The following Article has a great list of Social Media tools used as influencers by organisations at the cutting edge of the Social technology phenomenon .

http://www.briansolis.com/2009/06/unveiling-the-new-influencers/

Any student of Social technologies, media and networks would do well to give the article a thorough read. For that matter, the PR2.0 blog by Brian Solis is very informative in general.

Included are the following:

Searching the Social Web

• Collecta

Microblogs

• PeopleBrowsr
• FriendFeed
• OneRiot
• Google Query (Coming soon)
• Twitter Search
• Twitority
• Tweefind
• Twazzup
• Twingly

Blogsearch

• Technorati
• Blogsearch.google.com
• Blogged.com
• Twingly
• BackType

Forums/Usergroups

• BoardReader
• BoardTracker
• Google Groups
• Yahoo Groups
• Ning
• Meetup

Listening & Conversation Management Systems

• BuzzGain
• HowSociable
• WhosTalking
• FiltrBox
• Radian6
• Buzzmetrics
• Trackur
• Visible Technologies
• Sentiment Metrics
• TNS Cymfony
• BrandsEye
• Cision Social Media
• Techrigy
• Trendrr
• SocialMention

All worth looking at and the article is well written and very enlightening.

Regards,

Glenn Irvine
glenn.irvine@collaborativeview.com

I am sitting in the presentation by Dr Lars Rasmussen from Google about the story of Google Maps and what he calls a “stealthy” project called Google Wave.

Presentations of Maps used in Hurricane Katrina, the Victorian Fires, the number of users of Google Maps Worldwide and the Volunteer map builders used in places like Zimbabwe.

Lars just mentioned that Streetview was a Stanford Project. (Which happened to be where Larry & Sergey went to University)

I just asked Lars about the issue that some people have commented about, with live presentation of text as it is typed… His response was that you adjust to the nature of this and that some people will respond before you have even corrected your spelling.

Wrapping up with what Wave is all about. I see Sharepoint squarely in the sights.

Regards,

Glenn Irvine
glenn.irvine@collaborativeview.com

Nathan Freeman’s “Bones” application built on some very intelligent platforms (Lotus Foundations, Sonic Touch Screens, Biometric security, and a very intuitive Eclipse interface) is well worth looking at.

Nathan demonstrates the application here:

Very interesting demonstration of mashups and considerations for the clinical environment (Security, Sterility etc)

I’d have to say it is one of the most impressive implementations of collaboration technologies in an appropriate context in quite a while.

Not surprising that it is going viral in the Lotus community…

Regards,

Glenn Irvine
glenn.irvine@collaborativeview.com

Two announcements today from Google and Microsoft. Google have provided a glimpse of the new Collaboration Platform that they intend to release as Open Source, named Google Wave.

The Platform promises a mesh of eMail, Social Networking, Real-Time Collaboration, all the internationalisation characteristics of Google, Wikis and an Application Extensions framework.

A great article on the capabilities of Google Wave is available on Mashable.com.

I’ll be keen to see the platform. Google has a great history in innovation and this project was originated here in Australia, by the creators of Google Maps.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has announced that instead of Kumo, they will be naming their search engine “Bing”.

After getting over my initial thought that they were naming it after Chandler from “Friends”, I thought it might be worth having a look.

With the branding of Microsoft’s Search capability bouncing from Kumo to Live Search to Bing, there is a little confusion in the market, and I would have to say I wasn’t that impressed with their initial offering when Kumo was released. But we will see…

Regards,

Glenn Irvine
glenn.irvine@collaborativeview.com

Ray Ozzie was reported in the IDG News Service late last week, in one of his rare outings with the Media on his views of Cloud Computing and the appetite for it by the Enterprise Sector.

In essence he believes that the first wave of adoption by Corporates will be the transition of Email and Collaboration technologies to this mode of operation, and this makes perfect sence.

The competition is clearly eyeing both of these solution spaces with offerings from IBM’s Lotus with Lotus Live – Email, and Lotus Live – Engage; as well as Google with GMail and Google Apps.

Talk to any one of these vendors and they will have their complete “Cloud Ready” spiel at hand, and all of their offerings have their marketing engines winding up well beyond the “Beta” messaging often being used.

Have a look at the article with Ozzie’s comments on ComputerWorld here.

