Since I last wrote about VoxOx, it has improved considerably. The basic functionality works well. Incoming calls work fine; outgoing calls are available at competitive rates.

It’s been rebranded, and its screens are no longer the hideous and hard-to-see colors that they were in the last version. Managing one’s contacts has improved, and the service has some cool new features, like:

• A free iNum, which is a special toll-free number that can be called globally.
• The ability to share files of up to 100MB via chat, SMS or email.
• A “universal translator” for translating instant messages on the fly.

Unfortunately, with an app that does this much, I suppose it’s inevitable that there will be shortcomings.

• There is still no integration with my existing contact lists from Google, social networks, or the Mac Address Book. In fact, there is still no way to import or export contact information.
• VoxOx doesn’t yet let you port your existing phone number to its service.
• While VoxOx supports Skype messaging, you must have the Skype software open for this to work. That’s a limitation of Skype, and not really VoxOx’s fault.
• While the interface is definitely more readable than it used to be, the Mac version doesn’t use native font rendering, so screen text is poorly displayed.
• VoxOx doesn’t use oAuth or equivalent systems, so you must give the program your login information for the IM and social network accounts you add.
• VoxOx is pushy. The software registers itself to start automatically on boot, and although you can turn this setting off, it should ask before adding itself to autostart. And whenever you add an account to the program, the option marked “Invite my contacts to VoxOx” is checked by default. I unchecked it, only to find that it was checked again the next time I entered that preference screen.
• Surprisingly, there are no mobile apps for Android or iOS, and there isn’t even a mobile-friendly version of the VoxOx website. Apps are said to be in development.

I could live with many of these issues, but the inability to import and sync contacts is a deal-breaker for me. There’s no way that I can enter 1,600+ contacts!

VoxOx has promise, but I don’t think that it’s quite ready for professional use yet. Maybe by version 3 I’ll be able to use it regularly.

Have you used VoxOx? How do you manage your communications?

Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub. req.):

• Can Enterprise Privacy Survive Social Networking?
• Social Media in the Enterprise
• Enabling the Web Work Revolution

The company appears to be pursuing growth over immediate revenue streams, such as the lucrative delivery of SMS notifications and the ability to ‘white-label’ the service with a company, group or organization’s own branding and features. It’s into this latter category that products such as laconi.ca and Folkstr as well as startups like Shout’Em are entering.

The Croatian Shout’Em recently received €350’000 in seed funding to further develop its service, a tool to ‘roll your own microblogging networks. This essentially allows you to host and operate your own Twitter-like communites. I was prepared to be skeptical about a Twitter-clone, but have been pleasantly surprised by how sophisticated and powerful the Shout’Em user experience actually is.

A VC recently told me that startups offering white-label options are generally a sign of an inability to capture a broad consumer audience along with the associated value and volume. However, there’s a place for non-venture funded startups to offer good quality services to thousands rather than millions of customers.

Upon joining the service, users can operate multiple microblogging networks, picking a subdomain of shoutem.com for each and adding from a bunch of a la carte features such as file-sharing, photo-sharing, privacy levels, restricting membership by domain and even choosing feature sets modeled around Twitter and Pownce as templates. More adventurous users can tinker directly with CSS and template designs to bring in their own branding.

Premium services starting at around $10/month allow networks to use private domains, increased storage and bandwidth, inline advertising to generate modest revenue. Upcoming features include SMS notification, Facebook/GoogleTalk integration and an Android application.

It’s an impressive application, rolling up many features offered by Twitter add-ons into an integrated, brandable service. There’s certainly a modest demand for private Twitter-y networks. However, like Ning – the ‘roll your own social network’ platform – it remains to be seen whether white-label microblogging platforms are viable against their large consumer counterparts.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• The Near-Term Evolution of Social Commerce
• A 2011 Connected Consumer Forecast
• A 2011 NewNet Forecast

Wouldn’t that sort of knowledge sharing and interaction help foster better communication within an organization as well? Socialcast thinks so and their hosted team messaging service is designed to do just that.

Socialcast has a history of building private social networks for the entertainment industry so this is familiar territory for them.  Their service allows companies to aggregate information and encourage communication and collaboration within their organization, much like we do externally with tools like Twitter or FriendFeed.

