There's been lots of talk in the blogosphere about Marissa Mayers decision to tell Yahoo! employees to stop working from home. Hey, even Yahoo! employees were/are discussing it on the web.
James Robertson wrote up a nice post about this decision and also pointed to the fact that Google seems to be like-minded to Yahoo! when it comes to working from home. Also interesting is what he says about the implications of this kind of news for 'the digital workplace'.
One of the things I like about the discussion is that we have to rethink why we like/dislike working from home. And that's one of the things I miss in the discussion about tele-work. Of course commenters rightly wonder what this Yahoo! statement means with respect to trusting employees to decide for themselves where they can get their work done.
However, isn't it also OK to discuss what the pro's and con's of tele-work are. Is working from home always the best way to go?
In my experience with working from home, some types of work are great to do from home and some are great to do in the train or at the office. I know from talks with others that my experiences relate to many. For instance I find it very hard to write reports and read longer documents and books at the office. There are simply too many disruptions there. I know this does not go for everybody. But isn't this something to discuss. Along with things we personally have to get done, there are also joint task we have to get done together. How are we going to get that done when working from home and/or the office?
As Mark Morrell says in a comment to the above-mentioned post (I'm rephrasing him a bit): in the end it comes down to trusting employees to decide when and where they can get things done. Sometimes this is at home, sometimes this is at work. True. My point is: we decide this for ourselves and we decide about this together with colleagues.
I'm curious what your thoughts are on this topic. Please share them as a comment.
Showing posts with label google+. Show all posts
Showing posts with label google+. Show all posts
My notes from the Internet Trends 2012 Update
I find Mary Meeker's reports on internet trends very interesting. They're packed with interesting data and insights. I've been following her work closely. She recently published an updated overview of 2012 and I thought I'd share my highlights with you at the end of this year.
sheet 9: stunning slide showing shipment of iPads, iPhones and iPods over 10 years compared. This slides is old(er), but it just underlines the interesting times we live in
sheet 10: You thought the ramp up of Apple products is huge, well Android ramp up is 6 times that of iPhone
sheet 12: 30% of US adults own a tablet, less than 3 years ago that was 3%
sheet 17: mobile advertising is growing rapidly; $0.7 billion in 2008, $19 billion in 2012
sheet 18: 24% of online shopping was done via tablets on Black Saturday, versus 6% 2 years ago
sheet 20: we are in the midst of a huge change powered by new devices + connectivity + UI + beauty. Meeker highlights the effects for the pc, photography, phone, knowledge, navigation, news, note taking, content organization, magazines, cash registers, lending money, idea building/funding, recruiting, product design, etc. market (and we are still in "spring training", Meeker says [sheet 58])
sheet 24: very interesting overview of the market share of Microsoft compared to others. Used to be 96% and is now just 35%.
sheet 61: I like how Meeker digs deeper into the consequences of the internet by addressing what it means for our space, time and money and how we balance these
sheet 77: Meeker mentions markets that still can be opened, such as the time spent in cars and watching TV, education and healthcare.
And here's her complete slidedeck:
sheet 9: stunning slide showing shipment of iPads, iPhones and iPods over 10 years compared. This slides is old(er), but it just underlines the interesting times we live in
sheet 10: You thought the ramp up of Apple products is huge, well Android ramp up is 6 times that of iPhone
sheet 12: 30% of US adults own a tablet, less than 3 years ago that was 3%
sheet 17: mobile advertising is growing rapidly; $0.7 billion in 2008, $19 billion in 2012
sheet 18: 24% of online shopping was done via tablets on Black Saturday, versus 6% 2 years ago
sheet 20: we are in the midst of a huge change powered by new devices + connectivity + UI + beauty. Meeker highlights the effects for the pc, photography, phone, knowledge, navigation, news, note taking, content organization, magazines, cash registers, lending money, idea building/funding, recruiting, product design, etc. market (and we are still in "spring training", Meeker says [sheet 58])
sheet 24: very interesting overview of the market share of Microsoft compared to others. Used to be 96% and is now just 35%.
sheet 61: I like how Meeker digs deeper into the consequences of the internet by addressing what it means for our space, time and money and how we balance these
sheet 77: Meeker mentions markets that still can be opened, such as the time spent in cars and watching TV, education and healthcare.
