buzznovation

Outlook as a platform...

I am writing an article on the concept of Outlook as a platform. I am presently using a number of apps that install inside Outlook including:

a. Clear Context

b. Cloudmark

c. Lookout

I have turned off the Getting Things Done add-in as I think that it was causing Outlook to be unstable, but nothing other than annectdotal examples. I would be curious as what other ideas people are using inside Outlook.

My gut tells me that Microsoft never intended Outlook to be a near industrial strength personal CRM system.

But I would like to look at good ideas and good stuff to expand my thinking. I know that I need to scrape my hard drive and reinstall everything. One of the issues that companies like ActiveWords encounters is that we need to try stuff to see how ActiveWords works with us.

This idea that says … “Does your product play well with others?” is something that we, and I am sure others consider all the time.

 

Shuffling...off to Buffalo...

When I first saw the Apple Shuffle, I thought to myself, who would bother. Why would you bother with say 512 Megs, when you could buy a real iPod for a couple hundred bucks more. I also thought to myself that without a screen to read the Shuffle was doomed. A while later I realized that I couldn’t read the screens on the little flash drive MP3 players that I had seen, so a screen wasn’t a big deal.

I then realized that when I was traveling, that smaller and lighter was a much better idea.

Trying to buy one was another matter. I was in Seattle when I got the urge, and to quote my friend Doc Searls, “invention” became “the mother of necessity”. I made three trips to one Apple store, and three trips to another. No luck, finally I got smart, and went in, found a nice young woman and begged my way onto the Shuffle will call list. Two days later I got the call, tried to pay using my Visa card. No luck, I was given 50 minutes to show up as they had a long list of people standing in the call list line.

I hustled over and bought a couple. Gave one to my friend’s wife who had put up with me for ten days.  She was thrilled. We loaded them up with songs and I haven’t looked back. I have flown on three different flights since. Music has been sensational, no issue about power, and the Shuffle fits in the same case that came with my Etymotic ER-6is.

I heard from someone that Apple has sold 2 million of them since their release. I am surprised frankly they haven’t sold more. Probably because they can’t supply the demand. Dynamite little device. Right now I am sitting in an airport listening to Norah Jones, oblivious to the noise around me, and sipping WiFi from the Crown Room.

Too bad there isn’t a cocktail waitress nearby…and the case for my ER-6is holds both the earbuds and the Shuffle. It doesn’t get much better.

Demo @ 15 Tuesday later..

Another great line… “Those of you still awake can see how powerful this application is”…..

Smartonline…OneBiz….

The ASP model is interesting. I am not the best candidate for the products, but I see their power.

There is smart guy showing “OneBiz” I can see how ActiveWords makes this a better product. is a platform, not the applications.

$2,700,000,000,000 spent on IT annually. Nice number..

Next up Mike Ramsay from Tivo… Disclaimer..I have a Tivo, I like it a lot, but I think the day that Tivo fell out with Comcast, was the day the curtain began to come down on Tivo.  350 employees, 1/2 engineers.

Demo @ 15 Tuesday afternoon

I missed the first presentation. Too busy talking with Peter Lewis of Fortune. Peter’s a great friend and great guy. I read his stuff all the time. Highly recommended! I spend so much time on line that there are very few magazines that I read today. But Fortune is one that read cover to cover.

Traverse Networks… nTouch

This afternoons best line, “Hi, I am Bob, Vice President of Marketing and Humility”….

Adomo…voicemail for an E-Mail world.

BorderWare …. “voice mail bomb” is this a real problem? I have no clue.

Highwire…from Grok Software…cuts GUI development in half.

Excelcius…Infomersion…

There have been a bunch of enterprise products. I don’t understand this segment of the market, so am going to stop blogging until something pops up that I understand.

 

Demo @ 15 Tuesday Morning....

Great night last night, wonderful conversation with a hundred different people. But the sun came up, and we are back listening to the next round of Demo
presentations.

After the end of the day yesterday I was part of a four way conversation with Marc Orchant, Robert Scoble and Jason Calcannis. I haven't seen the links for the conversation, but it was videotaped and a lot of fun.

Affini..seems to be an idea that allows vendors to get by your spam filter. What you give up by being exposed to the hordes is some kind of Affini "currency".

While I'm trying to get rid of this stuff, they want to give me monopoly money of some sort.
E-Mail advertising with search engine precision. Everyone wins expect the spammers?

Online & Groupware...Tapp

Seems to be an attempt to create a webservices app that will allow you to aggregate info from various apps so that you don't have to drag a computer around with you. "All required services are coming to me regardless the device that I am using" The Internet is now all my personal network.

Shootout...

Go to Demoletter blog and vote on which you like better, Pluck or OnFolio.
First up is Pluck, a personal web information center. Showing a series of folders. Has buttons inside, uses drag and drop. I have been testing OnFolio, and right out of the box, I realize that I like OnFolio's UI better. Now they are showing a purch on eBay, which seems to be a persistent search. Now they are showing kind of a nifty way to create RSS enabled folders. "Consume, control and create information on line"...punch line. Nice quote, three easy payments of "free, free and free".

Next up, Sebastien Gard...great guy, great company, i.e. OnFolio. Excellent product. New feature...group OnFolio collection that is shared for your team. Sebastien is doing an excellent job. Another new feature, dragging from blog into Word. I am obviously prejudiced, I like these guys, and I like the software a lot. Excellent product!

Bubbler...digital water cooler? Five Across. Fastest blogging engine in the world. The just took a great picture, look who is in the middle. Rats...they took a picture and I am right in the middle of it.

Next up...Convoq...very clever and very powerful one on one video conversation. Lots of feedback which is detracting from the Demo.

Jambo Networks...great young guys, working with my friend Shel. New way to network with people. Allows affinity groups/social spaces to connect. Looking for on line social networks. They did a great job. I will be real curious as to how they do.

Imenetwork...another social software tool...not sure that why I would use this....

WhatCounts...
Blogunit...corporate blogging. They have set up an approval path, but as my friend Amy just noted once the approval process kicks in, it is no longer a blog! Nice way of bringing in data from disparate content sources.

15 years of Demo...Dan Bricklin...
"Innovation...the act of applying and creating something new..." Looks for trends and ideas. Dan is very interested in podcasting. Very bright guy. I was talking to him last night. Very cordial and friendly. Very complimentary of Microsoft. Things he likes ....handling lots of storage.

Browster...everything is query and result links. This stuff is very clever. Very quick, gives you an instant view. Excellent presentation. Gives excellent perspective. Speed up and cut search results by 50%.

Homestead Technologies....are doing their demo to the tune of Don MacLean's American Pie. Lot of fun! QuickSites...fun stuff, very creative. These guys are great, really rocking. "Bye bye to these ugly websites..."

Demandware, inc. ecomerce stuff....I need some caffine...

There was some stuff that just ran by, but I was busy talking in the hallway to Hobie Swan of MindManagerMindManager His product absolutely rocks. Wonderful software. It has changed my life in how I think and use my computer to market ActiveWords and prepare for pitches.

Impact Engines....

Jigsaw... put your friends names and contact info in and loose a friend forever.

A couple more boring demos, but back and focused, I hope!

Digital Railroad, Inc. Rick Smollan, one of the advisors. According to Scoble, Rick is a photo god! Designed to get 99% of the talented photographers in front of the photo buyers. Reach buyers on a global scale.

PhotoleapPhotoleap...photo sharing. Allows you to share hundreds of photos, everyone already knows how to use it. Works like E-Mail.

Avvenu...enables you to get your compelling content using your cell phone. Nice file sharing app, and can easily download from computer at home to cell phone.

Lunch time...headed to Demo room, where you get easy access to the teams.

One more annoucement! Richard Mandeberg of Mirra! Richard Mandeberg of Mirra! World class device! I love mine, wouldn't live without it.

Demo @ 15 right after lunch..

Monday afternoon...great lunch and great lunchtime conversations, some politics, Camilla Parker Bowles, life in the UK, and a lot of technology.

First up....Imprivata...single sign on, enterprise security. Don't have to remember complicated passwords, and you can see who is violating your security policy.

Bulletin....just saw that "Jambo" is in Forbes"Jambo" is in Forbes. Great young guys, interesting technology. Nice that they got a great write up. Jim and Charles are on stage tomorrow. Also a great write up on my friend Shel Israel.

Metavize...We are looking at a virtual 19" server rack. Nice looking product,

More enterprise stuff. Since I don't live in this space, not a lot of it resonates with me.

Cloudmark....great product, great team. Not sure how I would use this product, but I do like their product, i.e. "SafetyBar"

ZZZZZZZZZ...man am I sleepy...Scoble Scoble just nudged me to keep me awake!

Monsters in your mailbox...missed that one!

Kai KrauseKai Krause....bought a castle along the Rhine. Great interview, lots of fun. He's taken his cash, and has reinvented a great life.

Games..

Xfire

Simplified online gaming....I haven't played an online game, hence I am clueless about whether this is a good product.

Novint

Very realistic sense of touch. Novint Falcon. very clever technology related to touch in gaming.

AutoXray...cute young woman, interesting product. Scans your trouble codes and tells you what the problem is!

Companies from Down Under...
QRSciences...sense plastic explosive. Maybe now I can keep my shoes on....

In The ChairIn The Chair...flight simulator for musicans. Fun stuff, I wasn't much of a musician, but this might have gotten me more interested. I think I was more interested in the girls in the band.

Live @ Demo 15

Just posted some stuff...grabbed a glass of water.

Mediabolic...multi-fuctional ideas in video.

Teleo...Skype alike idea....

Chris is interviewing Stuart Alsop.

"Don't trust Outlook, whatever you do!

Stuart Alsop...

Jotspot, inc. ...situated app, what's that! Hosted Wiki, interesting tool that allows you to include or import lots of stuff from all kinds of other tools.

Looks like an excellent tool. I keep looking for things like this so that when I build virtual teams, we don't have to manage info in E-Mail.

