frogpond

Google Docs & Presentations (nicely explained …)

Another great video, this time on Google Docs:

And yes, the long awaited Google Presentation has been launched, it’s of course integrated into docs.google.com, with all collaborative features you know from Docs & Spreadsheets. Yes, you don’t have to CC around those powerpoint presentations any longer, rather you could collaborate on a deck of slides remotely. What I like most about it is the way virtual conferencing is supported, ie. chat and synchronized online viewing of the presentation … This is a feature that is missing in sites like slideshare etc.

For more information, here is the blogoscope review (via Greg).

Information technology and productivity

In the NYT, this report claiming that computers (can) give big boosts to productivity.

Money spent on computing technology delivers gains in worker productivity that are three to five times those of other investments, according to a study being published today.

Well, the study (pdf) was initiated by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, which is in turn supported by companies like IBM and Cisco, so this outcome should come as no surprise.

Anyway, an interesting approach, even when this calls for more profound research, e.g. to differentiate between the different kinds and sources of these productivity gains. And I have no doubt that Peter Drucker’s famous aphorism (and the challenges it poses) are not really met …

“To make knowledge work productive will be the great management task of this century, just as to make manual work productive was the great management task of the last century.”

Peter Drucker, cited again …

IDC on Enterprise 2.0

Bill Ives points to two IDC papers on Enterprise 2.0. They’re funded by Serendipity, a software company, but anyway, it’s interesting stuff, if only because IDC papers get wide circulation and have credibility.

One is called “Getting Results by Empowering the Information Worker: What Web 2.0 Offers Beyond Blogs and Wikis” and is basically a brief and nicely laid out executive summary … you’ve got to register, but the papers are free.

Here’s the introduction for a start:

Like a symphony conductor presiding over an orchestra, enterprise workers complete their daily tasks by processing many pieces of diverse information, and then combining them in a meaningful way. This “orchestration of data” is becoming increasingly difficult, as organizations store more and more data (for performance analysis, compliance, and so on). Furthermore, each type of data is stored, managed, and viewed through a different application, each with its own login, password, and user interface. Consequently, employees spend more time searching, accessing, retrieving, and then using the information to do their jobs. New applications purport to streamline this process, but are usually deployed in business silos, with little or no coordination between business teams. Workers must still access multiple applications to complete a task. The burden on the enterprise information worker intensifies while productivity suffers.

Furthermore, information workers also rely on information stored outside the enterprise network. As business processes become more dependent on real-time feedback, the amalgamation of enterprise business data with publicly available data, in a meaningful and contextual manner, is becoming m ore im portant… and difficult.