And here's her complete slidedeck:
A Google Glas intranet?
From intranet to social intranet
There’s lots of talk about using social media within organizations. In short this is also called the ‘social intranet’. The intention is to have an intranet that is more than most are used to: news, procedures, who-is-who and the restaurant menu. A ‘social intranet’ should make us forget the old intranet. The old intranet that often hardly supports the way employees do their daily work.
From intranet to digital workplace
For this reason the new intranet is also called the ‘digital workplace’ more and more. A new name to help us forget the old intranet and sell the intranet as an essential tool to support work. It stresses that fact that the intranet can be relevant to help knowledge workers get things done. Looking at the definitions of the digital workplace, it is intended to be a bit more than the ‘social intranet’. The digital workplace wants to be the place where a knowledge worker can do his/her work. Therefore it must also connect to and support the business processes (and related tools). (Of course this can also be done when it’s called a ‘social intranet’...)
From intranet to mobile intranet
If the new intranet should truly support workers, it should also support him/her everywhere work is done. Therefore the logical step for the new intranet is to also become mobile. The knowledge worker needs access to the intranet everywhere he/she is getting things done. Slowly organizations are thinking about how to do this.
But what comes after this? I want to share two of the steps I see.
Location-based intranet
When the intranet gets mobile access there will be a new demand for push-information. We have come to find push-informatie without context irritating. But when information is filtered based on your location, it could be useful. Services like Foursquare, Google Fieldtrip and Google Now give us glimpses into this future. In the same way this could be useful within organizations by providing information about nearby experts when you’re looking for help or which protocols apply to the part of the organization you’re walking around in. Furthermore location information added to messages employees are publishing also provided meaning and context. Posting a message in a factory can give it a totally different meaning, than posting it from a car on your way to work.
One step further can relate to projects like Google Glass. Google Glass is trying to make finding and consuming relevant information and publishing it easier. You don’t have to carry your smart phone in your hand; information is projected right into your eyes so you can consume that information and publish and save content with easy gestures. Imagine the access to your intranet being like Google Glass. Everywhere you are you’ll have direct access to (the right internal) information. During meetings, on your way to meeting, when you bump into someone you planned to ask something, working on a document or product/service. The intranet is less and less something you go to, but something you wear. You don’t have to look for information, it will search for you depending on what you’re looking at and wear you are.
What do you see as next-steps for the intranet? Do the above mentioned steps make sense? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
By the way, inspired by Dave Gray's work, I made the little drawings for this post by myself!
[This post was also published in Dutch on the Frankwatching blog.]
Another step towards internal maps
Outdoor maps are great. Google is doing a wonderful job with Maps. But what about indoor maps? I've been tracking posts about this topic for some time. And just recently Google announced it's taking Google Maps indoors. Here's a short video about his initiative:
I think this will have huge implications for companies as well. Just think about adding maps to your internal intranet employee directory.
I think this will have huge implications for companies as well. Just think about adding maps to your internal intranet employee directory.
Less Filter Bubbles with Twitter and RSS?
But is the internet all good. There have been many that question if the internet is such a positive force. Shouldn't we question some (or all) of the changes the internet is doing to the world and to. Andrew Keen wrote about the negative aspects of the internet on culture. Nicolas Carr published about book about what the internet is doing to our brain. And more can be mentioned here.
Recently I bumped into a review of The Filter Bubble in my Dutch newspaper, went over to watch the related TED Talk with the same title and the post about information gatekeepers popped up in my feeds. Talk about the wonders of internet and serendipity...
In short the TED talk is about how services like Google and Facebook are automatically filtering out information for us, without us knowing, based on our profiles, search behavior, friends, etc. And the question is asked if this is good thing.
I'm happy these kind of questions are being asked. It helps me question myself if I'm too positive about the (role of) the internet in my life. One of the things I like about the internet is the fact that so much information is accessible at my finger tips. And the fact that I can follow close and far-away friends, thinkers and experts with such ease. I try to keep my filters fresh and open to new views. And as I agree and understand that Google and Facebook are trying to help me find what's relevant, I also see that I need other ways to get unfiltered content. Isn't this where Twitter and a good feedreader come in? Oh, yes, even there I don't follow the whole world on Twitter and I can read all the blogs in the world. But it's hard to block out all kinds of information I think I don't want to see. I can't stop someone I'm following to not send a tweet or write a blogpost about a certain topic. Of course I don't have to read the blogpost, but to do that I have to read the title of the post. And with that I'm at least confronted with his/her view on a topic.
