Web Worker Daily |
| Open Thread: Would You Miss Print? Posted: 29 Oct 2008 01:00 PM CDT The news from the world of print has not been good this week: Newsweek is in trouble. The New York Times is running out of money. The Christian Science Monitor is killing its daily print edition. Anyone watching print media over the past few years knows that declining circulation and the flight of ad dollars to the web have left many newspapers and magazines reeling, and killed many others. As web workers, of course, we get plenty of our news from the web. And there are those electronic media out there as well. And yet…I can’t help thinking of all the ways that printed information from periodicals has been useful in my own career. I learned a lot of coding skills from reading well-written articles, and I promoted my own services by writing articles. Am I just stuck in the past, like those people who thought television would never catch on? Or is there still a niche in your world for the printed periodical and the daily dead-trees newspaper? If the decline of the print media industry continues, is there anything you’ll miss?    |
| Preview: Microsoft Office 14 for Web Posted: 29 Oct 2008 11:00 AM CDT Well whaddya’ know - with the computing industry’s collective consciousness almost fully occupied with Apple, Web 2.0, social computing and web-based applications, it’s almost as though we forgot that the world’s largest software company is still making stuff! Until today, I think I’ve gone 2-3 years without entering www.microsoft.com into a browser address bar! Microsoft’s Professional Developers Conference has been a flurry of activity this week with the launch of Windows Azure, previews of Windows 7 and, notably for web workers, confirmation of an web-based edition of Microsoft Office, previewed as Office 14 for Web. As Microsoft’s pitch for the new suite explains…
Cnet News earlier published some screenshots from Office 14 for Web - and it certainly looks as though Office retains the look and feel of its desktop counterpart, with even the famous Ribbon toolbar of Office 2007 making it to the online editions. It’ll be interesting to observe the effect Microsoft’s entry into this space has on competitors like Google, Zoho, ThinkFree and others. Though I switched from Windows to OS X early last year, I still have a preference for Office for Mac 2008 to Apple’s iWork, OpenOffice 3.0 and Google Apps - as strong as they all are. Millions of people find comfort in the familiarity of Microsoft’s flagship franchise and extending it fully to the web can only help web workers everywhere.    |
| AOL Adds Support for Yahoo! Mail Posted: 29 Oct 2008 10:00 AM CDT
Regardless, there must be a good number of such users, to encourage AOL to develop a plugin that enables their users to collect mail from Yahoo!’s email service, a plugin which launched late last week. Inline with AOL’s recent strategy at the AOL.com home page to embrace and integrate third party content and services within their own properties, Yahoo’s messaging behemoth is now available - albeit as message previews only - within the AOL Mail interface. Users can then click through to their corresponding message at the Yahoo! service. It’s all kinda, um, underwhelming and the kind of feature that should have been there all along; an indictment of the ‘data prison’ strategies employed by web’s largest properties. Data portability is a subject I’ve written about many times here at Web Worker Daily, notably with regard to the portability of email data trapped within services such as Hotmail, Google Apps and Outlook…though fortunately (as these links illustrate) each of those services has a third-party ‘jailbreaking option’ to liberate your data. With much of our personal and professional data now residing ‘in the cloud’ and on remote services, it’s ever more important to press for the ability to export and import data from any service - and insist on the use of standards where possible. I’m sure that the product manager for AOL Mail has come across the IMAP and POP email protocols. Perhaps offering such capabilities by default can weaken the retention of a customer, but its possible to mitigate this by offering data portability or export as a premium option and actually competing on design and features, rather than crippling a service. Services such as Dopplr and del.icio.us have long had export features baked in - making this central to a service’s design philosophy illustrates a respect and value for the user that is likely to ensure a degree of loyalty.    |
| LinkedIn Launches InApps Application Platform Posted: 28 Oct 2008 11:01 PM CDT
Don’t worry…no movie quizzes, Scrabble games or pokes in the bunch. Instead, Linked in has partnered with well-known companies with business-ready productivity applications to provide apps that users can plug-in to their profile and display on their LinkedIn homepage. Remember OpenSocial, Google’s initiative to build common APIs for developing social web applications? LinkedIn came to the party and this is the result of that effort. Until now, when you visited a LinkedIn profile you saw only basic information such as employment history and recommendations. With the new platform, you can show your profile visitors all the fine literature and business books you’re reading thanks to the Amazon app; upcoming trips on the Tripit app; your latest blog posts with the WordPress or TypePad app; or share files with the Box.net app. Google’s in the game with an app that lets you show off a PowerPoint presentation. Don’t describe what you do for a living, show ‘em. SlideShare has a similar app. Check out the complete list of initial InApps here. It will remain to be seen if this is truly a game-changer for LinkedIn. Are you interested in adding apps to your profile?    |