Regards,

Glenn Irvine
glenn.irvine@collaborativeview.com

IBM has commissioned Access Economics to produce a report on the economic value of investing in Smart Technologies and Innovation Initiatives.

Reported today in ZDNet, the research backs the Federal Government’s investment in the National Broadband Network (NBN) and the $100 Million earmarked for the Smart Grid.

“The report maintained that going smart in those areas could cause a 1.5 per cent increase in GDP over 10 years as well as create 70,000 extra jobs to the economy in 2014 alone.

The report looked at scenarios where $3.2 billion was spent on smart grid technology, $200 million spent on water irrigation technology in the Murray-Darling Basin, $6.3 billion on integrated electronic health records, an undefined investment in transport technology, and $12.6 billion on a fibre-to-the-node network.”

It is interesting to see that this research by Access Economics backs the numbers submitted by the Industry during Queensland’s recent State Election.

Time for the Pollies across the board to take our industry seriously. Some Policy Advisors could do well by researching this in depth and advising accordingly.

Regards,

Glenn Irvine
glenn.irvine@collaborativeview.com 

It was pleasing to see that what had been pitched as a “Horror” Federal Budget this week has actually been quite kind to the ICT Industry in a number of ways.

While many may argue that the budget was not hard enough, and is a deferral of pain, at least the Innovation Agenda has faired well.

Probably the most interesting aspect of the budget is the fact that there are Capital, Expense, and Revenue initiative headings in the Budget Papers for “Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy“, for “Innovation, Industry, Science and Research” as well as a Sub-Heading under “Education, Employment and Workplace Relations” for “An Innovation and Higher Education System for the 21st Century”.

Strong focus on Innovation and the Digital Economy.

This is pleasing to see, not only from the ICT Industry perspective, but it demonstrates that the Rudd Federal Government is matching rhetoric with budget allocations.

I have listed some of the interesting Budget Items under these headings that I believe may be of interest to the broad ICT Community.

The increase and extension of the Tax Break for ICT Appliances and hardware will be a welcome Budget item for many businesses.

Regards,

Glenn Irvine
glenn.irvine@collaborativeview.com

Good to see significant consideration in the US Federal Government’s Economic Stimulus Package for ICT Economic Enabling Initiatives.

Here are some of the budgeted Items.

• $30 billion for a “smart” U.S. power grid, advanced battery technology and energy efficiency in government buildings and schools.
• $20 billion over the next 10 years in tax incentives for renewable energy and energy efficiency.
• $15 billion for investments in basic research and development to train students for an “innovation” economy, and in deploying new technologies into the marketplace.
• $7 billion for broadband, including build-out in rural areas
• $19 billion to accelerate adoption of health IT, including electronic health records for the public
• $8 billion for high-speed rail projects.

I also like the use of the term “Innovation Economy”… Definitely a term I’d like to hear used more in Australia.

Regards,

Glenn Irvine
glenn.irvine@collaborativeview.com

The following 5 point Agenda from Vivek Kundra in his first 100 days in Office as the US Federal CIO is an interesting insight into his thinking (and that of Barack Obama), and I feel, something our National and State Governments could have a good look at.

Here is his 5 point plan:

1. Open and transparent government. Kundra said the level of transparency in the Obama administration will be “unprecedented” so that Americans “know where the money is going.”
2. Lowering the cost of government. “We spend $71 billion on IT annually. Unfortunately some of those investments have not paid dividends,” said Kundra, who used to track the District of Columbia’s IT programs as if they were a portfolio of stock investments. “Historically government has not done a good job of defining its requirements during the bidding process,” he added. Likewise, the private sector has sometimes overpromised the potential for emerging technologies. Kundra wants to see both the public and private sector do a better job when it comes to evaluating technologies before making an investment.
3. Cyber-security. Kundra simply labeled this issue “crucial.” He called for government to be better prepared to respond and highlighted work at the state level, particularly New York’s Information Sharing and Analysis Center as a possible model for cyber-security collaboration.
4. Participatory democracy. To ensure Americans have a voice in government, Kundra is working with his colleague, Dr. Beth Noveck, who is deputy director for open government in the Office of Science and Technology Policy within the executive office of the president. Together they’re creating a platform that engages citizens in a meaningful way. Noveck, who spoke earlier in the day to NASCIO, said many of the existing methods of engaging participation don’t generate useful results. Her office is involved in creating new methods that will fix the problem.
5. Innovation. The CIO hopes that he can urge the federal government to step outside of its typical way of thinking when it comes to IT and find new, innovative and less-costly ways to leverage technology. If that happens, government would become less complex to the ordinary citizen, he said. “In these tough economic times, the public sector needs to think about the promise of technology, How do you leverage innovation and how [do you] bake that into the culture, so you can encourage innovation and boldness?”

