Subject Matters

As Google goes into video blogging, Microsoft goes into video download service for handheld devices.

Microsoft has finalized a service that has been in testing which lets PDA, Smartphone and Portable Media Center owners download content from outlets such as MSNBC, Fox Sports, IFILM, DIY and CNBC to their mobile devices.

Some of the content is available for free, but a premium membership unlocks much more at a cost of only $20/year. Subscribers set up a profile online to determine which content they want to receive and it’s automatically downloaded to the Windows Media Player 10 library on their PC. From there it can be synchronized with PDAs, Smartphones and Portable Media Centers. The only requirement is Windows Media Player 10 on both the PC and mobile device.

For more information visit the MSN Video Downloads site here: http://www.msnvideodownloads.com/

[ Via ВargainPDA.com ]

Personally I found Microsoft’s move to be very smart. I don’t remember their other initiative with service to be placed ahead of emerging market in such a nice way. Think about it. Many of people waiting for boarding at airports - for example - could be interested to play with (and perhaps pay for) this service. Most of them usually do not have time for looking for and watching video with more common devices, including notebook or desktop computers.

If you have a Wi-Fi connectivity device (most of which are Windows-powered Pocket PCs) chances you will use this service will rise. And if you still don’t have a Wi-Fi you will give a good thought to purchase one. That makes a good sense for new markets development, which is the right thing for Microsoft’s further expansion.

Paul Graham writes about “Why Smart People Have Bad Ideas”:

This summer, as an experiment, some friends and I are giving seed funding to a bunch of new startups. It’s an experiment because we’re prepared to fund younger founders than most investors would. That’s why we’re doing it during the summer– so even college students can participate.

We know from Google and Yahoo that grad students can start successful startups. And we know from experience that some undergrads are as capable as most grad students. The accepted age for startup founders has been creeping downward. We’re trying to find the lower bound.

The deadline has now passed, and we’re sifting through 227 applications. We expected to divide them into two categories, promising and unpromising. But we quickly saw that we needed a third: promising people with unpromising ideas.

Google Experiments with Video Blogging PunkOfLinux writes “TechWeb has an article about Google’s plans to start a video service that sounds similar to Picasa. Excerpt: ‘While there’s no formal announcement yet, Google co-founder Larry Page said Monday that the well-known search engine concern would soon let the general public upload self-produced videos to Google’s servers, partly in an effort to learn more about how to more efficiently search and display information about video-based data.’”

John Robb writes about Joe Reger’s new venture:

The concept is simple. Data is usually locked up in monolithic applications (CRM, ERP, etc.). Application seats are expensive. Training is expensive. Etc. People that need the data often can’t get to it.

What if human readable data flows (via RSS) could be generated by these applications? It would allow the development of easy to read weblogs (that republished these RSS flows) that almost everyone in the company would find valuable. The combinations are almost limitless and the flow is completely automated.

The flip side is also extremely valuable. Using a weblog model of data entry, it would become much easier to train people to enter data in a timely fashion. Further, they get immediate feedback on their efforts since the data they post is transformed into an entry on the blog.

To be honest that seems a little bit eccentric for me as ERP consultant. In ERP applications users typicaly get regular output in the form of report. Alerts are another form of output for irregular information. Then there is one more way of getting information called query. I can hardly imagine these to be replaced by RSS. What I am thinking about is typical scenario where some user is processing each transaction on a one by one basis. Then RSS-like presentation could be very interesting to think about. The examples could be order approval, cost account/element assignment,  order shipment, etc.

But as for CRM it’s quite another matter. As Reger explains:

Let’s take the example of a sales force working at a Fortune 100 company. This sales force works on long-cycle consultative sales that generally take 60-90 days to complete.

Traditional Blogging:

Members of the sales force make blog entries each time they talk to or visit a potential client. This practice is valuable because it creates a repository of sales tactics and results.

dataBlogging:

Just like in traditional blogging, members of the sales force make entries each time they visit a potential client. However, and this is the key, because their blog entries have additional data fields on them they track quantifiable information like Chance of Close, Effectiveness of Pitch, Hours Invested, etc.

Graphs are generated from the extended data attached to each blog. For example, an Effectiveness of Pitch vs. Hours Invested graph will determine whether spending more time selling is worthwhile.

The Advanced Data Search feature is used to find entries based on quantifiable data searches… in much the same way that somebody might query a database. However, it is done simply through a web interface by anybody.

The extended data for each sales call is published in RSS feeds, meaning that other enterprise systems can consume it… a simple integration between the dataBlogging system and more complex and possibly more difficult-to-use legacy systems.