e-tipi sounds like a weird name for a web-based service, and when you find out it stands for “Espresso Thinking Platform,” things don’t become much clearer. But once you find out what the app’s developers think “Espresso Thinking” is, then you start to get the idea:

“We believe that sharing an espresso in a nice café creates a particular atmosphere that frees minds and promotes promising ideas to expressly appear. This is what we call Espresso Thinking.”

It’s a nice thought, but is that really something that can be captured in a web-based environment? I recently talked about the same kind of collaboration (lack of coffee products notwithstanding) in an article about my beloved sketchbook, so I was eager to find out if I could recreate the experience digitally using e-tipi.

e-tipi incorporates elements of Twitter, Digg, wikis and blogs to create a workspace in which ideas can be born and explored. Each user page is called a tipi, and it contains various ideas submitted by the tipi’s users. All of the ideas center around a central “challenge,” which the main problem or purpose of the tipi. Think of a challenge like a big picture problem that requires a multi-parted and multi-staged solution.

Along with your tipi page, you also get a unique email address that contributors can send their ideas to directly, for quickly adding to the tipi’s repository. You can also follow your tipi on Twitter, the stream for which is automatically updated with information of your choosing. I like both of these tie-ins, because they make e-tipi feel more connected with other networks, making it much more accessible, which is something I like in idea generation tools.

You can also export your data at any time as either XML or HTML, which makes it easy to plug into other tools, including database management software. It’s a nice way to help you organize the raw information you produce using e-tipi’s tools. A messy free-for-all is a good way to generate creative thought, but it may not be the best storage solution for more polished ideas.

Ideas are listed on their own separate page, and you can sort them by activity and date. Each idea listed shows votes for or against, total views, and the number of comments users have posted about each. You also get the idea’s title, its creator, any tags that may have been applied, and the status, if the idea has one. For each idea, an administrator can set the status to tell others how far along the process intis, using labels like “Accepted,” “Started,” etc. You can also filter your ideas list by keyword to narrow your search.

Each idea page looks a little like a Digg article page, complete with the text of the idea in question and comments made by other users underneath. You also get to see potentially related ideas listed at the bottom of the description page.

Other nice features of e-tipi include a tag cloud, and a member display, in which you can view a user’s profile information, and access information like how many ideas they’ve contributed to, including comments and voting, and how many documents they’ve contributed. You can also highlight certain areas in a Spotlight menu for quick access.

Overall, e-tipi is a very rough-cut tool, when measured against others I’ve tried in the past. It’s not exactly easy on the eyes, and at times it can even seem disorganized. Despite that sense of mess, or perhaps because of it, e-tipi does feel like something that could well operate as fertile ground for the generation and refinement of ideas. I like the sense of freedom inherent in the site, and the potential for unstructured, loose collaboration with a wide number of viewers.

Do you use a web app for idea generation and refinement? Which one?

Microblogging is hot right now. While Twitter dominates the space, Facebook and Tumblr are very much in the game. I recently wrote about the preview of the next-generation TypePad platform, and hot on the heels of this new release, SixApart added microblogging to the service. This is a natural next step, though its entrance into microblogging tools runs the risk of becoming a “me too” entry. You can use a microblog for status updates, and posting links and topics that may not have a place on your main blog.

Create a Microblog

Before you start, bear in mind that your microblog does count against your blog’s storage and bandwidth quotas. Creating a microblog with TypePad follows the same well-documented and usable process as you use to create a new blog. There’s a new Pico theme for microblogs, which comes in tan, dark blue, dark gray and white. (I expect that if this offering takes off, then SixApart will add more microblog themes beyond the Pico theme.) Here is an example of that theme in white:

Manage a Microblog
After creating my microblog, I was greeted by a nicely designed user interface:

When you create a microblog, your categories don’t propagate over from your existing TypePad blog, so you are going to have to create them for your new microblog. The rest of the features should already be familiar to you as a TypePad user.

You also have the option to publish your posts to Twitter, Facebook and FriendFeed via TypePad. Personally, while I try to keep Facebook for friends and Twitter for professional networking, I was happy to have the options to publish my blog posts to these two social networks, and the “post from anywhere” capabilities include support for email, iPhone, and the TypePad Blog It bookmarklet.

TypePad and Microblogging

TypePad has always been leader in blog publishing and management tools, and SixApart’s first steps into microblogging further builds on its platform. Well-managed blogs are a necessity for web workers who want to contribute to the real-time web. TypePad offers a set of tools that even non-web savvy users can use to create professionally designed blogs and microblogs. A well-done microblog can complement a web worker’s web presence and online brand. This new feature provides a low-maintenance option for web workers who want to use the same platform for all of their blogging efforts.

