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I would comment here on Jake's insulting note on my late adoption, but I don't comment anymore. It's too 1.0. He can find my response on twitter.

Yes the icon was a change that didn't work. The great thing is that the nature of how we work and the ability of the web to connect us, told us immediately. We didn't have to wait months to find out. I would also stress that it's the participatory model that is different now - not so much the UI. Personally, I have always felt that icons were a bit more 1.0 in the sense of what you'd see on a typical client app. The simple links as buttons (ie. click to save) I find very clean, simple, and intuitive.

That said, there is another lesson here. One that anyone who deals with customers knows. If you hear a complaint from one person, there are 10 more that didn't bother to say anything, but were unhappy nonetheless. This goes for restaurants, dentists, and yes even software. So when we heard quickly from 5 or 10 people, we jumped, and jumped high.

Paul

Has it been a year already? Time flies. We have been blessed with some freedom to explore and a capable team. Not only Rich and Anthony, but Jake as well keep this train moving. They have reminded me of why I like small teams so much - laser focus, high output, and passion. Quite special.

Hopefully we can do even more in the coming year.

Ridgely, I am sure you have the right priorities. In fact, I even wonder how slick the UI needs to be for your audience - your bare bones approach may be just fine. eBay made it with a terrible user experience and I used to think Excite would crush Google, so it's more of a personal preference for me.

That said, more and more UI is a differentiator. It is the first thing you see after all and a big message of quality (or lack therof) sent to potential users. I certainly wouldn't buy from a website that looked like a FrontPage template. I look forward to the refresh!

Thanks for the comment.

Hi Charles, I am sure your approach yields a much improved result vis a vis something like MS Project. I do not doubt that. To be fair, the problem I am looking to solve is more for the casual projects that mire my existence more than the structured, long term, projects. The ones where no one wants or needs a full project plan is where I see the most pain. Obviously you are not tackling that market, but I do see some others taking a stab at it (sadly using the same old models, but now on the web).

I tend to think that for the ad hoc projects we need something outside the standard task, owner, deliverable mindset. I even think that a zero UI might be the answer.

Of course I don't have a solution either, but I keep looking...

Thanks for the comment!

Paul

Pete/Jake - Yes we require people login to Ning to get the recording. Ning is very lightweight and super easy, so it's not a barrier in my opinion.

Hopefully you'll give it a try and join some of the discussions going on there...

Good point Jake. I amended the "hit on 16". I have seen thousands of people stay on 16 (or less) when the dealer has an obvious winner so I guess my conscious mind didn't even notice I left that part out.

As an aside, I now play craps. I saw too many people lose at 21. I am sure there is a ex-craps dealer somewhere who now just plays 21 for the same reason.

Hilarious! Thanks Matt.

Meg, I hear ya. I too think "hording" is too one dimensional. My sense is that the tools have been overhead instead of a natural part of the workstream, but I am sure there are countless other reasons.

Looking forward to your other thoughts...

"I have nipples Greg. Can you milk me?"

Jake is right. I do tend to focus on the future a bit. Thankfully Jake and Rich bring me back to reality now and then.

...And don't worry Matt, for now family pets and families are safe. I'll stick to counting things someone else put in jars. :D

Thanks for finding that Jake - I didn't know it was out there. And on the developer front, you are safe. I was referring to our newest developer...Anthony.

Cheers!

Paul - On the topic of "painful innovation" at startups. My point was there is more pain at inception of ideas within established organizations vs start-ups. Your point is there is more pain with the consequence of a failed one at a start-up, which is obviously correct.

John - Yep. That's a good perspective. Challenges to ideas to help ideas become better and organizations separate the signal from the noise. I guess it could be seen as a survival mechanism. A friend of mine talks about the "anti-change antibodies". They roam the virtual halls and destroy new ideas. The corporate immune system.

Good comments, thanks!

Used it twice today already. Pure gold.

You are not alone Floyd! Hope to see you at OOW this year.

Hi Dan,

The sharing of ideas between customers and employees is hugely valuable and we do it today via many, many avenues (focus groups, online forums, customer support calls, etc).

Now, are these systems as collaborative as I'd like? Of course not, but we know its required and it's on our radar, so stay tuned.

The truth is that sharing ideas does not require a completely open social directory. In fact, there are lots of reasons (legal, competitive, IT security, etc) not to put an employee directory on the web. I can't name a single large (or small frankly) enterprise that does that today: GE, IBM, Bechtel, MSFT, ORCL, JP Morgan, etc, etc.

It's an interesting idea for sure, but given where the world is with the adoption of "2.0" I think the opening of everyone's corporate hierarchy is a ways off.

Thanks for the comments and pushing the envelope.

Paul

Amit - Good thoughts. Production is always done by the few, on the web or not. In regards to WOC, you don't need that many people, but you do need diversity of opinion (cognitive). We have found it pretty easy to get that wisdom out there (via sites like IdeaFactory). Our challenge is actually harnessing it and using it. On innovation, I agree. I'd love to get more involved, but it is emergent. Some will join the party and others will sit. That's ok

Anne - Thanks for the comments. I am not saying an internal community is nirvana by any means, but you have to walk before you run and the vast, vast majority of companies have nothing. The main point being that without all the people in a company and the content behind the firewall, there is no business reason to even go to a Facebook, LinkedIN (insert network here). As I stated "Sure it would be nice to have people I trust outside Oracle in there, but all my co-workers would be a grand start"

Jay - Today I agree. Wikis and to a much lesser extent, blogs are the main course. However, we are finding that it is the synergy of these things that really drives value and adoption. On the concept of goals, I do not see WOC and Community creation as separate. They are both important, but controversial behind the firewall. I fight battles on these fronts daily.

Thanks all for the comments and conversation. Exciting times.

Hi Derek, It's not on the site. Once you register there should be a way to create your personal agenda/schedule. That should be available soon. I think the OOW team is finalizing the times and rooms for the sessions right now.

On a separate note, we plan to have a meetup for our readers and anyone else interested in how the new web works for business. We'll have more on that as we get closer to the event.

Take care.

I hate to disagree with one of my AppsLab bretheren, but here goes.

The question is not whether one mode of communication is "dead" or not, but rather which mode will become the dominant mode. There will always be multiple ways to communicate and we'll pick the one that seems to make sense at the time.

Phone and email are dominant today for a single reason: everyone has them. This is also the single reason messaging in Facebook, Twitter, IM, Pownce, or any other tool won't become dominant. Phrased a different way, it is the challenge they must overcome to win. (if they care to at all)

Even under the scenario (albeit highly unlikely) that an organization adopts a single social platform for internal communications, those employees still have to interact with others outside the org who are using a separate system (probably email and phone).

Don't get me wrong, I love the new modes of messaging that are out there and they all add a little something to the mix, but to take over email or phone you need ubiquity.

I have always really liked home automation. However, this seems like a very pricey option for something that has been around a really long time. It's great that they support 3rd party devices, but the monthly service fee seems excessive.

In the past I have looked at a few products (ie software) to overlay and control X10 devices. See www.smarthome.com for several options. I will say that most of the pc options look terrible, so maybe their differentiator is the UI.

If you're a mac user, I really like Indigo (beautiful interface on this one) and they just released a 2.0 version with web access: http://www.perceptiveautomation.com/