Category: General

Categories
Apple Brosix General Twitter

Apple to Buy Twitter? Why?

According to TechCrunch Apple might be in the process of negotiating with Twitter to purchase the service. This is the hot tech rumor of the day, generating serious buzz. Twitter, of course, being the most buzz worthy service of the moment online. This, as always, has lead to serious discussions about who might purchase the service since buzz worthy services online usually end up being sold – with the notable recent exception of Facebook.

Apple and Twitter joining together would be the stuff of online fan boys dreams. The two companies that internet/computer geeks love the most joined together? The stuff of their dreams.

The question is why would Apple purchase Twitter?

Twitter offers buzz, sure, but Apple always has buzz. It could be that they want to purchase Twitter to generate a little renewed hype in case of Steve Jobs stepping down permanently – but that seems a little far fetched, especially since Twitter would allegedly cost Apple $750,00,000.

Twitter does not offer revenue to Apple although it does offer a large and growing user base.

The question is how will Twitter find revenue? It won’t be in the enterprise field, at least not in terms of enterprise internal communications. Rumored sources of revenue are sentiment engines – aka a complex search offered by Twitter to companies to see who is saying what – and sponsored corporate accounts.

Enterprise communications are often slow to make the leap after all. Email has made the transition but instant messaging still lags behind even though enterprise messaging services such as Brosix offer encryption, collaborative tools, and the like. It will be interesting to see how Twitter unfolds.

Categories
Brosix General

The Enterprise

Why does enterprise messaging matter?

In 1960 when you showed up at a new office for your first day of work you would probably get a typewriter or a Secretary with a typewriter, notepads and pens, and perhaps a telephone.

In 1995 you might have received a computer, in 2000 you almost certainly would have. You would probably received an extension number or direct line for your phone and an email address by 2000.

It is now 2009 and we haven’t gone far beyond that.

In an age when nearly everyone is using instant messaging at home – why hasn’t it become more popular in the workplace?

Some people view it as a time waster, some IT departments do not want to set up another server or add an Instant Messaging client to their server, other companies view it as too expensive or do not see the need.

I personally believe that their thinking is wrong. Brosix Enterprise Messaging allows you to control your network, they host the server for their clients, and it is very cost effective. Check out the Brosix Blog and Brosix website for more.

It is high past time that new employees begin receiving IM screen names as well!

Categories
Facebook General Google

Facebook and GChat Limitations

I enjoy Facebook and GChat as much as the next person, especially Facebook chat thanks to the large number of Facebook friends I am able to keep track of. Facebook has enabled a large number of friends to keep track of each other in real time, which is nice. That said – the chat has a number of problems including:

  • Facebook Chat is buggy. It was and remains buggy often times.
  • It is in browser only – you can’t close out your browser window and continue the chat – plus it is contained in one tab alone so you can’t just look around the internet and chat at the same time.
  • Anyone can contact you at any time – if your network is large that can pose a productivity problem.

A few Instant Messenger clients such as Meebo and Adium are offering ports of Facebook Chat but those remain way too inconsistent as in some cases Facebook doesn’t sanction them and can shut off access with a tinkering in the code.

GChat is also a great in browser Instant Messenger but it has similar in browser limitations – and tab limitations! People also have to have a gmail address to use it which can pose a problem as well.

Both are great clients but neither offer the sort of features that businesses need, not to mention that blocking access to gmail and Facebook can help secure your business networks from viruses – AND – help save you from productivity draining websites.

That is why Brosix Enterprise Messaging continues to be the only client that I use at work. The network is secure, the network is self-hosted, and Brosix offers businesses a chance to choose the networks that they wish their users to belong to.

Check it out at http://www.brosix.com!

Categories
General Skype

Skype IPO

Fresh off of my post from last week regarding Skype and how it might emerge as the winner in the “web 2.0” universe came the fairly big news that eBay is spinning off the company into an independent company. The company hopes to launch an initial public offering in early 2010 depending on market conditions.

eBay stated that they believe Skype will generate $1 billion dollars in revenue or more in 2011. They are looking for revenue growth primarily in subscription dollars and additions in terms of SMS texting, call forwarding, etc. Apparently they anticipate some enterprise growth but it remains to be seen if they will generate growth there.

One of the big question marks that remains is a pending lawsuit between the Skype founders and eBay. They are arguing over some proprietary technology that the Skype founders retain ownership of through a company they own called Joltd. This is a huge issue going forward and one that has not generated a significant amount of press despite the danger that it poses to a Skype IPO and Skype’s business as they attempt to be an ongoing concern.

As I wrote before the biggest problem for Skype in terms of enterprise messaging is they still have issues with encryption and security – as well as control of the network. That is why Brosix Enterprise Messaging is the best for business, even as I love Skype. Check it out over at http://www.brosix.com.

Categories
General Twitter

Twitter Worm Underscores Need for Security

The new worms ripping through Twitter have yet to break into the mainstream tech media but from well documented sources it appears evident that hackers have now slipped into the Twitter-verse – as they have every other part of the internet at this point. This will not impact Twitter’s growing popularity, or shouldn’t at any rate, and it should not impact their plans to monetize.

It has become increasingly clear that a large portion of their monetization plans lie in search, partnerships such as ExecTweets and Skittles.com, plus the possibility of enterprise accounts in terms of providing “sentiment engines” and officially branded Twitter pages.

Enterprise communication does not appear to be in the plans for Twitter, but a number of start ups including Yammer.

Events like these drive home the point that security is of paramount importance in our online life – and of paramount importance in our enterprise life. This should also drive home the point that we absolutely have to be careful when trusting any and all business communications to free services – whether they are GMail-type services, Twitter, or AOL IM.

That is why I always recommend using Brosix Enterprise Messaging for companies that want to seize the moment in Instant Messaging but wish to insure absolute security. You control your network in Brosix so you will not be attacked by spammers or worms unless one of your employees goes rogue.