The transparency requirement has been highlighted due to the size of the US’s Stimulus Package. ($787 Billion)

I will highlight the IT Initiatives in their Stimulus Package in a separate post… Good to see Technology was significantly considered in their approach to Economic Stimulus.

Regards,

Glenn Irvine
glenn.irvine@collaborativeview.com

I’ve been monitoring the media and it’s response to the announcement earlier this month by Australia’s Prime Minister, that the Australian Government was going to lead a National effort worth $43 Billion to provide a FTTP (Fibre to the Premises) network to provide 100 Mbit broadband to 90% of the country.

Since then, on talk-back radio and in the general mass-media, there has been a deluge of, mostly negative, commentary on why our nation would invest $43B in this infrastructure to provide… and the regular quote is, “the ability for people to have very fast downloads of movies or music”.

It appears the common perception is that the NBN is just ‘Foxtel on Steroids’, and it is therefore not surprising, that most of the populace does not understand the huge importance of the investment in this infrastructure for the future benefit of our Nation.

I believe the NBN is a critical infrastructure initiative for our Nation and there are a number of things that should be considered:

1. It is perhaps a mistake to use the term FTTH (Fibre to the Home) rather than FTTP (Fibre to the Premises). This suggests that the service is only domestic and has no coverage of commercial, government or community premises.
2. The World around us, particularly our near neighbours in Asia, are enabling their commerce, government and business sectors with high-speed broadband already. For Australia to maintain competitive cost structures, processes and practices we need to meet or exceed these capabilities.
3. Our community, health and emergency services can be greatly enhanced by broadband information services. Hospitals currently operate like a battlefield surgery, treating the patients in front of them as they present, due to their inability to quickly acquire critical patient information (like X-Ray imagery and CAT Scans) from other hospitals or clinics.
4. Our government services can operate far more efficiently with broadband enabled eGovernment automation initiatives freeing up much needed resources and funds for necessary frontline services.
5. Environmentally concerned citizens should consider that every work process that is automated via efficient electronic means between any offices of an organisation means less carbon emissions in having to transport documents between sites.
6. This infrastructure not only promotes new jobs in knowledge based industries, but it also attracts these industries to invest or headquarter their organisations in Australia. The opposite would be true if we lagged behind Asian countries with this capability. Look at Singapore and Hong Kong, and their attraction of Information Industry APAC company headquarters.
7. Every single industry benefits from more efficient services and processes. ICT services delivered by fast broadband provides a competitive edge to Australian companies over lesser developed country competitors. Or the opposite will be true, and we will lose that competitive edge… Look at the car industry for lessons to learn here.
8. The capacity for home-based business and telecommuting is enhanced to viable levels with people able to not only work from home, but conduct online video meetings from home, opening up all manner of cost and travel/commute saving options for many workers in the community, and affordable office accommodation options for businesses everywhere.
9. Finally, while not all rural sites will be covered, a vast majority of country towns will… and this unlocks great potential in those towns to be able to more easily deliver services and knowledge based products to the Globe in a way never before achievable. This enables our regional businesses to be Global exporters.

While I don’t necessarily agree with everything the Prime Minister or his Government delivers or proposes for Australia’s benefit, Mr Rudd is 100% correct in outlining that this is one of the greatest Nation Building exercises ever undertaken in Australia, and for all these good reasons.

While the devil is in the details and the urgency of acting on this great initiative is at peril of the foibles of being managed by a Government Bureaucracy, this initiative is indeed a critical step for Australia’s future.

The danger for our country is to do nothing and allow a commercial monopoly to continue. This would definitely leave us at a significant disadvantage against international competitors in all industries, and have the ultimate impact of reducing Australia’s quality of life comparitively with all the issues that would also create.

Regards,

Glenn Irvine
glenn.irvine@collaborativeview.com