by Chris Miller at 06:52:00 AM on Thursday, August 28th, 2008
Lotus Connections Dogear, your enterprise social bookmarking service Lotus offers, just took another hit. This was something I expected, don't get me wrong. When you have something that shows signs of taking off, the wolves come out with new products or product changes right after it. So here is the scenario:
IBM releases Lotus Connections as the first enterprise ready social networking software. No really, that was said. I was there. Dogear is a flagship portion, comparable to the hype of the Profiles portion. Tagging takes on a name in Lotus Domino shops. Then the pack starts to sniff the scent.
LinkJam took the first leap, writing a native Lotus Domino application to provide the same services. At way below the cost of Connections. Not to mention the ease of installation compared to the hair pulling Connections. Ouch.
Then we read of how Magnolia is offering open source hooks for version 20 while they were at Gnomedex last week. Plenty of blogs show it, let me know if you need a link.
Today I read of how Reddit is now offering a fully brandable, customizable and your own domain version. Reddit has offered and open source version since June, this is a hosted solution. You can pick whether it is public, private or restricted. With design features like CSS and cnames, in DNS who would know that is was not your own internal system?
Where does that leave Dogear inside of Lotus Connections? As a high cost, implementation headache that is just as easily consumed from an outside service or open source movement. So where does your company fit in? Open source? Domino based database? Lotus Connections?
IBM releases Lotus Connections as the first enterprise ready social networking software. No really, that was said. I was there. Dogear is a flagship portion, comparable to the hype of the Profiles portion. Tagging takes on a name in Lotus Domino shops. Then the pack starts to sniff the scent.
LinkJam took the first leap, writing a native Lotus Domino application to provide the same services. At way below the cost of Connections. Not to mention the ease of installation compared to the hair pulling Connections. Ouch.
Then we read of how Magnolia is offering open source hooks for version 20 while they were at Gnomedex last week. Plenty of blogs show it, let me know if you need a link.
Today I read of how Reddit is now offering a fully brandable, customizable and your own domain version. Reddit has offered and open source version since June, this is a hosted solution. You can pick whether it is public, private or restricted. With design features like CSS and cnames, in DNS who would know that is was not your own internal system?
Where does that leave Dogear inside of Lotus Connections? As a high cost, implementation headache that is just as easily consumed from an outside service or open source movement. So where does your company fit in? Open source? Domino based database? Lotus Connections?
| Comments? Comments? (3) Category: Lotus Connections Tags :Lotus Connections Magnolia Reddit |
   Location: St. Louis, MO |
by Chris Miller at 12:30:03 PM on Monday, August 25th, 2008
The argument evolving is that comments, commentary, reader feedback and honestly, the hits, go somewhere else outside of your blog. You post the good content, and then people are on social sites having conversations about your postings. Without you contributing, responding or growing your reader base. How does that help you as a blogger, podcaster or whatever.
I was standing fast on the "No" side where it doesn't hurt, while one of my recent conversation opponents was arguing the opposite. Then I sat back and reflected some. I can see points on both sides of the argument while FriendFeed grows. If someone brings your article into FriendFeed, it can then be "liked", commented on and evolve into it's own thread. Does the conversation link go to your blog? No. That is why sites such as Mashable have been embedding the current FriendFeed status into the end of their postings. Go look, I will wait. You, the content and blog owner, become responsible for tracking down everything about you on the web.
So what happens as your conversations that normally would occur on your blog get sucked into the ether? Your readership stays stagnant for the most part. You then rely on the Digg, Google Readers shares, FriendFeed and StumbleUpon hits to shed light on your postings. You slowly dissolve into a one hit wonder of the blog world, or an icon of good postings that shows immediate readership growth. The ether either weighs you down or floats you to the top like the old saying of cream rising to the top. The social sites become the giant stirring of the churn.
It is almost like Social Stalking. They are there talking and watching, you feel the eyes, but never know who it is.
I was standing fast on the "No" side where it doesn't hurt, while one of my recent conversation opponents was arguing the opposite. Then I sat back and reflected some. I can see points on both sides of the argument while FriendFeed grows. If someone brings your article into FriendFeed, it can then be "liked", commented on and evolve into it's own thread. Does the conversation link go to your blog? No. That is why sites such as Mashable have been embedding the current FriendFeed status into the end of their postings. Go look, I will wait. You, the content and blog owner, become responsible for tracking down everything about you on the web.
