• Cisco and IBM … Cisco and IBM announced a partnership for the integration of their respective wares to deliver a unified communications and collaboration solution to joint customers. “At the core of the unified communications and collaboration (UC2) Client Platform will be an open set of application programming interfaces (APIs) offered by IBM as a subset of Lotus Sametime collaboration capabilities along with communication APIs provided by Cisco to access communications functionality such as voice and video services. The Lotus Sametime collaboration capabilities are built on IBM’s Lotus Expeditor, which contains open technologies from OSGi and Eclipse. This allows customers and partners to build new classes of applications and services that are easily managed and run across desktops, laptops, web browsers, and mobile devices.” The UC2 Client Platform is due in 2H2007. Various joint offerings for delivery in 2007 are click-to-call and voice mail integration, new joint client offerings, and the integration of Cisco MeetingPlace (web conferencing) with Lotus Sametime and Notes. Cisco, IBM
• A More Balanced View on Enterprise 2.0 … from McAfee? … “Enterprise 2.0 is likely to be a set of capabilities that proves itself both inside and outside enterprise walls in a gradual manner. Enterprises should facilitate the growth of these technologies, but not attempt to dictate E2.0 adoption in a top-down fashion. Still, McAfee makes a point that he sees the potential productivity and efficiency E2.0 technologies can deliver: I want to state very clearly that I still believe E2.0 to be a better mousetrap. Platforms for freeform collaboration capture both the practices and the outputs of knowledge work so that they can be consulted by current, future, and prospective colleagues. These platforms also enable emergence.” See my earlier posts about Andrew’s views. FASTforward Blog
• Cross Time Zone Work … Virtual teams separated by time zones face challenges in coordinating for synchronous interaction. Mike shares five strategies to help teams cope with time zone differences. WebWorkerDaily
• 123Together Does 40 … 123Together, a hosting services provider for Windows SharePoint Services v3.0, is offering all 40 of the add-on application templates from Microsoft for SharePoint. Available immediately. USPRwire
• SightSpeed 6.0 … SightSpeed released Version 6.0 of its video and voice conferencing service. Among other things, users can record voice and video sessions for later reference. For Mac and Windows CollaborationLoop, SightSpeed
• Highrise Coming … 37signals has started to discuss its forthcoming Web-based collaborative contact manager service. “Highrise is a shared contact manager that helps you keep track of who you talk to, what was said, and what to do next. Like Basecamp helps you collaborate on projects, Highrise helps you collaborate on people. You can use it alone or with your co-workers. You can think of it as a company-wide, web-based, shared address book with a few twists.” Features include permissions and groups, workspace tabs for recent contacts, and various ways of adding new people. Available … soon. 37signals

Mobility

• FlipSmart … FlipSmart is getting ready to release its long-touted handheld PC. Marc shares his analysis, and James has video. Marc’s Blog, FlipSmart

Productivity

• The Quarterly Review … Mike shares his agenda for his day-long quarterly review (away from the office). “In the Quarterly review you take a hot air balloon up to a thousand feet or so and see how the forest fits into the overall landscape.” Key recommendation overall: schedule these quarterly reviews far, far in advance, otherwise you won’t do them. Michael Hyatt
• High Productivity Academic … Wow, fascinating story about how Dan approaches life as an academic. Key takeaways: all the software he’s tried for life management has been to complex and overheady (pen and paper for this guy now), he severely limits time on administriva, he groups meetings into tight clusters, and his personal knowledge management system is … mysterious. But there’s always coffee. Academic Productivity
• Clarify Objectives and Desired Outcomes Before Planning Strategy … Key performance approach for teams: fully explore and clarify objectives and desired outcomes before playing in the solutions sandbox. “Action-oriented, smart people are often eager to develop and implement strategies to accomplish objectives. Folks like these are wonderful for teams and it is critical to steer their energies toward the right objectives.” I do like David Allen’s question: What would wild success look like? Once you’ve got agreement (shared cognition) on that, it’s much easier to stay on track. Stronger Teams
• 5 Tips for Work Success … Valeria’s five tips for success at work: (1) ask “why?” you should do each thing, (2) measure the impact of results, not activity, (3) cultivate contacts with other people, (4) plan to succeed, and (5) look and act the part. Conversation Agent
• Analyze Success as Hard as Failure … Lisa says we need to ask “why is it working?” when facing great success. (a) it enables us to capitalize on the opportunity and do more of it, and (b) it ensures that we keep our eyes on the right ball. Management Craft
• David on Procrastination … This is a good podcast by David on avoiding procrastination. Go listen. David Maister (p.s. Stephen in comment #1 recommends a new book by Neil Fiore. Thanks Stephen!)
• Why is this still a problem? … Like … surely there’s enough been discussed on how to solve this issue. Why does it still plague us? ConnectITNews