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  • Roberto Galoppini 5:09 pm on February 5, 2007 Permalink | Reply  

    Corporate blog: IDC Conference on Content&Document Management 

    Nonetheless I am no Robert Scoble, I’m honored to have been invited by FIDAInform, the National Federation of the Associations of Information Management Professionals, to give a speech about Corporate Blogging by the IDC Content & Document Management Conference 2007 held last tuesday here in Rome.

    Being a neo-blogger I took the chance to share with the audience, mostly Public Administration managers, a little bit of my own experience and insights into what I have learn in the last few months.

    I started talking about the five key things that have influenced corporate blogging:

    1. The blogosphere dimension
      doubling every 236 days, 100 times bigger than 3 yrs ago;
      .
    2. Mainstream media vs blog
      only 3 blog in the first 50 positions, but the “long tail” belongs to blogs;
      .
    3. People talk
      the value created by group-forming network grows exponentially with members:
      .
    4. Push vs Pull
      web feed formats changed the way we keep ourselves informed;
      .
    5. Blogging
      is simple.

    Then I gave few examples showcasing the above issues at work.

    External blogs.
    I mentioned how blogs can be Marketing’s nightmare and dream, or tools to leverage market conversations. Networked market often knows more than companies do about their own products. Blogs might help also to build connections with key audiences. An external corporate blog through transparency might add a level of credibility unobtainable from standard media, like showing a different side of the company.

    Internal Blogs.
    To open to the whole organisation the decision making process blogs can avoid the hierarchical vertical confirmation process, exploiting lateral thinking and collective intelligence potentialities. The blog becomes also the written memory of the organization, replacing emails, which are not the best information sharing tool.

    Feeds.
    Posts and comments are easy to reach and follow without the need to visit the blog, either if it is an internal or external one. Within an organization RSS spam-free method can easily discover any sort of information through basic search applications, making financial or technical news at hand. Last but not least the cost of producing RSS content is mostly negligible. To see how a feed-reader works I suggest to try on-line tools: Andrea Martines developed Excite-MIX a really easy to use widgeted page.

    My Experience.
    I started blogging just three months ago, and I keep talking daily about Corporate Blogging with Robin Good and Nicola Mattina. I have also signed up for some “persistent news searches” using “corporate blog” as my search keyword.

    I also work very hard to make mistakes, so that I can always learn something new.

     

  • Roberto Galoppini 12:38 pm on January 27, 2007 Permalink | Reply  

    GPL violation: BT under pressure 

    On the 5th of january someone wrote to the GP-violations project about a possible GPL Violation with the BT Home Hub. Few days later Shane Coughlan, from the Freedom Task Force, a project in Free Software Foundation Europe to help people with licensing matters, explained that:

    There’s no concrete investigation yet.
    BT appears to have released bits and pieces of code, but to fully comply with the GPL we need to be able put those bits and pieces into a piece of firmware.

    After that BT uploaded pieces of software to its website, insisting that it has fully complied. On the topic Shane Coughlan said:

    Some things are still missing. For example, a top-level Makefile and the scripts that would be used to properly generate a firmware image. I did speak with BT on the phone and I emailed them. However, the reaction was not entirely co-operative. That’s a pity.

    Despite the GPL FAQ are clearly explaining how GPL works, very few people know that, as Coughlan reported:

    [..] one of the terms of the licence is that you either distribute the source code with the product using the binary code, or you include with the product a written offer to provide the source code on a physical media used for data exchange.

    Reading comments to a post appeared on the Home Hub blog about the GPL thing it sounds clear that many don’t have a clue yet, but the law doesn’t admit ignorance, if BT would have released a partial copy of the source code it’s definitely not adhering to the terms of the license.

     

  • Roberto Galoppini 12:42 am on January 24, 2007 Permalink | Reply  

    Barcamp: “Free as in Business: lucrative coopetition” 

    Last saturday Rome guested the first romecamp.
    BarCamp is an emerging international network of open and participatory workshop-events, whose content is provided by participants, focusing on web applications (mostly Web 2.0) and related technologies and social aspects.

