Everyone has a different way of doing things. Fortunately, there’s a huge number of web services that offer groups different ways to coordinate their activities. Convos occupies a middle ground between basic group communication systems like listservs and Google Groups, and full-fledged project management apps.
As with classic email lists, Convos allows group members to send and reply to messages via email. But Convos has a larger feature set than standard email groups, including:
A web interface where members can see and update what the group is working on. This password-protected, advertising-free web site includes panes to compose and display messages, upload files, manage tasks and schedules, and create and view on-screen pages. The interface has a custom URL like “group_name.convos.com” to which you can add your own logo.- A system for creating and getting RSVPs for events.
- A system for posting comments and questions (which can be anonymous if desired).
- The ability to add subgroups, which could be useful for organizations with a committee structure. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: convos, flash, flex, google group, listserv, microblogging, peago, project management, silverlight, socialcast, twitter
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.
Read the rest of this entry »
There was as much grumbling about the Twitter-style format of the 140 Character Conference in New York this week as there often is about 140-character limit in Twitter itself. Anything new or different can drive some people up the wall. Others, however, embrace the newness and the challenge of doing something completely different, and that is where the conference broke new ground, or at least it felt like that to many of us.
Jeff Pulver, the conference organizer, credits Twitter with everything that made the event happen, from the positive feedback that led him to set a date for the event, to obtaining the majority of commitments from speakers and panelists, to publicizing it almost entirely via tweets and retweets.
In my post “How Twitter is a Communications Game Changer,” I talked about the random but significant changes Twitter was causing in terms of the way we communicate and the tools we use. The 140conf — as it was called on Twitter — was the embodiment of a Twitterstream; it was Twitter in the flesh. Here are some of my observations from the conference: Read the rest of this entry »
Often it’s the (seemingly) simple applications that turn out to be the most powerful, and the most popular. Twitter is a great example of this.
Ping.fm, a service that allows you to easily update a host of social networking and social media profiles all at once, seeks to resolve the headache of needing to log into multiple accounts to send the same message to different groups of friends and contacts all over the Internet.
While for some Ping.fm may just be a nice little time-saving utility, for social media and online marketing professionals, this service may well be a killer app.
Read the rest of this entry »
As I was leaving a bar late one night while at South by Southwest last week, someone handed me a Blellow sticker. “Pretty cool, funny name,” I thought.
It turns out that Blellow is more than just a name. In fact, it’s an ambitious microblogging platform geared toward the web working and networking set. Note that I used “networking” without the commonly tacked-on “social” in front of it. Blellow is looking to become the LinkedIn of microblogging platforms, as opposed to the more chit-chatty, freewheeling space (crammed into 140-character or less bursts) that Twitter currently occupies.
The idea is that while Twitter and Facebook are now relatively “mainstream” places to keep up with current friends and ruminate about thoughts both big and small, Blellow offers a platform for microblogging professionals and web workers to coordinate meetups, find jobs, seek out projects and engage in professional conversations through the “groups” areas of the site.
Read the rest of this entry »
Twitter’s meteoric rise in popularity – particularly over the last year – has been widely covered, and indeed the simplicity and flexibility of the 140 character-based microblogging platform continues to attract people all over the world in huge numbers, while a thriving community of developers build add-on services using its open API. We’ve also heard a lot about the power of Twitter as a communications, promotional and marketing tool.
(via TechCrunch)
Twitter and other microblogging services are radically shifting the ways in which people communicate and share information. And that shift is now entering the workplace on a large scale, particularly for web workers and for companies who are embracing the ways in which microblogging platforms can save time while increasing productivity.
Yammer, which plays off the already classic Twitter call to action, “What are you doing?” by asking, “What are you working on?” is an easy-to-use microblogging service that is tailored to the workplace and organizations in several important ways.
Read the rest of this entry »
I was recently interviewed as a “web expert” for a national women’s magazine. The reporter kept trying to get me to explain how a professional could build a static web site on the cheap to effectively “manage online reputation.”
“Web sites don’t really actively manage your online reputation,” I countered.
“Yes, but aren’t there free templates that people can use to set up cheap web sites? And what about hiring someone to create a one-page site?”
“I’m sure there are templates, but I would never recommend to a client today to build a web site like that,” I explained. “And I’d never recommend that anyone just put up a single page.”
My comments didn’t faze the writer, who was determined to present me as a “web expert” recommending cheap and easy web site building solutions for her article.
That exchange got me thinking: How did I – a former web developer – become so anti-web site? And why is a national publication promoting an article advising that businesspeople build web sites for themselves to manage their online reputation, especially when their chosen web expert was telling them, “Don’t do it!“? Read the rest of this entry »
Everyone has a different way of doing things. Fortunately, there’s a huge number of web services that offer groups different ways to coordinate their activities. Convos occupies a middle ground between basic group communication systems like listservs and Google Groups, and full-fledged project management apps.
Web Work 101: How To Escape The Cubicle
