Web 2.0 Team Collaboration Tools

Google Reader and Del.icio.us are tools that have been around for a while now but they are simple and provide the opportunity for team collaboration when it comes to research. Google Reader now allows you to share your RSS feeds with the public or specific persons in your contact list. Having the ability for team members to able to read the same news on a particular topic keeps everyone informed .

On the other hand, Del.icio.us allows you to share your bookmarks with team members. This is an invaluable tool when you working on a research team for a given project.

In a business setting these days, most people think of collaboration tools as SharePoint or something similar. We need to keep in mind that there are other tools available that are simple and help in getting work done while collaborating with colleagues.

Jeremy's Google Reader & Del.icio.us profiles
http://www.google.com/reader/shared/user%2F03556655281381831658%2Flabel%2FCIO%20-%20Leadership%20Reading
http://delicious.com/jwindmiller

Adobe Air Applications for Healthcare

I have been utilizing TweetDeck and Eventbox for sometime now for aggregating information from my various social networks. Both of these applications are based upon the Adobe Air which is operating system independent and works flawlessly.

With that being said, I thought I would do some searching to see what healthcare applications are out there that utilizes Adobe Air. Unfortunately, there aren't too may healthcare companies utilizing the Adobe Air platform. The major EMR companies should really look at the AIR platform with its ability to utilize applications in an offline mode.

The one company I found that is utilzing Adobe Air, is DLC Solutions, which specializes in developing eLearning solutions. They have developed a learning system for cancer patient called ENACCT. More information on this solution can be found on the DLC Solution Blog.

Hopefully, once the Adobe Air platform becomes more mainstream we will see more EMR and Healthcare applications available. platform which is operating system independent and works flawlessly.

Social Network Aggregator/Social Stream - Follow-up

Several weeks ago I wrote about Social Network Aggregator tools. Since then I have been heavily utilizing my iGoogle setup as my preferred aggregator. However, this week I stumbled across a new tool, "SKIMMER", that works on my both Mac/PC and connects to the more popular networks (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flikr). For the most part, Skimmer has the features for social networking but is a little bugging while establishing connections to each of the services.

What is really interesting about Skimmer, is that has been developed by a marketing firm. So I am sure it is a matter of time before you start seeing advertisements showing up on the Skimmer interface.

Update
After making this post I came across another aggregator for the Mac environment. "Eventbox" comes from the folks at Comic Machine. It provides access to Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, News Feeds, and Google Reader. What's nice about this aggregator that its interface has the feel of an email in box plus the features of a life stream.

Social Network Aggregator/Social Stream

Over the past several weeks I have been researching various means of pulling all of my social network accounts into a single interface. In doing so I have trialed desktop applications, add-ons for firefox, and web-base solutions. Provided below are the ones that I have reviewed and my 2 cents about the solution.

Desktop Options
Sobees - a desktop solution that pulls in the most common social networks and has the most promising future but is for Windows only right now.
Feedalizr - a desktop solution similar to Sobees but works on a Mac. However, the user interface isn't as easy to work with as Sobees and does not pull in as many common networks.
Digsby - an instant messaging client that connects to all major instant messaging accounts, provides email updates, plus sends you updates as to what you friends are doing on MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter. Digsby is a really nice solution but is only available for Windows currently.

Firefox Add-on
Yoono - a sidebar add-on for Firefox that provides access to all the major social networks (MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed, Flikr) as well as all the instant messenger solutions. This is a really nice solution for someone who likes having all their accounts in one solution. The only downside is that local to the PC upon which it is installed.

Web-based
Bebo - a web-based offering from AOL that labels their solution as a "Life Stream" allows you to acccess your Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter accounts and pull them into 1 stream. AOL has done a good job in providing access to your other accounts but has a really cluttered interface that you can't personalize
Meebo - a web-based instant messaging solution that allows you to access all major instant messaging accounts as well as MySpace and Facebook. The only downside is that it doesn't send you updates that you friends post to their MySpace and Facebook accounts.
iGoogle - a customized home page from google that you can add gadgets from all the common social networks and to have them all on one page. I personally like this one because it provides me a segrated view of all my social network accounts on a single page.