This latest TypePad feature release is well-executed and a natural fit for the app, and is further testimony to a growing yet versatile platform for blogging. I look forward to seeing future feature releases.

Have you tried microblogging with TypePad?

It is no secret that I love Twitter. I have to admit that besides email, Twitter is my most important communications tool, particularly for my business but not exclusively so. The more I see where social media and online communications is going, the more I realize how Twitter has transformed the landscape in both big and subtle ways.

An obvious example of Twitter’s impact is how it is quickly becoming part of our lexicon. Even mainstream media is referring to the Twitterstream, using Twitter to gauge public sentiment, and referring to people’s Twitter pages. Twitter has moved beyond being the news and is now helping to source news for many reporters.

Here are some other ways Twitter has had game-changing impact:

1. Reinvented the threaded messaging board

If you think back to the old online forums before and after threaded messaging and then look at your Twitter page, look familiar? Twitter is loosely threaded messages that are a dynamic blend of conversation with direct references to others in the discussion and broadcasting where the message or the link is the focus.

From watching some of my clients trying to grasp the concept and flow of Twitter, it is clear that this communications display is atypical and can be challenging to follow. Learning to dive into a Twitterstream and come out with a cohesive dialogue or valuable information takes time. For the uninitiated, a threaded message board makes far more sense, however, once you get the hang of the fabric of tweets, you learn to follow the threads, jump to people’s Twitter pages to catch up with the conversation, and you hone your skills of zeroing in on certain Twitterers to pick out nuggets of useful information. Twitter has changed the flow of conversation and information.

2. Spawning imitators

First there was Jaiku and Pownce, then Plurk and Kwippy, all jumping on the microblogging bandwagon, each trying to differentiate themselves from Twitter yet mostly feeling like Twitter knockoffs. Even in their attempt to stand out, they stacked on features or capabilities meant to make them “more robust” than Twitter but ended up diluting the purity of Twitter’s simplicity. Some users, however, preferred the extra bells and whistles of the imitators as well as the stability of some of those other services.

Next came the Twitteresque sites that used the Twitter conversation starter model but focused on specific topics such as blippr where you microblog reviews of arts and entertainment or Reporting On where journalists simply announce what they are reporting on at any given time. Twitter’s micro messaging has become a main feature of many new sites and applications.

3. Becoming an add-on for other tools

As I began reviewing project management tools for WWD, I was taken by Joint Contact’s integration of Twitter into their featureset. Suddenly, Twitter was a feature add-on for applications where communications was key i.e. project management. Email, message boards and the usual communications tools were no longer enough. Other project management tools have promised Twitter integration in future iterations. Scott Blitstein also wrote about Twitter integration with your favorite productivity apps.

4. Transforming internal company communications

Since I’m not in need of enterprise level communications tools, I haven’t actually tried these out, however, there are now Twittereque apps for the enterprise such as Yammer and present.ly. Mike Gunderloy blogged about this new trend and referenced a presentation by my Twitterfriend @Pistachio at Pistachio Consulting.

5. Forcing us to do more with less

When I make presentations about Twitter, a common question is “why are the posts so short?” Why 140 characters or less? M-marketing and M-comm, I tell them. Twitter laid the groundwork for mainstreaming very short and concise messaging in preparation of communicating efficiently on mobile devices.

Maybe the vision of Twitter wasn’t necessarily to prep us so we could properly conduct M-marketing tactics over time, however, we are all gaining the skill of reducing our thoughts into tight, taut messages that read easily over our handheld devices.

6. Affecting the way we blog

Almost weekly, a popular blogger announces that he or she is no longer going to blog or no longer going to blog as frequently because of Twitter. Or that Twitter has changed the way they blog or the way they feel about blogging. For better or for worse, Twittering makes blogging feel like a bog both for the blogger and the reader once they are used to swimming in the free flowing Twitterstream.

7. Influencing our communications style

The Twitter Effect on how we communicate is going to be even more obvious than how email communications has forever changed the way we write. I’ve heard people say that they find themselves speaking in Tweets – short, clipped phrases where they say as much as they can in fewer words. They don’t do it on purpose, it is just how their mind works now that they’ve been Twittering for a long period of time. Twitter has created new verbs for us. We now have “Twitterfriends.” We “tweet” instead of post. When we talk about referencing others in our tweets we are “atting them” or “@ing” them. When you want someone to contact you, you can just tweet a message asking them to “@” you or “DM” you (for direct message). To gain Twitter skills means that you have to deliberately let go of old communication styles and rewire your brain to accommodate the new ones required to immerse yourself productively in the Twitterstream.

