Will Kelly

The Tools of My Trade: 2009 Edition

By tradition, at the end of every year, I take a look back both personally and professionally over the previous 12 months. This year—especially with 2009 being a challenging year—was no different. Part of this year’s review was taking a look at the tools I use on a daily basis to get my work done to make sure I had the right mix for productivity and hadn’t fallen into any of the latest fads or had software just idling away when I should really decommission it and streamline my workflow.

My Favorite Web Apps for 2009

Web applications play a major part in my current professional work and there are some rather than others that join my list of favorites. Starting to write for WebWorkerDaily this year really gave me exposure to a lot of new applications and web services. Here are some of my favorite web services for 2009:

Apps I am watching in 2010

I get a lot of exposure to new applications writing for WebWorkerDaily and just plain being a technology early adopter. As 2009 is coming to a close, there are some applications that I plan to keep an eye on in 2010 both as a writer and future user.

Microsoft Office 2010. Through multiple lives as a computer book technical reviewer and later a technology writer, I've been tooling around with Microsoft Office Betas since Office 2000 and can say the stability, speed, and usability in the Office 2010 Technical Preview blows them all away and I look forward to seeing this latest version of the venerable Office suite go final.

My Initial Thoughts about Google Chrome OS

The recent news conference and related buzz around the Google Chrome OS really got me thinking about if the industry is ready for another OS especially after reading this eweek.com piece:

As the world prepares for the release of Google's Chrome OS, a Web-based operating system that Google announced earlier in 2009 and that is expected to be previewed Nov. 19, it's important for everyone to consider the implications of the release. For the first time in quite a while, a major company is jumping into the operating system space to compete with Microsoft and Apple. It will be an important launch that could have a real and meaningful impact on the market. Apple won't need to worry about the release of Chrome OS nearly as much as Microsoft will. Apple is a hardware company. Mac OS X holds a relatively small percentage of market share in the software space and it isn't competing against Windows-based netbooks. But Microsoft does need to worry about Google and its Chrome operating system. Microsoft is competing heavily in the netbook market, on which Chrome OS has its sights firmly set. Moreover, it has online services of its own, in Azure and Office Online, that underscore its desire to move to the Web. Simply put, there is a lot at stake for Microsoft when Chrome OS is released. And it needs to act quickly to stymie Chrome OS' growth. Until then, Microsoft should fear Chrome OS. Here's why:Resource Library:1. Google keeps growing

via www.eweek.com

WWD Post: Acrobat.com Revamped--Better Interface, New Features

Over the weekend, Adobe launched a revamped version of Acrobat.com, its web office and collaboration suite. This is the first major upgrade to the service since it left beta last summer (as covered by Thursday) and provides some much-needed productivity enhancements to this service.

via webworkerdaily.com

Google is hanging up on GrandCentral.com

I caught the following news on News.com:

Google Voice, of course, is the new version of the GrandCentral technology Google acquired in July 2007. Under the service, people pick a phone number from Google Voice; when others call it, Google can ring all the actual phones a person uses and handle voice mail.

via news.cnet.com

While this may not seem like big news, it does make me think further about the implications of Google's recent acquisition of Gizmo5 for Google Voice. Depending how Google manages the acquisition and the integration of the technologies and it could have the potential of being a real game changer.

Importing Email & Contacts into Gmail

 
Gmail is increasingly becoming the email provider of choice for many individuals and organizations alike. Google is well aware of that fact and recently rolled out a new Import Mail & Contacts feature that joins Gmail settings. I found the new feature in my Gmail account but didn't see it in a Google Apps account I maintain under a personal domain.

The new import feature is a simple affair. Go to your Gmail settings and open the Accounts and Import tab. Click on Import Mail & Contacts and a new browser window appears. Enter the email address of the email account you want to import into Gmail.  Click Continue.