| Kallout Enables Serial Speed Searches Posted: 28 Oct 2008 06:00 PM CDT If you’re a fan of offbeat ways to search online, you may want to try Kallout, a beta search application that’s drawn good notices like this one from AltSearchEngines.com. I’ve been using it, and I also use a Firefox extension called BlueOrganizer that does a few similar things. Kallout is particularly good if you want to instantly search multiple sources for the same search string. Kallout is a downloadable application for Windows that sits in your system tray. When running, you can select any word or phrase on a web page, or in a Microsoft Office document, and have access to menus that look like those above. In this example, I selected the words “Mozilla Firefox” on a Wikipedia page, and brought up the menus by clicking on a small, blue pop-up box. As you can see from the search menu I’ve accessed above, I can instantly route my “Mozilla Firefox” query to Google, Yahoo, Technorati, and other search sources (I can also add search sources to the list). If you look at the menu on the left above, the same principle works for sending my search request to news search engines, video search sites, reference sites and more. This is pretty handy, and it works the same way when I select words in Microsoft Outlook and Word. It was precisely when testing Kallout with Outlook and Word that I began to realize that it works by sitting in memory at all times, and I wondered if I wanted it there constantly. Fortunately, Kallout handles this concern in a mannerly way. If you right-click on Kallout’s blue “K” icon in your Windows system tray, it will politely give you the option to either disable it or exit entirely. This is the right way to handle things for an application that takes memory and is so sensitive to any selected words. Aside from saving me from typing text into my browser to continue searching for a specific string, Kallout also does a nice job of suggesting alternate places to search. For more of a feel for it, check out the video at AltSearchEngines.com.    |
| Posted: 28 Oct 2008 04:08 PM CDT Those of us with @gmail.com email addresses or an email account through Google Apps have had some fun playing with the new experimental features through Gmail Labs. From the silly Mail Goggles to the more helpful ability to add a calendar to the sidebar or set an end date on vacation reminders, the Labs-in-email thing has mostly been aimed at the everyday user. Now Google is getting serious by bringing the Labs concept to Google Apps. They’re starting with just 3 Labs add-ins. Google says they’re hoping 3rd party developers will get involved. Unlike the email Labs, these features must be added by your Google Apps Administrator. Usefulness depends on your organization/company needs. And remember, Google uses the “experimental” label to mean “use at your own risk.” The first feature is Google Moderator, which reminds me a simple version of Salesforce Ideas. Expanding on Google Doc’s ability to use a spreadsheet as a form, Moderator allows you to let users create and vote up or down questions. The next is Google Code Reviews, clearly aimed at software/web development folks to collaborate on code. Finally, there’s Google Short Links. Organizations typically have many different resources all over the web shared by all staff. Google Short Links lets the administrator create easy-to-remember redirects for all those sites. I gave Google Short Links a quick try. Unlike email Labs where enabling the feature is as easy as toggling an “enable/disable” radio button, turning on these features must be done by someone who has access to your Apps administration control panel and the DNS settings on your domain. You have to set a CNAME record with your domain host so you can have a unique URL for your feature (ex: shortlinks.domain.com/shortcut). If you didn’t break a sweat setting your company up for Google Apps, this is a no-brainer. If you’re wondering what a CNAME record is and you have no idea how to make one for your domain, then these new features may not be for you. Google provides easy-to-follow generic instructions, and I found that the new URL was accessible within minutes, and adding new URLs was easy and intuitive. The new Labs for Google Apps works with both the free and paid Apps accounts. What features do you want Labs to add to Google Apps next?    |
| SlideRocket Opens For Business Posted: 28 Oct 2008 04:00 PM CDT
