Today marks the 40th Birthday of the Internet. On September 2, 1969, two computers successfully passed data through a 15-foot gray cable in a lab at the University of California. By the end of that year three other universities, Stanford Research Institute, UC Santa Barbara and the University of Utah, had joined the ARPANET network and the Internet, albeit in its early form, was born.
With the progress made so far, everyone is eager to see, and be a part of, what the next generation of communication and computing will be like.
As part of a continued commitment to providing professional services for notable Software as a Service solutions, we are planning on hosting a webinar on Google Apps and wanted to get your feedback first. This will help give a feel for what you could benefit from, and help tailor the presentation and information to appropriately address your needs.
Please take a few moments to fill out the below embedded form! Thanks much and looking forward to a successful webinar on Google Apps! To get your taste buds whetted, watch the video overview below the embedded form.
Originally when I thought of this question, it seemed quaint, possibly silly, maybe even unimportant. But realizing how much as I use, benefit and subscribe to web feeds, I figured why not come up with a short list of the traits of a loyal, and happy feed subscriber.
Ideal Web Feed Subscriber
Would an ideal subscriber have some or all of the following traits?
(Assuming you provide a full text feed) Clicks the link to view the original post on your website even though they read it in their feed reader anyway
Subscribes to your feed in multiple feed readers
Syndicates your feed by placing it in a feed display widget on their blog/website
Gaining an Ideal Web Feed Subscriber
Provide useful content (and often if appropriate)
Provide full text feeds (no excuses to do otherwise unless you want to be stingy)
Ofter simple ways to subscribe and consider offering a widget of your own, or use another service to do so easily (iGoogle, Netvibes, Bloglines)
Make iPhone app or Facebook app that provides a feed (good for further engagement)
These are a few humble ideas; that I plan to implement further and experiment across various websites that I create and manage.
Parting thought: Services like Twitter, completely change the game on this. (For example, I follow @TechCrunch on Twitter, but do not subscribe to the RSS feed. Mostly as an experiment to see how often I’m drawn to TechCrunch.com via Twitter as opposed through a feed reader.)
You know the feeling. When you get an invoice in the mail from one of your service providers, you wonder as you are opening it, what is really inside of that little plastic window?
An invoice that I receive regularly contains a simple, but brief communication blurb that says “We appreciate customers like you who pay on time. Your account is in good standing.” While this gives me the added reassurance that I am staying on the ball and making sure they get their money on time, there is another element within the statement.
Having been a customer for over 5 years, I can recall that the first invoice statement I received from them had the same phrase on it. While it is possible that the wording could have been modified, that isn’t important, and would likely go unnoticed.
The overall theme is that customers, clients, friends, and family like two things: consistency and reassurance. A consistent message, whether through a mission or value statement, speaks volumes. Reassurance, not the type to coax a scared animal out of a corner, but rather the undeniable truth of the matter, presented with a useful fact.
Try it. Put it in to practice. Be more genuine, show an added measure of transparency, and put value in someones, or an organizations day.
Alex Stamos of iSEC Partners recently posted a presentation that he made titled Cloud Computing Security. In the presentation, while focusing on cloud computing security, he provides a good base definition of what cloud computing is, and what it isn’t.
I recommend watching the embedded slide deck at the end of this post, however, for brevity, here are some paraphrased key points, with my additional comments in italics:
Cloud computing defined
What it is not
Virtualization (although it often comprises as a part of the underlying infrastructure, whether logical or physical)
Remote backup
What it is
Central management
Distributed data storage
Ability to move applications from system to system
(On slide 7) Marketers and sales pitch products/services by leveraging Cloud Computing term. (While I agree, the term “cloud” has become a user friendly term for defining an otherwise abstract idea. I can see the potential danger of overuse, but also can see the benefit of a key phrase/word for familiarity)
Google made a fairly significant announcement today that will certainly have an impact on federated services such as OpenID, and how organizations using Google Apps manage their online identities.
We’re happy to announce that the Google OpenID Federated Login API has been extended to Google Apps accounts used by businesses, schools, and other organizations. Individuals in these organizations can now sign in to third party websites using their Google Apps account, without sharing their credentials with third parties.
In addition, Google Apps can now become an identity hub for multiple SaaS providers, simplifying identity management for organizations. For example, when integrated with partner solutions such as PingConnect from Ping Identity, the Google Open ID Federated Login API enables a single Google Apps login to help provide secure access to services like Salesforce.com, SuccessFactors, and WebEX — as well as B2B partners, internal applications, and of course consumer web sites. See Ping Identity’s post to learn more about their implementation and view the demo
This announcement comes shortly after keen observers noticed Google’s plans to announce this by spotting some discussions that took place on a public OpenID Board mailing list.
JanRain, a recognized leader in the OpenID market also extends their support with an announcement of their own regarding RPX and Google Apps in their most recent blog post.
Introduction to OpenID
Lee LeFever, the plain english guy, offers a clear definition of what OpenID is, “…it’s a standard that enables Internet users to have an online identity (username, photo, profile info, etc.) that is constant for every website to which they belong. OpenID is not owned by anyone and everyone has equal access to it. One password, one login, one identity for each person.”
Check out this video about OpenID for more details:
