Webify.Us

I’ve setup my accounts on a number of social networking sites. I’m adding friends and slowly building up my networks. But, I have not yet commented here on the likes of MySpace or Facebook for business use.

Tonight, thanks to Robert Scoble’s Link Blog, I found an interesting post on how Cisco is using Facebook. Check out “Cisco System Is Using Facebook To Let Folks Get to Know Their Top Employees Better” - by Garrett Smith.

My last several posts have all been about Twitter. It is certain there will be more in the future. But, let’s move on for now. We have a lot of technology and tools to cover. I was just contemplating what to cover next, when I came across a tweet from master blogger Robert Scoble. In today’s post “Steve Ballmer still doesn’t understand social networking,“ Robert discusses Microsoft’s apparent disregard for social trends, specifically pertaining to social networking in this case.

Read through Robert’s post and the comments that others have left, and you’ll understand why there will not likely be many Microsoft products reviewed on this site (unless they release a product that is open and relevant). My take is that Microsoft tends to dismiss the relevance of anything they can’t make proprietary. So here is why Steve Ballmer doesn’t ‘choose’ to see the relevance of Web 2.0:

1) Web 2.0 is about collaboration.
2) Collaboration is reliant upon interoperability.
3) Proprietary and Interoperable are antonyms

Over the next few years, Microsoft will be trying to force themselves upon the business communications market. Business communications are becoming more collaborative thanks to Web 2.0 technologies. If they take a proprietary approach, their business communications customers will be taking a step backward. Industry standards are a good thing. Standards mean interoperability. I have yet to see any business value in walking backwards.

So, there are some skeptics out there. I have received comments questioning how Twitter could really be used for any legitimate business purpose.

Let’s take another shot at this. If you take look at the Public Timeline, you’ll see plenty of messages with no apparent value at all, and others with some potential social value. The business value doesn’t come from sending messages like “at home”, or “is drinking coffee”.

Now, think about messages that have real value to a group. Here are a couple of examples that I have thought of:

1) A teacher sending out an assignment. Students would just need to “follow” the instructor to receive the tweets. The fact that PARENTS could also follow the instructor could add some value.

2) Any business with a mobile collaborative workforce. Think about the potential value of the following messages being delivered to any number of mobile employees, all at once:

“conference call at 7:30 am”
“who has the crimp-tool?”
“who’s the contact at XYZ Co.?”

Remember this is one-to-many communications. These messages could literally go to thousands of followers with one quick tweet. Any of the followers could reply from their cellular phone, IM, web browser, or desktop widget.

I have also seen Twitter effectively used as a mini blog. Whatever a blogger might want to say, in 140 characters or less, can be entered on the spot, as it comes to mind, right from their cell phone. OK, so the push-back here might be that it’s all text, and ONLY 140 characters. Bloggers like to reference other sites, blogs, or images. Well, that’s fine, just include a link to the supporting material in the tweet.

Let’s show the skeptics the light. If you have an idea for how a business might use Twitter, please submit a “comment”.

The “Leave a comment” link is at the bottom of every entry on Webify.Us. Your comments are always welcome!

It just occurred to me what Twitter reminds me of. I’ve been a voice communications guy for more than 24 years. So, comparing Twitter to an equivalent traditional voice solution… Twitter is a Hoot-n-Holler system. Twitter does use text rather than voice, but is available to anyone, is more scaleable than typical hoot-n-holler, and allows you to receive the message via web interface, instant messaging, and SMS text messaging. How powerful is that?

Business Relevance…
Many organizations are using instant messaging as a communication tool today. It is faster and more conversational than email. With Twitter’s one-to-many capabilities, it adds an additional dimension to this common form of digital communication.

There is no cost for using Twitter. Privacy and direct messaging are standard features. This tool could definitely be used in many business environments.

Well here it is, my first video demonstration. I really like Delicious. Hopefully, this will give you an idea of the power of this tool, and get you thinking about the collaborative opportunities it can open up for you and your team.

I am a little disappointed in the finished quality of the video. The screen capture utility that I used produced crisp text. But, after finalization and upload to the video sharing site, the quality has definitely degraded. If any of you have suggestions for software that will produce a quality screen capture based demo, PLEASE post a comment to this article.

Del.icio.us is the first of the new tools that I have really started to use. This thing is awesome. Imagine being able to get to all of your personal bookmarks…from any machine on the Internet. Imagine being able to share your bookmarks with others.

A Del.icio.us account provides you with a personal URL to get to your bookmarks. That’s cool, but the real power comes from being able to TAG those bookmarks with whatever keywords are relevant. The individual TAGs can then be appended to your URL, like sub-directories, to group related bookmarks.

Business Relevance? Sharing/Collaboration. This is a great way to share a group of related links (bookmarks) with a team. The team could be provided with a URL for all shared links. The end of the URL could be the team name (the TAG). As new websites or documents (any media with a URL) need to be shared with the group, simply TAG them with the name of the team. Everyone on the team is using the same URL. So, everyone is sure to be using the same version of all documents.

This verbiage may not be the easiest to follow. I think this would be a good topic for a video demonstration. …stay tuned for that Planned Project!

Hello All,

Webify.Us is a thrilling endeavor for me. I’ve worked in the communications field for a long while (since 1983), and there has never been a more exciting time to be in this industry.

Some of you may have known me as a Nortel guy. I was the creator of a fairly active Norstar and BCM site in early 2005, BCMguy.com. Here is my profile from that site. It’s kind of funny to read through today. That was so yesterday! Of course, the benefits of converged voice and data on a common network are still valid today. But, a lot of the traditional PBX manufacturers seem to have stopped there. Applications, and the networks that enable them, are capable of so much more today.

I have also been a Moderator for the Nortel Forum on the exceedingly popular telephone system support site, Tech-Talk. Here is my Tech-Talk “Meet the Moderators” Biography.

After more than 24 years in this business, the whole concept of a “phone system” is becoming almost foreign to me. There are so many different means of communication available today; A traditional phone system can’t come close to integrating them all. Fortunately, the technology exists today to go far beyond “traditional” communications. Stick with Webify.Us to witness these new technologies and their integration into business communications platforms.

Thank you,
Marty Beutler

Hello and welcome to Webify.Us!

This site was created to explore the collaboration and productivity tools that WEB 2.0 technologies are making possible. The deeper purpose is to not only explore, trial, and comment on the social networking aspects of these tools, but to uncover and demonstrate true business relevance.

The way we communicate is changing. We’ll be meeting in Virtual Worlds, referencing Wikis, and sharing information through Blogs. Using Mashups, we’ll make more efficient use of our information. And, we’ll collaborate as we never have before, knowing when our friends and co-workers are available and how best to reach them (the first time), no matter where in the world they may be.

At first blush, some of these tools may not seem appropriate for the workplace. However, my intention is to show my readers how these technologies will bring new efficiencies and competitive advantage to many businesses.

I’m not sure where this journey will take us, and there has been no end defined. There is no doubt, some things will work, and some may not. Improvements and new tools will be released at Internet speed. Here, you’ll see first hand what works, what’s fresh, and what is changing the way the world communicates.

This is going to be FUN!