August 25th, 2007

So long and thanks for all the fish

Posted by Marc Orchant @ 10:15 am

Categories: Blogs

Tags: Mobile, Network, Marc Orchant

I’ve had an interesting and varied journey through the sphere as a blogger with the exceptional good fortune to have been involved with three great communities of writers at the OfficeZealot.com portal, Weblogs, Inc., and now ZDNet. Working in these networked environments, I’ve had the opportunity to cover a variety of topics and meet an amazingly varied and talented group of passionate experts. Blogging has become a fixture in my work – an irreplaceable tool for learning, sharing information, and making connections.

I was recently approached with the opportunity to participate in the creation and launch of a new international network of blogs focused on emerging technologies, the explosive growth of mobile computing and application development, and coverage of important industry events. The network, blognation, was conceived by Sam Sethi, a blogger and entrepreneur based in the UK as a way to generate more awareness of what’s transpiring globally in the burgeoning world of 2.0 technologies by covering the important work being done around the world on a country-by-country basis. When my good friend Oliver Starr, the mobile guru and original voice at Mobilecrunch, told me about what Sam was planning and that he hoped I’d partner with him to launch the US site, I found the idea awfully compelling.

I like building things. “Getting in on the ground floor” is a special kind of thrill I have come to really enjoy and the chance to have another go at participating in the birth of a network of blogs was impossible to resist. So this is my farewell as the author of Office Evolution here at ZDNet as I begin another chapter in my bogging adventure.

It’s been a terrific experience. The opportunity to work with talented people like Dan Farber, David Grober, Larry Dignan, and David Berlind will always be a high-water mark in my personal history. Establishing or enhancing my relationship with great folks like Ed Bott, Matt Miller, and Ryan Stewart has been a highlight as well.

To the many readers who’ve been interacting with me during my tenure here and who have become an invaluable part of the conversation, thank you. Your comments, e-mails, and IMs have been a real inspiration and have challenged me often to reconsider my opinions and perspectives on the impact of technology on the way we work (and play). I hope you’ll come by to check out what I’ll be writing about at blognation USA technology and consider it another great resource for keeping abreast of the ever-changing landscape in which we live and a forum for great conversation and debate about the implications of the technological revolutions occurring all around us.

And, if you have plans to attend the Office 2.0 Conference in San Francisco (September 6-7) or DEMOfall 2007 in San Diego (September 25-26), look me up. You can reach me at marc [dot] orchant [at] blognation [dot] com.

August 8th, 2007

Heading to Gnomedex

Posted by Marc Orchant @ 6:34 am

Categories: Blogs, Events

Tags: Event, Marc Orchant

I’m heading up to Seattle for Gnomedex which kicks off tomorrow evening. I’m looking forward to seeing a bunch of my friends and making some new ones too. There should be a lot to blog about from this event which Chris and Ponzi Pirillo, the organizers, have dubbed the Blogosphere’s Conference. Speakers at the event include:

• Guy Kawasaki
• Cali Lewis
• Bad Sinatra (aka Steve Gillmor)
• Justin Kim
• Jason Calacanis
• Brady Forrest
• Darren Barefoot
• and many more

Gnomedex is sponsored this year by: Microsoft, Live Search Maps, HP, AMD, Edgeio, b5 Media, Eyejot, Polar Rose, Google, Palm, Yahoo!, Ustream.tv

July 28th, 2007

What am I reading?

Posted by Marc Orchant @ 11:14 am

Categories: Blogs

Tags: Item, There, Marc Orchant

There’s so much information available that I often come across stuff I find terrificly interesting but difficult to find time to cover. Other items are orthogonal to the topics I focus on here but still of interest to me and, potentially, to you too. So I’ve set up a link blog using Google Reader’s sharing feature. If you’re interested, here’s the link.

May 24th, 2007

Biography meme

Posted by Marc Orchant @ 6:55 am

Categories: Blogs

Tags: Life, Chris Brogan, Marc Orchant

Chris Brogan has kicked off a biography meme – the DIY Autobiography Kit – following a self-revelatory post he published yesterday. Sounds like fun so here goes…

A Quick Sketch Biography of Marc Orchant

The thing most people know me for is… either my passion for gadges or my deep and ongoing interests in personal and team productivity. Oh… and my proclivity for juggling many, many projects and pursuits at one time.

The people I associate the most with are… the network of friends and cohorts I work with around the globe on a daily basis in my professional work and my online life. What’s been truly grand over the past three or four years is how many of the virtual friendships have been consummated in “real life”. Part of this is living away from the epicenter of the industries I’m involved with and part of it is that there are just so many completely fascinating people out there to get to know.

