Take a look at the future

Even though it’s been around for a while….

…the benefits of using cloud computing (or web 2.0) are nicely displayed by weboffice. their video is a well presented overview of how most of us are going to use technology (once our broadband speed in Africa is sorted out).

The many aspects of what is possible without having the software running on your computer opens a lot of possibilities. The most exciting of these possibilities is that we will soon be using our cellphones as the core of our access to our data and reports.

Imagine being able to do whatever you do on your desktop or laptop with your cellphone, a wireless screen and keyboard.

Have a look at the video.

Have fun

Gavin

Creating a Webinar

No matter what you want to communicate, webinars can be a simple and effective way of delivering your message. Whether that message is a sales presentation, virtual meeting or online education, webinars allow you to leverage your resources and broadcast your message to people all over the world.

Click here for more information on this subject.

Merging Video with Maps

by Rachel Kremen

A novel navigation system under development at Microsoft aims to tweak users’ visual memory with carefully chosen video clips of a route. Developed with researchers from the University of Konstanz in Germany, the software creates video using 360-degree panoramic images of the street that are strung together. Such images have already been gathered by several different mapping companies for many roads around the world. The navigation system, called Videomap, adjusts the speed of the video and the picture to highlight key areas along the route.

For the full article click here.

The Forbidden City

China, many years ago, lost contact with the real world by isolating their rulers in the Forbidden City, thereby guaranteeing that decisions made by their rulers were based on whim combined with information relayed to them by politically ambitious members of the court via a long chain of censorship and self-interest and in many cases self-preservation.

I wonder if political leaders these days are constructing a virtual forbidden city around themselves, especially in countries where no substantial political opposition exists.

Can you think of a country where this may be true?

…at the speed of Vodacom

Once again I am faced with a frustrating day of minimal to no access of the internet via my Vodacom 3G card.

With purported speeds of 3.2Mbps it takes an average of 8 minutes to load a web page.

Vodacom’s call centre has very patient people who must be dealing with a fair amount of abuse, which I am sure they take home with them because I don’t believe that Vodacom the company listens to the opinions or insights of their call centre employees.

The standard line, that I have heard many times, is that Telkom (South Africa’s monopolistic communications provider) is having a problem which has been passed on to Vodacom. This is probably true, but places us simple users in a quandary. Who should hear our complaint?

The problem seems to have a very, very long food chain, and the likelihood of the chief predator hearing the bottom of the food chain consumer is very wishful thinking.

If I change my service provider, I still end up in the hands of Telkom.

The internet has become an essential infrastructural requirement for most businesses, much the same as electricity supply, roads and air travel.

We keep getting fed the line that our infrastructure in South Africa is far better than the rest of Africa. What a yardstick! Surely our comparison target should be a little higher?

Our businesses need to trade and compete in first world countries. This could be embarrassing, but the wonderful excuse that we are in Africa causes knowing nods from my overseas associates and I am sure that their decisions are tainted by this fact.

I really wish our marketplace at the bottom of Africa was large enough to allow serious competitors into all essential services.

CamStudio and YouTube (All free)

CamStudio

CamStudio is able to record all screen and audio activity on your computer and create industry-standard AVI video files and using its built-in SWF Producer can turn those AVIs into lean, mean, bandwidth-friendly Streaming Flash videos (SWFs)

Here are just a few ways you can use this software:

You can use it to create demonstration videos for any software program

Or how about creating a set of videos answering your most frequently asked questions?

You can create video tutorials for school or college class

You can use it to record a recurring problem with your computer so you can show technical support people

You can use it to create video-based information products you can sell

You can even use it to record new tricks and techniques you discover on your favourite software program, before you forget them

To see more visit the CamStudio Site

YouTube

Have a look at a video on how to use YouTube.

Respected Accounting software goes online

Smaller businesses will be pleased with the pricing, easy access from anywhere, no need for backups and familiar interface of a selection of (previously desktop based) online accounting software.