Each user is able to create a profile and share information, status updates, documents, links and more with their co-workers. The user profiles are completely customizable and can include custom questions as well as the ability for users to include links to other accounts like last.fm, Digg, LinkedIn or even their personal blogs. All of this can be controlled or limited in the administration panel to meet the needs of your particular deployment.

The ubiquitous status update is familiar to anyone already using Twitter or Facebook and it can even be set up so that a Twitter status is used within Socialcast.

The user profile seems like they would be a great way for people to get to know their colleagues and co-workers in a more personal way, and to reduce the anonymity that is frequent in large companies or those with disparate locations. In my corporate experience, the only way we could really see who worked where was to look through our GAL (Global Address List). This connecting of employees to the entire company even in remote or disconnected locations encourages a more collaborative team atmosphere.

Socialcast offers plugins for Gmail (Firefox only), Lotus Notes, Outlook, and a recently introduced iPhone app to make it easier for folks to participate using the tools that they are already comfortable with. Reducing the barrier to entry is key for maximum participation and since people can jump in without major changes to their existing workflow they are more likely to make a contribution.

Socialcast makes it easy for people to share ideas, ask questions, or solicit feedback.

In one customer study, they found that 93% of questions asked were answered successfully by folks in another location. This type of sharing of best practices creates a self updating knowledge base with useful information being more readily available.  Successful knowledge sharing like this is tremendous and really shows what a resource like this can contribute to a group.

The Socialcast folks say that they can meet Government regulations related to archiving and other compliance rules.

A concern I had with the deployment of a tool or service like this is that it could be used to quickly spread negative information or attitudes as well. I think with careful planning, and clear establishment of rules and usage guidelines issues could be avoided though.

While it can be used by teams of all sizes, the feature set seems to be designed for use in larger organizations. It’s possible to set up a structure within Socialcast that mirrors your internal structure and assign users to their appropriate groups. That said, I think it can also provide a lot of value for small groups as well.

The system is tremendously easy to use and I think once folks get past the “oh great, another system I need to use” feeling, it could be a tremendous asset in any size organization.  Again, the availability of tools like the Gmail plugin should help a lot in getting user traction.

Socialcast is free for the first five users and $1-5 monthly for each user after  based on your company size. Sign up is easy for self serve (up to 250 users) and Enterprise Solutions are also available.

Do you encourage messaging in your organization? What tools do you use?

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• The Near-Term Evolution of Social Commerce

Mozilla Foundation

Mozilla’s Thunderbird, currently in version 2, has been an arguably successful project.  It is a cross-platform mail client that has picked up of a lot of steam just in the latest version.  Thunderbird is available in many languages and has offered non-enterprise email users advanced innovation in mail clients, after Microsoft left this audience hanging with its paltry Outlook Express.  Thunderbird 2 offered users advanced folder views, message tagging, saved searches, and easy access to Web mail services including .Mac and Gmail.

However in Ascher’s blog post he admits what many web workers and Internet enthusiasts know deep in their hearts: email is broken.  There hasn’t been any disruptive shifts in the space in over a decade.  Once thought as a revolutionary communication tool, it is apparent that over email, one cannot communicate expressively.  Email, by itself, is a fragmented transmission service.

Mozilla Foundation, by spinning off Messaging into its own entity, hopes to carry on the success that the Firefox browser has enjoyed with the upcoming Thunderbird 3 release.  New features Ascher has mentioned for Thunderbird 3 include: an integrated calendaring application, better search facilities, easier configuration, and undisclosed user interface improvements.

Additionally, Ascher has mentioned the group may investigate the Extensible Message and Presence Protocol (XMPP) that is currently used by the Jabber IM service and Google Talk.  Acher is quoted in saying, “That kind of techonlogy might make its way into Thunderbird someday.”  What would result?  Potentially, a powerhouse Thunderbird messaging application that would incorporate email, instant message, and calendaring.

These developments are exciting because of one thing Mozilla does exceptionally well: listening to the community of users and developers of their products and quickly rolling this feedback into new features and capabilities in their exceptional software.  It will be very exciting to see the results of these new developments.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Infrastructure Overview, Q2 2010