People who have influenced my life are…

1. My parents who taught me so many things but most importantly that the key to living a fulfilled life is to pursue your passion.
2. My wife who reminds me daily about the importance of seeing the creative possibilities in the mundane.
3. My kids who remind me daily about the legacy I’m leaving this world.
4. David Allen whose GTD productivity principles literally changed my life.
5. Jeff P. Van Dyke who taught me more about building a great company than anyone else I’ve worked with.
6. Miles Davis who taught me that there is no percentage in following the crowd.

One challenge I took on and overcame was… quitting smoking (4 years ago). One of the hardest and smartest things I’ve ever done in my life (starting was the single dumbest thing I’ve ever done).

My early years, before you probably got to know me were… spent as a graphic designer, journalist, and managing editor. I’m in recovery.

You might not know this, but … I’ve been a faithful Mac user since there were Macs to use despite many people’s current impression that I’m a “Windows guy”. I’m actually working towards complete platform agnosticism because the world has become too much a place filled people wielding hammers looking for nails to pound.

I’m passionate about… writing, connecting with people and connecting them with others, fixing what’s broken in education and the world of work, and leaving things better than when I arrived.

In the next year or two, I hope to… write more books, travel more, meet more interesting people, and complete my migration from working for a specific company to working with a variety of interesting organizations and people on a variety of projects.

There you have it. Chris has provided a copy-and-paste template if you want to play along.

May 21st, 2007

Does it make any sense to "hate" Microsoft?

Posted by Marc Orchant @ 10:05 am

Categories: Blogs, Mac, Windows

Tags: Desktop, Linux, Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp., Marc Orchant

Marc Wagner at the ZDNet Education IT blog asks a question that has come up here (and elsewhere) many times. “Why do so many people hate Microsoft?” Marc begins his post exploring some of the antipathy that exists between the pro-Microsoft and pro-*NIX crowds with relative dispassion and points to a general lack of civility in our culture as the meta-driver for the flame wars that seem to spontaneously combust whenever a pro-Microsoft or pro-Linux post or comment is made.

Ultimately though, Marc seems to think that the relative state of market share enjoyed by Windows and Linux, is a major cause of the boorish behavior on both sides of the divide and is a direct outcome of a decision made by Linux vendors not to compete directly for the desktop with Microsoft. A substantial percentage of the comments to his post seem to agree. Not surprisingly, an almost equal percentage don’t. Marc concludes:

Well, it’s time for our readers to realize that Microsoft is not to blame for the small market share enjoyed by desktop Linux. Just as Apple decided over two decades ago not to compete with Microsoft in the commodity desktop, so have the Linux vendors.

Until they decide to give Microsoft a run for it’s money, Microsoft will continue to dominate and nothing Linux desktop users can say will change that.

Personally, I think this is missing the real point in the debate. Whenever I see these arguments burst into flames, there’s more to the contention than market share. It’s obvious, for example, that the Mac ios not destined to be the dominant computing platform. Apple is quite comfortable with this relaity as are many Mac users. Yet the flames continue.

Similarly, I spent many years working with grizzled old *NIX developers and administrators who also realized that railing against the then-emergent Microsoft hegemony was a waste of time. What did they do? Spent hours bickering over the relative superiority of emacs and vi.

Here at Office Evolution, we’ve had some pretty spirited debates about Outlook and Notes. No one is ever going to convince a Notes devotee that Outlook is “better”. The same thing applies in reverse. So what? We almost always see these arguments settle on agreement that whatever works for you is good for you (with an occasional final jab of “even though what I use is better”). Neener, neener.

I think the contentiousness is part of the geek DNA to be honest with you. We geeks seem to like to argue as one of our favorite indoor sports. And that’s all well and good when kept within certain  limits. Geeks have been arguing since the days of Plato and Socrates (yes, I know they were Greeks but they were geeks too).

There’s also a certain undeniable tendency many of us have to be “right”. To influence others to see our point of view. To be in the know. And the majority. On the winning side.

If you equate “winning” with market share, it’s pretty foolhardy to argue that anyone but Microsoft has won. If, on the other hand, you see “winning” as achieving the strategic objectives an organization has used to define success, then I think you get a place where you can let go of the notion that there can be only one winner.

I remember many years ago, when Steve Jobs first returned to Apple and said in a historic keynote that “we have to let go of the idea that in order for Apple to win, Microsoft has to lose”. I’m paraphrasing - those might not have been his exact words but they certainly support the spirit of what he said that day. It’s one of the smartest things I think he’s ever said. And I think the company has prospered since then, in large measure, because they’ve left the demonization of Microsoft to others.

That’s not to say Apple doesn’t enjoy tweaking Microsoft’s nose. The “I’m a Mac” ads are a perfect example, as are the banners hanging at every MacWorld event and in Apple’s stores. But these days at Apple, it’s all about being different and better, not bigger.

Bigger just isn’t going to happen. Not for Apple. Not for Linux. Microsoft’s market dominance may change in the future but it won’t be in the immediate future. So let’s move on.

