Today I reached the point of information overload with web-based Project Collaboration options. There’s SO many alternatives out there, it’s easy to get lost.
Until a few weeks ago, life was all Basecamp to me. But then came GoPlan as an option (I’ve heard “mixed reviews” about it).
Tonight, I found out about Huddle, and earlier (by way of Marston) I read about Unfuddle (which seems to rock, by the way!)
Seems like the project management/collaboration tool space is turning into a cereal aisle!! 
It’s been 30 days since the folks at 37Signals (the same guys who made Basecamp possible) launched Highrise. My friend Gustavo at work made me aware of it, and a few days after it launched, with a couple of Search Engine Marketing projects in the pipeline, I decided to give it a shot. Now, I won’t go back.
Highrise is a simple web-based CRM system that lets you take care of your small business contact management needs. It provides you with a means to cc: it in your communications, so that they can be incorporated as part of cases, companies or contacts. You can also attach tasks to each of these, so that you can keep a running log of activities in regards to your projects and relationships.
It’s really as intuitive to use as Basecamp: check it out and sign up for a free account (even the free version -which I am still using- is extremely powerful).
As part of Google’s shopping spree, they recently completed the acquisition of Tonic Systems, a provider of world leading Java PowerPoint automation products and solutions that will allow Google to offer web-based presentation software as part of their Google Docs suite… Or should I say SWEEET? 
Today we had a chance to view the (accidented) webcast that Adobe did to introduce the CS3 suite. You can view the webcast at the bottom of this post.
They now have a zillion versions of the suite: even Photoshop now comes in two flavors. I guess the one that would work for us best would be CS3 Design Premium, but who knows… the webcast has been off the air for a few minutes now due to technical glitches (Adobe’s CEO note to self: do as Steve Jobs does).
What I saw in the webcast before it came off the air was cool, so I have hopes that, come April (when the first six versions ship), it will be the big leap they are claiming it will be.
Is there something more that online maps and directions can do? Could they possibly be missing an edge? Google thinks so. The Google Labs are working on Google Transit, which now alloes you to create your own transit trip, complete with itineraries and maps, for 10 US cities.
I love Google! I admit I am a sucker for Google news, and the latest Google tip I learned about has got me as excited as any other one they’ve put out: Google Apps.
Google Apps comes in four flavors: Families & Groups (free, with 2GB of e-mail storage per account), Small Businesses, Enterprises and Schools (these three, at $50 / user account / year, with a free trial until April 30, 2007). The offering consists of web-based products we are already familiar with to a certain degree: Gmail, Google Talk, Google Calendar, Docs & Spreadsheets, Page Creator and, for users other than Families & Groups, Extensibility APIs.
They have a whole section with customer testimonials, where companies such as Procter & Gamble and GE are featured. In academia, Arizona State University is the biggest school to have adopted their platform. Here’s the intro to a case study about the rollout of Google Apps in ASU:
Oct. 10, 2006 Arizona State University (ASU) makes Google Apps Education Edition available to 65,000 students. ASU configured and deployed Google Apps for Education, Google’s hosted email, IM and calendaring solution, in under two weeks, including integrating it with home-grown single sign-on and user provisioning systems.
This Wired article lays out very well the pros and cons of the Google offering. Still, over time, I feel this is the direction most software will go into. The concerns over offline access and weirdness of working on the web will subside as high-speed internet connectivity becomes even more of a commodity and web-based everything becomes the norm.
As for privacy concerns, extremely confidential matters may still need to reside in local computers, but how many companies are in that situation? And even if all companies were there, there’s millions and millions of users who are not bound by privacy requirements imposed by investors, customers or regulatory agencies.
So, in my opinion, this step by Google is a solid one taken in the right direction. As for Redmond, I think the Office team at Microsoft should be very concerned.
OK. Tell me I am not alone in thinking that iPhoto just doesn’t cut it if you want to easily manage hundreds (or thousands of photos). Am I alone? 
I admit I am a bit frustrated with how iPhoto handles our 12 thousand digital photo library taken over the years, mostly the ability to bundle them and tag them. Recently I consolidated our entire picture library in our Mac and I am disappointed at the performance of the software.
So I started to look around: obviously Aperture is an option, but the $299 price tag does not make me too happy. My search continued…
Today I learned about Adobe Lightroom, thanks to my friend Kris Krug. Until February 28, they are still offering the last Beta build for download, so I am taking it out for a spin. I wonder if anyone reading this has tried it, so you can share your insights about it.
If it’s as great as Kris says, I will stick with it… plus at $199 it’s not as elusive!
Delicious Library is a great way to not only keep track of your books, music, movies and games, but also who has one of them if you ever lend stuff out.
Too bad that there is only a Mac version. I have it installed at work, and started managing my “black list” (people who I have loaned something to) with it. It’s lovely!
Leia un post del pana Luis sobre comunidades virtuales y la carrera a la presidencia de los Estados Unidos y pense en contribuir un par de elementos al topico, mas de forma que de fondo.
Durante el fin de semana lei que un grupo de gente que apoya a Hillary esta empleando Drupal como plataforma para su web site. Drupal es una plataforma open source (lease, gratis) basada en PHP para el manejo de contenido y comunidades, que esta detras de mas de un web site grande en Internet (The Onion y MTV UK son dos de ellos).
Tambien hoy me entere que un web site alterno de Obama, junto a el site de Kucinich (se lanzo nuevamente, si) emplean Drupal tambien. Cabe mencionar que en la pre-campaña presicendial anterior, tambien Dean uso la misma plataforma (junto con Meetup y otras plataformas complementarias).
Es interesante ver estas tendencias tambien en politica, por cuanto es un territorio donde aun los Estados Unidos no toma tanta ventaja de tecnologias open source. Pero es cuestion de tiempo: imaginen el dia en que el gobierno Americano se apalanque en la plataforma LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) para sus transacciones, no solo independizandose de tecnologias mas costosas (Microsoft, Oracle, etc.), resultando en ahorros significativos y haciendose mas robusto a la vez que gana flexibilidad.
Yo no soy un experto en el tema (eso se lo dejo a Rafa, que fue CTO), pero si me apasiona.
A few years ago, if you wanted to make yourself independent from Microsoft Office… there was Corel’s alternative (Word Perfect, in case you forgot about it), but “nobody used it”, many of us argueed.
In the late nineties, Open Office came out of nowhere as a free alternative and it still offers the closest user experience to what MS Office can offer, that you can expect in a client-based productivity suite (just without charging for it).
However, in recent years, product upon product of web-based options have been released, offering just about any type of functionality the personal or the business user may require, begging the question: what is the future of client-based applications, as more and more productivity tools can emulate the functions that previously used to only be available after installing a piece of software (and typically rebooting the computer, in the case of Windows)?
If you are wondering what’s available out there, my friend Gustavo recently sent me this Office 2.0 Database, an extensive collection of links that will wet your appetite for alternatives.