications amongst employees will both increase and divert away from email.”

Carpenter then presents an equivalently bold image to illustrate how he believes microblogging can reduce the glut of email in the workplace.

Indeed, while I was at South by Southwest in Austin this past week, I heard people joke around to the effect of, “Wouldn’t it be nice if all emails had to be 140 characters or less?” Services like Yammer and Socialcast help to reduce the burden and overload that email brings to the workplace by providing the simple, flexible communication of microblogging with a number of specific work-related features.

While Twitter offers private accounts, services like Yammer and Present.ly impose a higher level of security by locking each network down to only those people who have an individual company email address.

The additional draw of these services in comparison to Twitter are features such as tagging, archiving, groups, attachments and mobile compatibility.

The combination of content aggregation features and microblogging features also offers a powerful way for groups and organizations to communicate and manage tasks and workflow. FriendFeed Rooms is a great example of this, as it allows RSS feeds, messages, links, images and video to be brought into a “room,” or group page (which may be private/invite only or public), with each new post creating the opportunity for a conversation thread. New activity in the room (new threads, posts, comments or “likes”) can be observed by seeing which thread appears at the top of the page.

FriendFeed Rooms has the power to be a game-changer in the microblogging space, creating an easy-to-use yet powerful communications platform for organizations and web workers while helping to reduce email overload. For example, the contributing writers for louisgray.com (of which I’m a member) use FriendFeed Rooms as a primary point of contact and communication.

ididwork is one of my favorite microblogging services, as it provides a sleek and streamlined approach to short real-time communication and archiving while also providing managers with a great task management feature set. Particularly for distributed work teams, ididwork can provide a basis for communication, information management, and work flow while drastically reducing the headache of wading through hundreds of e-mails each day. ididwork for employees is free while ididwork for managers costs $5 per month.

Are microblogging services reducing the number of your work-related emails?

In case you missed it last week, Google CEO Eric Schmidt had this to say about the microblogging service Twitter:

Speaking as a computer scientist, I view all of these as sort of poor man’s email systems. In other words, they have aspects of an email system, but they don’t have a full offering. To me, the question about companies like Twitter is: Do they fundamentally evolve as sort of a note phenomenon, or do they fundamentally evolve to have storage, revocation, identity, and all the other aspects that traditional email systems have? Or do email systems themselves broaden what they do to take on some of that characteristic?

At first blush, this seemed like an example of Google not ‘getting it’ when it comes to Twitter (see the comments to the linked blog post above). But I think he’s actually on to something. It is a new way of posting notes about what you’re doing, but it also has a lot of communications usage via @replies and direct messages (DMs).

Reflecting both on Schmidt’s statement, and my own use of Yammer at my company, I’m seeing that microblogging is slowly replacing a lot of my email activity.

As more companies take up microblogging with services like Yammer, Socialcast, Present.ly and SocialText Signals, employee communications amongst employees will both increase and divert away from email. Something like this:

Socialcast’s Tim Young said this about email:

Email is dead. If your company is relying on email for communication and collaboration, your company is walking dead in this new economy.

Being the CEO of Socialcast, that’s not a surprising statement. But I think he’s more right than wrong.

The shift I describe applies regardless of the microblogging application used. Since I’m actually familiar with Yammer as a user, I’ll talk about its features in the context of this shift.

Yammer Follows the Innovator’s Dilemma Path

A useful context for thinking about Yammer versus corporate email is Clayton Christensen’s Innovator’s Dilemma. Generally, the premise is that incumbent companies need to grow and increase the functionality of their products. This increases the products’ complexity and cost, but also increases margins. But as the incumbents are doing this, it opens an opportunity at the lower end of functionality for new companies to come in and attack the incumbents’ base. From Wikipedia, here’s a graphic that demonstrates the concept:

A useful way to think about the Innovator’s Dilemma in the enterprise software space comes from this blog post, Enterprise Software Innovator’s Dilemma. Existing vendors expand the functionality of their products, heavily relying on the requests of large customers. Over time, this has the effect of creating a robust, highly functional and more expensive offering. This trend is what opens the door for new vendors to come in.

Let’s consider Yammer in this context. Simple microblogging runs along the “low quality use” in some ways. At least in terms of the feature set. But it certainly takes “use case share” away from email.

If all you could do was make public notes, that’s the end of the story. Microblogging does not replace email. But these guys are advancing their product, and are rising up the performance axis.