SlideRocket has always offered a a feature rich authoring tool with all of the bells and whistles you would expect, if not more. With today’s release they up the ante by adding powerful collaboration features and an integrated marketplace. Collaboration: Even in a small organization, preparing a slide deck is usually a collaborative process, or at the very least involves the sharing of frequently used assets. SlideRocket’s new collaboration functionality gives you all the tools you need to collect and share your content including library management, content synchronization, and version control. The library lets you collect frequently used items and assign permissions across your group as to who has access to what items. Powerful versioning functionality keeps track of changes and lets you revert back to prior copies at the slide and presentation level. The SlideRocket Marketplace: Also launched today is the integrated marketplace, a store within SlideRocket which allows you to browse and buy presentation related assets and services such as images, templates, printing and more. Initial partners include Fotolia, Mimeo and PresentationPro with many more planned. One of the most intriguing features is the built in analytic tools. See who is viewing your decks, how long they spent on each slide as well as tracking clicks and forwards. Rather than sending your presentations out blind, you can now track their effectiveness. SlideRocket runs in any browser across multiple operating systems, in addition to offering an offline player so you can present on the go without an internet connection. SlideRocket is offering limited time discounts on their pricing plans from free limited functionality single user accounts up to fully featured Business plans from $20/user per month. Pre-paid annual subscriptions are eligible for further discounts. Are you still using PowerPoint or Keynote? Could SlideRocket be an option for you?    |
| Soocial: The Best Address Book You’ll Ever Use? Posted: 28 Oct 2008 02:00 PM CDT
In the intervening period, we’ve seen companies such as Plaxo and Facebook seek to evolve themselves into the position of defacto social address books, but even such powerful companies have only offered uneven ‘hacks’ for integration with our email, cellphone and IM contact books. Apple’s Mobile Me service has attempted to provide some of the ‘glue’ to connect these silos of contact data, but at a great price…and of course tied to the Mac universe. It’s also telling that Gmail still lacks a useful API to it’s Contacts data - perhaps data that should really be a standalone application? This has left an opening for companies such as Soocial… Founded in Amsterdam, by Stefan Fountain, Soocial provide hooks into existing services and a modicum of interoperability between them. Currently the service enables users to draw contact data from…
It’s an impressive (though again uneven) list of contact sources, notably support for what appears to be a broad range of handsets,though, some like the Facebook application don’t offer true synchronization or access to contact data within that service. I can’t help but thinking what’s really needed is a master web-based address book, with a standards-based API that any device or application can draw contact information and synchronise with. Perhaps this is the space that Soocial hopes to occupy - or indeed upcoming services such as CloudContacts. Soocial’s Fountain has such faith in the utility of his service, that he has generously extended a limited number of invitations to Web Worker Daily’s readership, as part of Soocial’s (currently private) beta trial. Head on over to http://www.soocial.com/web-worker-daily to pickup your invitation and put Soocial through its paces.    |
| Clearing The Cache - Lists Edition Posted: 28 Oct 2008 12:00 PM CDT Like many of us, I spend quite a lot of time on the web and come across a staggering number of interesting things. In Clearing The Cache I choose a theme, pull out some of my favorites and share them with you here. Freelance Switch on Holding Yourself Accountable Toodledo, the excellent To-Do list manager, releases their native iPhone app The Execupundit gives us 10 Reasons Used to Sink Good Ideas Mike’s excellent chat with Laura Fitton about To-Do list alternatives and how to Envision Your Week For Productivity Nicholas Bate on 7 Things which (paradoxically) will lower your productivity. (via Cultural Offering)    |
| 5 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Starting Another Freelance Endeavor Posted: 28 Oct 2008 11:00 AM CDT Apart from being a blogger, I also dabble in comics and illustration. My friends from college where I was majoring in Fine Arts want to band together and start an illustration studio early next year. This leads me to wonder whether I’m ready to start another freelance endeavor. I’m not the only freelancer who faces this kind of situation. Freelancers are used to wearing different hats and providing a variety of services. Odds are, you needed to do a bit of SEO on your own site. Or you had to design your own site early in your career when you were low on capital. The diverse tasks we need to accomplish often lead us to learning new skills which may be applied professionally. But if you’ve designed a website that converts well, or started an SEO campaign that makes your site the first in a long line of search engine results, does that mean you should be a professional web designer or an SEO consultant? To answer this big question, you need to ask yourself five simpler questions first.
