Here they are …

issuu.com … quick online magazine development … and its free.

viralheat.com … monitor your brand 24/7 and join into the conversation about what people are saying about you

drop.io … create a space online (a webpage) in a couple of clicks for every listings or a presentation and its free for most purposes

jimdo.com … create a full featured website with lots of social media tools … in a few clicks

feedmingle.com … allows you to take RSS feeds from blogs and websites to create one simple feed

mailchimp.com … a simple to use and powerful online emailing tool

screentoaster.com … a simple application to record what is happening on your screen and then you can share it with others

geochirp.com … allows you to find out who is talking about a certain topic on twitter around where you are located

tumblr.com … allows you to create a blog and to post articles to it through a range of media including online, mobile phone and so on

usertesting.com … allows you to test webpages on line in real time

99designs.com … allows you to post a design project online and to have a group of designers submit proposals and you select the winner

joby.com/gorillamobile … a tripod for your iphone

However the question still remains is twitter a nice social media fad or can it be used as a serious business tool?

The first question is what is twitter? Basically it is an online SMS service where you can send a 140 character “tweet” to those people who have signed up to follow you and they can receive it via the twitter website, cell phone, email, instant messenger or even face book. It is great way in which you can find out what people you know are doing and they can follow what you are up to.

There is a cute little animation that gives a great overview of twitter – click here to see it .

So far so good, and so what I hear you ask. Well as exciting as it is hearing that someone has gotten up, cleaned their teeth and are getting dressed for work, there are more interesting business related applications.

• Let customers know of new changes to products or services

• Poll customers for their thoughts on what can be done better

• Use it to manage stunt marketing or limited time special offers

• Keep track of what people are saying about your products and services

• Publicise events that are coming up

• Get in touch with the Gen Y’s and Millenniums

• Reduce the cost of inter team communication

• Allow customers to query some of your databases (check out how Vayusphere is using this to access Zillow’s Zestimate database)

At Classified Ad Ventures, we use twitter to keep people aware of new articles on our Property Portal Watch, Jobs Portal Watch and Property Ad Guru news and information sites.

At ArtsHub we are experimenting with using twitter to run competitions and to encourage people to renew their subscriptions.
While all of this sounds wonderful in theory, the jury is still out on whether this is a killer application for business, one of the many tools that business will use, or just a fad that goes the way of yoyo’s and slinkies.

The real challenge is building a strong following and keeping them up to date with relevant information that cuts through the hundreds of tweets being received all day, every day.

In my view, it will be part of the social media armoury that consumer marketing people leverage to build a strong customer base. It will help whittle away at traditional media and their revenue streams.

The one question I am yet to see discussed in detail or get a real answer on is how will Twitter make any money from this?

A couple of days ago, after a tough day, I had a small discussion with one of my developers at work. I asked him to show me some document on his PC, and it took an awful long time for him to open it up because he mapped a network share on his private laptop he brought to work, and his laptop somehow stopped responding. My reaction was to say that this was an unacceptable loss of time and that I would think about no longer allowing people to bring their own gear to work.

Whilst I was driving home, I couldn’t get rid of the feeling that this was an emotional decision and that it felt wrong. Now that I took some time to think it over, I am sure that this is not what I will do in the future, but rather the opposite! I will encourage people to bring their own stuff to work, and even more than that…

In short, this concept is called BYOC – Bring Your Own Computer, and this is not something I invented. It is currently actively applied by several big companies, like Citrix, and Microsoft, in a way that I consider as very smart.