Does this make sense? I'm really curious how you stay out of the filter bubble. Please share your thoughts!
Interview Marc Benioff and Eric Schmidt at Dreamforce 2011
Recently took the time to watch some Dreamforce 2011 talks. There's lots to learn from them. I particularly enjoyed Marc Benioff's interview/talk with Eric Schmidt. I liked the way they stepped back and looked at the history and future of the technology industry in general, and the internet especially.
Just to list some of the questions they talked about:
Just to list some of the questions they talked about:
- what the future of the manufacturing industry (in the US and Europe) will be?
- Why is it hard for existing players to move to new technology standards?
- What should an existing company do when technology shifts?
- Where is 'cloud' and 'social' going?
- What is the potential of the internet for business and government? Is this only for large companies or more so for small companies?
Integrating collaboration – linking virtual workspaces with your intranet #epem
Oops, missed the 1st minutes of Neil Morgan, Head of Global Intranet at WWF International (5000 employees).
How did they get to their new collaboration platform? Surveyed users by asking questions and watching the way they worked. Based on the survey’s they came up with personas. They found that lots of work was very labor intensive.
To address their ‘problems’ they turned to Google. People were already using Gmail, Google Docs, etc. They went for Google Apps:
- Calendars
- Docs (e.g. Forms), Spreadsheets Presentations
- Google Sites (best practices, wiki space, etc.)
Neil stresses how really simple it was to set up Google Apps and how simple it is too use. He also shows how well the parts of Google Apps integrate. Search Docs or Search All from one box. Create a document, share it easily and chat about it in the sidebar. Etc.
How do they link all these sites back into the intranet portal. They implemented a newsroom approach on the central intranet. They want the sites to think more in a newsroom way. Write news items locally with links to more info. This is picked up centrally. They also tie the sites together using search (also Google).
Tips from WWF
- Online collaboration must start with real world collaboration (trust…)
- You will make mistakes (fail quickly and move on)
- Promote a culture of openness in teams (share early and often)
- Group editing
- Self-organization
- Easy authoring tool (promotes contribution)
- Collective intelligence
Reason to Go Google is costs and the range of services. It’s a platform to build on.
The Google Car and the Stanford Connection
Then, just recently, we heard Google is working on a secret project, the Google Car. An autonomous vehicle driving around in the SF area. Wow! Techcrunch, Robert Scoble, the NY Times and ReadWriteWeb have the story. Oh, and Google of course.
So, the work done for the DARPA Grand Challenges is continued by Google. And who's responsible for this project? Right, the team leader of the winning team in 2006, Dr. Sebastian Thrun. In 2006 he was lead researcher at the Stanford AI lab. So, now we have the Google algorithm and the Google Car coming from Stanford (- not to mention more...)! What will be next?
Google Indoor Maps
Some time ago I pointed to an interesting company, Micello, who's focusing on mapping the inside of building. They start where Google Maps and Street View stops. It looks like they weren't the only one's that thought this was a good idea... Google seems to be working on this too.
UPDATE 15-10-2011: Why is indoor navigation so hard?
"According to a new rumor, Google could soon take Street View indoors and allow its users to walk into virtual stores."UPDATE March 26, 2010: Also refer to this post.
- Is Google Planning to Take Street View into Stores? (Updated) (view on Google Sidewiki)
UPDATE 15-10-2011: Why is indoor navigation so hard?
Blogging with Google Sidekick
My previous post was posted with Google Sidekick. I tried it before, but didn't push those 'sidenotes' to my blog. Now I've done it a first time, I'm planning on doing it more often.
Google Sidekick reminds me of Trailfire. I used to use that tool. The problem was it wasn't used by many of my friends. But it worked nicely. In the meantime Trailfire was discontinued. Google Sidekick will take it over from there.
Google Living Stories also for Companies
Wouldn't it be interesting if you could just point to the article or video about the topic and say: subscribe to all articles about this topic. A topic-RSS feed. Of course you can do this for big topics, using hashtags in Twitter for instance. And you can also define a query and subscribe to that feed, using Google Alerts for instance. But for smaller topics it's not that easy.