8. Ever-expanding uses

Twitter isn’t just a place where you tell the world what you are doing. Its uses have expanded beyond a broadcast tool to a listening device and filter of information. It is also a marketing tool; a market research tool; a customer outreach and customer service tool; and instant focus group; a tech troubleshooting resource; and the list goes on and on.

In Twitter’s undiluted simplicity, it has the uncanny feature of being several things to each person and several new things as people’s imaginations take hold after a few weeks of Twittering. We have yet to see all of the possibilities of Twittering for our personal lives and for our careers and businesses. We are just scratching the surface.

How have you used or seen Twitter used in new and different ways, particularly for business?

I’ve been joining a number of video microblogging sites (Seesmic, Phreadz, 12SecondsTV, Utterz, ViddYou) and maneuvering for alpha invites for several more (Hictu and what else is out there…?) but I still haven’t gotten into the groove. More than anything, I am wondering about real business applications for video microblogging. I can immediately rattle off the business benefits of microblogging, especially via Twitter, because the adoption rate with essentially text microblogging sites is still way ahead of audio and video ones. And when it comes to networking for business, for example, size does matter.

So when you add audio but even moreso video to the mix, you end up with a much smaller pool of potential contacts. Not everyone feels comfortable enough in front of a camera, much less broadcasting their video image to others. So is video microblogging nothing but a fun way to waste time and procrastinate from work? Or are there really going to be business applications for these sites once they get out of their alpha and beta phases?

Here are some of the ways I see video microblogging could possibly be used for work, but I’m open to any and all other viable suggestions:

1. Enhanced comments. If you are going back and forth with a client, you could video your responses to one another and have a record of the dialogue that is much easier to follow than text where misunderstandings can be rampant.

2. Time zone busting. If you are working with others in another time zone, coordinating video Skype calls might be too much effort all the time. With video microblogging, you can record your thoughts then when you get up the next day, your colleague’s video thoughts are waiting for you.

3. Easy demos and feedback. You can’t beat a video when it comes to demonstrating something when you can’t be there in person. You can record a demo of something, and then put it out to your team for feedback. Then again, most of what we do is on the Web and screencasts may work better for many of us.

I was at the BizJam Seattle conference this week and I asked about some potential business applications of video microblogging for Web workers. “Use it for how tos for your products and to show examples of your work,” answered Jim Turner of One By One Media.

4. Cheap video. It was only a few years ago that many of us avoided doing video because of the production expense. Now using the little built-in camera on your laptop is perfectly acceptable recording equipment for Web broadcast quality.

“Press releases are dead,” says Saul Colt of Freshbooks.com, who was also at BizJam. “You can use video microblogging to announce new information, use it for customer testimonials.”

Some Other Pros of Video Microblogging

• Web-based. Doesn’t require special software to download or configure.
• Fairly easy. It is pretty simple to get up and running on a video microblog as long as you have your computer camera and microphone working correctly in the first place.
• Archives. You have a video record of recordings and threaded video “conversations.”
• Motivation. If you know you are going to be on video, you’ll probably be a little more motivated to look your best and to act your best.

Some Real Cons of Video Microblogging

• The Gaps. Video microblogging is not real-time unless you are using some of the live video broadcasting sites which then aren’t really video microblogging.
• Bandwidth Issues. You simply must have a fast connection to get any semblance of video and audio quality.
• Privacy Issues. How private are these video microblogging sites? Even if you can keep your account access limited to clients, vendors or members of your team, what are the chances of a privacy breech?
• Bad Hair Day. Let’s face it. For those of us that work at home, do we really want our colleagues to see us? Isn’t the beauty of working from home that we can wear our pajamas all day and not have to brush our hair (or shave)?

I also posed my question to Leif Hansen of Spark Social Media, and he brought up a good point. Some of our potential audience may be in a work environment where they cannot watch video so keep that in mind – who is your audience?

But, Leif added, “there is still a lot of wow factor with video microblogging. If you are a Web worker, it doesn’t matter what you’re doing with it.” He pointed to the positive reaction he gets by adding a video welcome greeting to each person who joins his Ning network. “They always say it’s the coolest thing they’ve ever seen!” He’s been using Seesmic and Eyejot.

So what do you think? Is video microblogging just too cool to be practical or can you see useful business applications for it at this stage? Do you have an example online of how you are using video microblogging for your work? Or are we just having fun and wasting time?