Let’s start with looking at the people who work in technology companies, especially developers. They are usually very tech-savvy and probably own better and faster hardware at home then what their employer could afford (whether it would make sense or not is another question). What’s more, the people I daily work with, use to frequently mix work and leasure with their computer gear, be it at home or at the office. It is frequent that my developers do some work related stuff at home, in the evening or during the week-end, and it is also a fact that people use MSN, Skype, FaceBook etc. at work for non-work related activities. This is an observation and a fact, and it has proven impossible to lock the IT workplace down to a level where such personal activities are impossible. Anyway, I consider that this has to be part of a sexy workplace. Some people take a cigarette break (bad for your health, remember), and other people use that time to say hello to lost and found schoolfriends on Facebook (which is better than smoking a cigarette, you’d agree!). In the end, it comes down to trust. You have to trust your people to behave responsibly.

So let’s take all of these ingredients again: tech-savvy people using their computer equipment for work and for leasure, at various locations, and at various times. Now what makes more sense: have many different computers at different places to do all of this, or just have one set of equipment that can be used to do all of it? You got it – solution two sounds like the way to go! Compare it to having two mobile phones, or just one. With two phones, you always have the wrong one with you, you don’t have the right contact details when you need them, and when you really need to place that important call, your batteries are empty. Have just one phone, and all of this is probably much easier to solve. Another example is that of a sales person having to use two cars. She drives to the office with her own car, then switches to the company car to drive to customers, and in the evening uses her own car again to drive home? That just doesn’t work.

Of course, there are fundamental issues with this idea.

• Security
• Cost
• Maintenance
• General IT policy

And probably others. Let’s look at these four more closely.

Security

You might say that this is a nightmare scenario in terms of security. If people bring their own hardware to work, it might be infected with all kinds of bad virii. But that is a non-problem. Or, to tell it differently, that is something that also needs to be taken care of on office hardware. Nowadays, there are so many different ways something bad can get into your company network, that a personal laptop is just one of many way. Think of USB keys, CDRoms, file downloads on the Internet, Skype, Trojans on compromised websites, … so many ways that there is no real way of making your company network a completely shielded environment, at least no without very seriously limiting your people’s productivity. I have friends who work in banks and for some stuff they have to use computers that have no Internet connection, don’t have a CDRom drive, no USB connectors… I call these computers ATARI’s or, worse, PONG arcade machines. In the end, handling the security aspects of a BYOC situation is exactly what you should already be doing today, with some adjustments.

Cost

“But hey, why do I have to pay my own hardware to be able to work at your company?”

Good point. The answer is, you don’t have to. At least not completely. The company could agree on a defined amount of money that the employee can spend to buy his own hardware. For instance, a developer could get 1500 euro every two or three years as his IT budget that he can spend on buying his new laptop. If they want a top-notch machine they can add some quid to that. If they want an ultra-portable, they get one. If they prefer a desktop replacement because that fits their professional and private use better, they can. There are probably some financial issues to be solved with that, but I’m sure my colleagues from finance would find a good solution to that.

Maintenance

Computer maintenance is, in my opinion, another topic that can be handled easily in such a scenario. First of all, employees will probably take better care of their hardware themselves, because it is their hardware, not the companies. In addition, the IT support department can offer the professional support just as before, but in addition, they could also offer some support for personal, non work related issues. This will make sure every employee always has an up-to-date and working tool, and it will be an added bonus for the employees if they know they can also ask the company IT guru for some personal issues, like installing their latest webcam drivers and doing a software update for their personal expense tracker. Look at this like a feature that makes your company more sexy to employees. I wouldn’t go as far as helping the guys out with installing the latest games though, of course. Clearly, a detailed maintenance plan would have to be setup.

General IT policy

How do you go about the need of a uniform software set, for instance? If the company standard asks people to use MS Office 2003, but your employee wants to use Open Office? I think this can be handled in different way.

The first solution would be to let the employee handle this and define usage rules that say, for instance, “You have to be able to create and share office documents in the MS Office 2003 format with your colleagues and with customers”. Tech-savvy developers will know how to handle this, and you have to trust them in doing the right thing. Trust, and then verify, as my former CIO boss Chris Vulovic always says…

The second approach would be to use Virtual Desktops. The IT support department could create ready-to-use virtual desktops using VirtualBox or VMWare, that are pre-configured with all the needed software, VPN connections, etc. This would also be a very good way to enforce security and to be able to quickly roll-out or re-deploy work desktops. The hardware would have to be fast enough to handle this, but at the very cheap prices you can get CPU power and memory these days, that is not an issue anymore. You can get dual-core laptops with 3 gigs of RAM for less than 1000 euros now.