Here is what Yammer now offers:

• Behind the firewall installation
• Public notes
• @replies
• DMs
• Groups
• Private groups
• File attachments
• Favorites (a form of bookmarking)
• Tagging
• Conversation threading
• Unlimited character length (i.e. not limited to 140 characters)
• Search

Look at that list. When you think about your own internal email usage, what ’s missing? Folders or the Gmail equivalent of tags seem to be something for the down the road. I’m not an IT manager, so I’m sure there are some heavy duty infrastructure aspects of Microsoft Exchange/Outlook and Lotus Notes that are not there. Thus, Yammer still has the insurgent, disruptor profile relative to corporate email.

But don’t underestimate that. There’s what IT knows is needed behind the scenes. and then there’s what the users actually do when given the different applications.

Expanding Communications, Marginalizing Email

Microblogging’s premise is that public proclamations of what you’re doing and information that you find are a new activity for people, and they have value. Information is shared much more easily and in-the-flow of what we’re all doing anyway. In an office setting, I continue to find the way Dave Winer describes it quite useful: narrating your work.

This use case is what promises to dramatically increase communications among employees. As we’re seeing with Twitter’s explosive growth, it takes time for people to grok why they should microblog. But once they “get it”, it takes off.

So services like Yammer have your attention as you post updates and read what others post. In reaction to what someone posts, you hit the Reply button. You’re having a conversation that others can see, and join in if they want. You decide to have separate conversation with someone in this context. Do you open up your email? Or just click “Private Message” to someone? I’m willing to bet you’ll do the latter.

Which starts the marginalization of corporate email. Why? Because a lot of what’s going to generate interactions is occurring right on that microblogging app you’re looking at. It’s the most natural thing to act in-the-flow and use that application in lieu of email. Well-designed microblogging applications are also quite seductive in terms of ease-of-use.

As I’ve written before, email’s role changes in this scenario. The logical end use cases are:

• Notifications
• External communications

This isn’t something that’s imminent. Email is quite entrenched in daily workflow, older generations aren’t likely to stop using it and internal microblogging is still nascent.

But no one said the Innovator’s Dilemma plays out over the course of a couple years. It will take time. But watch the trends.

*****

See this post on FriendFeed: http://friendfeed.com/search?required=q&q=%22Microblogging+Will+Marginalize+Corporate+Email%22

Today, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from a story about using microblogging for news.

This story should remind you how you can quickly share news and information to your constituency using a microblogging tool such as Twitter.

Here is another story from the Chronicle of Philanthropy that describes how charities have used services such as Twitter to connect with their constituents.

Here are microblogging tools that you may find useful to you. These tools can allow you to give short sentences of information, collaborative ideas, or even allow you to share your mood with friends:

• Twitter
• Tumblr
• Jaiku
• MySay
• Hictu
• MoodMill
• IRateMyday
• Prologue
• Yammer
• SocialCast
• Laconica
• Status
• Trillr
• Ididwork
• OraTweet
• JointContact
• Presently
• Mixin
• HeadMix

This list is not exhaustive. If you have found other microblogging-type tools, please share them in the comments section.

Hey guys! BlogOut is back and this time with a blast featuring top speakers like Jon Yongfook, Joel Postman and Melvin Yuan. This time we have something for both big corporate boys, individual bloggers and even non-bloggers!

Here are more details:
Blogout! ’09 aims to help make sense of the social media landscape in Singapore. It is an event to celebrate bloggers’ independent voices, emergent forms of social, web technology, to create change for their organizations, communities and society. Register now!

There’s something for everyone at Blogout! this year. If you are an executive or business owner who wants to see how social media can work for your organization, you definitely do not want to miss Day 1 (Corporate Track) where we feature some of the best speakers and practitioners in the social media scene. Here’s a sneak peak of our programme:

- See what other corporations around the world have done right and wrong
- Enough of the buzz. Get the real deal of what social media strategy will work for your company
- Maximize the effects and potentials of your social media strategy
- and more..

For Day 2 (Open Track), we welcome everyone (bloggers and non-bloggers alike) to join us for a fun-filled day of learning and sharing. Topic includes “Turning your Blog into a Business”, “WordPress as a Blogging Tool” and more!
 

