The People Part of Enterprise Collaboration and Virtual Teams

• Connectbeam relaunched its blog on social computing in the enterprise, with a refined focus: (1) to encourage discussion around social computing applications, (2) a perspective on industry news and views, and (3) ideas on organizational change through social applications.

The Technology Trends of Enterprise Collaboration and Virtual Teams

• Microsoft added new conversation history capabilities to Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007. It even captures “missed conversations”: “Whenever you receive an invitation to a conversation and are not at your desk to answer, Communicator saves a missed conversation e-mail via Microsoft Exchange Server. Thanks to Exchange and Communicator, you can leave Communicator running at work, and get missed IMs notifications on your Smartphone, your laptop, or through Microsoft Office Outlook Web Access. Of course, in Communicator, you’ll see the Missed Conversation icon. When it is an invitation to a conference that you missed, the missed-conversation e-mail message in Outlook will contain a button you can click to easily rejoin the conference.” The OCS team also integrated with OneNote (notes are linked to conversations).
• Grupthink upgraded its online collaboration service, mainly with performance and UI enhancements.
• Dimdim, a web conferencing and online meeting service, moved into open beta. “We have more exciting features coming, including recording and archiving, Mac and Linux screen sharing, and cool meeting widgets.” See also VOIP Planet.
• GroupSwim released an update to its group collaboration service, with new file collaboration capabilities. “Using GroupSwim, you can now add files by emailing them into the site, adding them to discussions, or uploading them directly.” See GroupSwim.

Insights on Being Productive and Effective as an Individual

• As with most things, keeping blogging in perspective.
• Binge productivity: do one thing until you’ve had enough.
• Buzz uses a mindmap to show how he uses GTD in his life and work, and also comments on how MindManager has and is making a difference to him. “I use MindManager to: To do all kinds of things, but most importantly to keep ActiveWords marketing opportunities in focus. I create mind maps for every city I’m in so when I’m in, say, Salt Lake City, I know who to reach out to. I name these mind maps with ActiveWords so that when I type in the name, say “mmslc” for example, the map instantly opens, and I can add information to the map. This way the maps are always an instant away, nothing slips because I can’t remember where to put it. This also helps me learn the airport codes so my bags don’t get sent to the wrong place.” (hat tip, Buzz)