May 15th, 2007

Cory Doctorow on taming the trolls

Posted by Marc Orchant @ 3:03 pm

Categories: Blogs

Tags: Cory Doctorow, Troll, Marc Orchant

Great, great post on the InformationWeek blog by Boing Boing founder, author, and deep thinker Cory Doctorow on how to deal with trolls. It turns out that nuclear science is a great metaphor for managing community and the secret lies in "twiddling the rods" in just the right fashion. Just go read it… you won't be sorry.

H/T to Seth Godin for pointing this one out – it's a keeper. 

May 14th, 2007

WordPress client for the Nokia N800

Posted by Marc Orchant @ 8:11 pm

Categories: Blogs, Gadgetry, Software, Utilities and Add-Ins

Tags: Nokia Corp., Tablet, Wordpress, Marc Orchant

Just got back from a trip to New York City and catching up on RSS feeds I see that a newWordPress cleint for the Nokia N800 Internet Tablet has been released. WordPy is a pretty full-featured client for the Maemo Linux OS and runs on both the Nokia 770 and 800 tablets. WordPy requires Python. I'll get this set up this week and give it a try. Looks like the N800 just got another great use added to its bag of tricks.

H/T to Jonathan Greene. 

May 3rd, 2007

A collection of Mac tidbits

Posted by Marc Orchant @ 8:24 am

Categories: Blogs, Gadgetry, Google, Hardware, Mac, Mobility, Productivity, Software, Utilities and Add-Ins, Web Apps

Tags: Apple Macintosh, Nokia Corp., Marc Orchant

Yesterday was a good day if you're a Mac user. Here are three nice things I came across while catching up on RSS feeds last night:

• Flickr has released a new Universal Binary of the Flickr Uploadr tool for the Mac (can I buy a vowel please?). According the the download page, "this release has options to set your uploaded images based on content filters and also has some changes that make Uploadr start up faster than before."
• A new beta of Twitterific, a Mac OS-only client for the micro-blogging service was released… yes, you guessed it… on the developer's Twitter page. Some very interesting new features in this release. If you're twittering on a Mac, it's well worth a look. If not… well…
• Maybe you use a Symbian-powered phone with your Mac and want to make the most of the combination. Having just received the latest and greatest from the Nokia Blogger Relations program – the amazing Nokia N95 – I was delighted to find a blog dedicated to this combination. It's called Mac.sis. I'll be posting a look at the N95 shortly. Paired with the Nokia N800 internet tablet and a wireless Bluetooth keyboard, we're talking about an entirely new  definition of ultra portable computing.

And, as a bonus for GTD fans on all platforms, check out the extensive guide to using Google Notebook as a GTD actions and project collection tool posted on the LifeHacker blog yesterday. It's a well-conceived approach for those of you who are a) comfortable (or at least resigned) to the fact that Google knows everything about your life anyway and b) have the kind of connectivity and workstyle that lets you work on the net at all times

April 21st, 2007

Instant e-mail message form: Contactify

Posted by Marc Orchant @ 7:27 pm

Categories: Blogs, Software, Utilities and Add-Ins, Web Apps

Tags:

I just came across Contactify via Digital Inspiration. This is a very nice solution if you want to add a way for people reading your blog to be able to contact you without a lot of heavy lifting. It's also a great way to add a "contact me" link in your signature in forums, Usenet groups, and other public discussion space where you might not want to publish your actual e-mail address.

Give it a try by clicking this link. 

April 19th, 2007

Pssst... Vonage, want to buy some IP?

Posted by Marc Orchant @ 2:31 pm

Categories: Blogs, Mobility

Tags:

On VoIP Watch, my friend Andy Abramson tells an interesting story today that is both topical and illuminating in a higher altitude sort of way about the vagaries of intellectual property, patents, and litigation. According to Andy's story, it appears that US Robotics (nee 3Com) holds a patent that is extremely similar to the one Verizon is using to try to force Vonage to shut down ongoing sales operations. In theory, if I read the story correctly, Vonage could conceivably license the IP from 3Com to defend itself from Verizon. That's interesting in and of itself as this courtroom drama unfolds.

What makes this a multi-dimensional tale though, and what really piqued my interest was that both of these patents were apparently applied for and granted at about the same time back in 1996. Both address address mapping computers, VOIP phone devices, and regular phones to each other using the PSTN and the Internet using central lookup servers to match phone numbers and IP addresses.

The whole patent and trademark process is incredibly complex, confusing, and rife with problems. I'm neither a lawyer nor an expert in these technologies by any stretch of the imagination so it's beyond my ability to say whether this idea has any applicability to the Vonage-Verizon battle. If true, it would make an already emotionally charged story even more dramatic. I'm hoping some experts – either on the law or the technology – respond to Andy's call for comment and discussion.

Update: Alec Saunders weighs in on this in a post titled Stockpiling Warheads.