I want to start by emphatically stating that I am not some Google fanboy! I don’t ogle over everything released from Google! I really couldn’t care less about Google Buzz, except that I think it will draw the “social media” junkies away from Google Wave and they can start to seriously market Google Wave as a real-time business collaboration tool.

But, let’s start with what Google Buzz is and what it allows you to do:

• No setup needed

Automatically follow the people you email and chat with the most in Gmail.

• Share publicly or privately

Publish your ideas to the world or just to your closest friends.

• Inbox integration

Comments get sent right to your inbox so it’s easy to keep the conversation going.

• Photo friendly

See thumbnails with each post, and browse full-screen photos from popular sites.

• Connect sites you already use

Import your stuff from Twitter, Picasa, Flickr, and Google Reader.

• See updates in real time

New posts and comments pop in as they happen. No refresh required.

• Just the good stuff

Buzz recommends interesting posts and weeds out ones you’re likely to skip.

Also, they provided a video showing Buzz in action:

Ok, so Bravo! I think! I am not a big “Social Media” junkie. Not sure I need everything linked together like that or not. I will certainly give it a go, but I tend not to get to excited about this kind of stuff. Might find it useful, might not. I still don’t use Facebook..and won’t. Whatever that means or tells you about me.

Regardless, the real meaning of this post is that I think this will be a very, very good thing for Google Wave. Instead of comparing Google Wave to all the other social media stuff out there and whether it will replace Twitter or replace Facebook, folks can concentrate on defining Google Wave for what it is and what it does.

Google Wave, as I have said time and time again is the best real-time business collaboration tool available. Although, Novell’s Pulse and IBM’s Project Vulcan are going to battle for that marketplace share also. I expect and hope that at Google I/O 10 the Google Wave team will roll out Google App integration and start to spin this whole project as the must have Business collaboration tool.

They need a great “Steve Jobs-esque” type presentation – Here is your great problem…and here is your magical, mystical, futuristic solution that you will now never be able to live without.

They need a great “Steve Jobs-esque” type presentation – Here is your great problem…and here is your magical, mystical, futuristic solution that you will now never be able to live without. Because,…Google Wave could be that tool and live up to the hype….as they continue adding and tweaking functionality in the preview version and get ready for Alpha and Beta releases.

Google Buzz can deal with all the “buzz” that you get with the social media crowd. Google Wave can concentrate on the “I’m a big boy now” serious business crowd and offer them a serious business Web 2.0 product. I am also very curious as to how much Google Wave type technology might be present in Google Buzz. Moreover, if Google Buzz was conscious decision to try and deflect the social media crowd from Google Wave and to somehting that might more be what they want. Don’t know, just speculating…or, conspiring

What do you think? Will Google Buzz be good or bad for Google Wave?

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I have spoken about Novell Pulse and IBM’s Project Vulcan in recent posts. I have not mentioned, however, the offering from SAP called Constellation.

The idea from SAP is to have a cloud based tool called 12Sprints that will allow users to collaborate in real time. They describe the product as:

A VIRTUAL WAR ROOM

It’s not just a place where things get discussed. It’s where things get done.
Invite the right people from inside and outside your company. Bring in the pertinent data. And choose the most informed course of action with the help of pre-defined, interactive decision-making tools. Secure, hosted, real-time, collaborative decision-making. Everything you need to get everyone on the same page — finally under one roof.

Here is a video of 12Sprints:

If you would like to sign up to beta test 12Sprints you can by going to the Beta Registration Page. They provide the following instructions:

Fill out the following form to register to participate in the free SAP codename 12sprints Beta program. After registering with your email address below, we will be in contact with you shortly.

As a Beta tester, we might ask you to help us make the product better. We hope you can:

- Log onto a hosted version of the application and test out the system
- Receive occasional announcements emails
- Provide feedback and answer occasional surveys on how the application is working for you
- Participate in occasional web conferences and online discussion groups

Benefits of being a Beta tester:

- Use the platform for free during the Beta
- Help drive the development and design process

SAP has also indicated that they will be offering this product as an applicance that can be set-up and reside locally to allow for an INTRANET cloud vice an INTERNET cloud….thus, keeping your data more secure and contained within your INTRANET.