    Barcamp rules are simple:

    No spectators, only participants.
    Attendees must give a demo, a session, or help with one, or otherwise volunteer / contribute in some way to support the event. All presentations are scheduled the day they happen. Prepare in advance, but come early to get a slot on the wall. The people present at the event will select the demos or presentations they want to see.

    A the very last moment I got myself organized to give a speech titled:

    Free as in Business: lucrative coopetition.

    I started talking about the relationships between open source firms and communities.
    Analyzing voluntary FLOSS organization of work more than three years ago we idealtypically classified the FLOSS production model into three organizational categories:

    • Corporate;
      .
    • Voluntary;
      .
    • Hybrid.

    Projects falling under the corporate category have the same organizational attributes of projects conducted under a traditional firm.
    The voluntary and hybrid categories share the property that the individuals participating to the production process are partially self-selected. Since the mechanism of entry and exit to production is open to contributors, as a result open source firms can save costs of production, involving users and developers in any stage of the software life-cycle.

    Later Magnusson and Dahlander proposed a typology of the different approaches used by open source firms to inter-relate to their communities, distinguishing the following categories:

    • symbiotic;
      .
    • commensalistic;
      .
    • parasitic.

    In a parasitic relationship the firm comes to be perceived as a negative influence by the community, either in terms of its violation of basic values or simply perceived as a free rider.
    It’s clear that no open source firm would choose such approach, and discussing about companies doing it sounds a bit out of topic.

    In a commensalistic approach the firm and the comunity benefit from the co-existence with another entity while leaving it without harm, while in a symbiotic approach implies that the firm tries to co-develop itself and the community.

    In the latter hybrid approach firm management have to be directly involved in community development, but to influence the community the legitimacy has to be gained.

    Open Source firms sometimes want just to cut costs of production, but often the legitimacy to influence the community is needed to positively influence the market as well.

    But Firms providing IT services to Fortune 500 need to participate to roadmap definition, since commercial open source firms don’t play a lot in the analyst-approval game yet. For OS firms targeting medium-to-large customers to be in the know by the community is a must.

    Marketing Open Source might be cost effective, but create positive externalities it’s not trivial: firms have to spend time and effort for networking, through IT magazines, webinars and corporate blog, spreading the word as much as possible.

    Technological clubs are an interesting option, as shown by projects like OpenAdaptor, or KUALI and SAKAI, living examples of how beneficial or eventually remunerative can be technological clubs’ participation.

    About economic models classification, I went through externally funded, internally funded and unfunded distinctions, making examples of effectively public funded projects, shortly addressing risks about appropriating returns both for best code here and best knowledge here approaches.

    Business models based on intrinsic free software characteristics focused on Intellectual property indemnification, licensing issues, warranty, stack dependability, benchmarking and mediation were discussed as “orizontal model” (as opposed to a more typical “vertical model”).

    Then Nicola Mattina came up with a question about why so many CIOs are uninterested in open source solutions. While the public choice theory might (partially) explain why some decisions are taken, since any interest revolves around spending money, when Open source helps to cut costs it doesn’t have the high profile required to be a promotion vehicle.

    Open Source is not sexy yet, but Linux and very few other products most of OS products are unknown to the general public, and often CIOs are not even aware of the existence of new ways of getting the job done.

    Someone else asked about Open Source market dimension, and I reported what I just read on the European Commission report on the Economic Impact of FLOSS:

    Firms have invested an estimated Euro 1.2 billion in developing FLOSS software that is made freely available. Such firms represent in total at least 565 000 jobs and Euro 263 billion in annual revenue.

    My conclusion:

    Don’t ask what open source can do for you (entepreneurs), but what you can do for open source!

     

    • Amanda Lorenzani 1:25 pm on January 24, 2007 Permalink

      Thanks for the detailed notes…

    • Savio Rodrigues 11:33 pm on January 26, 2007 Permalink

      Great post Roberto.

      I really like the symboitic/commensalistic/parasitic model.

      PS: Is there anywhere that some/all the presentations can be found? Tried the barcamp website but didn’t see anything obvious.

