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Showing posts from 2011

What is Cloud Computing?

A nice wee video from Kiwi Ben Kepes as he explains cloud computing. * Ben works with Rackspace, a place to join/make the cloud, and is the driving force behind their Cloud University

Google Atmosphere 2011 - Live Streaming

The annual Google CIO conference, Atmoshpere 2011 , is currently running in Mountain View (US of A): This annual event unites 350 of the world’s leading CIOs to explore how successful businesses are using the cloud to develop innovative solutions to today’s business challenges. As with previous events, the focus will include thought leadership from noteworthy speakers and lively debates with business leaders, well-known authors and industry experts. As technology and business leaders, we are experiencing a fundamental shift in the way technology enables people to work together and focus on what’s important. We’ll discuss and debate some of the choices you, as leaders in your organizations, are faced with as a result of these changes. Possibly most important of these are the tools that you provide your users to enable them to work together more seamlessly, and in more ways than ever before. After a casual reception on Sunday night, we will kick off the main program on Monday by hea

The 3 C’s – Communication, Consultation and Collaboration

[this is an old WaveAdept post archived here] You've got the technology (be it Google Apps, SharePoint or whatever) and your IT people have integrated it, patched it, set you up and handed it over... now what? Well, for a start, sit back and congratulate yourself that your organisation is: Saving costs (NZ$2 million per year for NZ Post with their Google Apps roll-out, and they've just started) Freed up your IT staff to concentrate on your company's particular 'secret sauce' No longer have to wait to benefit from the latest features Instantly given access 'anywhere, any time and (almost) any device' Really, celebrate that you have switched from old to new. But once the party is over you're going to have to get back to work getting the true benefits from your new toolset. And before you dive into the full on, "let's all collaborate, be open with everything and change the world" maybe planning out some interim steps to world domination

Stop Collaborating Like it's 1999 [Video]

Yes it's a sales pitch from Google and my company, Cloud Sherpas , but it has a lot of interesting nuggets inside that can be applied to any collaboration tools. BUT, let's not beat about the bush - this is foremost an excellent overview of collaboration using Google Apps.   Oh, and there's nothing I can do about the accents ... well, maybe a localised version sometime soon eh!

Top 10 Ten Questions Kiwis Ask Me About Google Apps

Note: this post was orginally a set of pages on the old WaveAdept site. All WaveAdept links now point to the equivalent Cloud Sherpas page and out of date information has been removed Moving to the cloud, be it Google Apps or any other service, raises valid questions for all businesses that need resolving to everyone's satisfaction and, in my many years of bringing Google Apps to businesses, I have realised the New Zealand business of all sizes have very similar questions, namely: Privacy - Will anyone in Google be able to see/use my company information? Security - Who knows how secure the servers are, and what about the data travelling across the public Internet? NZ Internet link - We have only one link out of NZ and what if it gets bombed by Al-Qaeda? Change - Why bother changing, we can do everything on our own machines which we've paid good money for? Functionality - If it just doesn't have all the features of Microsoft Word it can't be that good. n

Google Docs Went Stunningly Well At Webstock

Copy of old WaveAdept post dated Feb 21st, 2011 - re-posted here to preserve the content During the lead up to Webstock we wondered how we could both pimp our wares and give something useful to all the attendees - we came up with crowd sourcing of the attendee note taking during the sessions. https://sites.google.com/a/miramarmike.co.nz/webstock2011/ It was a pleasure to watch the notes magically appear before my eyes, URLs mentioned by the speakers were pasted in and even pictures taken by those closer to the front were inserted. I have to say it worked better than imagined and my grin was from ear-to-ear during the opening session as I turned to jot down a note and it appeared before I had fingers upon keyboard. Favorite Webstock 2011 quotes Before I talk about the Google Docs though I'd like to say thank you to all the @Webstock crew and pick out just a few of my favourite quotes. There are, of course, too many incredible moments to list them all so please take this as a s

6 Years Of Being A Kiwi

And it's been awesome! I love this country ... well, to be honest I love the city of Wellington and even more specifically the suburb of Miramar as it evolves into the best wee spot of land to live in. Happy 6th Citizenship Anniversary to Karen as well! AND, it transpires that Liz and I have been together for 10 whole earth years as well ... my, what a week of celebrations.

How To Get Into Another Company's Google Site

And yes, I am specifically talking about Google Sites * that you have been INVITED into ... if you're looking how to hack into a Google Site, good luck! Imagine the scene, you've been invited by another company into a Google site that is restricted in access (ie, not public). Typically you get an email from the person that shares the site with you containing a link to the site which, once clicked, presents you with the company's customised Google Apps login, such as: But hang on, you don't work at this company and therefore you don't have a login ... what's the go? Look below the employee login and you will see the "Sign in with a different account" link: Click on the link to get a box to enter YOUR email address to sign in with and access the company Google Site with the rights given (view or collaborate) Note: if you are already logged in using Google Apps you will not need to enter your password. * Google Sites are part of the Google

Google Account Multiple Sign-in Magic

Don't get me wrong, I like that I have more than the "3 accounts at a time" with my Google Accounts multiple sign-in ... but how did I get there?

