Web Biz

Writely is a free word processor, and best of all, is available wherever you are. Using web 2.0 technologies to drive a highly interactive and easy to use web application. Writely could possibly replace your need for Microsoft Word or whatever word processor you currently prefer.

Writely allows you to create new documents from scratch, or upload a document you have already. You can upload word documents, HTML and plain text documents, images, and PDF documents. Editing a document is very easy, and you can allow others to edit your documents. All changes and revisions to documents by yourself and others are stored. So, you can always roll back to a previous version if you need to.

The biggest advantage is the ability to collaborate with others on the document, as well as the ability to publish the document for all to see, or to your personal blog. For collaboration, you can invite others to edit the document. It will even notify you if someone else if editing the document. Another great feature is the ability to save a document in MS word format, RTF, PDF, or in a zip file. The last feature that I thought was great is the ability to have an RSS feed to the document in order to track revisions and changes to a document, which can be especially helpful when collaborating on a document with others in a group project. For more information about writely, visit their Frequently Asked Questions page.  The main downside to writely is obvious: unless you save the document as a word file or text file, you cannot edit the document or use writely when not connected to the internet. The other downside is the lack of valuable features, like spreadsheet and presentations integration, graphs, and other advanced features that come with an application like OpenOffice or MS Word.

I found that this tool can be extremely helpful to organizations and teams that are collaborating and working together on a document. Writely is also great for personal use, as you can keep all your document stored here, and easily browse through them by tagging your documents. It will be interesting to see how mainstream word processor applications will evolve over the next 5 years; especially as the try to compete with start-ups like writely. Writely is not the only web 2.0 word processor, there are many others that are worth taking a look at as well:

Writeboard, although it lacks the feature-rich WSIWYG editing capabilities, it integrates with backpack and basecamp  which are two great personal and business tools that are also worth looking at and made by 37 signals. Backpack allows you to store images, files, to-do lists, documents, and more, which can be shared or published. Basecamp allows for simple and easy project collaboration for organizations. Basecamp allows you to track the project’s process, create milestones, share documents, to-do lists, and lots of other information.

Jotspot is another tool similar to writely, but is similar to basecamp, in that it allows you to create a Wiki that can be used for collaboration on a project and documents. Jotspot also offers a service similar to writely, however, it is meant for multiple people editing a document at the same time, allowing you to view other people’s changes live.

Rallypoint is also very similar to basecamp and jotspot, in that it uses web 2.0 techniques to allow for easy online project collaboration to create and share pages or documents with a team, as well as a variety of other tools and features.

With so many start-ups joining the web application service model, I am looking forward to what will come out next… perhaps an online OS?

Resources:
http://www.writely.com/
http://www.basecamphq.com/
http://www.backpackit.com/
http://www.rallypointhq.com/
http://www.techcrunch.com/2005/08/31/writely-process-words-with-your-browser/
http://www.techcrunch.com/index.php?s=writeboard

One drawback to a web 2.0 application is that when a user goes offline, they can no longer view or manage their information.  TiwyWiki is currently in development, but allows web 2.0 ajax style applications to have transparent support for offline and online use.  This is where Julien Couvreur decided to use Flash to cache the application data on the client-side as well as any modifications or updates that the client makes to the data.  Once the application is connected to the internet again, the user can opt to ’synch’ their local data with the web application.  The main drawback to this project is the requirement for the Flash plugin, although it does handle the caching very nicely.

A leader needs to have Vision, which can be defined as "intelligent foresight" (vision, 2005). This vision should not only be of themselves but also of each leader within the group and the group as a whole. A leader must first have a vision for themselves. They should be able to "see" themselves as successful in their position, and then will be able to empower others to also see their own vision of themselves. This empowerment of vision in the group is essential to the success of a unified goal.

The vision must be as the definition states, intelligent and foresight, in that the group will not buy into the vision unless it meets these requirements. When a leader has a vision, people will take notice. and, if a leader can prove that they have vision, the group will buy-in to the leader, and then ultimately the vision of the leader; as stated by Maxwell’s Laws of leadership.

This leads to the next point, in that the leader must keep their eyes on the prize. A leader must always have the vision of moving the mountain, and not forget about that vision when mixed up in the details of moving rocks. And lastly, the empowerment of this vision will give rise to the commitment level of the group and thus the momentum of the group (or the big mo as referred to by Maxwell). With this vision and increased commitment level of the group, the leader must now deliver the vision. This characteristic of a leader is often grouped with the drive for a charismatic leader, one who is "transformational, visionary, and inspirational" which is three-fold. First, the leader must communicate the vision, be charismatic in doing so, and then take the steps that are necessary to deliver this mission (Kirkpatrick, et. al., 2005). 

Without a purpose or vision, the members of a team will not be motivated and will not succeed. A team must be able to see the pot of gold at the end of rainbow. This vision, or purpose, must be attainable and realistic; and is often determined by the leader of the team. Therefore, a successful leader is one who can develop this vision, and inspire the team to make the vision a reality.

