Collaboration

Google Tears Down the Storage Walls
May 14, 2013

Google has consolidated the storage allowances for its various products. It will now provide 15 GB of free storage space for use across Drive, Gmail and Google+ Photos. Before, Google gave users 10 GB for Gmail and 5 GB to be used for Drive and Google+ Photos. Google is also updating its Google Drive storage page with pie charts displaying how those 15 GB are being allocated.

Salesforce Communities Pick Up Where Portals Left Off
May 03, 2013

Salesforce has announced that a product it first unveiled last summer, Salesforce Communities, will go live this summer. Since its original debut, Communities has been tweaked to take into account user views and feedback. Salesforce's user community got a taste of similar functionality last month with the company's rollout of Chatter Topics and Expertise.

Asana Positions Itself for the Enterprise
May 02, 2013

Asana on Wednesday announced Organizations, a feature that stakes its claim in the enterprise space. What is new with Organizations is its scalability; it is designed to support companies of 100 employees or more. Asana was launched by Facebook cofounder Dustin Moskovitz and Google and Facebook veteran Justin Rosenstein, and there are more than a few similarities between Asana and Facebook.

Power to the Wiki-People
April 20, 2013

Earlier this month, agents for France's top intelligence agency were accused of trying to force a Wikipedia volunteer to remove a Wikipedia page describing a French military radio relay station. The volunteer, a library curator, reportedly was threatened with jail unless he complied. Before any of the bullying took place, the DCRI had gone the conventional route, contacting the Wikimedia Foundation, which is Wikipedia's parent organization.

Salesforce.com's New Mobile Chatter Expands the Conversation
March 22, 2013

Salesforce.com has rolled out the latest iteration of its Chatter app designed specifically for the mobile environment. "With this version, we are taking [it] to a new level, allowing users to really drill down into accounts and take many different types of actions while in the field," said Michael Peachy, senior director of solutions marketing at Salesforce.

Google Peels Away Some of North Korea's Mystery
January 30, 2013

Google has added more detail to its map of North Korea this week, giving users a better glimpse into the infrastructure of the highly secretive country. Much of the map is still relatively blank compared with Google's detailed maps of other countries. In some parts, though, the map shows information such as roads, schools, parks and waterways, especially near the capital and largest city, Pyongyang.

Cisco Lets Virtual Desktop Users Get In on Its Jabber
January 17, 2013

Cisco on Thursday announced the Virtualization Experience Media Engine, new software that will extend its Jabber unified communications application to virtualized workspace environments. VXME will initially be available on thin clients from Cisco. Support for Dell Wyse thin clients, Windows-based thin clients and Windows PCs will follow.

Zoho Update Gooses Sales Productivity
January 11, 2013

Although Zoho routinely updates its CRM application every few months or so, its latest release is far from routine, according to Zoho Evangelist Raju Vegesna, who described it as a step forward in collaborative productivity. "Essentially we added three new features, all of which focused on improving the productivity and collaborative capabilities of the sales person," he said.

Zurmo: Playing Games Is Serious Business
January 04, 2013

Last summer, open source CRM provider Zurmo threw its hat into the CRM ring with a beta version of its particular take on the hot new gamification software category. The theory is simple: CRM, especially sales force automation, has notoriously poor user adoption figures. Why not use some of the fun features people are accustomed to seeing in games and social media to drive adoption?

OpenSUSE's Jos Poortvliet: Collaborate or Become Obsolete
December 04, 2012

Last month, Jos Poortvliet's job as openSUSE community manager brought his career full-circle. He was chosen to lead a discussion on open governance at the Summit of New Thinking in Berlin. The open innovation concept is what got him interested in free software communities while studying organizational psychology, and it's an idea he tries to merge into growing the openSUSE community.

Google Puts Huge Files in Gmail/Drive's Cargo Bay
November 28, 2012

Google is integrating its Google Drive cloud storage service with Gmail, letting users send files 400 times larger than previously allowed. Gmail now will send links to files up to 10 GB stored on Google Drive from inside the Gmail interface. Google also put privacy protections in place for the new feature.

Feds, US Businesses to Link Arms on Cybersecurity
November 07, 2012

The ever-changing and ever-expanding quest to keep information technology systems secure requires collaboration and coordination among government and business enterprises. To foster such joint efforts, the National Institute of Standards and Technology has put out the word to U.S. businesses to propose ideas and literally work side by side with federal counterparts to develop effective cybersecurity programs.

Dotcom Suits Up for Another Round in File-Sharing Wars
November 01, 2012

Alleged digital pirate and German Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom on Thursday announced plans for Mega, a service that would replace his shut down file-sharing website Megaupload. The new Mega -- besides dropping a few letters form the name of the service -- will reportedly avoid any dealings with the United States.

Iceland: Where Citizens Govern via Facebook
October 27, 2012

Iceland recently drafted a new constitution, a noteworthy event for two reasons: first, because new constitutions aren't all that common and second, because citizens were invited to participate via social networking sites. While not Iceland's most pure example of crowdsourcing, the constitutional update made extensive use of public input.

Icelanders Give Crowdsourced Constitution Warm Reception
October 23, 2012

Voters in Iceland have responded favorably to the government's offer to let them participate in drafting the nation's new constitution. The idea to let citizens chime in online, namely via Facebook and Twitter, was hatched by 25 people on the Constitutional Council, which was tasked with devising a new constitution.

Box Embed Tools Tear Down Content Walls
October 09, 2012

Box on Tuesday unveiled Box Embed, a new HTML5-based framework, at its Boxworks 2012 conference in San Francisco. This lets users embed Box's various features -- uploads, search, comments, sharing and file edits -- easily in their website, forum or blog. The company also announced that 10 enterprise software partners, including Oracle, SugarCRM, NetSuite and Zendesk, will use Box Embed in their apps.

White House Mobilizes Devs for App Upgrade
September 05, 2012

The White House launched new versions of its mobile app Tuesday, releasing the app source code along with the new version in an invitation for developers to tinker with the revamped iOS and Android apps. The apps, which have been rebuilt from the ground up, now feature live video streams of White House events and access to 99 percent of the content on WhiteHouse.gov.

Salesforce.com Chatter Unlocks Doors to Enterprise Collaboration
May 25, 2012

Salesforce.com is adding more functionality to its Chatter tool -- in this case, real-time communication capabilities. The two new features soon to be available are Chatter Messenger and Chatter Screensharing. Chatter Messenger is an instant messaging application to be used within the Chatter application. When it launches as part of Salesforce.com's Summer release in a few weeks, it will give users live chat functionality.

Tiny Welsh Burg Paints the Town Wiki
May 21, 2012

Monmouth, Wales, has become the first "Wikipedia town," making it an area of international interest as it informally redubbed itself "Monmouthpedia." The Saturday event was attended by 70 to 75 people, said project leader John Cummings -- a sizable group for the area. That day, some 1,100 QR codes that Cummings, volunteers and city officials had placed on various points of interest around the town went live.

Sapphire Now: It's a Mobile, Social, Cloudy, Collaborative World
May 15, 2012

The Sapphire Now conference kicked off Monday in Orlando, Fla., with 60,000 customers, partners and employees of SAP participating, either at the conference facility or watching it online. The first day of the event offered the usual lineup of celebrity speakers -- corporate and otherwise -- with Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong featured in the morning and SAP Co-CEO Bill McDermott in the afternoon.