Or am I missing something? Or do you know of apps that already solve this problem?
Well, it looks like some people at Google had the same thoughts. Recently Google launched 'Living stories'. The NY Times and the Google System blog ran articles about this new app. Currently it only works with news from two large newspapers: The New York Times and The Washington Post. But it relates well to my idea.
Think about what this could mean. We could be able to point to an article on the web and say: send updates on this news item when they show up. And we can take this even further: inside companies. For some topics a lot of time is need to make decisions. How often do we not forget about the topic that was interesting at a certain point in time? For instance, maybe you worked on a strategic plan. Before management actually decides to act on the proposals in the plan and start project, it could be months later. Say you could subscribe to the 'living story' 'strategic plan x'. When management makes next steps, you'll be updated. In the mean time you can focus on other stuff. By the way, this is also a great way to see if internal and external news gets any follow up at all. We forget so quickly. But to show and visualize all the 'next actions' or 'no actions' also shows if the promise that was made is lived up to.
What do you think about Living Stories? Do you see other ways it can be applied on the internet or inside companies? I'd love to hear your thoughts. Here's a short video explaining Living Stories.
[Picture by Hungry Hungry - thx]
Google News Timeline for the Enterprise?
Google Labs recently launched a cool tool: Google News Timeline. Google Search has a comparable feature too if you know what to type in. You can use Google News Timeline to search what has been said about a certain topic, person or brand over time. This is great for companies for instance, but also for research. It helps you get a feeling for the time period the topic was hot, how much was written about the topic at a certain time, etc.
But what I was wondering is, isn't this also very interesting for inside companies as well? We all experienced old ideas coming back to life in companies over time. For some reason that great idea you had didn't really take-off. But now all of a sudden it does.
The strange thing I've seen many times is that this new interest for a topic or idea, doesn't always relate to or build on the research that was done in the past. It looks like a new idea, fresh from the start. But in reality it isn't (-- and hardly ever is). A Google News Timeline in the enterprise could help us look back, find good ideas, relate our seemingly new ideas to older ones, etc. Of course, we'd have to search in the company repositories, which doesn't happen enough. But the presentation of the search results may just trigger employees to start searching and learn from the past.
[Found via the Google Systems Blog. Thanks!]
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Google News Timeline for the Enterprise? http://twurl.nl/czrlby
Better Googling
Sorry I'm in Google mode today! Just read a nice article in The McKinsey Quarterly, 'Google like a pro' (not free). I Google a lot and mostly just use the simple term or string search. Occasionally I use more powerful queries. However, in this article I learned some new ones. I thought I'd share them with you (- and by typing them in I'm learning as well!).
- intitle: "plane crash" > finds the string in the title of a webpage
- site:nl or site:us for Dutch or US sites only. inurl:news or inurl:forum for news sites and forum discussions respectively. inurl:2008 to limit your search to a time period.
- view:timeline, gives search results in clickable timeline
- ~airplane, searches for airplane, plane, air, flight, aircraft, etc.
- Samuel is a *, gives search results telling you who Samuel is (according to Google...)
I've been using these more often lately. I was thinking: why not put a little cheat sheet on the Google homepage to help users remember?
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Better Googling http://is.gd/nmTU
Tags van Technorati: google
Contact Info? Google Me!
Ran into this interesting post and picture of the "new business card". I think it really neat. It relates to what is happening now. What do you do if you have an appointment with somebody new? You Google them. At least I do. The same goes for when someone's applying for a job and I have to interview him/her. I Google them.
This relates well to what Dell's Bob Pearson said some time ago: 'Google is our homepage'. I think doesn't only account for companies, but for people as well.
If this business card is not for you, try this one!
Thanks Geekdad, Jeremiah Owyang and Gizmodo for the posts.
Tags van Technorati: google
Feed your Google Alert (/Search)
As you know I'm a happy Google Alerts user. However, I've been looking for a way to read the alerts in my feedreader. Not too long ago I told you Google is working on it. And now... it's there and it works. And I love it!
[Thanks for the pointer, Google Operating System]
[Thanks for the pointer, Google Operating System]
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