I Passed! And Now I'm Google Apps Certified

I am the first amongst everyone to look down on certifications and, to be honest, I don't see this being any different. BUT, I'd like to celebrate the fact I got through it all even if, at the end of the day, it's just a piece of (e)paper to hang on the wall. 2.5 hours of multi-choice questions that pushed my knowledge of Blackberry's and Google Apps API's was something I won't have to do for another 12 months - yaay! And now the rest of the WaveAdept team have to go thorugh it, hee hee.

Get Apps AND Support Christchurch - http://www.appappeal.co.nz/

Ok, I saw Rowan Simpson's post, 5% Done , and checked out the Top Three iPhone app he talked about .... "Hmmm, do I really want it, it costs $$$ and I'm famously a person that uses $0 licence cost stuff. And it's an iPhone app and I'm also against them really. Hmmmm, I dunno, nah, I'll leave it." But I really, REALLY liked the idea of the app. Time goes by. Erthquakes happen and New Zealand rises up to in support and today NZ developers released their contribution:  http://www.appappeal.co.nz/ Awesome, I can get the app (fuck the silly quibbles I previously had) AND donate. I am so in!! Get over there and buy one, two or more apps from the big choice. Thanks NZ dev community, you are making a difference! PS: Don't forget WaveAdept's offer of getting any Christchurch businesses email flowing again; details: http://earthquake.waveadept.com/

5 Questions From Microsoft That CIO's Could Ask Of Google

Well, how childish but let's check out Ron Markezich's (Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Online) Top 5 Questions to Ask Google  - I'll give my answer from knowing Google a little (and I mean a little!) 1. Do you have a proven track record? Yes, they have been offering Google Apps for Business (as it is now called) since August 2006 (source: Wikipedia ) - anyone else got a 5 year track record in cloud services ... Microsoft? 2. How much will it cost to get my people productive? Such a wooly open ended question ... for instance define "productive". However, in my experience this comes in 3 phases: Instant productivity gained through access to mail & calendar anytime particularly"off-site" Dumping of old "document" habits and open up to the true collaborative nature of Docs (see  Google Docs ... so what - the ONE reason why you should care ) Change in  business process/culture that truly takes on board the 'open' natu

Wellington CloudCamp Attendees Answer, "What's exciting about cloud computing for your business?" [Updated]

Unfortunately Gen-I have disabled the 'embed' option so you'll have to click  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKu3oejJ32c to see me (around 1:10) amongst others talking about the potential of cloud computing. You may also be interested in my WaveAdept blog posting,  Google Docs Went Stunningly Well At Webstock , as an example of cloud computing/collaboration at its best. Updated : Embedded the video, thanks Louis from Gen-I for the code heads-up

What Is It About Webstock I Love?

Over the weekend I put my hand up to a request from @AboutTheStory for their Webstock media scholar to ask some questions of past Webstockers ... I then left it too late to get in the article , typical me. But here's my thoughts on Webstock with the question, "What is it about Webstock?" for you to answer: I've been to Webstock twice with 2011 about to be my third go. I've not attended "in a row" with a year fallow in between. Webstock for me means 2 things, a chance for all those working "with the web" to be in one cool, creative, connecting place in order to understand they're not alone in what they do. Secondly it's a rare chance for Kiwis to hear, chat with and feed off the big international names of the web world. Both of those surrounded by the immense focus by the Webstock team on creating a unique and always memorable "conference experience" for both attendees & speakers means I will always regret my fallo

Full Webstock2011 Conference Schedule In A Public Google Calendar

[Update] Each session now has a link to the open Google Doc ready for all our note taking. See more at http://webstock.waveadept.com/ Here ya go everyone - I've transcribed the full Webstock 2011 Conference schedule into a public Google Calendar for everyone to use http://www.google.com/calendar/feeds/waveadept.com_qtn8ipdgoh7jad0b9u738fqiuo%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic http://www.google.com/calendar/ical/waveadept.com_qtn8ipdgoh7jad0b9u738fqiuo%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic.ics http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=waveadept.com_qtn8ipdgoh7jad0b9u738fqiuo%40group.calendar.google.com&ctz=Pacific/Auckland

Content: An illustrated history by Sheldrake & Karoshikula

Content: An illustrated history by Sheldrake & Karoshikula is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Google Chrome Tabs - Cool Drag-And-Drop

We all know this by now ... surely? With Google Chrome you can "un-pin" a tab from it's brethern and have it as it's own browser window - simply drag it away from the others. To join separate Chrome windows back together as one window with multiple tabs do the opposite, drag the tab to join the others. Ok, maybe I didn't explain that very well. Either read the help or simply watch this:

Email Signatures Are NOT Advertising Hoardings

I understand that THE number one development request for GMail was the ability to have rich formatted signatures. Whilst I get that people want to have a little more than simple text there should be no requirement to fill it out with pointless logos, stupid figgin' colours and annoying "If you got this by mistake ..."! BTW: URL's within GMail signatures are, if prefixed by http://, turned into clickable links by most email clients. However, if your intention is to use your signature as advertising space for your company, please think again. Imagine how tedious it would be if you had to sign every physical letter with more than just your name and basic contact details! Just because it can be done automatically doesn't mean you should. Here's an example of an over the top email signature I recently received. The actual email contained 3 lines from the sender but the whole email displayed was 4 times longer because of this monstrosity: --------------------------