GigaOM » Bob Walsh Archives

Everyone could use a SecondBrain

Bob Walsh — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 16:00:17 +0000

Whether you’re diving into social media this summer or still looking for the productivity benefit of all these online social apps, there’s a service I’ve been using the last few weeks that is worthy of you attention: SecondBrain.

What SecondBrain does very, very well is combine the content you create in 20 major social networking apps into searchable, well-organized collections. Everything from Twitter and del.icio.us, WordPress (.com and self-hosted), YouTube and Vimeo and more are grist for this Web 2.0 mill.

While is very handy to see all of your content in one place under one tag cloud, the fun starts when searching for information in other people’s collections and content that span all those social networking apps. By way of example, digging into Ruby on Rails and traditional search engines like Google turn up too much old, moldy information.

With SecondBrain, I’m able to find not just what I could have found searching del.icio.use, digg, and YouTube individually, but the best gleamings from 17 other social venues. And I can add the juiciest bits to my Rails Collection with one click in SecondBrain or my own finds via the handy SecondBrain bookmarklet.

Further, SecondBrain is also a social network; so as you find people more adroit than you at finding good content – be it photos on Flickr or pdfs on Scribd you can start tracking what they are adding to their online digital lifestreams in realtime.

While SecondBrain is in beta, it’s one of the slickest, most well thought out online apps I’ve seen: the signup workflow puts to shame every other signup I’ve ever gone through. But there are some sharp edges: searching for content while your exploring people fails on occasion and you can’t as of now export your collections (Download Squad says this is in the works).

In the few weeks I’ve been using SecondBrain they’ve add 5 new social networks you can pull your content from: this is Web 2.0 app worthy of consideration by any web worker.

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Life Explained on Videojug

Bob Walsh — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 17:00:24 +0000

Yesterday I learned a brand new trick to teach my iPod that I’ll get to in a moment; what I found interesting was where and how I learned it: at videojug.com.

Now I could explain the trick – adding items to my iPod’s top menu – in a couple hundred words or so, but why when I can point you to a 90 second video on this site and it can teach you better than I can? Not to mention some 16 pages more (approximately 136 videos) of things you can do with your iPod that maybe you didn’t know about.

Just how many of these how to videos does videojug have, I asked Doug Kamin, Senior VP for Marketing at VideoJug? Try 50,000 (!)

“As of now, we have 45,000 unique videos that we’ve created,” Kamin replied. And these videos that range through 22 major topics such as Jobs and Careers (how to ace an job interview, how to interview someone), Technology (all your electronic toys and then some) to Love and Sex (you’ll have to look at this yourself) were produced by VideoJug since it began in August 2006, with another 5,000 or so carefully vetted community-created videos to boot.”

Videojug is all about showing you how to do something useful, like negotiating your next pay raise. “We could have allowed in 10 million cat videos, which are interesting and cute, but we’d rather show you one video on how to build a cat door,” Kamin added.

The site has the usual commenting/discussion/rating infrastructure every self-respecting Web 2.0 site has, with the added incentive of monthly cash prices for the best of community-submitted videos. Like YouTube, you can embed VideoJug videos in blogs, web sites and such.

The company, initially funded with $30 million of mostly european private investor capital leaped the pond from London in 2007 and now has a U.S. office in Los Angeles. It makes its money off of a combination of online advertising and sponsored videos by various companies including Microsoft.

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Jaspersoft: Business Intelligence for the Web Worker

Bob Walsh — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 20:00:41 +0000

It used to be if you wanted business intelligence software for your company, you’d just write a check for $100,000 to Oracle, SAP or IBM, wait for the 18 cubic feet of paper documentation to arrive, then assign a few dozen programmers you had handy to the task and check back in oh say, 2 years when they had a beta ready.

That was then, this is now. Software that will let you comprehensively control your business data can be had for pennies on those old, pre-Web 2.0 dollars. Whether you’re working for a company that can’t figure out how it really makes money, or you’re the infrastructure nerd (or nerdette) at a brand spanking new online company, “enterprise business intelligence” is a new toy you can now play with.

Jaspersoft makes software for crunching, associating, storing and reporting your firm’s manifold kinds of sales, website and other data in two popular flavors: Open Source Free and Professional. A full helping of professional BI starts around $10K, not $100K, according to Jaspersoft’s CEO Brian Gentile. And if you or your CEO are comfortable with Open Source licenses, you can get into the game for zero dollars.