WWD Post: Taking Corporate Microblogging Mobile

Corporate email is becoming increasingly less effective for project communications in today’s geographically dispersed work teams. It’s gradually being displaced by solutions like Microsoft SharePoint, instant messaging and even social media tools.

via webworkerdaily.com

WWD Post: Access Office Live Workspace or SharePoint from Office 2008 Mac

Microsoft collaboration software is the typical corporate tool of choice, which, by extension, means that the Windows version of Microsoft Office was the office productivity suite of choice. However, a recent update to Microsoft Office 2008 for the Mac now enables Mac users to access both Microsoft SharePoint sites and Office Live Workspace.

via webworkerdaily.com

WWD Post: 5 Web Office Considerations: Beyond the Buzz

Recently, we covered the release of the Microsoft Office 2010 Web Apps Technical Preview. While it was great to get a first look at this release, it was even more interesting to pull back and read the flurry of blog postings, pundit pontifications, tweets and articles that were all over the web, ranging from those stating that this was the end of Microsoft Office, to those saying that Microsoft Office 2010 Web Apps is going to wipe Google Apps and Zoho off the map.

via webworkerdaily.com

I am a regular user of Google Docs (in fact I wrote this WWD post in Google Docs) and have experience supporting the roll out of Microsoft Office in a major government agency. Additionally, throughout my career, I've had to resolve a number of document publishing issues rooted in Microsoft Word and templates.

Web Office suites do have their place and are examples of innovation in my opinion. However, organizations have a lot of things to consider before implementing a Web Office solution that is beyond the current buzz surrounding these services.

WWD Post: Corporate Telecommuting: The H1N1 Virus Edition

News of a possible H1N1 virus, or “Swine Flu,” pandemic is causing many commercial firms and government agencies to examine their Continuity of Operations (COOP) plans so business can soldier on during the crisis. The threat of an H1N1 outbreak is even prompting the United States Centers for Disease Control to recommend that small businesses have telework and business continuity plans in place.

via webworkerdaily.com

My latest post to WebWorkerDaily was inspired by one too many discussions about how an organization can extend their infrastructure in short order to maintain a continuity of operations in the advent of an H1N1 virus outbreak.

WWD Post: When Evernote Meets Twitter

Along with the addition of collaboration features, Evernote now integrates with Twitter. My first reaction to this news was that Evernote was falling into the “me too” trap that some companies get into with social media, especially with Twitter.

via webworkerdaily.com

My latest WebWorkerDaily post went live today. It is the second time I've written about Evernote and look forward to seeing what else is coming from their product roadmap.

Social Media, Internal Communications, and the Enterprise

Social Media is becoming an increasing requirement for communications in the enterprise. Web Journal 2.0 recently had a great post on this very subject:

Social Media Inching Its Way into the Enterprise — Social software technologies are exposing the holes in corporate communication and collaboration and at times filling them before the enterprise can fully grasp and control the flow. In a new study released this week, user-experience research firm Nielsen Norman Group found that many of the most successful social media initiatives on company intranets start as underground, grassroots efforts led by front-line workers, and which later are officially sanctioned by the enterprise.

Deciding On My Next Primary Desktop PC

I am still one of those writers who uses a desktop PC. Reason being is that I like the fact I can have a lot of hard disk, heavy duty processing power, and two large screen monitors. While I use a MacBook Pro as my other primary writing machine--nothing beats a large monitor for my eyes.

The Intersection of Social Media, the Web Office & Technical Writing

I've been spending some of my downtime contemplating the intersection of Social Media, Web Offices, and technical writing. These technological and platform changes are going to overwhelm the technical writers who have been doing their job the same day from when they fired up their first employer's PC on day 1 of their first job out of college.

WordPress and LinkedIn

LinkedIn is really pressing forward with the integration of third-party applications and Web services into their platform. All in all, this is a prudent move for LinkedIn to keep pace with social networking and to do the best to augment their platform.

Their integration with WordPress means LinkedIn users can tie into their WordPress site and have their latest posts  show up in their LinkedIn profile.

Random and Recent Projects

I've been in a real tinkering mode as of late. Perhaps it's because I reread my copy of the Lifehacker book at the pool over last weekend.

Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 showing some love to the Mac?

When I was writing my post about building the better corporate instant messaging deployment I was using my MacBook Pro. A Google search on Windows Live Messenger turned up this very Mac centric page about Microsoft Messenger: mac and Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007:

Zoho Office for SharePoint Launches

Zoho recently made a very strategic move by launching Zoho Office for SharePoint because of SharePoint's growing dominance in the enterprise. It seems everybody I am speaking to about potential projects these days is using Microsoft Office SharePoint Services 2007 for secure document collaboration inside their firewall.

Box.net on LinkedIn

I've written before on this blog about the convergence of social networking, online collaboration tools, and the Web Office.

LinkedIn, a business-focused social networking site is jumping into that fray by offering up integration to a free Box.net account. This is a great vehicle for posting writing samples (that are in the public domain) and even Word or PDF versions of resumes to make them accessible on LinkedIn.