How passionate are you? This is related to the previous question, except this is more about your degree of passion, rather than what’s fueling it. How much do you want this new venture to succeed? How serious are you about this particular field? Before taking this on, you need to want it badly enough to invest your time and money in it. This is why developing a sound portfolio is essential. Potential clients want to know if you’ll be able to deliver the kind of services they need. The act of putting together a portfolio, whether it’s for illustration, design, or writing, is a test to see if you’re ready to do professional work. Even if you’re starting a venture where you’ll just be the manager and you’re going to hire others to do the work, you’ll need to educate yourself about the process and standards needed to produce quality work. It’s not just about what looks good to you. What’s more important is that you and your team can identify your clients’ needs and what you have to do to fulfill them. If you absolutely want to take on this new venture, then go ahead and acquire the skills you need. Of course, getting professional working knowledge takes a bit of time. It might even cost money if you want to purchase books, learning materials, or attend formal classes. Just remember that you should never start something unless you’re sure you have the skills to accomplish it well. How many hours will this add to your workweek? With every new client and business venture comes more working hours. Before you add a new service or title under your name, you need to know that you’ll have time for it. Do you have time to spare on new projects? Do you have a system in place in case you receive an overwhelming amount of requests? If you find that you’ll be short on work hours, either find a way to increase your productivity or delegate the less important tasks to others. What’s your exit strategy? If your new venture doesn’t fare as well as you hoped, how will you get out of it? Will you be able to sell it? Or will you simply change your strategy? Also, how do you quantify if it’s a success or not? Although I’m glad that I was never in the position to opt for an exit strategy, it’s always an important part of my initial planning. It allows me to have a Plan B if the venture doesn’t turn out to be as profitable or as worthwhile as I thought it would be. Image by Adam Ciesielski from sxc.hu    |
| Ask WWD: How Do You Charge for Your Time? Posted: 28 Oct 2008 10:00 AM CDT WWD recently received a great question from a reader regarding contracts, terms and pricing. Celine Roque and Aliza Sherman partnered to address this question:
Aliza Says… How to charge for the work you do seems to be a constant question on every Web worker’s mind, and I think we all come up with our own formulas on how to handle pricing issues. Personally, I’ve moved away from the hourly model as much as possible for several reasons:
So even in my contracts, I list the specific things I will be doing for my clients and set a timeline. Then I put a cost to each part of the project - each deliverable - and set my payments in increments throughout the duration of the project, either as deliverables are met or as percentages of the overall project cost paid over time until the project is complete. In terms of when clients can call me, I can only work 10:30am until 4:00pm due to family obligations so I turn my phone off or do not answer it before that time frame, after that time frame, or when I’m tied up in the middle of a project. I also lead clients, by example, to use email far more than the telephone which cuts down on time-consuming calls. Celine defines several solid solutions and explains more of the nuts and bolts of how to carry them out. Celine Says… As Aliza mentioned, one solution is to shift the focus of both your contracts from a time-oriented way to measure work, to a results-oriented way. This means that your deliverables should be based on what you accomplish rather than how much time they took. There is a set list of tasks that you have to finish each day/week/month, and your ability to commit to the list is how they’ll measure your performance. The tasks that need to be accomplished should be mutually agreed upon, so that you won’t feel exploited and your client knows what to expect from you. You should also discuss the pricing for each task, as well as projected average total cost for each month based on your client’s previous requests. This entails a lot of initial work, especially since you’re currently being paid by the hour. You’ll need to have a long discussion with your client about these changes. Also, it’s difficult to implement a solely results-oriented approach, especially if the tasks you do each month vary greatly. Ideally, this method should work fine for simple projects. Another approach is somewhat halfway between your current