    • Roberto Galoppini 11:48 am on January 27, 2007 Permalink

      I’m sorry Savio, but I had no time to prepare a slide-show, and I thought was much like “2.0 style” to give a speech and than open a conversation.

      If you like the symboitic/commensalistic/parasitic model I suggest you reading the paper.
      I met Magnusson about two years ago in Rome, and he left before we had a chance to work on an idea about flexible consortia..

  • Roberto Galoppini 4:14 pm on January 14, 2007 Permalink | Reply  

    Commercial OS Jobs: Director of Product Marketing 

    Socialtext, who released on july the first Commercial Open Source wiki, is seeking an experienced product marketing professional.

    Whatever you think about firms using MPL extensions (read SocialText proposal for Attribution provision if you want to know more, or start reading Ross Mayfield post about it), I suggest you all, both employers and employees, to read carefully profile’s requirements:

    • 10+ years product marketing experience with demonstrated success in leading product marketing activities for successful enterprise software companies;
      .
    • Experience working with Sales and Product Management to launch and market successful product lines;
      .
    • Experienced team leader – able to recruit, hire, and inspire high performance product marketing teams;
      .
    • Experience supporting an enterprise sales team with product collateral, demos, sales-oriented web site and internal positioning/strategy documents;
      .
    • Experience working with distributed teams;
      .
    • Holistic understanding of commercial open source software;
      .
    • Passion for social software and Enterprise 2.0 solutions;
      .
    • You blog;
      .
    • Proven success marketing the early stages of a new business or technology;
      .
    • Demonstrated focus on metrics, tracking program details, and ROI;
      .
    • Ability to balance strategic and tactical execution;
      .
    • Excellent written & verbal communication skills;
      .
    • Outstanding customer and partner engagement skills;
      .
    • Strong project management and organizational skills;
      .
    • Outstanding presentation skills to large and small audiences including customer executives and press/analysts;
      .
    • BA/BS degree (MBA or MS is highly desirable).
     

  • Roberto Galoppini 1:08 pm on January 6, 2007 Permalink | Reply  

    Google reader: trends, tricks but search! 

    I recently starting using Google reader, and I found interesting Brady Forrest post on O’Reilly Radar about Google reader’s trends, a page filled with graphs and widgets that keeps you up-to-date on your own usage.

    Reading the Official Google Reader Blog you can find many hints and adds-on, but what I’m really missing is a search facility within my feeds. Anne Curie, from Qlockwork, commenting Brady Forrest post agreed with me:

    I agreee that a search facility is very useful in this kind of tool. I use a tool called Qlockwork (http://www.workingprogram.com) that tracks where I spend my on-line time (as well as everything else I do). One of the most useful features is the ability to search. (Full disclosure: I’m a developer on Qlockwork, so I’m biased, I also forget to tag or bookmark stuff all the time so totally rely on search).

     

    • Roberto Galoppini 6:24 pm on January 25, 2007 Permalink

      Creating Structure with Folders and Tags

      As with many RSS aggregators, Google Reader allows you to create folders. These are similar to labels in Gmail although I didn’t see an easy way to rename them or set them up in advance. I could create a folder at the time I was assigning a feed or through the import process. I couldn’t first create my folders and then add my feeds.

      One way to get around this issue is to subscribe to any feed and create the folders you think you’ll need using Change folders… and the Create a new folder option. Then unsubscribe from that feed and your folder names will remain. This issue may only bother people who want to first set up their structure.

  • Roberto Galoppini 10:40 am on January 6, 2007 Permalink | Reply  

    Open-Source Community tool: OpenServing, to boldly keep 100% of your revenues! 

    While reading MasterNewmedia I happened to know about OpenServing:

    Openserving extends the essence of the open source model — free software and content — to all aspects of web-based computing.

    Their service will offer soon free hosting, bandwidth and software for communities, promising to turn over 100% of advertisement profits.

    Read the full story and learn the key features of OpenServing.

     

    • Gregory Kohs 7:27 am on November 12, 2008 Permalink

      Of course, Openserving (run my Jimbo Wales) quickly failed, and fully and miserably.