Details..details.. details…
Date: 6 – 7 March 2009, Friday and Saturday

Time:
Day 1 – Corporate Track (6 March 2009)
10.30am – 5.30pm
Fee : $120

Day 2 – Open Track (7 March 2009)
10.30am – 5.00pm
Fee: Free

Register here now!

Venue:
8Q, SAM – 8 Queen Street, Singapore 188535 (Google Map)
 

Key Speakers

Jon Yongfook

Yongfook is an award-winning web producer, a blogger (of 10 years!), a proponent of permission-based marketing and a big believer in metrics-based approaches to solving online business problems. A programmer-designer-marketer living in Tokyo. He specialises in usability, platform development and online marketing. He’s the creator of open source lifestream software Sweetcron and the recipe sharing website Open Source Food (now known as Nibbledish), which was acquired by Tsavo Media in January 2009. He helps companies improve user experience, to increase conversions and revenue, assist companies reach new markets, and building online applications to solve a business or communication problem.
 

Joel Postman

Joel Postman is senior partner and chief enterprise social business strategist for Intridea, a Washington, D.C. based developer of Web 2.0 applications including the popular microblogging platform Present.ly. His background includes a decade of Fortune 500 corporate communications leadership, four years as the speechwriter to the CEO of Sun Microsystems, and experience in print and broadcast news. He is the author of SocialCorp: Social Media Goes Corporate, published December 2008. Joel lives with his family in the Santa Cruz Mountains. To the extent that he could be said to have grown up. He did so in the Silicon Valley, and first lived there before the discovery of silicon. He is also an experienced Zamboni driver.
 

Melvin Yuan

Director, Digital Strategies Group (Asia) at Waggener Edstrom Worldwide. He’s a co-founder of Scoopasia.com and member of the Social Media Collective and The Digital Movement (Singapore). He is dedicated to helping PR practitioners understand the new world that we live in and to bridge the gap between the wired-world business objectives of today and the traditional PR methods that we’ve been used to.

We all know about that one micro-blogging site that starts with a T but what about the other micro-blogging sites such as plurk, rejaw, jaiku, Yammer and present.ly. Did you you know each service has an iPhone app too? Are you using one the micro-blogging iPhone apps below?

The enterprise 2.0 space saw good action this year. I’ve had a chance to see it up close, starting the year with BEA Systems (now Oracle) and closing out the year with Connectbeam. I think it’s fair to say that in 2007, social software was still something of a missionary sale. In 2008, company inquiries increased a lot. The burden still falls on the vendors to articulate business benefits, adoption strategies and use cases. But enterprise customers are now partners in this work.

So let’s get to it. Here are my top ten stories for the year:

1. Activity Streams

Facebook really got this going with its newsfeed, and FriendFeed took it to an art form with its lifestreaming service. In 2008, many vendors added activity streams to their applications: Connectbeam, BEA Systems, Atlassian, SocialText, Jive Software and others.  Activity streams are great for improving awareness of colleagues’ activities, and adding a new searchable object: actions.

2. Forrester’s $4.6 Billion Forecast

Forrester Research made a splash with its forecast that Enterprise 2.0 will be a $4.6 billion market by 2013. The ReadWriteWeb story about it has been bookmarked to Del.icio.us 386 times and counting. Forrester’s projections provided a solid analytical framework for the different tools, used internally and externally. According to the analysis, social networking will be the most popular tool for companies. Whether you buy the forecast or not, they remain the best-known, most visible numbers to date.

3. Oracle Beehive

Larry Ellison is fond of essentially dismissing SaaS. He does not have Oracle invest much in the trend. But Oracle did seem to embrace Enterprise 2.0 in a big way this year with Beehive, which is an “integrated set of collaboration services.”  The New York Times quotes Oracle EVP  Chuck Rozwat: “It is a product we built from scratch over the last three years.” Now since Oracle is a huge enterprise software company, there’s plenty of skepticism about the capabilities and innovation of Beehive. But there’s no denying that Oracle has the ear of the enterprise, and picks up a lot of market intelligence through its customer base. While Beehive itself may or may not succeed, the idea that Oracle came out with Beehive was a big story.