arrangement and the results-oriented arrangement above. First, you can define the tasks covered for the 25-hour period. You can start with the regular tasks they ask you to do such as text changes on the website, addition of a few images, sending out the newsletter, etc. The defined tasks could even include a set time each workday where you will be available for consultation. You can make yourself available twice a day for each client, where they can give you feedback or make additional requests. Whether you use email or the phone, having a fixed schedule to communicate will be more efficient. This might be tough to propose, especially if they’re used to having you at their beck and call. Let your clients know that this change is for their own benefit, because implementing this will allow you to spend more time actually doing the work. Tell them that this saves them time as well. Instead of calling or email you multiple times at irregular intervals throughout the day, they can batch their requests. Since there is still time measurement involved in this approach, it helps to send the client a daily or weekly report of what you’ve accomplished and how long each task took. You can use time-tracking tools to provide the information in your report. Most clients usually underestimate the time and effort needed for some tasks, which is probably why your client tends to demand more of you. Seeing this regular update will allow the client to have a better idea of how long certain tasks take, and they’ll know what to expect in the future. For the heavier work you’re asked to do, such as, say, the creation of a new sub-page, creating forms, making changes to the layout, you should quote separately for them. Discuss this with your client when negotiating your new contract so that they will expect the quotes, and even ask for it when they request these major tasks. The Bottom Line You need to create a fee structure that best serves you and your business but that is acceptable to your client. As you change over to a new way of pricing, develop a “handout” or fact sheet that outlines the new structure, giving an explanation in writing to your clients and offering them the opportunity for discussion before changing the contract. Present your change in pricing and billing as an entire restructuring of your business, not as a way to right any wrongs with the previous pricing structure and contract. You’re not trying to “punish” your clients. You are trying to get the new year off on the right path to strengthen and grow your business. If you have a good relationship with your clients, they should be supportive of the new move - as long as they can see the mutual benefit. They are ultimately looking out for themselves. You need to do the same.    |
| 123 People Stands Out For Finding Lost Colleagues Posted: 27 Oct 2008 06:00 PM CDT After several months of private beta testing, 123 People has launched its people search application in the U.S. As Webware notes, this service competes with services such as Spock and Wink. It’s different from many other people search engines in that it scours popular sites such as Flickr and Facebook to come up with everything from possibly correct e-mail addresses to other information. These days, it’s often easy to reconnect with a colleague you’ve lost track of by looking through the social networks, but not always. I decided to test 123 People to see if it could find information on several online writers that I worked with years ago and had lost track of. After a series of test searches for three writers I used to work with but had lost track of, I definitely find 123 People useful. It found concrete e-mail address probabilities and physical addresses for two of the three writers (and the third is a woman who I believe has a different last name than she used to, so not finding her is forgivable). You can tell that the fundamental difference between 123 People and other people search engines–how it scours social networks and sites such as Flickr–is in place. For example, you can see in the suffixes of some of the e-mail addresses it returns that it scours these types of sites. 123 People also has a blog post up detailing some of this: “Type in 'Barack Obama' you are greeted with images from popular social networks like Facebook, Myspace, Flickr, and Google and Wikipedia. Want to follow Obama on Twitter? find all Obama related Twitter accounts with 123 People, as well as blogs, weblinks and real-time news clippings from CNN, NYTimes and WSJ, all presented in a dynamic hub.” If you’re in search of lost colleagues or need to find someone for any reason, give it a try.    |
Y’know, I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone with an AOL Mail email address…plenty of AIM users, but no one with AOL Mail - at least no one who will admit it…
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