The most popular, but slightly limited, Quickbooks has been followed by other players in the accounting software marketplace.

Many of these sofware offerings are still in beta stage but are worth worth investigation.

A short list to investigate includes -

Quickbooks
Clarity Accounting
Liquid Accounts
Pastel Accounting

Have fun

Gavin

You have to watch this

No comment needed.

Watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxPZh4AnWyk

I love people with a dream

New Portal Site – up and running

I have developed and published a simple portal site that will give you access to the most important web sites that I manage and run.

Have a look at

http://www.gavinjulyan.com

Have fun
Gavin

Web Based Data Capture

Paper based systems of data capture place an unnecessary burden on administrative staff in the form of follow up to ensure all documents have been received and then electronic capture of these documents with the associated difficulties created by bad handwriting and poor fax or scan quality.

By moving the task of electronic data capture to a web based system and making it the responsibility of the person who initiated the transaction, greater accuracy and completeness is improved and access to the data is possible at any time to authorized individuals around the world with an internet connection.

The better the online system selected, the more comprehensive and versatile are the management reports available from the system.

The three systems recommended for investigation and trial are FormDesk, dabbleDB and webex weboffice.

FormDESK—A very basic system for the capture and storage of data via familiar spreadsheet tools.

dabbleDB—A cost effective and easy to use system of recording, storing and reporting data.

webex weboffice—A comprehensive and expandable tool that contains many useful features and tools for the future.

Because the system chosen is likely to become an integral part of your data capture and management decision making, it is advisable to test these systems before making a choice.

Publish your own Online Magazine, Brochure or Presentation

A simple way to impress customers and staff is to publish an online magazine where the viewer can turn the pages.

If your publication is not to big (approx. 12 pages) then this service is free.

To quote from their website -

“Online publishing is perfect for marketers, designers, companies, teachers, students, governments and charities – anyone can publish in a range of formats including beautiful e-books, e-catalogues, music, audio books, photos and presentations.” …. “Writers, photographers, composers and musicians; set out your stall and bring your creations alive, reaching global audiences and customers in minutes. With YUDU, your readers, customers, viewers and listeners are within easy reach, wherever they are.”

Have a quick look at http://www.yudu.com and see what they do and maybe give it a try for your next presentation, or even better, avoid the traffic and give them a link to your presentation and do it online.

Have fun

Gavin Julyan

This reply came from Sid Pinzon at YUDU.

“I must correct you on one point: there is no page limit on YUDU.com! In fact, we have had users successfully create digital editions with over 1000 pages – and all for free. The YUDU library function also gives our members the chance to collect all of their own publications, as well as any other ones they like the look of from the public library, in their own personalised area.”

Sorry Sid, I obviously misunderstood the features.

Gavin

Online File Sharing Re-visited

It is worth watching the video on the Dropbox site to get an idea of what is available on free Web 2.0 software.

This useful toy allows sharing of files across multiple operating system platforms and, from the video, appears very simple to operate.

Other, and more famous, software that does this is available on Box.net and of course Microsoft Workspaces.

This is a particularly useful set of tools if you need to transfer very large files that cause problems when emailed.

Have fun

Gavin Julyan

Make money with no products of your own

A very clever little widget that you can add to your web site or blog allows you to promote other peoples product and get paid when someone follows your recommendation and buys the product.

Have a look at http://www.lemonade.com/ and see if this can work for you.

If you’re still nervous have a look at http://www.lemonade.com/about/how/ for a fuller explanation.

You will also need a PayPal account which I dealt with on a previous post.

Have fun

Gavin Julyan

BizzHub.net ready to roll

I have finally completed the web site for BizzHub.net. It may still be a little rough around the edges, but we’ll fix that over time.

BizzHub.net is a membership based network of entrepreneurs, managers and mentors providing an infrastructure of mentored meetings, discussion forums, training courses and centralised access to service providers and suppliers.