4. AIIM/McKinsey Surveys

Research and consulting firms AIIM and McKinsey each came out with surveys of corporate interest in enterprise 2.0. The AIIM survey looked at levels of awareness and interest among different Enterprise 2.0 technologies. AIIM also took a fairly expansive view of social software. The top 3 “Enterprise 2.0″ technologies in terms of corporate awareness? Email, instant messaging, search. That’s actually a funny list, yet there are lessons there for vendors and consultants in the social software industry. If those are entrenched, can you play nicely with them? One other quote I like from the report:

This study of 441 end users found that a majority of organizations recognize Enterprise 2.0 as critical to the success of their business goals and objectives, but that most do not have a clear understanding of what Enterprise 2.0 is.

McKinsey’s survey of enterprises looked at the interest in various tools as well. It also asked respondents what the leading barriers were for success of social software initiatives. Top three were: (1) Lack of understanding for their financial return; (2) Company culture; (3) Insufficient incentives to adopt or experiment with the tools.

5. Facebook Co-Founder Leaves to Start an Enterprise 2.0 Company

Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and colleague Justin Rosenstein announced they were leaving the hot consumer social network to start a new company. The new company will “build an extensible enterprise productivity suite,” with the goal of “making companies themselves run better.” Why would these young guys, sitting on top of the leader in consumer social networking, choose to exit? As I wrote at the time:

The Enterprise 2.0 market is still quite nascent and fragmented. Combine that industry profile with projected spending in the category, and suddenly you understand why these guys are striking out on their own.

Assuming they’ll be able to tap the mother ship for help, I think this was a fairly important story this year.

6. Microblogging Enters the Enterprise

Joining wikis, blogs, social bookmarking and other incumbent tools this year was microblogging . Given the way Twitter is used by Enterprise 2.0 aficionados, and is enjoying skyrocketing popularity, it’s no surprise we started seeing microblogging emerge for internal use. At the mostly consumer-focused TechCrunch50, enterprise microblogging start-up Yammer won the top prize. Other start-ups in the category include SocialCast and Present.ly. SocialText added microblogging with its release of Signals.

7. Gartner Narrows its Criteria for Social Software

Gartner came out with its Social Software Magic Quadrant in October. As SageCircle notes:

Gartner’s Magic Quadrant is probably the iconic piece of analyst research. With its visibility and status, it also has enormous influence on vendor sales opportunities, especially when it comes time for IT buyers to draw up the all-important vendor short lists.

So it was with great interest when I read that Gartner had narrowed the criteria for whom it puts in the Magic Quadrant:

Added blogs and wikis to the functionality requirements

The effect of that is to establish those two tools as the de facto standard for enterprise social software inside the enterprise. To the extent corporate buyers are listening to Gartner for signals about the market, this will make it a bit more challenging for start-ups with interesting offerings that address other parts of the social software market. Yammer, for instance, won’t make it into their Magic Quadrant.

8. Enterprise RSS Fails to Take Off

RSS is one of those technologies that you know has huge value, and yet continues to struggle for awareness and adoption. Google tracks the leading “what is” searches. The fifth most popular on its list? “What is RSS?” Take that as both good and bad. Good that people want to know, bad that awareness continues to be a struggle.

Forrester analyst Oliver Young has a sharp write-up that shows enterprise RSS did not expand inside companies as many had thought it would this year. As he notes:

Of the three enterprise RSS vendors selling into this space at the start of 2008: KnowNow went out of business completely; NewsGator shifted focus and now leads with its Social Sites for SharePoint offering, while its Enterprise Server catches much less attention; and Attensa has been very quiet this year.

RSS is a great way to distribute content inside companies, but its ongoing limited adoption was a big non-story for the year.

9. IBM and Intel Issue Employee Social Media Guidelines

IBM and Intel each established guidelines for their employees who participate in social media. As I wrote, this essentially was a deputization of employees as brand managers out on the web. These market leaders were essentially saying, “have at it out there on blogs, social networks, Twitter, etc. But make sure you know the company’s expectations.” These guidelines represent a milestone in large enterprises’ comfort with social media. I expect we’ll see more of this in 2009.

10. The Recession

This affects all industries, globally, of course. And Enterprise 2.0 is no exception. Jive Software made news with its layoffs, but the effect was industry-wide. And of course, corporate buyers aren’t immune either. It’s a time for companies to hunker down, get slimmer, more focused and creative than they are in flush times. This recession will be a marvelous test for the resiliency of the Enterprise 2.0 sector.

Those are my ten. Did I miss a big story for 2008? Add your thoughts in the comments.

If you’re interested in tracking what happens in 2009, I encourage you to join the Enterprise 2.0 Room on FriendFeed. It is a centralized location for tweets and Del.icio.us bookmarks that specifically relate to Enterprise 2.0.

