NewsGator Social Sites a Million … NewsGator said that one million business users are using Social Sites, its social networking integration for SharePoint. “For example, NewsGator counts the top five pharma/biotech firms as Social Sites customers, including Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research. Other customers include two of the world’s top three banks, two of the top three U.S. manufacturers of network and communications equipment, eight of the top 15 U.S. pharmaceutical companies, three of the top seven U.S. aerospace and defense companies, and two of the top five consulting companies, among many others.” More

NewsGator and Google Reader … NewsGator is dropping its online synchronization service for its RSS feeds, in favor of Google Reader. “Along with Google Reader synchronization for FeedDemon, NetNewsWire, and the NetNewsWire iPhone app, Newsgator will discontinue Newsgator Online, Newsgator Go!, Newsgator Inbox, the Newsgator browser toolbar, and the desktop notifier. Several features in the desktop apps that depended on the proprietary syncing service will also cease to function at the end of August. If you use the blogroll, ratings or headlines features, Newsgator recommends removing them from any Web site they’re used on by August 31. The shared clipping feature will transition into Google Reader’s analogous feature.” More

Ethical Collaboration … Brian comments on the use of data resulting from collaborative efforts. “So back to this e-mail . . . User A wants User B disciplined for unethical behavior in the environment. On the one hand, I am totally unsympathetic. User B was faster to produce his work product and satisfied his customers in a more timely manner. On the other hand, User A submitted the information in good faith and had an expectation that the collective would respect the product he was working on. It occurred to me that these were really two moral frameworks in conflict. In this case, it was the needs of the community versus the needs of the individual.” More

Manage Outcomes, Not Tasks … Johan suggests that project managers should stop managing tasks. “If we want successful projects we should not measure activity! Projects have by definition an outcome, a definitive result. That is the entire reason for the project’s existence. This is a perfect and ideal situation – projects are designed to eliminate useless activity. So why do so many projects still have useless activity going on? Because project managers manage tasks. Tasks mean nothing unless they achieve something and the something in a project context is the result. So why not measure the results rather than the tasks!” More

From Forum to Wiki … In the Telligent Community product, you can shift a forum thread into a wiki. “As your community grows, you may find that you need to reorganize some of your content, making it more accessible to members. For example, you find that a recurring issue or question appears in your forums that has been answered multiple times so you want to capture that thread to a wiki. Telligent Community allows you to capture a thread with a single click, along with the users who contributed to the answer.” More

Collaborative Decision Making … Chris looks at the emerging area of CDM software, or “collaborative decision making”. “ … CDM is currently a trend more than a standalone category – although ‘pureplay’ CDM systems are emerging. Accord is a standalone suite, developed by Robust Decisions. The application melds decision-making templates with social tools and BI inputs to measure decisions against possible outcomes and to build consensus within a distributed workforce. An audit trail of business scenarios is core to the product, which includes decision-making templates and workflows. Some enterprises might feel that reducing management to a series of templates and team referendums may be a level of transparency too far – what Gartner calls “cultural resistance by decision-makers”. Others might feel it exploits talent within the team and creates organisational buy-in.” More

SharePoint in Law Firms … Mark outlines 10 ways that SharePoint can be used in law firms. “I often find myself staring at Microsoft SharePoint and wondering how I can do more with it to enable a 21st century law firm; one in which attorneys, clients and staff can easily share ideas, expertise and information across time and distance. How can it be used to reduce costs while expanding the ways in which we collaborate? In this article I’ll suggest 10 ways you can use SharePoint today in your firm to improve attorney effectiveness, deliver better client service and reduce costs. This is not a “how to” but a “what now” article, written to answer that perennial question: “now what?”” Mark works at Fenwick & West. More

OpenXchange 6.10 … OpenXchange added new features into version 6.10 of its server product, to integrate social networks. “Open-Xchange 6.10 introduces a new groupware concept called “Social OX,” which aggregates e-mail and contact information in one place — whether personal or business — avoiding time-consuming searching and giving users access to information anywhere, anytime and with any device.” More

Other Items
– John recently looked at Internet usage in New Zealand, and was stunned by what he found.
– Mark says, stop depending on your job, and work on keeping your identity separate from what you do.
– 50 mind-mapping tools for college students (well, anyone really).