Please feel free to explore the site and pass any criticism back to me.

Essential Communication Tool

Whether you use it for marketing or simply to quickly communicate with your customers and staff about your products and your systems, pictures and videos are an effective tool that historically were a problem to produce and publish on the internet.

The new version of Picasa (from Google) has solved a lot of these issues with their normal elegance and ease of use.

Have a look at Picasa 3 and then let your imagination and sense of adventure have some fun.

You can create movies (and seamlessly send them to YouTube and/or share them on your web site), collages for those family events or family presents, slideshows for remote presentations and web photo albums wich save a fortune on your email time and cap.

It is getting to the stage where employing a multimedia expert is now becoming part of employer considerations.

The Sneaky Internet

The internet has sneaked up on a number of businesses. Two examples of this are publishing and travel agents.

The publishing industry, especially for new authors, has often behaved in an aloof manner and with the attitude that they are doing the new author a huge favour.

The internet slipped in a side door by offering normal, aspiring authors the ability to self publish anything they wish without editorial inteference or insistance on minimum print runs.

An example of these sites can be found at Lulu.com, which provides print on demand and delivery direct to buyers who ordered your publication from a free website supplied to the author (have a look at mine).

Publishers are now catching up by offering similar services.

The travel agents have been shot in the foot by their own suppliers, with all airlines now offering online booking with the use of a credit card, thereby removing their staple business of local holiday and business travel.

I wonder if travel agents can live through this change?

Your Own, Intelligent Online CV

It is often necessary to have different CV’s available for different audiences. Your customers, societies, potential employers and a variety of people that have a relationship wih you, need information about you for their reports and evaluations.

VisualCV is a very clever toy that allows for multiple views of your CV and also has many examples of different types of CV’s.

Also have a look at how I used VisualCV.

This is another of those clever, free and no software download required pieces of web based software.

Have fun

Mercenary Employment Practice

I recently complained to a local garage owner about the lack of training of his employees. His response surprised me.

He claimed that he only employed people on short term (usually 6 month) contracts because he found that if he employed them for any longer, the incidence of theft and fraud by his employees increased dramatically and that the process of dismissing them was onerous and expensive.

Although this practice is mercenary, it certainly is a dramatic way of avoiding the labour laws while protecting your assets.

My debate is - 

Is this business owner completely unscrupulous?

or…

Is this another instance of over-regulation causing a dramatic, if somewhat morally questionable, response?

Organising Information for Yourself

I have found a pretty useful tool that allows me to stay up to date with stuff on the net.

The toy is known as Filtrbox and is a sophisticated RSS reader and it’s free.

A comment from their web site is -

“The system acts like an intelligent agent that constantly monitors online media and delivers to you the most relevant, credible mentions of the critical things you need to track. Stay competitive, save time, and keep everyone on the same page. The unique combination of noise control features, collaborative tools, and easy-to-use web interface make Filtrbox a must-have for any business professional or information junkie.”

Have a look and see if it can help you.

Why is so much Free on the internet?

There are many sites where free software and online applications are available for download or use. A good example of these can be found on go2web20.net which has a very comprehensive list of web 2 applications.

The question that often arises is why these, in most instances, are free.

An example of a web 2 application that causes this question is Ronin which is an online client management, invoicing and payment management system which is very useful and free.

This application is run completely on the web with no download required by the user, which means that the database of your clients is being stored by the people who created Ronin.

Even though there are privacy statements and agreements on the majority of these sites, one has to wonder whether these names are genuinely private and only for your eyes and use.

I am not suggesting that the creators of these very useful and easy applications are in any way dishonest, but it certainly causes hesitation on the part of many users when there is no obvious way that the application creators are making money.

I would be more comfortable if there was a statement on these sites that gives an explanation on how they make their money.

I am still a big fan of a lot of these free applications but am very cautious about which of them I use.