So, by my count that makes three (big-time) competitors to that we have spoken about here on this site. At least in the enterprise domain, and we haven’t even mentioned PBWorks or MindTouch (oops…guess we just did). This space is starting to get pretty busy and crowded. It is going to be very interesting to see how it all shakes out over the next year.

In the mean time, I will keep signing up to test drive these Betas as I am really just concerned is seeing this technology advance as far and as fast as possible.

What do you think of Constellation and 12Sprints? Have you signed up to be a Beta tester?

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co-founder, Mr. Lars Rasmussen gave a presentation and interview at TechFest 2010 in Bombay, India last week.

After his presentation he gave an interview to Only Gizmos where he talked about , Google Maps and his move from entrepreneur to Google employee. It was a very interesting interview, is only about 6 mins long and worth watching in its entirety.

He comments regarding IBM’s Project Vulcan was very interesting. It sounded to me that they were taken a little by surprise by this product. Lars indicated they had talked with IBM, but not particularly about Project Vulcan. However, I agree with him that we do not need multiple protocols in this field. Thus, I hope that future talks between IBM’s Project Vulcan team and the Google Wave team will lead so some sort of agreement on a joint way forward that will allow the two to co-exist and interact.

I was happy to hear that working on making more like email (i.e. have a Cc and Bcc functionality) is low on the list of priorities. Frankly, I hope they are working round the clock on nothing else but Google Apps integration.

Lastly, they have reported on Only Gizmos that during the speech Mr. Rasmussen announced that the Google Wave invites would soon come to an end and that they were looking to offer multi-language support in . They say:

While most of the actual lecture didn’t quite reveal anything substantially new, he did let the audience know that Google was working on about 40 languages for Wave- and proceeded with a demo for the same. He also let slip that the Wave invite process would come to a halt in a few months- anyone can then sign up for Wave on the website.

However, the most important part, I think, is that they will be talking with IBM regarding Project Vulcan and how the two will be able to interface together. With IBM and Novell now firmly entrenched in this area the window for Google to carve out the enterprise footprint is rapidly closing. They are going to have to “WOW’ again with Google Apps integration. I think Novell and IBM will have clear business models and marketing strategy on their product going forward. I hope Google will also.

I have advocated for a long time here on this blog that the real benefit for is in the workplace. I think the malaise you hear from the general population towards only emphasis’ that assertion. It’s real power and the no-brainer problem that solves is real-time workplace collaboration. Novell and IBM are presenting that…very effectively, I might add. Google is trying to define it as all things for all people. It may be…in the future. But, for now, concentrate on marketing it and developing it as a real-time workflow collaboration tool. That, in my mind, is the only market that will be profitable.

Now, I may be proven wrong. I hope I am. In fact, Google has a lot of really smart people working for them that probably have lots of great ideas on how this will make them a gazillion dollars down the line. But, the enterprise model for is a no-brainer and if they get by-passed in this market it will be unforgivable.

As always, please share your thoughts on this post. What do you think of Project Vulcan? What do you think about no more invites?

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Last week at Lotosphere 2010, IBM announced Project Vulcan which Ed Brill, IBM chief of product management for Lotus software, describes as:

IBM Project Vulcan is not a brand-new effort.  It builds on the existing capabilities, and represents the future versions of, the IBM Lotus product portfolio — including Notes.  One of its key themes is social analytics and business analytics combined and applied to industry-specific scenarios — making collaboration more focused and relevant.  The vision of Project Vulcan intends to deliver collaboration across company boundaries; make it easy to deploy the technology; and include developer-friendly services and APIs.

Moreover, Mr. Brill says that:

Project Vulcan is the blueprint for where Lotus Notes is going.  We’ll continue to support your existing Notes apps — we have for 20 years, it only makes sense to continue — but we’ll add these loosely-coupled services to bring in more value, attention, and focus.  Project Vulcan gives us a structure for innovation, for delivering on that next leap forward in collaboration and productivity.