So what happens as your conversations that normally would occur on your blog get sucked into the ether? Your readership stays stagnant for the most part. You then rely on the Digg, Google Readers shares, FriendFeed and StumbleUpon hits to shed light on your postings. You slowly dissolve into a one hit wonder of the blog world, or an icon of good postings that shows immediate readership growth. The ether either weighs you down or floats you to the top like the old saying of cream rising to the top. The social sites become the giant stirring of the churn.
It is almost like Social Stalking. They are there talking and watching, you feel the eyes, but never know who it is.
| Comments? Comments? (0) Category: Rant Tags :Social Stalking |
Location: St. Louis, MO |
by Chris Miller at 01:33:38 PM on Tuesday, August 19th, 2008
We begin yet another feature with roundtable discussions with Wayne Sutton, Jeff(isageek), Corvida and myself (IdoNotes) in what will be the start of a bi-weekly event. We will discuss all the hot and interesting news in the social media space.
Today we cover the following items, which you can find by following our groups bookmarks on Diigo here.
Today we cover the following items, which you can find by following our groups bookmarks on Diigo here.
| Comments? Comments? (0) Category: Technology Tags :Podcast |
Location: St. Louis, MO |
by Chris Miller at 07:03:00 AM on Tuesday, August 19th, 2008
I read Ed's posting the other day and wrote a blog posting which got put on hold and turned into a Mashable article you can find right here. Join the conversation. Here is a excerpt:
1. What are the rights of the user and the responsibility of the social site or online company?
2. Does every company, no matter the size need a policy defining what steps need to be taken to tackle this growing battle of identity squatting?
| Comments? Comments? (0) Category: DataPortability Tags :Social Networking |
Location: St. Louis, MO |
by Chris Miller at 01:56:14 PM on Monday, August 18th, 2008
Have any of you ever thought about this? You create a profile on a new social network and start using the service. You forget about it for some time, and then run across it (link or news article) saying, wow I haven't been there in a while. When you go back to the site, it has turned into a business site. One that still has your credentials and is now serving such customers as retail chains.
Well it happens. The actual knowledge site that has me writing this blog post is there still there. However, all the main pages are now about their SaaS offerings and bringing customers/users with gained topical data together. What topical data? Mine? The one that you have had for some time that I typed in? I should point out that the same info they have is the same I would put on any public profile. But how it is used is the question I am asking.
The "Who owns the data" game can be played for now (news coming here), but I don't think any of the social networks you would participate in state in their agreements that they will maintain your data while creating a business model based on that profile, at the exact same address, that is meant to glean topical (read as profile) information for business to learn how to market against. While ads are currently targeted for sites based on age, groups and whatever, we understand that premise going in. At least I do. In order to stay in business, social sites run ads. No secret. But when you take my profile data and create a possible business from it, we have entered a new realm of unwillingness to share any information.
I have found no rules or past postings on this, so what is your take?
Well it happens. The actual knowledge site that has me writing this blog post is there still there. However, all the main pages are now about their SaaS offerings and bringing customers/users with gained topical data together. What topical data? Mine? The one that you have had for some time that I typed in? I should point out that the same info they have is the same I would put on any public profile. But how it is used is the question I am asking.
The "Who owns the data" game can be played for now (news coming here), but I don't think any of the social networks you would participate in state in their agreements that they will maintain your data while creating a business model based on that profile, at the exact same address, that is meant to glean topical (read as profile) information for business to learn how to market against. While ads are currently targeted for sites based on age, groups and whatever, we understand that premise going in. At least I do. In order to stay in business, social sites run ads. No secret. But when you take my profile data and create a possible business from it, we have entered a new realm of unwillingness to share any information.
I have found no rules or past postings on this, so what is your take?
| Comments? Comments? (0) Category: Rant Tags :Social Networking |
Location: St. Louis, MO |
by Chris Miller at 12:19:21 PM on Friday, August 8th, 2008
Corvida and I dig deep into Social Median, the beta site for collecting and sharing social media news. It offers groups to join and people to follow. Listen in to hear our ratings and review
| Comments? Comments? (0) Category: Technology Tags :Podcast Social Median |
Location: St. Louis, MO |
by Chris Miller at 05:36:29 PM on Thursday, August 7th, 2008
I started writing articles for Mashable a few weeks ago and the first 2 took hold quick. Catch up on the conversations:
- Social Bookmarking : the race to be famous or a tool? In this article I talk about how social bookmarking is becoming less of a useful item and more of a popularity contest. Tons of conversations on the web on this one.