Another promising solution is from the instant messaging client Adium (Mac only) that announced they would have a client similar to Digsby over the next coupld of months.

Healthcare Web 2.0 Risks?

I recently read the blog posting below from KevinMD.com and came up with a few questions from a Healthcare IT perspective:

1. Should these be social networking sites that are blocked by IT departments to minimize risks to the hospital?

• I suspect some organizations will block these types of sites to minimize liability risk and give guidance to their affiliated physicians.
  

2. Is getting advice on one these sites any different the conferring with a physician over the phone?

• From my point, not really. The only difference here is that the person on the end of the advice the physician may not know.
  

I guess we will have to wait and see when the first law suit from these type of services comes about.

Do doctors who use physician-only social networking sites expose themselves to malpractice risk?

One of the newer trends is doctors using social networking sites like Sermo and iMedExchange.

Likened to a "virtual doctor's lounge," physicians can ask questions and speak freely knowing their posts will not be seen by, or released to, the public.

Often times, questions about patient management are asked, and it's nice to have a quick response to queries by a variety of specialists.

In this piece from Medical Economics, some wonder about the liability risk about asking such questions. Although Sermo downplays the risk, attorneys say that a "user who gives bad advice on the site could find himself involved in legal proceedings if his name were to come out during a malpractice trial of the doctor who followed his advice," similar to a curbside consult.

So, with professional organizations offering little guidance on how to proceed, it's probably best to be careful about what you post, and how you act on the information gleaned from these sites.

Web 2.0 & Privacy

This past week there has been tremendous coverage on Facebook's attempt to retain the content submitted by the user's of its service. Most people who sign up for these services are not aware of the potential downside of posting information on these services. This not only affects individuals users but businesses as well. Provided below are some of this week's coverage on Facebook:

What Facebook's Stumble Can Teach Your Company

Week in review: Facebook's about-face

Facebook backs down on policy changes

Facebook Makes Some Changes

Healthcare Web 2.0 Adoption

Several people have already written about Forrestor's prediction (http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=8555) of social networking by 2013. My question is, how widely excepted will these technoligies be in healthcare? Typically, healthcare is the last to adopt new technologies and in some cases is 5-10 years behind other industries. Several technologies that could be implemented that would help healthcare institutions interface with the public and those being:

Podcasts (provide evidence based recommendations by physicians and announcements about upcoming events)
Mashups (provide transparency for hospital quality and safety statistics as compared to the industry)
Blogs (for internal and external use to allow folks to interact with hospital leadership)

I guess we will we see how the next few years play out to see if these and other web 2.0 technologies are adopted by healthcare.

Web 2.0 Over?

Today CNN Money had the following article on Web 2.0.

Web 2.0 is so over. Welcome to Web 3.0

After reading this article, it was time to read up some more on Web 3.0 by turning to Wikipedia which has a definition by:

Nova Spivack defines Web 3.0 as the third decade of the Web (2010–2020) during which he suggests several major complementary technology trends will reach new levels of maturity simultaneously including:

• transformation of the Web from a network of separately siloed applications and content repositories to a more seamless and interoperable whole. JDW - this has already begun when you look at the suite of apps from Google.
  
• ubiquitous connectivity, broadband adoption, mobile Internet access and mobile devices; JDW - this is getting better but there are still a lot of rural and some urban areas where broadband is not available or not affordable.
  
• network computing, software-as-a-service business models, Web servicesdistributed computing, grid computing and cloud computing; interoperability, JDW - most of these services are available today but not widely adopted by large enterprises. These services are ideal solutions for small to medium sized business.
  
• open technologies, open APIs and protocols, open data formats, open-source software platforms and open data JDW -
  
• open identity, OpenID, open reputation, roaming portable identity and personal data; JDW - most of these are available today through technologies provided by Google.
  
• the intelligent web, Semantic Web technologies such as RDF, OWL, SWRL, SPARQL, GRDDL, semantic application platforms, and statement-based datastores; JDW - all these technologies appear to have a long way to go before they are reality. Several semantic web projects have struggled in taking off but they do offer a promising future for the web.
  