On June 18th Jaspersoft is officially announcing its latest Web 2.0-ized version of its Professional Business Intelligence Suite. I got a preview of it a few days ago and as someone who has written more than a few corporate information systems, I was seriously impressed. Think of it crosstabs on mega-steroids: once you’ve done the labor of defining your data sources, you can drag and drop your way to data slicing heaven.

Business Intelligence isn’t the sexist thing I’ve seen on the web, but if your startup or your department needs to get a grip on all that data about what you sell and how you sell it, BI begins to look very, very sweet.

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Alumni Networks Meet Affinity Circles

Bob Walsh — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 16:00:46 +0000

The next time you get one of those whiny alumni spam pitches for money, pause for a minute before tossing it. It just might be hiding a slick social network-powered backchannel to get your next job.

Affinity Circles provides white-label social network sites for over 140 universities and various professional and fraternal organizations. It’s an effective way to layer an online social network onto one of the most ubiquitous traditional offline social networks – alumni associations.

The company’s social networking engine makes it easy to not just find out the usual alumni events and such, but to connect with other alumni online who share an interest, job function or city. Want to know what it’s really like working for a certain company, or doing a particular kind of job function? Hit up your online alumni network.

Today, Affinity Circles took the wraps off their new job service/recruiting service where Fortune 500 employers can reach out to alums of specific universities and offer not just jobs but career paths – and those same alums get red-carpet consideration not afforded the monster.com horde.

From an alum’s point of view, it’s the online version of the old boy (and girl) network for getting a foot in the door to places that don’t need to advertise. Talk to other alumni at that company to get the scoop on what it’s like there. For the 20 or so companies now participating, it’s a way to reach desirable hires in the labor market who may not be actively looking for a job.

Companies can cast their offer as broadly as recruiting to all Affinity Circles’ networks, or as narrow as say graduates of Santa Clara University, Class of 2001 who are interested in a particular corporate career path composed of specific job openings. While the employers get aggregate data about the number of potential applicants, they only get personal data when you choose to raise your hand online.

“There’s about 15 million people who could be using this tool, and only about 650,000 currently levering this tool,” said Chuck Taylor, Affinity Circles’ VP for Marketing. “So there’s a lot of people, especially in this economy, that have a competitive tool, and don’t even realize it.”

So, if you happen to be eligible to join the online social network of one of this companies client schools, you may have a pragmatic reason to join now than just wanting a discount on logo-ed hoodies at the online student store.

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Share Your Office Art at Notaland

Bob Walsh — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 17:00:14 +0000

One of the things “real” offices have that virtual web worker offices don’t is the break room bulletin board. That’s that shared space you stare at while your coffee is brewing. It’s where the people you work with stick photos of their new babies, garage sale notices, maps to the best lunch spots, bad doodles and other bits.

While I’m sure that the people behind notaland.com had loftier uses in mind, I’m finding this visual/video wiki makes an excellent break room board. And while it’s now public beta and has a rough edge or two, so far I’ve found it extremely stable.

You start by going to notaland.com and then search for Flickr photos (with CC attribution status shown, a nice touch), YouTube videos, Google Maps, or your own graphic files and drag them onto your first page. Being a free web app, you can take your shared break room board (or your travelogue, travel report, your home room report, your anything you want) and email it, Facebook it, embed it on your web site, print it or just let it join the growing gallery of notapages at this Japanese startup with offices in San Jose, CA.

Like someone else’s Notapage? Remix it into one of your pages. It’s not all about graphics and videos – you can add text, links, comments. Want to create a shared experience? Invite up to 50 people in to edit simultaneously. A very cool shared web 2.0 tool.

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Kinverge With Your Family and Friends

Bob Walsh — Wed, 28 May 2008 13:00:16 +0000

I’m in Tokyo right now and having recently let my .mac account lapse, I’m trying out several different ways of giving my family and friends back home a glimpse of what I’m seeing. Kinverge is a social network designed for just this task.

Unlike most social networks, Kinverge is all about the people you physically know and trust – your family and friends. You invite the people you want in, they can see and comment on your photos, post messages, add/laugh at things you want on your gift list and track your calendar.

Kinverge has a nice feel to it – minimal effort gets things done, no (as of now) ads; just the thing to share what you are up to with family and friends who aren’t over social-networked. Small touches show you are not some anonymous node on the social graph, rather you are sharing with people you know.

