ConvoTrack is based on the BackType API, an open API for developing applications based on HTTP GET and POST requests. If that sounds awfully techie, ConvoTrack is anything but. Here’s how it works:

1. Go to WebWorkerDaily’s home page: http://webworkerdaily.com/

2. Before the http:// prefix in the address, type in http://convotrack.com/

3. Hit Enter

If you follow those steps, this is the URL that should be in your browser’s address bar when you go to hit Enter: http://convotrack.com/http://webworkerdaily.com/. Soon after you hit Enter, ConvoTrack will automatically present you with a dual-paned view. On the left, you’ll see a running list of posts to social sites ranging from Twitter, to Digg, to FriendFeed, and more. In this example, the posts are chatter that involves WebWorkerDaily. (Give the application a bit of time after you hit Enter for your lookup.)

You can follow the same steps for the URL of any particular post or article online, by simply typing the http://convotrack.com/ prefix in before the URL of the story you’re interested in tracking chatter for. For WebWorkerDaily, a quick glance at the ConvoTrack list tells me that the story on Pogoplug is getting attention on Twitter, as is the story on finding the right people to follow on Twitter. There’s also a bookmarklet available to quickly get at the ConvoTrack list of any page.

Social media sites are now often the places people go to discuss content online, and ConvoTrack is a useful way to get a snapshot of the discussions very quickly. It’s also a polite application that gives you a Close button right on top of the lists it generates. I’m now using it every day.

What do you think of ConvoTrack?

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After signing up (easy, with an email confirmation), you end up at the Tasks tab, ready to create new tasks. This is a matter of clicking “New Task” and then just typing; the user interface is very responsive. You can assign tasks a priority and due date, and track elapsed time: there’s even a timer built into the application so you can use it for time-tracking. You can also assign any number of time-stamped notes to a task.

Voo2do also has a number of smart features built on top of the basic task-tracking. You can arrange tasks into projects, and assign a context to each project. With the various lists being filterable by context, this makes Voo2do suitable for GTD-style tracking. There are also collaborative features: you can add collaborators for private sharing, or share your task list on a public or password-protected web page, so the solution also scales to small teams. It’s also easy to add new tasks via a dedicated email address. You’ll also find a simple HTTP API that lets you create new tasks or retrieve existing information from other applications, making it useful in mashups.

All in all, Voo2do covers the basics of task and project management in a responsive user interface without a lot of extra fluff. Task management tends to be a very personal thing – people are passionate about the features they like and dislike – but if I were going to use a web-based solution this one would be high on the list.

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“We’re putting a billion dollars behind the M in LAMP,” said Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz as he announced the deal to the public at his blog this morning. Schwartz cited a main reason for the deal as the opportunity for a Fortune 500 vendor – Sun – to offer the kind of mission critical global support that up to now has given commercial vendors such as Oracle and Microsoft the edge.

“So what are we announcing today? That in addition to acquiring MySQL, Sun will be unveiling new global support offerings into the MySQL marketplace. We’ll be investing in both the community, and the marketplace – to accelerate the industry’s phase change away from proprietary technology to the new world of open web platforms.

The good news is Sun is already committed to the business model at the heart of MySQL’s success – first investing to grow communities of users and developers, and only then creating commercial services that attract (rather than lock in) paying customers.”

Open Source luminary Tim O’Reilly were quick to praise the deal:

“The acquisition is also a great fit because Sun has staked its future on open source, releasing its formerly proprietary crown jewels, including Solaris, Java, and the Ultra-Sparc processor design.

“And even leaving out other open source projects at the company such as openoffice.org and netbeans, Sun has long been the single largest corporate contributor to the open source ecosystem.”

While some web workers hope the deal will lead to MySQL getting baked into Open Office to replace the existing but unloved BASE database, others are hoping once Sun takes possession in March of the database company it will move to simplify and clarify MySQL’s sometimes confusing mix of Open Source and proprietary licenses.

Sun’s acquisition caps a list of successful Open Source companies being bought in the last two years including Red Hat buying JBoss for $400 million in 2006, Citrix purchasing virtualization company XenSource for $500 million and Yahoo! purchasing Zimbra for $350 million in 2007.

Update: Chris Shipley, who runs the upcoming DEMO conference, noted another effect of the MySQL sale on her blog worth adding:

There’s a second and more subtle — but extremely important — impact of the MySQL acquisition and that is the impact the announcement may have on European technology startup communities. Throughout Europe, technology entrepreneurship remains an oddity, and success stories are relatively rare. We’ve worked within the European technology community for nearly a decade and can still count on our available digits the number of grand-slam exits for tech startups there, and the social and cultural risk of entrepreneurship remains high.

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