I enjoyed John Naughton’s demolition of other journalists’ slavish reporting of Microsoft in yesterday’s Observer (see Slavish reporters join Microsoft in cloud cuckoo land). Some of the reporting he ridiculed as “hooey”, including Steve Ballmer’s assertion that Microsoft was somehow a ‘David’ compared to Google’s ‘Goliath’. As reported elsewhere (eg: ZDnet), Ballmer, during his brief …
Category: Future
Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2008/10/microsoft-in-cloud-cuckoo-land/
Oct 02 2008
Choose your “better way”
I have written about the Cabinet Office’s Show Us a Better Way competition a few times now – following its launch and then highlighting a couple of interesting ideas (Urban BIM and TfL mashup). The competition attracted around 500 entries and closed at midnight on 30 September, and we now have the chance to cast …
Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2008/10/choose-your-better-way/
Sep 26 2008
The Three Es
At the beginning of the year (see 2008: SaaS will soar, SaaS will surge), I wrote about Jeff Kaplan‘s predictions for the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) market. Amid recent financial turmoil on both sides of the Atlantic, he has again been urging people to consider SaaS in an article The Three Es That Will Drive On-Demand Services …
Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2008/09/the-three-es/
Sep 22 2008
Aconex gets private equity injection
The Australian business press (eg: Melbourne’s The Age, Australian IT, MIS Australia, Smart Company Briefing) has been busy reporting news that Australia-based SaaS-based construction collaboration technology vendor Aconex has secured a AU$107.5m (£48.8m) private equity investment (see also Aconex news release and listen to ZDnet Australia podcast). Not since the reckless days of the dot.com …
Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2008/09/aconex-gets-private-equity-injection/
Sep 19 2008
Relevance – not sheep!
Ever since I first got interested in what we now understand loosely as Web 2.0, I have been looking for ways to make it relevant to my day-to-day job. For example, I started blogging three years ago to create an online presence to expand on the content of my book (flyer); at BIW, I have …
Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2008/09/relevance-not-sheep/
Sep 18 2008
Karl Marx and SaaS
A copy of this week’s Computer Weekly landed on my desk this morning, open at an article by Nick Booth entitled SaaS weakens IT’s role in business [not yet available online]. Probably the first article to link Karl Marx to the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) revolution, Nick delivers some very quotable quotes: “History repeats itself, first as …
Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2008/09/karl-marx-and-saas/
Sep 16 2008
TfL mashup idea
While looking for ideas for topics at Be2camp, I came across another cool suggestion on Show Us a Better Way, the UK Cabinet Office’s Web 2.0 competition site for ideas to unlock the potential of publicly-held information (see posts here and here). James O’Malley has suggested opening up Transport for London (TfL) data and making …
Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2008/09/tfl-mashup-idea/
Sep 16 2008
From project management to asset management
When does a construction ‘project’ become an ‘asset’? I guess sometime around hand-over, when it ceases to be something planned, designed and constructed within a relatively short time-frame and budget by a project team, and becomes something that needs to be managed over a much longer period by/for the owner/operator. (Schemes being delivered as a …
Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2008/09/from-project-management-to-asset-management/
Sep 11 2008
Expanding horizons for NCCTP?
Yesterday saw the first meeting of the Network of Construction Collaboration Technology Providers (NCCTP) since the restructure of its host organisation Constructing Excellence. As well as ongoing discussions about the future and role of the NCCTP, we also heard from representatives of two other initiatives: mobile IT COMIT‘s Neill Pawsey, and Avanti’s champion Mervyn Richards. …
Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2008/09/expanding-horizons-for-ncctp/
Sep 08 2008
Business users fuel SaaS growth in Asia Pacific
Springboard Research‘s Rishi Seth has been in touch with a press release announcing major findings from their latest research report, Software-as-a-Service in APAC: The Momentum Continues, which also has some good news for those, like me, interested in the collaboration field. According to this report, simplicity and ease-of-use of SaaS are encouraging many business users …
Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2008/09/business-users-fuel-saas-growth-in-asia-pacific/