It’s very early days for Kinverge and there’s plenty of room for enhancement: Being on a Mac, I’d really like to see a photo importer so I can pull right from iPhoto. It won’t be the one click web gallery process that iPhoto/.Mac make possible, but it would be close. And I’d really like to be able to post short videos as well as photos, insofar as my digital camera does both (as does yours, I’d wager). It will be interesting to see how Kinverge grows, but it gets the job done now if you want to share with people you really care about.

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Finding a New Web Site Host

Bob Walsh — Mon, 26 May 2008 14:00:07 +0000

just before a big holiday weekend and an overseas trip my web hosting company’s server for my main email account imploded. For the past day, no email.

While that company will go nameless for now (out of respect for three years of great service), I’m definitely thinking of jumping ship. Regardless of all the IM and social networking I do, email is my digital lifeblood and having gone through this a few years back with another web hosting company, the signs are not good.

So how does a web-worker today find a better web hosting provider?

Today being the operative word because a) The quality of these companies wax and wane and who was hot is soon not. b) The industry has become so commoditized it resembles a locked room of starving river rats, c) Said industry knows you will search for terms like “web hosting rating”, “web hosting buzz” and “web hosting top 10″ and SEO stuff those result pages, let alone spiking the punch with “impartial rating services” that somehow always recommend the same firms.

Just to add to the fun, a great deal depends on what you need and what you’re prepared to pay for: If you’re an independent web-worker who remotely consults but just needs a service where you can hang out your web site shingle and get your email that’s one set of criteria. But if you’re a .NET or LAMP developer (never will the twain meet, at least not on web hosting companies), or plan to do a podcast, run your own blog, or are flirting with video, you’ll want as much server as you can reasonably buy. And if you’re like me and just answered yes to all of the above, I commensurate with your suffering. There ought to be a Hallmark card!

Given the noise level is so high, I think it makes sense to not just plunge into the piranha-infested waters of reviewing hundreds of site/email providers. Instead, I went looking for “what’s the best way to find the best way of finding a host” links. This kind of meta-searching is a skill worth developing in our over-informationalized world. Here’s what I found:

Get to work, work.com that is. This site has many, many well researched and written guides for small businesses; Mary Sit’s “Guide to Web Hosting Services for Small Business” has some excellent advice and recommendations I’d put on my short list.
Ask the non-profits. If you’re looking for a good way to get top value out of your bottom dollars, see what non-profits are up to. IdealWare is a non-profit helping other non-profits with software reviews and case studies. Their post on A few Good Web Hosting Providers is an excellent intro and has recommendations along with the methodology behind those recommendations.
Ask your social network friends. Here’s another reason you want to be part of a social network: you can ask them nicely who they recommend. LinkedIn Answers is excellent for this – I’ve gotten very good advice in the past this way (seven reponses in five minutes – your mileage should be better). So too if you participate in any forums, such as Business of Software. I asked my compadres a few hours ago and have received 12 responses so far.
Ring their bell. Whatever hosting companies make your short list, the one thing I’ve come to value is a firm that will pick up the phone. Nowadays, that might be a chat session with someone in Bulgaria, but that’s far, far better than the pain of dealing with either a ticket or email based tech support. If they’ve cut expenses that far, they’ve cut to the bone, and you should cut them from your list. You do not want to see an IM window like the one I’ve been looking at for the past 20 minutes:

So how do you find a new hosting company?

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Lost and Found the Web 2.0 Way

Bob Walsh — Thu, 22 May 2008 16:00:13 +0000

There’s one big downside to dragging all your web-worker gear from venue to venue, Starbucks to client site: you lose things. A mini iPod here, a cell phone there – besides the trauma, drama and cost, you just know you’re never going to see that physical bit of your nomadic persona again. Even if you’re old trusty cell phone isn’t worth fencing – few people want to bother with the hassle or deal with a stranger under these awkward circumstances.

The people at ImHONEST think they’ve come up with a solution – a Web 2.0 version of Lost and Found that makes it easy and rewarding for strangers to reunite you with your stuff, but still protects your identity. The process starts with small stickers uniquely numbered ($14.95 per six) you affix to the stuff you haul around – from laptops to handheld scanners, MP3 players to portable hard drives.