*****

See this post on FriendFeed: http://friendfeed.com/search?q=%22The+Top+10+Enterprise+2.0+Stories+of+2008%22&who=everyone

What do you use your fingertips for?

There are a lot of things that you do with your fingertips. You use them when typing something on your keyboard. You use them to play the piano. You use them when plucking the strings of your guitar, creating those chords, and strumming a melody. You use them when turning on or off any button of your appliances. You use them when you try to check if the water is too warm or too cold.

These are just a few of what you do with your fingertips. And yet did you know that your fingertips would also be able to have health and beauty with your fingertips? Now that may be something new to you if you still have not met the gadget Fuzuoku 9000.

What is the Fuzuoku 9000, you may ask. Well, this is a gadget that is going to keep you healthy and in the process keep your youthful beauty. See, it is a gadget that is put on your fingertips that helps you massage your tired or stressed muscles. You may think of the Fuzuoku 9000 as a small gadget but it is going to be the massager of your choice. See, it is easy to use and you can bring it with you without you having to fuss about anything bulky.

Despite the Fuzuoku 9000 being a small gadget that is offered at Gadget Epoint, you can see that this one is a powerful one. It can create 9000 vibrations in a minute so imagine the comfort that it would give you. Just place it on your fingertips and you can start pressing them to whatever part of your body is aching. Instant relief is what this health and beauty product is going to give you. There is now no need for you to call on a massage therapist.

Microblogging has arrived. There are now millions of people using Twitter as well as its competitors Pownce and Jaiku. My learnings from the world of marketing points to one obvious conclusion. Where the people go, the corporations are sure to follow.

Similar to earlier forms of online engagement(message boards, blogs and communities), companies must understand that the world of microblogging is about conversations. In the offline world, nobody likes the guy who walks into a room with a bull horn. People generally ignore the interruption or verbally attack it until it goes away. The same premise applies online and as such, companies/marketers need to listen first. Just like any conversation, once you get a feel for what topics are already being discussed, then companies can join in and build on the topic with relevant, useful points. This is online marketing 101, but it still amazes me how often companies ignore these rules.

Chris Brogan wrote an excellent post a couple months back titled 50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business. It looks at how you can get started, what topics are appropriate to tweet about, how to authentically build community and the negatives and positives you can expect to encounter through efforts in the realm. I have yet to find a more succinct, yet all encompassing post on how companies can go about microblogging correctly. Some strong examples of companies on Twitter that have joined the conversation and established a following that positively impacts their brand include: Starbucks, Dell, Jason’s Deli, Jet Blue, Kodak, Whole Foods and Southwest Airlines.

There are two sides to the corporate microblogging coin though. The first and possible most important, is how you are engaging with your customers. The other side is how corporations can provide their employees new tools that allow for greater communication and productivity. Enter the internal corporate microblogging tools from Yammer, Present.ly and QikCom. Skeptical? Even Forrester Research begrudgingly states that microblogging has a place in the enterprise 2.0 market that is expected to reach $4.6 billion by 2013. ReadWriteWeb provides more background with a good overview and links to a report by Pitsachio Consulting on enterprise microsharing tools.

Lastly, I recently came across direct proof that companies are listening to the microblogging noise. A family member of mine wondered aloud on Twitter whether it was time for his company to bring Yammer into the fold. I suggested he also take a look at Present.ly and QikCom. In under 24 hours I noticed both Yammer and QikCom were following me on Twitter. Clearly they are listening, I am now wondering when they will have something meaningful to add to the conversation…

It is no secret that I love Twitter. I have to admit that besides email, Twitter is my most important communications tool, particularly for my business but not exclusively so. The more I see where social media and online communications is going, the more I realize how Twitter has transformed the landscape in both big and subtle ways.

An obvious example of Twitter’s impact is how it is quickly becoming part of our lexicon. Even mainstream media is referring to the Twitterstream, using Twitter to gauge public sentiment, and referring to people’s Twitter pages. Twitter has moved beyond being the news and is now helping to source news for many reporters.

Here are some other ways Twitter has had game-changing impact:

1. Reinvented the threaded messaging board

If you think back to the old online forums before and after threaded messaging and then look at your Twitter page, look familiar? Twitter is loosely threaded messages that are a dynamic blend of conversation with direct references to others in the discussion and broadcasting where the message or the link is the focus.

