Does it work? Simple.... Jessica's Tumblog

Random musings from the frontlines of working with tech tools, technologies, systems, and vendors - all in the IT arena - startups to large enterprises....

[i-jessica]

Smartsheet - What is it good for?

It’s unclear to me how Smartsheet is an improvement over....  Basecamp, for example... or sharing project documentation and workflow across different projects, vendors, etc.  

What an ugly tool.  Once you navigate past the pretty dashboard, you’re done.  And emails from the site?  Dreadful.  Almost illegible.  The worst?  RAIDQ items.  On one project, I received countless emails from the site with the subject line being “RAIDQ x” with nothing else to help me triage without opening the email. (Which is another of my pet peeves:  Emails with subject lines that aren’t relevant to the content or helpful in what the email is regarding. Why aren’t schools teaching communications to everyone??)

I take exception to this bit of Microsoft’s latest hype, which reminds me of when their marketing department (which does more work for Microsoft than their developers do) was busily promoting SharePoint as an internet-available application platform.  Yep.  #EpicFail

[i-jessica]

But where's the differentiation between a 1 and an l?? And $200? Seriously....

[i-jessica]

Is It Impossible To Realize You're About to Be Disrupted?

In so many meetings in recent years with leaders of small thru huge firms on subjects related to the impactful changes occurring, I've noted a recurring response: - It's not about them. - It's not relevant to them, their industry, their space, their discipline. - It's just media hype. Is it possible we don't see the elephant in the room? We don't hear the hoofbeats? We don't hear the train coming? Now IT itself is about to be disrupted - in some very significant ways. This is fairly ironic given that technology is becoming ubiquitous. What do you think??

[i-jessica]

[i-jessica]

Assume Everything You Post Online Is PUBLIC! How many of us have even posted under the wrong account?

[i-jessica]

Europe Isn't the US: Amazon and Cloud Services Headway in Europe"Can a single vendor dom... . http://bit.ly/SFsXtJ . Europe Isn't the US: Amazon and Cloud Services Headway in Europe"Can a single vendor dominate the public cloud services market in Europe as Amazon has managed to do in the US? It’s not very likely. The single biggest reason is obvious: Europe is not the US."http://bit.ly/OFkY4Z#cloud #LeverageTechVia GigaOM .

[i-jessica]

Kawaii? Study proves looking at cute kitten pictures improves job performanceImprovements up to 4... . http://bit.ly/Px7NxF . Kawaii? Study proves looking at cute kitten pictures improves job performanceImprovements up to 44%... So, coffee break replacement?Forbes.+Jon Henry Take note. :)http://onforb.es/VgfsHs .

[i-jessica]

Chinese Firms Buying US Clean Tech Companies: VCs and US Lose? http://bit.ly/PPcnsi... . http://bit.ly/O54Bgp . Chinese Firms Buying US Clean Tech Companies: VCs and US Lose? http://bit.ly/O54Bgv#cleantech Via GigaOM . http://bit.ly/eA8V8J

Chinese Firms Buying US Clean Tech Companies: VCs and US Lose? http://bit.ly/PPcnsi... . http://bit.ly/O54Bgp

[i-jessica]

Gotta love Google!

BUILD IT, don't even think about buying it?  :)  What do you think?

[i-jessica]

For years I've been amazed by how slowly even huge retailers have adopted CRM to help them recognize their customers and work with them:

A decade or so ago, Saks Fifth Avenue lost me as a customer when they started sending catalogs to a company address - and I had spent a considerable amount of cash with them the previous few years.

Just recently Neimans finally recognized the types of products I tend to buy and started email marketing some picks that had obviously been matched up to what I like to buy.  What year is this?

Many retailers stop sending catalogs if you don't purchase through those - yet they have no way of recognizing your purchases inside the store if there's no rewards card or program.

So using a smartphone to pay for services - especially if it's combined with rewards or recognition programs - may finally get all of us to a happier place.

What do you think?

[i-jessica]

This sounded beyond cool - at first.

Imagine - Microsoft developing an app (perhaps this itself is amazing) for ANDROID.  That's astonishing.  Jaw-dropping.

But then finding out that it's accessible only through Facebook?  No, sorry, that's a showstopper for me.  And I'll bet for lots of others who are tired of Zuckerberg / Big Brother of the century thus far...

Of course, reading further and understanding that Microsoft Israel did the development - and it's using Android like a sandbox?  (Or is that kitty litter?)

What do you think?

[i-jessica]

Watch for this URL for Google+ referral site traffic! http://www.google.com/url?sa=z”

If Google Buzz Is A Black Hole For Sharing Traffic, Google Is The Big Bang

[i-jessica]

Area 51

For all of us X-Files fans... the real story is how the real goings-on have never been leaked or breached - because they stayed unplugged and USB ports were glued shut. 

Wow.

There's a lesson here....

[i-jessica]

Before we get to virtualization of networks - like a VMWare for networks - we need a LINUX type evolution for network devices.

And that isn't going to happen overnight.

There are huge install bases of customers for the smart technologies from Cisco, Juniper, etc.

But don't expect them to sit out OpenFlow either.

[i-jessica]

The latest publicity snafu from Facebook this past week was their whisper campaign to smear Google with Google's having violated some users' privacy.

Hysterical. 

Especially coming from Facebook, the company whose leader was quoted not all that longer ago as stating that people don't expect privacy on the internet. Yes, Zuckerberg said that.

Facebook is the company who allows 3rd party developers to access user information - even if you, as a Facebook user, block those applications, if one of your direct network friends is using the game, they've got your info, too.

And there's so much more.

How do we continue ignoring the lack of integrity from the top of Facebook's leadership? Lawsuits filed from some seemingly insiders... and the hair-raising tale of how he got started, taking others' ideas and pushing them off while hacking an early competitor. This is leadership?

What do you think? Is this a company whose technology you want to leverage - and trust with your data?

[i-jessica]

It's true - and, pitifully enough, necessary in this day when it's all about "ruling the air" - getting search results and traffic to one's site.

While humor or surprise might make for more entertaining - and interesting - headlines, the search engines have no sense of humor. To get indexed properly and ranked, your headline must be understandable to a piece of software. And that software doesn't understand puns.

Headlines are especially problematic for journalists, but impact businesses writing blog posts also. Given that blogs are the new sales brochures, how do those of you doing business blogging handle your headlines to keep the search engine monsters happy?

[i-jessica]

While many cite that the world is much different now than it was in the 90s.  At that time, when the dot.com rage and IPOs began crumpling, the domino effect took down telecom and many other tech firms.

Now, with VCs and angels chasing the next "big thing", the current over-exuberance in internet stocks - even private - is beginning to look like another bubble. 

How do you explain secondary-market valuations like:

FACEBOOK: secondary-market trades value this firm at some $76 billion (more than Boeing or Ford).

TWITTER: this company is allegedly valued at $7.7 billion - without a very clear revenue model as yet.

COLOR: photo-sharing network with an untested service, recently raised $40M in an additional round of capital and is allegedly valued at $100M - with an untested service.

Without a firm's offerings meeting a solid need, it's questionable that some of the firms (not necessarily those above) will come anywhere near these stratospheric valuations. At some point, the bubble will have to break.

What do you think? Do any of these firms really meet business needs - or consumer needs - and have the leadership to pull off these kinds of expectations?

What firms are really helping with the consumerization of technology and moving business forward?