- Twitter client head to head: Twhirl versus TweetDeck - looking for a client for Twitter? I compare 2 of the top ones. See EverythingTwitter for tons of tools
| Comments? Comments? (0) Category: Announcement Twitter Tags :Mashable |
Location: St. Louis, MO |
by Chris Miller at 01:33:59 PM on Monday, July 28th, 2008
When you see one of the previous engineers from Google search, that also happened to invent a search technology that Google bought, state they went out on their own and made a better one, you jump to try it. Apparently no one said that when I jumped there was no safety net. Incredibly disappointing to start. You cannot make such a large boast, open your doors and have empty shelves in the store
Cuil (pronounced 'cool') is currently, appropriately named. As it is not hot, nor does it give better results so far. It just opened today for processing searches. I get that much. But I did not expect the disappointment I received after reading this:
While I still have hopes that the results will get strong as they finish cleaning and updating, for now you are still getting better results elsewhere. This is a hard start for anyone wishing to challenge Google in searching. I did appreciate the limited filter to attempt to provide a clean filter, mainly when doing demos and such on stage and don't like Google surprises. While not perfect, it did a decent job.
The suggestions of alternate searches was also very welcome and did pen some doors to sites I might have missed with my query. It was not clear that is what the site did until I clicked around the top some when I first tried searches.
The results are shown in blocks (much like Alltop and any other widget looking site) instead of one long column. This leads you to see things a bit easier, yet the actual results were highly scattered or missing. Simple searches for my own names (TheSocialNetworker and IdoNotes) returned some hits, but not even the pages of the sites themselves. Give it a shot, since I know you will.
Cuil (pronounced 'cool') is currently, appropriately named. As it is not hot, nor does it give better results so far. It just opened today for processing searches. I get that much. But I did not expect the disappointment I received after reading this:
For starters, Cuil's search index spans 120 billion Web pages.
Patterson believes that's at least three times the size of Google's index, although there is no way to know for certain. Google stopped publicly quantifying its index's breadth nearly three years ago when the catalog spanned 8.2 billion Web pages.
Cuil won't divulge the formula it has developed to cover a wider swath of the Web with far fewer computers than Google. And Google isn't ceding the point: Spokeswoman Katie Watson said her company still believes its index is the largest.
After getting inquiries about Cuil, Google asserted on its blog Friday that it regularly scans through 1 trillion unique Web links. But Google said it doesn't index them all because they either point to similar content or would diminish the quality of its search results in some other way. The posting didn't quantify the size of Google's index.
While I still have hopes that the results will get strong as they finish cleaning and updating, for now you are still getting better results elsewhere. This is a hard start for anyone wishing to challenge Google in searching. I did appreciate the limited filter to attempt to provide a clean filter, mainly when doing demos and such on stage and don't like Google surprises. While not perfect, it did a decent job.
The suggestions of alternate searches was also very welcome and did pen some doors to sites I might have missed with my query. It was not clear that is what the site did until I clicked around the top some when I first tried searches.
The results are shown in blocks (much like Alltop and any other widget looking site) instead of one long column. This leads you to see things a bit easier, yet the actual results were highly scattered or missing. Simple searches for my own names (TheSocialNetworker and IdoNotes) returned some hits, but not even the pages of the sites themselves. Give it a shot, since I know you will.
| Comments? Comments? (1) Category: Technical Tags :cuil Site reviews |
Location: St. Louis, MO |
by Chris Miller at 04:36:43 PM on Sunday, July 27th, 2008
I ran across yet another site that relies heavily on presence and location. From their own description:
From logging in, it looks a bit like BrightKite if you use that service. A living map shows who is close to you.
The make of the site is Wichro, who stated the following about the site in an article on CNET:
Quite an impressive start to a new site. All your previous locations are listed in a nice dropdown list for quick access and you can even use the mobile site.
Your homepage lists where you currently are and let's you post pictures and comments about the location. The Explore option will show users of the site around you in a Google Map mashup. Connecting with existing friends is a pull from your address books. You have about 9 built in choices including Google, Yahoo, Linked and AOL mail systems.
Notifications can be made by email or SMS (you have to authorize and register your phone). Fire Eagle integration also exists to populate numerous networks. Notes about your sites can even be submitted to Twitter (as expected)
Overall the UI (based on Flash) was easy enough to use and easy enough on the eyes. A blue background with big letters made navigation easy. There were not too many options that I felt over burdened with using the site, nor was there too few that I felt it could do a ton more.
It was simply another location presence site to post where I am and have it blasted all over. Worth a shot if you don't use one already
ZKOUT (pronounced "scout") is the social tool that instantly connects you to the people and places around you. Let your friends know what you are doing and where you are in real time from your mobile phone or computer
From logging in, it looks a bit like BrightKite if you use that service. A living map shows who is close to you.