      However, his nemesis, Gregory Kohs has been running a wiki successfully on the same model — contributors keep 100% of their own ad revenues — at MyWikiBiz.com. Over 37,000 pages and growing.

  • Roberto Galoppini 6:03 pm on January 4, 2007 Permalink | Reply  

    Wikipedia fundraising: advertising is cool 

    While many are still arguing about Microsoft’s move to send free PC to bloggers, as I learn from my webmaster these days is running an important discussion about advertising on wikipedia.

    As in every democracy there are at least two parties, wikipedians pro advertisment and against it.

    I’m with Evan Prodromou, one of the wikitravel founders, saying:

    I’m not sympathetic with these folks; in fact, I’m in solid opposition. I think that Wikipedia’s huge amount of Web traffic is a resource that the Foundation is squandering. Traffic like Wikipedia’s is worth tens of millions if not hundreds of millions of dollars in ad revenue per year. That’s money that could go to disseminate free (libre and gratis) paperback pocket encyclopedias to millions of schools and millions of children, in their own language, around the world.

    It’s irresponsible to abuse that opportunity.

    An advertising-fueled Wikimedia Foundation might do lots of good things and Slashdot readers objections to ads doesn’t sound good to me also.

    I support advertising on Wikipedia.

     

  • Roberto Galoppini 11:19 am on December 18, 2006 Permalink | Reply  

    The Webnaut, “person” of the year 

    Over the weekend I was reading some news, and I sorted out that Time Magazine have chosen the person of the year, someone who “for better or worse” the editor believes had the greatest impact on the year’s events.

    In 1982 spotlights were on the Computer, the first non-human abstract to be chosen.

    The new Web is a very different thing. It’s a tool for bringing together the small contributions of millions of people and making them matter. Silicon Valley consultants call it Web 2.0, as if it were a new version of some old software. But it’s really a revolution.

    But they’re not lonely thinking like that, Gartner says blogging will reach his peak in 2007.
    Whatever will happen, I believe Time is right saying that:

    Web 2.0 is a massive social experiment, and like any experiment worth trying, it could fail. There’s no road map for how an organism that’s not a bacterium lives and works together on this planet in numbers in excess of 6 billion. But 2006 gave us some ideas.

     

  • Roberto Galoppini 8:27 am on December 15, 2006 Permalink | Reply  

    Blog! the book 

    I’m a newbie blogger, and few days ago I bought Blog! How the newest media revolution is changing politics business and culture, by David Kline and Dan Burstein.

    It’s a collection of interviews with influential and well-known bloggers, and I found it simple adn effective. I believe that a complex and various phenomen like the blog might be revealed just through different opinions, and I like very much their approach.

    As I’m more interested in business and corporate blog, I start reading “Business and Economics” chapter. I found resources like “The Corporate Manifesto” , the innovative marketing methodology Double Loop Marketing or the rewarding revenue sharing policies set by Weblogs.

    I agree with the author David Kline, who concisely pointed out:

    Ultimately, blogging is all about empowerment.
    And woe be to any politician or businessman who tries to ignore the roar of today’s blog-enabled citizenry.

    By the way I sorted out that part of the Italian translation was done by my dear friend Antonella Beccaria, journalist, entepreneur and last but not list my patient Webmaster.

     

    • zeno 4:36 pm on December 15, 2006 Permalink

      What a serendipity! I’ve just posted onto my blog about ethics and web 2.0. I think you gonna win the mara of the week award! 🙂

      welcome to the blogosphere
      zeno

    • Dawud Miracle 3:22 pm on March 9, 2007 Permalink

      Roberto, when you began as a new blogger, did you feel welcome? I wonder if there are things that we fellow bloggers can do to help newbie bloggers and nonbloggers find their way into the blogosphere? There’s a number of barriers for people, especially the non-techie types. But I wonder if the biggest barrier isn’t us. Is the blogosphere too cliquey? What do you think? You’re certainly welcome to view the post I’ve written and add your two cents to the conversation.

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