What is Cloud Computing?

Who better to explain it than some of the worlds best experts, in this nice 10 minute video

Crowdsourcing - Utilising the Wisdom of Crowds

A new wave of possibility and innovation is here. It has come from the growth of the internet and is blossoming with the introduction of web 2.0. It's called Crowdsourcing.

We are all familiar with the Phraze "Two heads are better than one" - well what about two million heads? Previously it was though that "People" (in masses) are inherently Stupid. However today, if you get a mass of people together to try to solve a problem or come up with ideas, if it can be done with a structure and a set of rules, "people" can indeed be very very smart.

Crowdsourcing takes tasks traditionally done by a single person or small groups of people, and farms them out to a global workforce. The obvious example of this is Wikipedia. But other companies like Dell, Salesforce and even Procter and Gamble have been using it very successfully.

The phraze was coined in 2006 in a Wired Magazine article that can be found here: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.06/crowds.html



More Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowdsourcing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wisdom_of_Crowds

Google Chrome - The browser for the Future

Yesterday Google released "Chrome" the much anticipated new web browser built completely from the ground up. In the spirit of the internet it is completely open source and borrows from both Firefox and Webkits. The browser is quite bare bones and not as feature rich as Firefox 3 for example, but it is a starting point and we can expect massive development to come.

The real reason for Google doing this is to create a better browser capable for web based apps of the future. They fully understand that the browser has changed little to keep up with the new Web/Enterprise 2.0 technologies such as Ajax and XML now widespread in Web Apps. Chrome is built specifically for these and seems to be doing a great job.

Here are a few links for further reading.

- Is Chrome right for the Enterprise?
- Google Chrome - the Enterprise Playbook
- Will the Enterprise dump IE over Chrome?

Here is a nice video from Google explaining the Why behind Chrome:

The Burning Question... What is Enterprise 2.0?

Here are some great articles to find out different peoples opinions and projections for its use in the future:

CIO Magazine - An Introduction to Web 2.0 for the Enterprise: Enterprise 2.0 has the potential to provide knowledge and content management in a surprisingly cheap and easy fashion using Web-based tools.
Fred Cavazza has some interesting thoughts...

Here are a couple of old yet key articles on Enterprise 2.0:
BusinessWeek: Web 2.0 has Corporate America Spinning
Information Week - Web 2.0 Meets the Enterprise - Very comprehensive article on how areas of Web 2.0 impact's the Enterprise.
Sandhill: The Birth of Enterprise 2.0 - and Enterprise Vision
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Some nice little E20 slideshows

Scott Gavin calls himself an Enterprise 2.0 Evangelist

He has some very clear and simple slideshows on E20 that are worth checking out...

Just how much investment is there is Web/Enterprise 2.0?

So far this year, $1.63 Billion has been spent on Web 2.0. And we as consumers have seen some fantastic example sof innovative products as a result of it.

Bring this over to the Enterprise and we are set for a similar spending boom due to promises of increased productivity, better knowledge management and widespread collaboration. Forrester have now released a report to say that E20 will be worth an astonishing $4.6 Billion within 5 years...

Oracle's Definition of "Enterprise 2.0"

Excellent video here from Vince Casarez, vice president of product management at Oracle: What is Enterprise 2.0 - a really excellent short video quickly explaining the benefits that E20 technologies cab bring to the Enterprise.

Andrew McAfee - the founder of Enterprise 2.0

The buzzword of Web 2.0 has been around for quite some time, before the was much Web 2.0 in widespread usage really, but things caught up quickly and now its the hot topic of the internet. It's the 2nd generation of the internet which will revolutionise how we us it. These advanced technologies are bringing a wealth of new possibilities of better access to and better sharing information, and the collaboration around it.

Enterprise 2.0 - is the use of these technologies within and around and organisation to better enable business needs and demands. Andrew McAffee, Associate Professor, Harvard Business School is the man who helped coin this phraze and one of the leading commentators of E20 worldwide. See hos blog here.

Video - Andrew McAffee and Oracle

Some interesting video clips here taken from the Oracle Conference on Enterprise 2.0 where Sonny Singh interviews Andrew McAffee

What is Enterprise 2.0?


The benefits of Web 2.0


Social Networking

The Power of Enterprise Mashups

Most of us have used or at least hear of Mashups, and how they have becomes incredibly useful ways of combining individual web applications to unleash a realm of new possibilities. Google maps is probably used most, overlaying extra information on everything from restaurants and house prices, to criminals and flooding. A Brilliant simple example is Wikimapia, putting a different spin on how we use maps.

It has a huge amount of possibilities for this in the enterprise too.

- ZdNet Video's: The Power of Enterprise Mashups - CRM Mashup
- Wikipedia Article on Mashups
- Infoworld article on Enterprise Mashups
- Enterprise Mashups - SOA Made Sexy
- Mashups aren't just sexy - they're useful for business