- Registration was quite simple: a username, email and password
- You can choose a built in image or upload your own
- Type in where you are by city and state or even closer down to the street address
The make of the site is Wichro, who stated the following about the site in an article on CNET:
A month later, Zkout has 20,000 users (a third of them with iPhones) and the company is working hard to take the next step this summer--going commercial by getting the attention of carriers.
Quite an impressive start to a new site. All your previous locations are listed in a nice dropdown list for quick access and you can even use the mobile site.
Your homepage lists where you currently are and let's you post pictures and comments about the location. The Explore option will show users of the site around you in a Google Map mashup. Connecting with existing friends is a pull from your address books. You have about 9 built in choices including Google, Yahoo, Linked and AOL mail systems.
Notifications can be made by email or SMS (you have to authorize and register your phone). Fire Eagle integration also exists to populate numerous networks. Notes about your sites can even be submitted to Twitter (as expected)
Overall the UI (based on Flash) was easy enough to use and easy enough on the eyes. A blue background with big letters made navigation easy. There were not too many options that I felt over burdened with using the site, nor was there too few that I felt it could do a ton more.
It was simply another location presence site to post where I am and have it blasted all over. Worth a shot if you don't use one already
| Comments? Comments? (0) Category: Site Reviews Tags :Zkout Site reviews |
Location: St. Louis, MO |
by Chris Miller at 10:10:48 AM on Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008
The reports have started coming in already:
That is a pretty harsh list to begin operations with. I get the feeling Apple was rushed into meeting a hidden deadline for release and the software 2.0 was not fully baked. The developers were put under pressure to get this new 3G device ready, without proper testing of all aspects. Having to reset your device to factory defaults more than once to keep it working is a sure way to have them returned right back to the Apple stores. If you have not totally tested a device that you know will form lines around stores, down blocks and have people standing for all hours to get one, then don't ship yet. It is funny how often we have to say that to hardware and software manufacturers. I know the race is on, even though the iPhone still has an insignificant share of the business smart phone market, but they want it. That is apparent. However, corporations have high standards in the devices they select and having a phone die on a CEO or CIO will have the iPhone tossed out on it's iButt..
The numerous posts alone on battery life should have been a show stopper. Any device that is used to be used as a primary communication device as well as personal smart phone, PDA, butler and whatever else can fit on there better darn well last more than a few hours. Soon we will see people with large Apple logos on their belts which are extra battery packs just to tote around an iPhone. Soon to be called the Apple iBat
I will agree with Don in the post I link above, some of the charged rates for applications are a tad bit crazy. I want a couple of them on my iPod Touch for use around the house on the wifi, and was shocked to see some of the higer end priced ones.
- hard restores to original settings have to be done
- battery life sucks royal arse from here, here, and here. There are plenty more to be found, I just grabbed some
- apps from the new store are way to expensive
- the sync with Exchange seems to be killing bandwidth
That is a pretty harsh list to begin operations with. I get the feeling Apple was rushed into meeting a hidden deadline for release and the software 2.0 was not fully baked. The developers were put under pressure to get this new 3G device ready, without proper testing of all aspects. Having to reset your device to factory defaults more than once to keep it working is a sure way to have them returned right back to the Apple stores. If you have not totally tested a device that you know will form lines around stores, down blocks and have people standing for all hours to get one, then don't ship yet. It is funny how often we have to say that to hardware and software manufacturers. I know the race is on, even though the iPhone still has an insignificant share of the business smart phone market, but they want it. That is apparent. However, corporations have high standards in the devices they select and having a phone die on a CEO or CIO will have the iPhone tossed out on it's iButt..
The numerous posts alone on battery life should have been a show stopper. Any device that is used to be used as a primary communication device as well as personal smart phone, PDA, butler and whatever else can fit on there better darn well last more than a few hours. Soon we will see people with large Apple logos on their belts which are extra battery packs just to tote around an iPhone. Soon to be called the Apple iBat
I will agree with Don in the post I link above, some of the charged rates for applications are a tad bit crazy. I want a couple of them on my iPod Touch for use around the house on the wifi, and was shocked to see some of the higer end priced ones.