All put together, I have the feeling that this concept can really work out very well. My article doesn’t definitely go enough into detail in weighing out the pro’s and con’s, but I’m sure that with the help and input of my colleagues and managers, the idea could lead to a more productive and closer to real life work environment than what we have so far.

The theory is simple.  The business the we are setting up is global in focus and therefore we will need to be contacting people around the world on a regular basis.  Everyone has a PC so this is not a problem and all we do is give each of them a head set and away we go.  We are using Skype Business software that works like a dream.  We now have 20 people working off it and there are no problems.

Often people complain that skype has latency or that calls are broken up etc … however we dont seem to have that problem and our phone bill has been slashed.  In addition, we are able to set people up anywhere in the word and they are part of the same “telephone network”. 

Now if i was to do this with a traditional telephone system i would have to pay for the head sets, routers and so on as well as the telephone lines into the building.  This new approach has slashed all those costs to basically ZERO!!

The next challenge is building the business without reliance on microsoft.  If we can do this, then the costs will drop even further.  By reducing all these types of costs, we can invest in our most important asset, people.

Now what are the sort of podcasts is listen to.  Well they tend to be news, views and opinions from the US and the UK and generally relating to business as well as current affairs.  it allows me to stay on top of what is really happening rather than spending time in front of the TV wading through rubbish.  I am particularly interested in the more insightful analysis podcasts such as the Economist provide.

Recently i gave each of the business managers who attended the REA Group Brussels Conference an MP3 player loaded with articles from the Harvard Business Review.  I found them to be thoughtful, insightful and chocked full of useful tips i could implement.

The other podcasts i listen to are:

NPR – Business Story of the Day
Business Week
The Economist
60 Minutes
The New York Times Headlines
The Wall Street Journal

These can all be found on iTunes.  Enjoy!  What are your favourite business / news related podcasts?

However there are some tricks of the trade. 

Firstly make sure that some of the more creative types dont get carried away and start attaching their computers to the phones and using the phone as modem – it will cost alot.

Also when people are travelling, the international data roaming charges on Blackberry’s can be expensive.  Therefore make sure that people know how to turn on / off the data roaming so that they keep the costs down.  It probably makes sense for them to check in a few times per day rather than have the data roaming on all the time.

Another function of the Blackberry that has really helped has been the Blackberry Messenger.  This has allowed team members to send quick messages to each other without using SMS (which is comparatively expensive) and without making phone calls (also more expensive).

The last advantage i found using Blackberry’s is that we used the google maps function to help find places when we travel.

The only downside … its not an iPhone!

Firstly i think outsourcing is a great idea for certain jobs, not all of them.  In particular i think outsourcing in the technology space makes alot of sense.  However, what is required to make outsourcing work?

To me outsourcing is like any other relationship – it has to be built on mutual trust, understanding and respect.  When selecting an outsourcing partner, no matter where they are in the world, they must have these characteristics, as well as the skills, to complete the task at hand.

At the REA Group, we used the team at EarlySail in India to do a chunk of the IT work.  Now this relationship has been built up over a couple of years and was started based on a relationship between my CIO, Chris Vulovic, and a Director of EarlySail – Push Mohta.

We started the relationship by giving them relatively simple work in doing express changes and then slowly ramped it up from there as they became more and more familiar with the REA Group systems and processes.  In addition, we had a team at the REA Group head office that did QA on the work from EarlySail.

The relationship has progressed now to the point where the EarlySail guys are helping with QA and are considered as part of the team.  They have visited Australia and some of the team in Australia have visited them.  Above all, we treat them as any other team member, including inviting them to the annual conferences.

