- Tinychat — very simple web-based take on videochat. Pro members get higher resolution, more rooms, and privacy. (I like the “free = public, charge for private” business model)
- One Click Orgs — One Click Orgs is building a website where groups can quickly create a legal structure and get a simple system for group decisions. We think social enterprises, collectives and activist groups have better things to think about than obscure legal clauses. Still getting built, but a good idea. We’re one step closer to Charlie Stross’s vision from Accelerando of a twisty maze of cross-shareholding organisations whose bylaws are Python scripts.
- Trilliant Acquisition Signals Next Phase of Smart Grid — smart grids rely on networked power meters and consuming devices. Therefore there are possible alliances between powerline broadband and smart meter companies, as this union shows. Finally, a use for broadband power? (via monkchips on Twitter)
- The Vendor-Client Relationship — should mandatory watching for everyone in enterprise sales. (via johnclegg on Twitter)
"enterprise" entries
Open Source is Infiltrating the Enterprise
Forrester's Jeffrey Hammond Says There's Plenty of it Around, if You Look
There’s a persistent perception that open source software is being ignored in the enterprise, that they fear it and it ends up being more costly to deploy than proprietary solutions. That’s certainly the perception that some major software vendors would like you to have. But it’s Jeffrey Hammond’s job to dispel those perceptions, at least when they aren’t accurate. As an analyst for Forrester Research, Hammond covers the world of software development as well as Web 2.0 and rich internet applications, so he sees how open source is being used on a daily basis. He’ll be speaking at OSCON, O’Reilly’s Open Source Conference, talking about the true cost of using open source, and he gave us a sample of what’s going on in the enterprise at the moment.
Four short links: 3 June 2009
Video Chat, NGO Incorp, Smart Grid, and Enterprise Sales Funny
You ain't gonna need what?
One of the defining characteristics of the Rails movement has been its willingness to throw out the rules by which software developers and consultants have typically worked. Those rules typically produce big, overblown projects laden with features that no one ever uses–but which sounded good during the project specification phase. Build the simplest thing that could possibly work, and…