| Title | Duration | Size | Flash Player |
|---|---|---|---|
| TheSocialGeeks Episode 6 - The Gathering and Hot Grits | 00:43:09 | 39.52 Mb | |
| TheSocialGeeks Episode 5 - Social Median and hostels | 00:22:44 | 20.83 Mb | |
| TheSocialGeeks Episode 4 - Feedly-ing up Corvida | 00:25:01 | 22.92 Mb | |
| TheSocialGeeks Episode 3 - Achieving Plurk Nirvana | 00:24:53 | 23.65 Mb | |
| TheSocialGeeks Episode 2 - Mento my Info | 00:26:19 | 24.09 Mb | |
| TheSocialGeeks Episode 1 - Skip To (the) luu | 00:23:59 | 21.97 Mb | |
| TheSocialNetworker Episode 5 - Make My Data Portable | 00:26:59 | 24.71 Mb | |
| TheSocialNetworker Episode 4 - Can I get an O with that Spoke | 00:33:13 | 30.43 Mb | |
| TheSocialNetworker Episode 3 - Accidental Truemorist | 00:27:43 | 25.39 Mb | |
| TheSocialNetworker Episode 2 - Pageflakes | 00:31:12 | 21.43 Mb | |
| TheSocialNetworker Episode 1 - The Introduction | 00:02:22 | 1.63 Mb |
Entries by Month
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Yes this is a blatant theft of the outline that Jess uses on her page, but I asked permission. Why?? Because I am a hardcore admin and can make ugly tables to make you developers frustrated, but this was too nice to pass up.
Also Known As: Chris Miller (when awake)
Boring Certifications: (only because someone asked twice)
- Workplace Collaboration Services 2.5 - Team Collab and Messaging
- Domino 7 Certified Security Administrator
- PCLP ND7
- PCLP ND6
- PCLP R5
- PCLP R4
- CLP Collaboration (soon to be retired Aug 2006)
- random former R4 exams
- CLI for numerous admin areas including Domino, Sametime and Workplace
- CLP Insane
Yes, I write some of those dreaded admin cert exams you take. I won't say which ones so you don't come looking for me, but I will say they are the real good recent ones that have been coming out.
Weapons/Equipment:
- At work an IBM 2 GHz
- At home a plethera of 6 machines with various Windows versions and Red Hat on a wired/wireless LAN
- A Toshiba E740 with 802.11b (yes geek toy)
- An Apple 40GB iPod that is filled to the brim
- Compaq RioPort MP3 player (now in storage)
- An EBook (REB1100) also for travel (Love that darn thing)
- Verizon and they always seem to know how to find me, damn cell
Animals:
One dog, a Pug. He has been on this world before and seems to understand slippers and a fine cigar. Mind you that is him in the chair and not me.
Let us now also add a deranged cat that is in the process of being toilet trained. Update: Toilet traning was very very close.
Music:
Non-stop. At my desk, in my car, walking to work and back to my car downtown. In the house there is a crazy zoned set-up for you home automation geeks.
I am a self-proclaimed MP3 fiend, to which I have tried rehab 4 billion times to no avail. Next is the MP3 hard-drive for the car that I found. Now what kind of music you ask? I will never tell.
Languages:
- Incredibly fast English
- Very slow Spanish
- Emoticon-ese
- Learning Korean
- HTML
- Advanced Sarcasm
Geek class special abilities:
- Notes/Domino overdrive
- Workplace
- Sametime
- Active Directory (huh? kidding)
- Quickplace
- LMS, LVC and the other L's of elearning
- Windoze junk
- MS Exchange versions
- LAN
- TCPIP
- Server Iron
- Yeah, yeah it goes on some
Skills:
Get back to you here
Spells:
Hershey’s Stomach of Holding: Jess and I are fighting over who eats more chocolate. TWDUFF can help me out and vouch for me.
Character Bio:
This will take far more time than I have today. I will start with I was born and still live in St. Louis, MO. Even though for a couple years I was never, ever here and always on the road, this is smack in the middle of the US. Everything is just a few hour flight. That part is nice. No beach/ocean/coast isn't the best. But with the travel I make up for it.
Looking to find me in person? Here is where I will be.
| Dates | Event | Location |
|---|---|---|
| delayed | customer visit | Minneapolis, MN |
| Mar 31 - Apr 4 | Lotus Notes and Domino 8 Upgrade Seminar | Copenhagen, Denmark |
| Apr 30 - May 2 | Admin2008 | Boston, MA |
| May 10 - 15 | Lotus Notes and Domino 8 Upgrade Seminar | London |
| Jun 4 - 6 | Irish Lotus User Group 2008 | Dublin, Ireland |
| Jun 16 - 19 | Lotus Notes and Domino 8 Upgrade Seminar | San Francisco, CA |
| Jun 21 - 29 | Vacation | Some island I am not telling you |
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