Resources:
1. vision. Answers.com. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. http://www.answers.com/topic/vision, accessed January 19, 2006.
2. Maxwell, 1998. Maxwell’s Laws of Leadership.
3. Kirkpatrick, Shelley A., et. al, 2005. A longitudinal study of the relation of vision and vision communication to venture growth in entreprenurial firms. Retreived from: vision.pdf

My observation in today’s business world is that organizations are increasingly dependent upon connectivity, primarily via the Internet.  This coupled with the demand to lower cost through increased efficiency has led many IT managers to embrace Internet or Intranet solutions, which often utilize SOA web services.  These services are often involved in the supply chain of the organization, as well as other areas of the organization that require sophisticated IT solutions.  This has given rise to the Business-To-Business approach over the past 5 years, which involves the interconnectivity of an organization’s supply chain with that of their suppliers and/or vendors.   Some advantages of this include:

• Managing inventory more efficiently;
• Adjusting more quickly to customer demand;
• Getting products to market faster;
• Cutting the cost of paperwork;
• Reigning in rogue purchases; and
• Obtaining lower prices on some supplies (Varon, 2001).

E-Business is not simple and quick, and often takes countless dollars and hours of manpower to achieve the goals of this type of Information Technology.  The idea of B2B and E-Business is not new, however, the technologies and methods that are being used to drive it are changing at a radical pace and continue to evolve today.  CIO has a great E-Business resource center, with case studies, the ABC’s of B2B, interesting articles, and more at: http://www.cio.com/enterprise/ebusiness/index.html.  Some of the companies that are leading the charge in E-Business include companies such as UPS, General Motors, Amazon, Intel, and IBM (eBusiness at MIT, 2005).  I think that as the technologies and services that are being developed for B2B are fine-tuned and become more standardized, the B2B model will itself become standard.  The capabilities of the B2B model, along with the expanded use of the B2C, or E-Commerce, model will redefine the way organizations interact with each other as well as the flow of information and knowledge throughout the organization.

Resources:
1. eBusiness at MIT, 2005.  MIT Sloan School of Management.  Retreived Jan. 20, 2005 from: http://ebusiness.mit.edu/index.html.

2. CIO.com, 2005.  E-Business Resource.  Retrieved Jan. 20, 2005 from: http://www.cio.com/enterprise/ebusiness/index.html.

3. Varon, Elana.  August 20, 2001.  ABCs of B2B - E-Business Research Center - CIO.  Retreived Jan. 20, 2005 from: http://www.cio.com/research/ec/edit/b2babc.html.

Rails is an agile web development framework that was designed using the MVC architecture, which is similiar to the J2EE architecture.  Aaron Rustad has written a nice article that compares J2EE web applications against the hyped Ruby on Rails.  The article points out some of the main advantages of deployment using RoR compared to J2EE apps.  The author also makes note of one of the main goals that drives RoR: easy web development and maintenance in a structured framework.

LookLater is a new service, similiar to del.icio.us, that helps you browse the web more effectively.  This service, which is also free, takes an interesting approach to a ‘bookmarking’.  LookLater allows you to click on any link in a web site (when activated via a simple button for your favorite browser), and have it stored on your LookLater account.  You can then view and access your account from any computer anywhere, and visit those sites that you didn’t get a chance to look at.
This del.icio.us knock-off is still in beta development, but is looking very promising.  Will yahoo! gobble up this new and exciting service too??  I bet the authors are hoping so

An interesting service: Blingo.  The concept is that if you use use their search engine, you might win a prize (including the popular iPod and Playstation Portables)! The prizes are real, and the winners are announced on their web site. You can join for free, and all you have to do is search! This is an interesting idea as an incentive to attract users to a web site… but their doesn’t seem to be any other advantages or incentives outside of the "random" prizes that are being given away. What will happen when the prizes stop? My guess, people will just go back to Google (since Blingo is powered by Google anyways).

This year brought about many changes, events, gadgets, and more!  2005 Will be remembered most for a couple of things:

• Ipod Revolution
• Wikipedia.com
• Google remains king of searching with Personalized Home
• AJAX and web2.0 craze
• Ruby on Rails gains widespread attention
• Hurrican Katrina and the Tsunami
• Pope Benedict XVI as successor to Pope John Paul II
• Death of Rosa Parks
• Web Logs (like this

For a look at search trends throughout the year, check out the 2005 Year-End Google Zeitgeist

The latest version of script.aculo.us is available for download.

The new version boasts some major upgrades, including a new effect: Effect.Toggle, along with other major improvements and bug fixes!

A new javascript collection has been released,tooltip.js, that uses the scriptaculous effects, allowing you to create simple and attractive tooltip, download it now.  Similiar to the NetFlix style ajax tooltips, this script allows you to quickly and easily create great looking tooltips for your users.  It is as simple as adding:

Tooltip.add(’ActivatorId’,'Tooltipid’);