As the morning goes on, the demos seem to have worn down too. Now they are doing the one-minute demos, which don't give you much time to work with. Saw a couple of interesting things.

Lunch on the horizon, and the horizon is coming my way!

Live at Demo @ 15 ....

I have been blogless for about 10 days. Lots of meetings, lots of travel and lots to talk about about! This beautiful Valentine’s day I am in Scottsdale, AZ at Demo @15. Demo is about to kick off. The room is full, lights are down, music rocking and WiFi broken. I am sitting with the usual suspects all of whom wonderful friends. To my left is Amy Wohl, to my right Robert Scoble, Andy Ruff, Shel Israel and Cameron Reilly.

Now it’s show time, and Chris Shipley is ready to rock and roll.

This year’s Demo is a celebration of 15 years od Demo, and 15 different folks are being honored.

Demo is the best produced event that I attend. Great production values, great venue and great energy.

There are probably a dozen smarter people that I who will be blogging this event. My goal is to write about the stuff that I see that grabs or doesn’t grab me. There are going to be 73 companies presenting over the next two days in one way or another. Some get a minute, and some get six minutes.  Six minutes isn’t very long. When I was on stage in 2003, it almost seemed like I had a chance to take about 2 breaths.

Chris just commented that she interviewed 450 companies, to get 160 finalists to get 73 here.

Chris always gives her keynote and intro, and she always does an excellent job. I asked her about a year ago to post her speech, and I am sure she will. When she does it is always worth reading.

Nice metaphor a moment ago about “sustained” growth. Wa

First up….

iControl Nextworks

First mass market home monitoring and control solution. Three parts, motion and other sensors. icontrol box, and then a “personal” portal that you can review from anywhere. Lots of little parts that you have to install. Whenever I see this kind of stuff, I wonder as I will for everything that I see if:

a. If I would buy?

b. If I would buy it for someone?

c. Who would buy it?

Now they are showing the commercial aspects. Lots of monitoring examples. Takes a minute to install.

Nice implementation, I will be curious to see what it costs and how they plan to distribute it.

VKB…bluetooth virtual keyboard. They just turned on a sensor, and a virtual keyboard shows up on the desktop. I can imagine using this with a slate tablet. but the product just crashed, and they can’t get it to work. There is nothing like a live demo that goes bad. You die when that happens!

To be carried by Radio Shack, but again, why would you carry another box, when you could carry just a real keyboard.

MDA…Ice camera…very cool, very, very cool stuff, three D modeling in real time. Dynamite real time modeling. Showed a quick implementation of underground mining. I need to show this stuff to Dave Gallo at WHOI.

Maru Networks…cellular wireless LAN system…way too much talk, needs to be showing something. 3 minutes in starting to talk about the demo. Now is showing a video with bad sound. Surfing…not sure that I get it. I will go by their booth, because I don’t get what they are doing from this pitch.

Mission Research, Inc. …

Today’s newsflash, “Technology is too hard”…

Motorola…Very clever use of cell phone to function as an iPod!

Good news…WiFi is back, and we are back on line.

Serious Magic, Inc.

Vlog it, very, very clever. $99 this spring. Video blogging…now he is trashing PowperPoint.

Ovation…for powerpoint. Not sure that it makes a bad presentation good, but maybe better.

NTERA…pass…not sure what the point was.

NewTek…need to show to Ivanhoe Broadcast News.

Way too complex for me…makes live webcasting easy to do.

Satori Labs…

Need to look at their stuff, seems to be a great tablet application, and maybe a strategic partner for ActiveWords!

Real Time Enterprises…makes dumb terminal smart. Need to look at their stuff closer, need to show them our Outlook agent.

StreamBase Systems, Inc.

Mediabolics, Inc.

 

Hanging with the Tablet Guys....

For the last three days I have been here in S.F. hanging out with the Tablet Guys at the Microsoft Windows Anywhere conference. A lot of very bright and fun people. And being in San Francisco isn’t all bad. We, i.e. ActiveWords have been working with Tom Clarkson of OrangeGuava. Tom has connected the dots so to speak. We have had a lot of interest in what we are doing.

Most everyone has been dazzled with our little joint effort. It will be interesting to see how things fall out. We have long recognized that the Tablet is an important platform. My handwriting is frankly pretty grim, but with Tom’s help I can do lots of the stuff on the tablet in a pretty cool way.

If you want to be involved in our trial, E-Mail me.

 

 

ActiveWords at the Tablet PC Conference...

As part of the ActiveWords Odyssey I am at the Tablet PC Conference in S.F. Remarkable group of people. Interesting products. Later today we are going to begin showing ActiveWords with OrangeGuava. This idea will allow anyone using a Tablet to write anything anytime anywhere, and get the same kind of predictable result that occurs with ActiveWords running on my ThinkPad.

The principal at OrangeGuava, Tom Clarkson is helping us connect the digital dots so to speak. We think it is a dynamite idea, and we will be working through the beta. If you are interested in this idea, let me know, i.e. leave a comment, and I will get you on the list.