From watching some of my clients trying to grasp the concept and flow of Twitter, it is clear that this communications display is atypical and can be challenging to follow. Learning to dive into a Twitterstream and come out with a cohesive dialogue or valuable information takes time. For the uninitiated, a threaded message board makes far more sense, however, once you get the hang of the fabric of tweets, you learn to follow the threads, jump to people’s Twitter pages to catch up with the conversation, and you hone your skills of zeroing in on certain Twitterers to pick out nuggets of useful information. Twitter has changed the flow of conversation and information.

2. Spawning imitators

First there was Jaiku and Pownce, then Plurk and Kwippy, all jumping on the microblogging bandwagon, each trying to differentiate themselves from Twitter yet mostly feeling like Twitter knockoffs. Even in their attempt to stand out, they stacked on features or capabilities meant to make them “more robust” than Twitter but ended up diluting the purity of Twitter’s simplicity. Some users, however, preferred the extra bells and whistles of the imitators as well as the stability of some of those other services.

Next came the Twitteresque sites that used the Twitter conversation starter model but focused on specific topics such as blippr where you microblog reviews of arts and entertainment or Reporting On where journalists simply announce what they are reporting on at any given time. Twitter’s micro messaging has become a main feature of many new sites and applications.

3. Becoming an add-on for other tools

As I began reviewing project management tools for WWD, I was taken by Joint Contact’s integration of Twitter into their featureset. Suddenly, Twitter was a feature add-on for applications where communications was key i.e. project management. Email, message boards and the usual communications tools were no longer enough. Other project management tools have promised Twitter integration in future iterations. Scott Blitstein also wrote about Twitter integration with your favorite productivity apps.

4. Transforming internal company communications

Since I’m not in need of enterprise level communications tools, I haven’t actually tried these out, however, there are now Twittereque apps for the enterprise such as Yammer and present.ly. Mike Gunderloy blogged about this new trend and referenced a presentation by my Twitterfriend @Pistachio at Pistachio Consulting.

5. Forcing us to do more with less

When I make presentations about Twitter, a common question is “why are the posts so short?” Why 140 characters or less? M-marketing and M-comm, I tell them. Twitter laid the groundwork for mainstreaming very short and concise messaging in preparation of communicating efficiently on mobile devices.

Maybe the vision of Twitter wasn’t necessarily to prep us so we could properly conduct M-marketing tactics over time, however, we are all gaining the skill of reducing our thoughts into tight, taut messages that read easily over our handheld devices.

6. Affecting the way we blog

Almost weekly, a popular blogger announces that he or she is no longer going to blog or no longer going to blog as frequently because of Twitter. Or that Twitter has changed the way they blog or the way they feel about blogging. For better or for worse, Twittering makes blogging feel like a bog both for the blogger and the reader once they are used to swimming in the free flowing Twitterstream.

7. Influencing our communications style

The Twitter Effect on how we communicate is going to be even more obvious than how email communications has forever changed the way we write. I’ve heard people say that they find themselves speaking in Tweets – short, clipped phrases where they say as much as they can in fewer words. They don’t do it on purpose, it is just how their mind works now that they’ve been Twittering for a long period of time. Twitter has created new verbs for us. We now have “Twitterfriends.” We “tweet” instead of post. When we talk about referencing others in our tweets we are “atting them” or “@ing” them. When you want someone to contact you, you can just tweet a message asking them to “@” you or “DM” you (for direct message). To gain Twitter skills means that you have to deliberately let go of old communication styles and rewire your brain to accommodate the new ones required to immerse yourself productively in the Twitterstream.

8. Ever-expanding uses

Twitter isn’t just a place where you tell the world what you are doing. Its uses have expanded beyond a broadcast tool to a listening device and filter of information. It is also a marketing tool; a market research tool; a customer outreach and customer service tool; and instant focus group; a tech troubleshooting resource; and the list goes on and on.

In Twitter’s undiluted simplicity, it has the uncanny feature of being several things to each person and several new things as people’s imaginations take hold after a few weeks of Twittering. We have yet to see all of the possibilities of Twittering for our personal lives and for our careers and businesses. We are just scratching the surface.

How have you used or seen Twitter used in new and different ways, particularly for business?

Celebrities like Britney Spears, Jessica Simpson, and Angelina Jolie, these celebrity sedu hair styles are more popular presently. Proving to be this season’s big fashion trend these sedu hairstyles are the must have for every fashion conscious person.

