September 25th, 2007

Zimbra plays matchmaker for Comcast and Yahoo!

Posted by Maurene Caplan Grey @ 7:18 am

Categories: Digital media, E-communications, Messaging, Web 2.0

Tags: Comcast Corp., Yahoo! Inc., Zimbra, TiVo Inc., Tv & Home Theater, TVs, Internet, Personal Technology, Home Entertainment, Maurene Caplan Grey

Earlier this year, Comcast announced their planned launch of SmartZone Communications Center — targeted for late 2007. Jay Fortner in Read/Write Web offers an excellent description of Smart Zone, components of which will result from Comcast’s technology partnerships with Zimbra (messaging) and Plaxo (contact management).

SmartZone Home Page

Last week, Yahoo! announced that they are acquiring Zimbra. Zimbra is a start-up that “has made a name for itself” through aggressive product development. From Between the Lines:

Zimbra has a browser-based client and supports Windows, Apple, and Linux desktops, as well as Microsoft Outlook a variety of mobile devices. On the server side, Zimbra supports Red Hat, Mac, Ubuntu, SUSE and Fedora. Version 5.0 is due later this year, and adds numerous features, such as multiple mail identities, personal distribution lists, advanced search in the administration console, instant messaging, external directory support and delegated mailbox and mail folders.

Yahoo!’s acquisition of Zimbra offsets Google’s evolving application arsenal. However, I believe that the Zimbra acquisition will be a significant part of a framework leading to a powerful alliance between Yahoo! and Comcast. Read the rest of this entry »

June 27th, 2007

Web 2.0: Where "low-fi is the next high-fi"

Posted by Maurene Caplan Grey @ 7:57 am

Categories: Blogs, Digital media, E-communications, Social media, Web 2.0, Wiki

Tags: Web, Web 2.0, IP, Maurene Caplan Grey

My audience [will] live a happier, easier life here on the web!

Well, you’re gonna be a rock star with this!

Simple, entertaining, funny, and informative!

… and my personal favorite

You made it so simple, even my parents could understand it.

These are a sampling of comments received by the folk at CommonCraft.

CommonCraft has mastered the art of simplifying the complicated. They call it paperworks, and “believe lo-fi is the new hi-fi.”

Let’s say that tomorrow you need to give a presentation to your non-technical boss on the value of wikis. You could start with the Wikipedia definition of “wiki” — or you could start your presentation with this video.

Human communication fails when people speak different languages and do not have a translator or a common goal — for example, when the IT system engineer talks about IP (Internet Protocol) with the marketing design team responsible for IP (intellectual property).

I rarely gush over vendor products or services… but gosh darn it, this type of “2.0″ tutorial was just so easy to understand.

June 25th, 2007

Reality television leads to "unreality" communications

Posted by Maurene Caplan Grey @ 10:54 am

Categories: Digital media, E-communications, Social media

Tags: Internet, TV, Reality Television, Maurene Caplan Grey

I’m not a fan of today’s reality television.  I don’t really want to know that Sharon Osbourne likes to flash her son’s friends. However, there is a certain amount of voyeurism in all of us, which today’s reality television exploits and numbs us to the reality of unreality.

We now have the e-communicative tools to expose much of our private lives to anyone with access to the Internet, including Grandma Frieda. In fact, it’s common practice for future employers and college admission officers to check YouTube and MySpace for your possible transgressions - à la Paris Hilton.  

Discussing privacy and Twitter, eWeek.com writer, Jim Rapoza, says, “Obviously there are different levels of privacy, and the point at which it becomes an issue is different for everyone,” to which a reader commented:

But it still comes down to a matter of choice and control, and privacy advocates would be well to emphasize these aspects and insist that laws, regulations, and systems be constructed to allow the power to decide to stay in the hands of the individual.

Let’s say that I choose to post a photo of myself as a Las Vegas showgirl on the Internet. That’s my constitutional right. A month from now, I say to myself “What was I thinking!” Has the boldness of today’s reality television numbed our sensibilities in how we communicate on the Internet? Has the virtual reality of Internet communications (video, audio, Twitter, blogs and so on) dumbed down our thinking to the potential ”unreality” exposed on the Internet for perpetuity?

June 5th, 2007

Word of mouth marketing: It's all about love

Posted by Maurene Caplan Grey @ 9:07 am

Categories: Blogs, Customer Service, E-communications, Web 2.0, Word of Mouth Marketing (WOMM)

Tags: Marketing, Microsoft Word, Social Bookmarking, Blog, Maurene Caplan Grey

I do my food shopping at Stop & Shop (a East Coast chain) — mainly because I can flip through the online weekly sales flyer. I click on the items that I want and they are added to my shopping list, which I then print. Now that you know, you may do your marketing at Stop & Shop also.

The really smart companies give people a reason to talk about their stuff, and they make it easy for that conversation to take place, said Andy Sernovitz in his June 1 INBOX keynote.  Andy is the author of Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking and the founder of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association. 

As Andy pointed out, word of mouth marketing (WOMM) is all about love. Love makes the world (and business) go ’round, because it’s viral. Did I mention that I get coupons for free Bath and Body Works products, merely because I shop there?

I’ve plugged two retailers and Andy’s book in this blog post, the record of which will live forever in the Blogosphere. Piggyback onto this post by adding a Comment with the names of your favorite retailers. Add this blog post to your favorite social bookmarking service, e.g., del.cio.us, and share your bookmarks with others.

To really spread the love, start or contribute to a blog meme. One of my favorite bloggers, Chris Garrett, promotes the Charity Link Meme.

Did you love (or at least like) this blog post? If so, tell others.

May 31st, 2007

Email Abdicates Its Throne

Posted by Maurene Caplan Grey @ 12:16 pm

Categories: E-communications, Email, Messaging, Unified Communications, Unified Messaging

Tags: Electronic Communication, E-mail, Maurene Caplan Grey

In April and May, I conducted a quick poll  – asking “What media do you use? Multiple answers allowed.” The 444 responses broke out as follows:

My Web site readership is composed primarily of enterprise knowledge workers. A quick analysis of the responses shows that email continues to be the predominant means of e-communications — however, “by a nose.” (With the exception of Twitter, other one-to-many types of e-communication, e.g., blogs and Web conferencing, were not part of the poll). Not surprisingly, people are increasingly using multiple forms of e-communications. However, I’d bet that each communication media is used independently. The greater the number of e-communication media being used, the greater the risk for information overload.

Play Video

Tech Test: Twitter.com Informs, Overwhelms  Associated Press - (APTN) Apr. 11, 2007. 01:48 PM EST.

I’m typing this blog post from INBOX 2007. Jeff Ressler of Microsoft delivered this morning’s keynote on unified communications (UC). UC pulls the various types of e-communications into one messaging stream. To the user, silos are gone.

Today, UC is marketing buzz within the “average” enterprise — which is earnestly watching the early adopter, UC-enabled enterprises.

To be clear, email messaging is not going away. Rather, increasingly it is being augmented by other, synergistic types of messaging (some text, some voice, some visual… ). Email is abdicating its throne in favor of becoming a member of the e-communications community — a key member with a rich history, but still a member.

I’ll be blogging my commentary this week from INBOX.