Wow, a whole week has gone by without me even posting a Daily Report. Am I slack blogger or what! 😉

Team Collaboration

• 10 Rules of Virtual Teams … The WSJ recently published an article on how to make virtual teams more productive. Lynda proposes 10 rules based on surveying more than 1500 virtual teams. Isaac has the list. Central Desktop Blog
• NewsGator for SharePoint … NewsGator announced NewsGator Social Sites, an add-on for the NewsGator Enterprise Server that adds tagging capabilities and real-time AJAX interfaces for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and WSS 3.0. Key capabilities: tagging of tasks / calendar entries / announcements in SharePoint, integrated presence, simplified navigation, and enhanced RSS capabilities, among others. Available immediately in beta; in production in July. NewsGator
• Lotus Connections Available … IBM released Lotus Connections, the enterprise Web 2.0 offering that it uncovered at Lotusphere in January 2007. “Featuring a suite of five Web 2.0-based components — activities, communities, Dogear (bookmarking), profiles and blogs — Lotus Connections helps people quickly connect and build new relationships based on business needs. With Lotus Connections, users can easily find subject matter experts in profiles, create and join like-minded communities, and exchange ideas and resources through blogging and shared bookmarks.” Available immediately. IBM
• Near-Time OEM … Near-Time released Near-Time OEM, a turn-key Web 2.0 platform for collaboration between distributed groups and across organizational boundaries. It includes integrated e-commerce services, for monetization of visitors. “Unlike traditional collaborative platforms that have been e-mail based and targeted at business processes inside the firewall, Near-Time OEM leverages wikis and weblogs to bring together collaboration, publishing and knowledge management. Near-Time OEM is integrated with Near-Time’s patent-pending commercial and roles and permissions platform that provides e-commerce functionality allowing for monthly, annual and recurring charges to be made. Value added resellers can set user pricing based upon the value-add of their services, and, using the new services, they can achieve unprecedented margins of up to 90%. ” Available immediately. Near-Time
• Mindquarry 1.1 … Mindquarry released Version 1.1 of its open source team collaborative software platform, with a new activity timeline feature that plots all content types over time. This is the first step toward a grander vision … “The ‘time machine’ activity timeline allows teams to view older versions of files, Wiki pages and tasks as a first step toward an ultimate undo/redo for all team content.” Available immediately. MarketWire

Mobility

• Everyone.net Mobile Email … Everyone.net (the company I use for my michaelsampson.net email) released Everyone.net Mobile for its Business Mail customers … so that they can send and receive email from a variety of smartphones. “Smartphones and wireless devices supported by Everyone.net and Business Mobile Email include RIM BlackBerry, Palm Treo (600, 650, 680, 700p, 755p, 700w, 700wx, and 750), Motorola Moto Q, Apple’s iPhone, Nokia S60 smartphones, and those with Windows Mobile or the Symbian operating system.” Available immediately, at no extra cost. everyone.net
• mNotes 5 Beta Licenses for Free … Individuals who have previouly purchased a CommonTime product and have a valid / current maintenance license for that software may be able to get one of 2,000 mNotes 5 beta licenses. mNotes provides mobilization of Lotus Notes email, tasks, contact and calendar information. You’ll still have to buy the software when it goes to full release in September. CommonTime

Productivity

• Use Pen and Paper for Reflection … Software tools are good for collecting information, but when it comes to reflection and creativity … nothing beats pen and paper. “More than anything, the act of putting pen to the paper, organic, when compared to a computer, is one that opens up brain’s windows. For instance, I have been thinking about some widgets related posts, a chip-sector thought piece, and several other essays that need careful contemplation.” GigaOM
• Human Factors Issues with Collaboration Tools … Shawn summarizes eight key thoughts on why people don’t use collaboration tools. #4 was of particular interest to me … “Most people have poor listening, communication and collaboration skills, and these tools don’t solve (and can exacerbate) this underlying problem of ineffective interpersonal skills.” Anedote
• Email Can Be Distracting … Mike is reading that book on the four hour work-week, and thinks it is brilliant. He is changing his email behavior as a result of reading the book. “Based on Tim’s advice, I have resolved to check e-mail only twice a day. It is already having an enormous impact.” Michael Hyatt
• Four Keys to Focus … Jason shares four keys to focus: (1) think about what you are thinking about, (2) envision success, (3) practice the “big things” on the “small things”, and (4) stay engaged. Jason Womack

Other Stuff

• Microsoft Outlook Team Blog … The Outlook team at Microsoft released a new blog. Outlook Team Blog
• The Productive Worker … 23 very nice slides comparing a “busy worker” with a “productive worker”. (Hey Eric … have a Mac helps too!) SlideShare.net
• Microsoft Groove Team Blog … The Groove team at Microsoft has a new blog, or at least, new to me. TechNet