Celebrity sedu hairstyles are not the mystery you may have though they were, in fact you can create these celebrity sedu hair styles from the comfort of your own home, and you don’t even need a hair stylist. That’s right you can achieve Paris Hilton sedu hairstyles yourself. Not convinced, then let us reveal the secrets to celebrity sedu hairstyles.

Celebrity sedu hair styles are something that all fashion conscious women are looking to create and the good news is that now you can. With the introduction of the new sedu hair straightening iron you too can create celebrity sedu hairstyles and without the need for a highly trained hair stylist.

If you have seen pictures of sedu hairstyles then you have probably dreamed of having the same look. These celebrity sedu hair styles are everywhere you look and believe it or not they are also very easy to achieve. In order to create your own celebrity sedu hairstyles you will however need to purchase on major item and that is the sedu hair straightener. The sedu hair straightener is the key to creating these celebrity sedu hairstyles and it is so easy to use you can do it from the comfort of your own home in as little as five minutes

Every year celebrities set the trends in fashion and hairstyles, and this year will be the same. You will see the top celebrities showing off their sedu hairstyles and everyone will still be talking about their hair.

Stars best known for their sedu hairstyles are Jennifer Aniston and Jennifer Lopez, but there also many other celebrities such as Marcia Cross, Madonna, Eva Mendes, and Eva Longoria just to name a few who also sport sedu hairstyles frequently. It has become so popular, that almost all hairstyles that involve straightening your hair are often referred to as “sedu hairstyles”.

The secrets of celebrity sedu hairstyles revealed; the sedu hair straightening iron. Of course it is not only the iron that creates the celebrity sedu hair styles you dream of, it is also learning to use the iron and knowing how to create the style. A sedu hairstyles guide will you all the information you need and in no time you too will be sporting celebrity sedu hairstyles

I haven’t really done a lot of my own artwork very much, sadly it’s because I have no motivation to do so, and also because I think I’m addicted to using the computer.

However, I was looking at some images on deviantART and saw some images that to me, don’t look like art. It seems as the word itself is used so casually and loosly, it’s hard it seems for anyone to say what really is art, when really it seems anything can be considered art.
At TAFE I often heard people say things like, “that as long as you like it, and as long as it has meaning behind it, it’s art,” and sentences along the lines of that. I don’t believe that is true. Just because you put two chemicals together into a beaker to see whether an explosion will occurr doesn’t make you a scientist. I see photographs taken of something and yes the person may have thought about it, and it meant something to them, so what? It looks like an ordinary photograph that anyone can take without thought or question, and that I believe defeats the purpose of what art is. Art is meant to make you stop, think, question and challenge you (whether it be morally, ethically, spiritually, mentally etc), not just so you can go, “never seen that before.” People who don’t study art themselves, and who do not understand art often think that art is anything, and they can call whatever they want, art. However I know different now from going to my art theory and history lessons.

For example, you might question why someone bothered to put a pink box in the middle of a street, that is the size of a car. How is that art you might ask? It’s art because in a street where you see nothing but cars, buildings, tar roads, traffic lights and machinery, and to see a pink box, you stop and look. It visually captures you. I mean of course it would fucking visually capture you, it’s a fucking pink box in the middle of the road. That’s just it though, that kind of art focuses on the elements and principles of art. It’s focus is colour and shape, that was the artist’s intention.

Just because you see something nice in the street and want to take a photo of it, doesn’t make it art. It has to be more than that. I think art has become so “normal” nowadays and people just abuse it, and do whatever they want with it.
Although down in history and in ancient times people were strict and artists were men rather than women, at least there art had its name. Now, it’s hard for people to appreciate it, for what it REALLY is.

There has been much fanfare in the blogosphere lately about Google’s new PowerPoint killer, code named “Presently”. The word on the street was that the service could go live any day.

Well I’m here to tell you it’s alive, available, and doing quite well. After testing a number of URLs that I thought might be hiding the bugger, I logged into my Google Docs account and started poking around. Lo and behold, under “New >” there was the option of “Presentation”. So I did the natural thing and created a presentation for your viewing pleasure. I’m going to have to spend some more time playing with this but it’s looking pretty good so far.

And for those of you wondering if Presently offers slick transitions…the answer is “no”…at least not presently.

(Thanks Nate.)