• distributed databases, the "World Wide Database" (enabled by Semantic Web technologies); and
• intelligent applications, natural language processing, machine learning, machine reasoning, autonomous agents

Mashable

I recently found the Mashable website that describes itself as the world’s largest blog focused exclusively on Web 2.0 and Social Networking news. For those interested in the latest uses of Web 2.0 technology then this is a site for you. For example, some of the articles that I read on Mashable are:

Social Networking God: 350+ Social Networking Sites

-Truly amazing all the social networking sites that are available these days

Twitter, Facebook, Digg: Can You Join Too Many Network

- The answer is "Yes"

Social Networking Articles

I found the following article on social networking this morning:

Kids On Facebook - Where does Facebook’s Business Model Fit into Protecting our Kids?

More Social Networking

In reviewing more social networking sites this past week I stumbled across an article from Network World that included 10 sites for 2009. Some of the ones from that list that are worth taking a look at are:

• Qik: video version of Twitter that lets you quickly most video captured on a mobile phone
• Boxee: a dashboard tool that gathers video from all the major video places on the web
• Loopt: made popular on the iPhone but not available on some other smartphones allow you to find your friends assuming they have a phone with GPS.
• Blip.fm: a music version of Twitter that allows friends to share music lists
• Power.com: a dashboard that interfaces with MySpace, Facebook, Hi5 and displays on a single screen.
• Hi5: the most popular social network tool outside the US. Similar to Facebook.
  

Social Networks

As part of checking out all the social networks I came across a great utility "ping.fm". This handy service allows you to update all your social networks from one interface. In addition, to providing this service, ping.fm provides an extensive list of all the social networks available on the web. Over the next few weeks I will be testing more of the social networks that are available. So far I am trialing:

Linkedin: great for keeping in touch with business colleagues
MySpace: an ok service but with way too man advertisements
Facebook: a very intuitive service with a friendly user interface
Blogger: the best blog solution available
Twitter: a neat concept that combines instant messaging, sms texting, and micro-blogging into 1 interface but has had stability issues of late.

Testing Out Websites IT Pros Should Know

NetworkWorld posted the following websites that IT pros should know for 2009 so I thought I would give them a try and then give my 2 cents.

NetworkWorld.com says that savvy IT executives need to connect to the latest innovations on the Internet if they want to keep up with their 20-something employees and improve business performance. They suggest:

1. Linked In, the de rigueur Web 2.0 site for IT professionals that has 30 million members and a host of new features that make it the most productive networking site on the web. JDW Comment: A must have service for any business professional wanting to keep in touch with colleagues and business contacts.
   
2. Google Apps for Business, a software-as-a-service or cloud computing option that's the future of enterprise IT departments. JDW Comment: A very nice solution for small business that want to minimize costs to their startup and on-going IT costs.
3. VMware Communities - Chances are you’ve already embarked on a server virtualization project, and continued consolidation of your servers is a key money-saving goal for 2009.
4. Secunia.com, a site that aggregates security vulnerability information from leading vendors, providing you with one-stop shopping for the latest news about security bugs and the software patches available to fix them.
5. Green Grid, a website that offer advice to make sure your data center is energy efficient and saves money.
6. Twitter, a real-time messaging service that provides an easy way to keep your staff and co-workers informed about where you are and what you're doing. You can also sign up for the latest technology headlines from Wired, Slashdot and others. JDW Comment: Still trying to figure out the attraction to this service but I am willing to give it a try.
7. Yammer - If Twitter seems too frivolous to you, try Yammer. It’s essentially Twitter for the office. The benefit of Yammer is that it’s a private communications channel for coworkers to share quick messages about what they’re working on, get questions answered or blast out news.
8. Ruby on Rails - Ruby on Rails is one of the best open source tools to appear in recent years. This Web development framework lets you create working applications in a matter of hours.
9. Enterprise Mobility Matters - Like it or not, the latest smartphones – the BlackBerry Storms and Apple 3G iPhones (Slideshow: Smartphone showdown: iPhone vs. BlackBerry Storm) – are headed toward your corporate network.