I have so much confidence in the EarlySail team that i am commissioning them to build out the next generation of my latest site www.propertyportalwatch.com.

So any approach to outsourcing takes time and has to be built on trust, understanding and patience.

1. Messenger is an essential part of the organisation’s culture. We encourage all employees to have a messenger account and encourage everyone to share their messenger account details with other employees. At any point in time i can see who is online, ping them a quick question and get quick decisions. We also use the messenger conferencing function to get people around the world to quickly solve a problem.
2. Skype is also critical. It has cut our phone bills enormously and allows us to conference call around the world. I can have a 60 min call with the UK and at no cost. We use Skype to call customers and other contacts in other countries for next to no cost. Who would want to be a telco? www.skype.com
3. Outlook – ok this is not rocket science but email is critical to our future success. What is interesting is the culture around email usage. While some in the business copy too many people, we tend to work on the approach that short and sharp emails are acceptable. We prefer candor and informality rather than long emails. I also work on the theory that if i am copied rather than the direct recipient – i can delete it – and that if it is more than a screen in length – i will not read it – and finally – if it is critical – they will call or messenge me!
4. My VAIO is my life blood. It is as small as possible and has everything i need in it. Critical is wireless lan so that i can hook in everywhere. I love to pinch band width from open wireless nodes and when flying around the world, Boeing Connexions is critical.
5. I have a wireless lan at my 2 homes (so i just open and surf) and also at the office. This means i am always connected and always able to get on line. (DSL is taken as a given!) I also have a wireless lan SD Mini card so i can search from my XDA II Mini.
6. My XDA II Mini is critical. It gives me great email browsing, mobile phone calling globally and some games to pass the time
7. Finally, iPod – why? You have to have some down time plus i subscribe to some cool podcasts. I listen to my favourite shows on the run. I actually have 2 – a nano and a video ipod. The video ipod is loaded with ripped TV shows and series to that i can relax and watch what i want on long haul flights.

Microsoft messenger is now the communication’s tool of choice for the business.  Most employees are registered and everyone is actively encouraged to share their messenger id with others in the business.

I personally have around 70 contacts in my including employees, customers and suppliers.  I find it a great way in which i can quickly connect with the right people no matter where they are in the world.  It also allows us to see who is on line and who is not.  The tool becomes even better when i am traveling as my hand held device (an O2 Pocket PC) has mobile messenger installed – so i can contact who i want, when i want.

Here is a classic case of where free technology is helping us reduce the costs to the business.  If you dont use it, then give it a go.

There are often great ideas that blossom on the internet including such well known names as google, amazon and ebay. However, over the years there have been the real duds – i am sure every one remembers pets.com and the sock puppet.

So it was with interest that i was reading an article in the Wall Street Journal about “The Best of the Worst” of the internet. Do you remember cyberrebate.com, flooz.com, ismell, cuecats, iLoo, Audrey or point cast?

• Cyberrebate worked on the theory that people would be happy to pay up to 10 x the value of a product on the conditiion that they received a 100% rebate. The company worked on the theory that not all people would claim the rebate and they would make money. They closed their doors $83 m in debt

• iSmells was a product created to enhance the web surfing experience by engaging the users’ sense of smell by plugging the device into the USB port. Enough said …

• In May 2003, Microsoft announced the plans for iLoo – an internet enabled toilet! The UK office announced plans for a portable toilet complete with a computer, waterproof keyboard and wireless Internet connection, to be used at summer music festivals in England.

And we all remember pointcast – the technology to automatically deliver news and headlines over the web to the user’s PC … well the company knocked back $450m from News Corp and was eventually sold for $7m.

For more information check out the full Wall Street Journal article and enjoy … http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB114424637699117715-OO16F7Ov3DMZcs1xpbu5ksPDTl0_20070503.html