During their mini-keynote address, Ed Brill, director of product management for Lotus Software, and Kevin Cavanaugh, vice president of messaging and collaboration, said the Notes entry point to Vulcan comes in 2011 after the 8.5.2 release.

So we now have a new player on the scene offering a collection of business collaboration tools. Moreover, IBM is taking a page from Google and offering the ability for developers to sign up at the LotusLive Labs website. Project Vulcan is scheduled to be available in beta on the LotusLive Labs in the second half of 2010. I have already signed up and am really looking forward to getting my “invite”. Obviously, IBM is hoping that the LotusLive Labs preview of Project Vulcan will offer some of the similar hype that Google Wave experienced. Moreover, some valuable user feedback.

Similar to what we wrote about Novell Pulse it becomes clear that Google must announce their business solution soon. Even if it just as IBM has done – Saying this is the direction we are developing toward. If they do not, they are risking that others that already have a larger footprint in the business area then they do will start to define that space before (and for) them. Thus, folks will be getting excited about what is to come from them and not about where Google is going with Google Wave.

I think  Novell Pulse and Project Vulcan is exciting and I can hardly wait to see those products and play with them. But, I would love hear from Google about their vision of how they see Google Wave, Google Voice and Google Apps all fitting together in the future…and when they think that future will be.

What do you think about this announcement from IBM? Will you be signing up in the LotusLive Labs and be giving Project Vulcan a try? Leave your thoughts below.

photos by Fabio Pignatti

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One of the most anticipated releases (in  world anyhow) for 2010 will be Novell Pulse™. Which, they claim will work seamlessly with  so you, your colleagues and partners can get down to business in realtime.

If you are not familiar with the Novell Pulse™ product you should watch the video below:

Novell™, if you are not familiar, are the makers of ™, ™ and…….big contributors and supporters of ™! That is a big deal. If they can get ™ working well in Pulse™ and if Google™ can get Google Apps working well in  and they are working together to get Pulse™ and  to “work seamlessly” then it will really be a big deal when it is finally announced. They did mention the first half of 2010 which coincides nicely with Google I/O 2010.

The interesting part about this is that Novell™ is a serious business provider. Moreover, their quote regarding security for Pulse in the press release is encouraging:

“Security and identity management remain top concerns for enterprise companies considering real-time, social solutions,” said Caroline Dangson, Research Analyst, Enterprise Collaboration and Social Solutions at IDC. “Novell has a proven record in security and identity management, which is an important strength it brings to its new collaboration platform, Novell Pulse. Novell’s interoperability with Google Wave is another interesting application of its new collaboration platform in supporting mixed IT environments and demonstrates Novell’s strategy toward real-time, social sharing and collaboration.”

Novell has decided that the business for them in the future will be collaborative business solutions. See the latest powerpoint presention on the subject given by Richard Lindstedt of Novell, Inc:

For me, however, it is not clear just how close these two are working together. I’m not clear at all how serious Google™ is about the business apps end of Google Wave™ or, are they just trying to make something that transplants Twitter™ and Facebook™ (fat chance of that, btw). The problem that Google™ will have with the business end of things is that Novell™, it seems, is going to have a running head start. Pulse™ is not trying to be anything but  for business, and, from the video above, I think they are clearly on the right track. Perhaps OpenOffice™ and Google Apps™availability in  will be simultaneous at I/O 10. Not sure how that benefits Novell™. So, you see…I am not convinced that these two are working very tightly together on the business apps side of the house. Perhaps they are only working together on Federation, but no further.

Regardless, for me Novell Pulse™ will be a much anticipated release. Hopefully I will be right about I/O 10…as you know I plan on attending and expect (or want) big  news. In their press release they state:

Novell Pulse will be generally available in the first half of 2010 in a cloud deployment, and with an on-premise deployment option in a subsequent release.

The on-premise appliance will be very big news. It will essentially be a Enterprise Wave appliance for your INTRANET. Very exciting.

Oh almost forgot…..Hello….Hello, Microsoft™ are you still out there….what are you doing in this space?

As always, please share your thoughts below. We love to hear your thoughts!

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