PersonalBrain lets me quickly capture all sorts of random thoughts, save questions, track contacts etc. I know some use this concept for nearly everything they do but for me, it’s a bit of work so I reserve it for the big nebulous assignments where there are far more things that are unknown and few things that are known.

Without going into the details of the software, what I do is start with a title and then start adding keywords, ideas, and questions. I then go back and add a few top level “anchors” such as Questions, Contacts, Technology, etc. I then go and take everything I have entered thus far and start to draw links between various objects and the top level categories. Over time, as I answer questions, I add verbose content and more links. And, when ideas overlap, I add more links.

Questions are linked to contacts and when I speak to one of the contacts, I can follow the links to the questions, capture the answers, and they are already linked back to the source of the idea or issue.

For me, PersonalBrain lets me expose unexpected relationships (as I follow links) and identify where the big issues are.

If I’m authoring a paper, I finally create an outline as another of those top level objects and I add links to the various questions, answers, and content. When I’m done, I have the brainstorming content, the developed material, and an organized output.

While I know of at least 2 Buddhists on my buddylist, I don’t think a mass conversion is likely.

Matt Damon: People who are … curious, you know intellectually curious or creatively curious - like, Robert DeNero.

James Lipton: What turns you off ?

Matt Damon: People who aren’t … intellectually curious or creatively curious - like our president.

Disclaimer: The above quote does not necessarily represent those of myself or others (it’s just a really funny quote).

The challenge with looking at persistent chat from the “nose bleed” seats of the Astro Dome is that persistent chat can be implemented in so many different ways and used for so many different things.

• A disaster recovery team may want persistent chats to track issues asynchronously but in near real-time.
• A helpdesk may want a persistent chat to help customers and reduce the number of support personal.
• A Project team may want persistent chat for handle tasks and “to-do” assignments.

What starts to differentiate one implementation from another is (1) the feature set; and (2) the infrastructure or integration with existing systems.

I’ll use three examples -

1. the ubiquitous web forums
2. TeamSessions by Instant Technologies
3. Campfire by 37Signals

(caveat - I only picked these because I have either used them or they were near the top of a Google search). These are by no means exhaustive of the genre nor do they cover all use cases.

Web forums are everywhere. A nice feature about forums is they thread messages very well. It’s easy to have multiple topics covered simultaneously and overlapping. But, forums are really not “chats”. A typical user case would not assume two or more users would be active at the sametime, waiting for replies from one another. Forums are most often web based so they tend to support web metaphors well - text, images,links, etc. Most forums discourage uploads so they are not purposed for content sharing. Web forums have many implementations - some are open source, most will deploy onto a standard web server / application server infatuation. This means you can get hosted forums with most Internet hosting provider services as well as get the software and install it yourself - you decide if you want a hosted service or a private installation (say, on your business network and behind your firewalls).

TeamSessions is a web based solution that leverages a java applet to provide an “IM-like” user experience. It leverages Lotus Sametime for it’s real-time awareness and network infrastructure. (Users are not required to use Sametime as their text messaging solution but TeamSessions integrates well into existing Sametime environments.)

Adding rooms is quick and access to rooms can be restricted or left open to registered users. The rooms support text and images as well as storage for documents. TeamSessions is differentiated by some of its more business centric features such as security features, the ability to manage the growth or team rooms (both issues important to company IT departments), personal alerts (where a user defined monitors’ and gets alerted when user defined keywords are detected in the chat of a room), etc.

While TeamSessions can be hosted, most installations are within a company’s network. Again, it comes back to its integration with Sametime.

Campfire is a web based hosted service. It has a web-friendly user experience and makes it easy for users to have numerous “rooms”. Setting up rooms is quick and access to rooms can be controlled. The rooms support text and images as well as uploading of documents. One strong feature of Campfire is it’s integration across rooms. A user can “slice and dice” activity across all of the rooms they have joined. This makes it more likely that lots of rooms (with narrow topic / focus) can be managed by an end user. Without this capability, tracking and interactive with a large number of chatrooms would be difficult at best. As I mentioned, Campfire is a hosted service. Thus, if you have restrictions that prevent you from using an Internet service or you prefer to deploy a software solution on your own network, this is not an option.

One thing I did not see in the two “real” chatroom solutions above are some of the Web 2.0 features. I expect to see solutions move in this direction with support for RSS/ATOM feed readers at the very least but also the ability to extend the persistent chat solutions with “widgets” from other vendors / sources.

I have not personally used Campfire beyond a quick demo but the video tour really looks compelling. I have used TeamSessions and, in the business case I use it it, it is very effective. Probably the most compelling feature is that it integrates with the instant messaging solution used at work (Lotus Sametime). I had a chance to try out the Sametime 7.5 client with a plug-in that gave me direct access to my TeamSessions chat rooms. It made use the chatrooms as seamless as my regular instant messaging.

One topic I avoided for the time being is “best practices for on-line meetings”.I mention this because chatrooms are often used as virtual meeting rooms.There is a litany of discussion going on about how to best collaborate across virtual teams - especially will all of the telecommuting. I’ll try to tackle that topic some other time.

Disclaimer: I am not a representative of Instant-Technologies or 37Signals. I gain no compensation from them and do not necessarily represent their views. I have attempted to correctly depict the technology described above but do not guarantee accuracy for the statements made.

The problem for me is that I am using “categories” more like keywords. this is how my Tag Cloud is generated.

Well, long story short, I have written the necessary PHP code to extract a list of keywords from the body of a post and convert them to category entries. It matches up existing category values and creates any missing ones.

I will admit to a bit of nievete right out of the gate so please be kind (but clear) with your commentary.

What does a collaborative technology such as a blog service require to be considered “ready for business” ? What types of features differentiate Lotus Connections (Quickr) from a a Blogger.com blog, from a WordPress blog, from a BlogSphere blog, from … you get the point.

My blog used WorPress and is hosted by a traditional Internet hosting provider.There is nothing special about my configuration. I have tried to keep it as open as possible but with some level of controls to prevent comment spamming (although I won’t know if it works until something bad happens - ugh).

Do I consider this “ready for business” ? My answer is “yes” and “no”. As a small business owner, I would say “yes”. It has all of the features I need and until I need something it does not have, I will be very happy. Also, the price is very reasonable for the level of service and functionality I receive. However, if I look at it through the lens of a large corporation, I would say “no”. I don’t have any evidence to support my dissenting vote - I am just guessing the strict corporate guidelines would find holes in it. I fully admit, those holes could be how I have kept my blog open; but they may just as easily be limitations in the implementation - security, scalability, performance, etc.

I would very much like to hear your comments, what blogging software you use, and what you have done or would like to see done to make it more business ready.

The service is hosted Sametime instant messaging, web conferencing, chat conferencing, persistent chat rooms, and document sharing all tied together with comprehensive directory services and a WebSphere Portal front end.

The new functions we are installing this evening include a series of Dashboards to provide concurrent usage, and various Sametime Community and Meeting room services. You may recall I talked about some multiple medium coding. This is the output from that work.

The development environment is Eclipse … well, more accurately it is WebSphere Portlet Factory with the Dashboards extensions. All of the performance graphs and tables are rendered with a single portlet.

The graph shows the user concurrency for web conferences and Instant Technologies TeamSessions chat room users.

Winemaker’s Notes

Region: Delle Marche

Description

Our 1998 Danzante Sangiovese has a brilliant ruby colour and a personality that is delightfully different from Tuscan reds from the same vine.

Vibrant layers of dried cherries, ripe red berries, plums and spices, with a touch of mineral complexity, highlight the aromas and silky flavours.