Team Collaboration

• Partners for Microsoft OCS 2007 … Microsoft announced an additional set of IP PBX vendors that are supporting Office Communications Server 2007, for voice over IP, IM and conferencing. “The IP PBX and gateway companies pledging interoperability with OCS 2007 include Alcatel-Lucent, Avaya, Cisco Systems, Ericsson, Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Mitel Networks, NEC, Nortel Networks, Siemens Enterprise Communications, AudioCodes, Dialogic and Quintum Technologies.” Interoperability upgrades from these vendors are expected by 1Q2008. Peter de Haas
• Eric’s Paperless Office … Eric outlines an approach to the paperless office using an HP Digital Sender, Lotus Notes, Cobra Image Router 5.1 and a wife without a Mac. “First of all, my wife is not technically oriented and she derives zero pleasure from using her computer or trying to make a piece of equipment or software work. A computer simply a tool to her and using it is about as exciting to her as using her can opener.” Well, duh, she has a Windows laptop … Notes on Productivity
• Xythos Webinar … Xythos is hosting a free webinar on Wednesday May 30, 2007, exploring the use of its Web-based document management technology at Salve Regina University. “Learn how every student at Salve Regina must produce an eportfolio before graduation. Students have full control over their eportfolios, including granting who has access and other rights to their files.” Registration required. Xythos
• Blogs, Wikis, IM, Persistent Chat … Bob from Parlano takes a shot at explaining the difference between blogs, wikis, IM and persistent chat within an organizational environment. “Simply put, there is conversational of collaboration and there is document-based collaboration. Conversational collaboration comes in the form of person-to-person conversations, voice (telephony, VOIP), and video conversations, in addition to text-based conversations in the form of email, IM, and Persistent Chat. Document-based collaboration includes Blogs, Wikis, Intranets, and Document Management systems. Conversational collaboration is useful for arriving at ideas and conclusions. Document based collaboration is useful for documenting those ideas and conclusions.” Bob Serr



• Collanos Workplace 1.1 … Colanos released Version 1.1 of its peer-to-peer team collaboration offering, Collanos Workplace. New features: a global user directory, Vista support, and more. Available immediately. Collanos

Mobility

• Game Up for Enterprise Mobile Pure-Plays … Aside from RIM, in the view of The 451 Group, the market opportunity for pure-play vendors in the enterprise mobility space has gone. “While several vendors peg the global market for mobile users at roughly 600 million, The 451 Group’s estimate of the market for enterprise users is just one-tenth of that, or 60 million. Of that total, 451 analysts believe the overall upper market range for mobile email utilizing smartphones and other converged devices (e.g., BlackBerry, Treo, Motorola Q, etc.) is closer to 20 million premium-level users. The remaining 540 million non-enterprise users can be classified as either ‘prosumers’ (estimated to be less than 5%, or about 27 million, of the potential subscribers) or pure consumers. Pure consumers are more than satisfied with mobile interfaces to their commercially available accounts (e.g., Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo), which require nothing more than a suitable mobile device interface. The 451 Group believes that consumers are not interested in paying for anything more robust, and in fact younger generations of users are likely to bypass email altogether in favor of text messaging.” Tekrati
• CommonTime mSuite for Windows Mobile 6 … CommonTime announced support for Windows Mobile 6-powered devices in its Lotus Notes mobile messaging software, mSuite. “mSuite enables wireless push Notes email and messaging via secure, centrally managed, over-the-air synchronization with a corporate server. For enterprises running Lotus Notes and/or Domino, mSuite speeds mobile deployment and reduces the end-user learning curve by leverage existing Lotus skills, according to the company.” Available immediately. Windows for Devices
• Palm is Down for the Count … Rob at the Washington Post argues that Palm is dead. “Palm is failing to live up to the basic promise of the high-tech world–that its products will continue to get better, faster and cheaper every year. At worst, this company is no longer capable of innovating. At best, it retains that ability but lacks the manners to tell its customers just what it plans to do to get back on track–“trust me” will no longer suffice.” Washington Post
• Thunderbird to Pocket Outlook … Mozilla Thunderbird users can sync contacts, appointments, tasks and email with Pocket Outlook on a Windows Mobile via BirdieSync. Geeks Guide to GTD

Productivity

• Lessons from the Hawthorne Experiments … Wally draws five conclusions from the Hawthorne experiments in the early 20th century: (a) work is a social function, (b) groups are multipliers, (c) trust is a big deal, (d) people like other people to pay attention to them, and (e) people want the maximum control possible over their work life. Three Star Leadership
• Work in Bursts … When facing a big project, break it into smaller chunks and work diligently at getting one of the chunks done. “When you complete a burst, take a minute to enjoy the satisfaction of doing something. Doesn’t that feel good? Even better, give yourself a mini reward. Be sure the mini reward, if it’s a snack-sized candy bar, let’s say, doesn’t come too many times in the day, or your mini reward will turn into a major belly. This is when the running comes in handy. But find a variety of mini rewards, and you should be fine.” Freelance Switch