If (when) someone finds your 120MB drive on the seat you vacated 30 minutes ago, they can call an 800 number, log on to ImHONEST.com and the company makes the arrangements to get your gear to the nearest UPS pickup location or have UPS come out to their door with a prepaid mailer or box. ImHONEST rewards them once you get your item back with $30 worth of personalized ID labels.

ImHONEST takes it a step further if you’re particularly concerned about your cell phone. Software on certain models can do a remote locking and auto-destruct of your personalized data if the foundee turns out to be less than honest.

By taking all the hassle out of the process for the honest person who found your property, and by depersonalizing what might turn out to be a sticky situation, ImHONEST might just reunite you with your metallic loved ones after an involuntary separation – or at least that’s what I’m hoping as I order up a starter kit of these tags.

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Are you a StartupAgent?

Bob Walsh — Tue, 20 May 2008 22:00:58 +0000

If you don’t work like a deskbound “knowledge worker,” why would you look for next big thing at at a traditional job board?

That’s the question StartupAgents is those who are ready to jump into the world of startup software companies will be asking.

StartupAgents is a new job board catering especially to startup companies in the areas of:

Software (Consumer, Enterprise, Mobile)
Hardware (Communications, Networking, Semiconductors)
Life Sciences (Medical Devices, Biotechnology)
Nanotechnology
Greentechnology / Cleantechnology

And to the people who want to work on the bleeding edge and are open – eager even – to get equity, not just a paycheck.

As you might guess, StartupAgents is itself a startup, with just 200 agents (that’s you) and 20 startups who can peruse you profile, check your resume, skills and attitude (a healthy appetite for unhealthy long workdays helps). If they like what they see, get in touch.

“The idea came to be while I was working at Silicon Valley Bank,” said Lee Diamond, StartupAgents founder. “I heard time and time again from my clients, who where all venture backed software startups, that they were having a tough time finding talent. After doing some market research, such as interviews with management at startups, VCs, and those looking to join a startup team, I found that the existing tools and resources did not suffice. After some brainstorming I went back to many of those I interviewed with the idea for StartupAgents. They all said that if you build it we will use it.”

StartupAgents asks five questions of every agent that signs-up: 1) Do you feel comfortable in a fast-paced, always-on, highly ambiguous environment? 2) Does the idea of working tirelessly to help accomplish a mission you are passionate about excite you? 3) Are you willing to take on responsibilities that does not match your job description? 4) Are you willing to accept compensation in the form of equity? 5) Do you adapt well to change?

According to Diamond: “StartupAgents attracts a specific personality that is comfortable answering yes to all these questions. There is no other place (Monster, Dice, or LinkedIn) where such personalities can be found.”

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Get on MyCommittee to Speed Up Meetings

Bob Walsh — Thu, 08 May 2008 13:00:49 +0000

The more velocity there is in your working life, the more meetings you attend, or rather suffer through.

MyCommittee can’t promise to turn off the spigot on your whinging co board members, but it does hold out the promise that you can plan, structure and organize face-to-face meetings that actually produce results.

MyCommittee lets you, as the organizer, start an agenda that will be distributed to attendees as a .pdf, but that’s only the start. With this online app (pricing for the advertising-free plans start at $19/month for one committee) you centralize scheduling the meeting, developing and collaborating on the agenda, coordination of member discussion of agenda items, creating searchable meeting minutes and tracking action items.

Since I don’t sit on the boards of any organizations, or am I saddled with the never-ending job of getting ready for the next board meeting, my test of MyCommittee was limited to the tongue-in-cheek “meeting” to discuss with my spouse a growing tardiness issue with one of our at-will employees, Squeaky. Seems she’s been arriving at the job site at increasingly unpredictable hours, impeding the other mission-critical workflows like me getting to bed at a decent hour.

MyCommittee made it easy – almost fun – to create the initial agenda, bring my spouse into the loop (Squeaky doesn’t have an email address yet), attach supporting evidence (a .jpg of her coming in at 10:31 pm last night) and suggesting a venue, date and time for our meeting.

Since I suspect it will take more than one meeting to resolve this issue, I can use MyCommittee to set up follow-up meetings (both regularly scheduled and ad-hoc). And since it’s a rare meeting indeed that actually gets through all of an agenda, you can easily roll unresolved items downhill to the next meeting without losing the discussion or attachments around the item.

MyCommittee’s clean interface makes the process of scheduling these meetings more bearable. If regular meetings like this are a burden – boards, or departments, or just to keep track of what’s going on in a long term web worker project – MyCommittee just might ease your workload.

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