Virtual Collaboration in the Workplace

Too many information sources? Mash them up

Posted for Haidar AM

I came across this article  which talks about automating mashups in enterprise portals.

Enterprise portals were meant to be single point of access to information, but most companies today have several portals and some users are interested in internal as well as external information and it is time consuming process to check all these information sources.
So what is the solution?

Programmer Buddies

Posted for Michael L.

A few months ago I came across an interesting article in the New York Times about a web design and software development company based in Florida named Hashrocket. The article talks about the collaborative approach programmers at Hashrocket take, using a concept called pair programming. Pair programming is when you have two programmers paired together at a computer workstation and while one programmer codes (the coder) the other programmer critiques (the critique). According to the article, pair programming has been used for years in some software design companies.

In the article you have Desi McAdam acting as the coder and Jim Remsik critiquing her code as she types.  Annoying right? For some programmers maybe, but that’s what supposedly makes pair programming a collaborative effort. One of the programmers in the article admitted to how exhausting this particular style of programming can be, but he also believes that it makes him more disciplined.

I personally would like this kind of collaborative effort when it comes to programming, however personality wise I’m sure some people would prefer to program alone and then submit their code for critique. Do you think this form of collaborative programming (so to speak) is a good idea? Could it really save companies money and time (as the article alluded to) by cutting down on errors?

Tom’s Planner

Lots of you taking 440 are Project Management majors, so you will be interested in Tom’s Planner, an MS-Project like GANTT Chart tool in the cloud.   It is currently free in beta and looks pretty good.

Video Conference Improvement for Google Apps

Posted for Yulanda N.

I recently ran across an article on Google’s plans to make significant enhancements to Gmail’s voice and video capability in Google Apps.  Google Apps is a web base communication and collaboration suite for the workplace.  Over 20 million people in more than 2 million organizations use it. Google hopes to roll out these enhancements over the next 6 to 12 months  expanding Gmail’s voice and video capability from one-to-one communications to more than two participants.   According to the article Google plans to integrate these new capabilities into Gmail instead of a adding an additional application suite.  By integrating this with Gmail, Google anticipates IT departments could see an increase in network traffic because user are logging in/ out of multi-person video conferencing constantly.

The next revolution?

Posted for Rin C.

Have you seen or had a virtual world meeting experience? I tried second life and watched some demos from a couple of virtual worlds.  If you have not, see this VDO http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8OAAFQaFiA and you may get some idea (it's about 10 min long). 
I think the Forttera user interface is much better than Second Life. Internet users or anyone who has some computer skill should not have much problem. It takes a while to memorize and become familiar with command buttons (i.e hold space for speak and ctrl-arrow key to move). You can teleport to any location in the "world". 
Do you think user interface is a serious issue to make virtual worlds useful? Is it only the problem with older generations? This article  says virtual worlds are the industrial revolution of our generation.

The future of a College Education

Posted for Sally L.

This article discusses the fact that going to college the way we know it may be coming to an end. The article state ‘that students starting school this year may be part of the last generation for which "going to college" means packing up, getting a dorm room and listening to tenured professors. Undergraduate education is on the verge of a radical reordering. Colleges, like newspapers, will be torn apart by new ways of sharing information enabled by the Internet. The business model that sustained private U.S. colleges can't survive” 
 With education tools like Wimba and Second Life being made available for education and the costs of going to a traditional college skyrocketing do you think that the future of going to a traditional college is at risk?  Do you think ending the traditional college experience will benefit or hinder education? 

Dropbox: A handy tool

Posted for V. K.

I am starting to be a big fan of Dropbox, a Dropbox, a popular cloud-storage sharing service that is a great productivity tool when working with colleagues and clients in different locations, where you can synchronize different devices used by different people to share files.
Dropbox doesn't have to be limited to simply syncing your documents, photos, and music, however—with the proper setup you can completely synchronize your digital life across any PC.

eHealth

Posted for Kaushik P.

GE has recently unveiled its new product called eHealth. This product is in response to government’s $19 billion incentive package, which aims to help doctors and hospital to digitize their disorganized paper records system. GE invested $90 million to launch eHealth. In this article Elizabeth Moore said, “It is a daunting task, but if it works, a digital record system that streamlines connectivity between clinicians and patients would eventually cost less, work faster, and reduce medical errors, some of which can be fatal.” GE’s new eHealth business better connects patients, hospitals and doctors to critical information.

Are E-mail Security Flaws A Barrier to Increasing Online Collaboration?

Posted for Lauren J.

This Computerworld article titled “Gmail, Yahoo Mail join Hotmail; passwords exposed” written By Gregg Keizer  seemed scary to me because I have accounts with all three web mail providers and it discussed the compromised security systems of both Gmail and Yahoo who are now sharing the stage with a previously invaded Hotmail. Both Gmail and Yahoo were victims of large scale phishing operations that previously led to at least 10,000 Hotmail passwords being stolen.  It’s believed that users were tricked into providing their username and password information in a phishing scam that may have taken place over a long period of time.

Adding Social Content to Google Searches

Posted for Janice H.

I ran across this article  recently.  The article describes Google's Social Search feature that allows you to include content from friends into your Google search results. Google's Social Search uses your own lists of contacts from various services to build up a network, and then includes content specifically from the people you know. As an active user of Google Search this article caught my attention.  I have mixed feeling about Google’s Social Search.  Social Search seems interesting enough to tryout.  However, I’m not sure I want to weed through a lot of information from friends and family in my Google search results.

What are your thoughts on Google’s Social Search feature?  Do you think this a useful feature?   Would you use this feature?