Entries tagged as ‘Google’

Increasing the Likelihood of Fission

February 12, 2010 · Leave a Comment

I’m delighted with a recent invitation to moderate a panel on Social Media Revolution in the Workplace on February 24, 2010 down in Mountain View at Google.  The event runs from 6 to 9 pm PST and is hosted by the IIT Madras Alumni Association of America (abbreviated as IITMAANA, pronounced as eye-eye-tee-maa-na).

Did you know that one of the definitions of ‘moderator‘ is (in physics) a substance, such as water or graphite, that is used in a nuclear reactor to decrease the speed of fast neutrons and increase the likelihood of fission?

IITMAANA’s goal is to gather together friends and alumni of the Indian Institute of Technology Madras and promote charitable, educational events for their community. I’m intrigued to see what the IITM community’s level of understanding is of social computing in the enterprise. I have a feeling that this panel discussion will be geared more towards the workplace shift we’ve been experiencing and the consequential change in moving towards people-centric vs. data-centric tools, the broad advantages of collaborative technologies, and we’ll address questions pertaining to obstacles to adoption. I don’t think this will be a very technical discussion that will discuss with granularity the specific tools from the vendors my panelists represent. However, I could be entirely off the mark. I’ll just need to take an audience pulse up front and let the conversation flow (although I hope there is some controversy – no one likes a panel where everyone nods their heads and agrees with everyone else’s opinion). 

I’ll be joined by:

  • Anshu Sharma – Sr. Director (Force.com Product Management), Salesforce
  • Greg D’Alesandre - Product Manager (Google Wave), Google
  • Oliver Marks - Founding Partner, Sovos Group 
  • Raju Vegesna – Evangelist, Zoho 
  • Christopher Morace – Sr. Vice President of Products, Jive Software
  • Ross Mayfield – Co-Founder, Socialtext

Here’s a bit more detail on the event: 

The way we work is changing rapidly, offering an enormous competitive advantage to those who embrace the new tools that enable agile and simplified information exchange and collaboration to distributed workforces and networks of partners and customers.

Collaborative technologies liberate the workforce from the constraints of legacy communication and productivity tools like email. It provides business managers with access to the right information at the right time through a web of inter-connected applications, services and devices. Collaboration allows the collective intelligence of many to bubble up to the surface, translating to a competitive advantage in the form of increased innovation and productivity.

In this panel we chat with industry experts and vendors to explore topics such as:

  • Who is driving the adoption of collaborative tools?
  • What are the biggest barriers to adoption and how does one prove the business value /   ROI around social computing?
  • How does one be a better evangelist with their organization?

If you’re in the Bay Area, come down and hang at Google with me, this stellar lineup of panelists and the eye-eye-tee-maa-na. Looking forward to the discussion.

Categories: Conferences · That Damn Word Again - Community
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Oy Ve. A Kosher Search Engine.

June 19, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Too funny not to share…

koogleKoogle is a ‘kosher’ search engine that enable devout ultra-Orthodox Jews to search the web without stumbling into sexually explicit or inappropriate material. The site caters to rabbis who want to search the web but fear being visually assaulted my immodesty or pornography. Cleverly named, Koogle is a play on kugel (yum)+ Google.

The best part: it doesn’t run on the Sabbath.

Categories: Uncategorized
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Firefox 3! Oh, a Google Toolbar

June 17, 2008 · Leave a Comment

It’s here! Firefox 3 is available for download. In fact, today has been deemed ‘Download Day’ by Mozilla, and they’ve been encouring users to set the record for the most software downloaded in 24 hours. Hopefully I’ll help put them over the edge.

I like what Mozilla stands for. The open web is a noble thing. They are a self-described global community that’s committed to improving the way people experience the internet. It really gives me the warm fuzzies.

But when I see the Google toolbar hovering in the right hand corner of my slick new browser, I feel a bit puzzled. In the spirit of openness, wouldn’t it be more prudent to opt in for the toolbar? I understand that the Mozilla Foundation’s deal with Google has provided a valuable revenue stream, allowed the organization to hire talent it might not otherwise have afforded, but it still irks me.

Firefox includes Google as the default option for users wanting to search the Web directly. Their default start page is also hosted by Google. This is understandable, but the real bummer is that localized builds can’t change the default search engine. There’s been a lot of rumblings about Google’s recent loss of innocence, and the Federal Trade Commission has raised concerns over a search market monopoly. The DoubleClick acquisition raised lots of eyebrows and barely squeaked by the European Union’s approval.

It’s a shame that my glowing review of Firefox 3 has to be tainted by the Google association.

Here’s to being a public benefit organization.

Categories: Social Web · That Damn Word Again - Community
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What’s Your Cloud Position?

May 21, 2008 · 1 Comment

As of late, this is a question that has been popping up quite frequently. And with good reason.

How software vendors tackle their position with regard to the cloud is tricky. How many vendors can stand up and say that the future of the enterprise lies completely in the cloud? No doubt, it’s a big statement. Amazon Web Services are there. Google is also there. But the bulk of software vendors are not touting the same message.

Hardware and chip makers don’t advocate all-cloud computing, as their bread and butter has a lot to lose if companies switch over to subscription, web-based apps. Their strategy relating to the cloud has a different spin and message – depending on the vendor:

If you’re Sun Microsystems, your message is ‘use our stuff to access the cloud.’

If you’re IBM, your message is ‘be sure to secure your data center in the cloud with our stuff.’

If you’re Dell, your message is ‘use our stuff if you’re a service provider looking to buy thousands of systems.’

One thing is certain; technology providers know they need to get with this program pretty quick. Jonathan Schwartz, the CEO of Sun has made it very clear that Sun is very focused on powering the data centers that power the cloud.

Time will tell how similar vendors will position themselves, but ensuring that they meet the cloud front head on is a must.

PS: ’stuff’ is my blanket term for technical intricacies I don’t understand.

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