Perfect Open Source Project Management on a Linux Box with OpenProj While setting up a list of useful open source applications for my Linux laptop I found a very advanced project management solution provided by Projity incorporating both, a web-based project-on-demand service (SaaS) and an open source desktop alternative to MS Project. The latest version requires Java (JRE) and is available as .deb, .rpm or platform-independent source at Sourceforge.net.

'OpenProj shares the industry's most advanced scheduling engine with Project-ON-Demand and has Gantt Charts, Network Diagrams (PERT Charts), WBS and RBS charts, Earned Value costing and more.'

Being familiar with MS Project it's easy to switch. Just create a work breakdown structure, add time and dependencies, OpenProj will construct a project model applying CPM ready to prioritize activities for the effective management of project completion.


Probably the best solution I've ever seen, just got used to it.

Labels: linux, management, networking, productivity

  ¶ 'Perfect Open Source Project Management on a Linux Box with OpenProj' posted by eA : 3:49 PM  0 comments links to this post

  Next-generation Communications and Collaboration with Google Apps
After Documents and Spreadsheets Google added Presentations to Docs. It's possible now to create and share presentations online with co-workers reducing the amount of friction to interact with each other improving communications and productivity.

• Current and Future eCommerce Challenges
• Into the Enterprise with Google Apps Premier Edition

Labels: bizdev, collaboration, google, productivity

  ¶ 'Next-generation Communications and Collaboration with Google Apps' posted by eA : 12:53 PM  0 comments links to this post

  Remixing Flash Videos on TestTube Accessing the Internet at high speeds has several positive effects on Internet usage resulting in higher connectivity and new sorts of services. Powered by Adobe Premiere Express YouTube released the YouTube Remixer in beta of course via TestTube. It's a simple but useful productivity tool which extends the user experience and provides an easy introduction in online video editing - it supports insertion of graphics, text, audio, overlays, transitions and simple effects, easy!

• Increasing Demand for Online Video and Rich Media Advertising
• Current Business Models for Free Online Video

Labels: flash, mashup, productivity, youtube

  ¶ 'Remixing Flash Videos on TestTube' posted by eA : 6:58 PM  0 comments links to this post

  Google Developer Day: Going Offline with Google Gears
Just announced on the Google Developer Day in Australia Google Gears (in Beta) can already be experienced via the Google Reader if you use Mozilla Firefox. Just click on the Offline Link in the top right navbar of your Google Reader and follow the installation instructions.

While going offline Gears downloads the latest 2000 posts and synchronizes the Reader while going online again. Fine!

From Google Gears Blog:

'Gears is an incremental improvement to the web as it is today. It adds just enough to AJAX to make current web applications work offline.

Gears today covers what we think is the minimal set of primitives required for offline apps. It is still a bit rough and in need of polish, but we are releasing it early because we think the best way to make Gears really useful is to evolve it into an open standard.'

The next live stream from the London Developer Day takes place today at 12.00 BST (British Summer Time).

Developer Resources:

• Gears Homepage
• Gears API Homepage
• Gears API Blog
• Gears Groups
• MashUp Editor
• Google Web Toolkit

More Google Apps:

• Centralizing Information with new Google Reader
• Into the Enterprise with Google Apps Premier Edition
• Into the Air with AJAX

Labels: apis, bizdev, google, productivity

  ¶ 'Google Developer Day: Going Offline with Google Gears' posted by eA : 11:28 AM  0 comments links to this post

  Consumer Internet into the Office Personalized Start-Pages are frequently used as an information resource and a preferred place to personalize trust worth and up-to-date news and services.

As a result of user demand more and more gadgets are developed for this very competitive portal market. A recent deal between IBM and Google introduces more than 4000 Google Gadgets to the users of IBM WebSphere.

From Reuters:

'SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - IBM (IBM.N: Quote, Profile , Research) has reached a deal with Google Inc. (GOOG.O: Quote, Profile , Research) to bring the consumer Internet into the office by piping YouTube and thousands of other Web programs into IBM software used by millions of office workers.'

With this approach Google's Gadgets fuse in the IBM WebSphere Portal, converge in customer interactions and represent a further step towards a personalized customer experience.

More from Reuters:

'IBM WebSphere is the global market leader for portal software with a roughly 30 percent share, according to Gartner and IDC surveys. It competes with SharePoint from Microsoft Corp.'

'Customers such as German airline Deutsche Lufthansa and Disney hotel operator Starwood Hotels will now be able use Google Gadgets.'

Also:

• Into the Enterprise with Google Apps Premier Edition
• Into the Air with AJAX
• TrendSpotting: New Technologies First in Consumer Markets

Labels: bizdev, google, homepage, ibm, productivity

  ¶ 'Consumer Internet into the Office' posted by eA : 6:20 PM  0 comments links to this post

  Into the Enterprise with Google Apps Premier Edition It's always been messy to collaborate on projects created with MS Office products and to share them with co-workers. The better that Google launched Google Apps Premier Edition with new administration APIs aimed at businesses for the next-generation communication and collaboration.

• TrendSpotting: New Technologies First in Consumer Markets

Those applications are already out for a while, however the new thing is a premier edition option including:

• 99.9% uptime guarantee for email
• APIs for your existing infrastructure: Single sign-on and provisioning
  
• 24/7 assistance, including phone support
  

Google Apps are excellent AJAX-based communications tools reducing the amount of friction to interact with each other and to improve communications.

The rapid adoption of broadband has made it possible to move more and more applications to the Web and it's a step further to a Web-based collaboration-suite with drastically reduced maintenance costs with an option to buy further premium services.

Before using Google Apps one should read the GOOGLE APPS PREMIER EDITION AGREEMENT carefully and think of questions about privacy, ethics, security and technology support. It might also be interesting what happens in case of an outage or data losses.

• Into the Air with AJAX

Labels: apis, bizdev, collaboration, google, productivity

  ¶ 'Into the Enterprise with Google Apps Premier Edition' posted by eA : 11:58 PM  0 comments links to this post

  Centralizing Information with new Google Reader With the new single personal Google Reader gathering information becomes an experience that centralizes and stores information and information history across several website feeds for users and extends reach for distributers.

Experience showed that a centralization on behalf of a user simplifies the personal information management process, thus the new Google Reader can really improve one's digital lifestyle.


All one needs to do is to follow these little sbscription buttons: or and to make a Google Account. View more info in this little video:

Labels: productivity, reader

  ¶ 'Centralizing Information with new Google Reader' posted by eA : 10:50 AM  0 comments links to this post

  First Version of Google Business Apps Google released the first version of Google Apps for Your Domain offering hosted, web-based, free, but ad-supported services including email, talk, calendar, and pages.

'A set of hosted applications for organizations that want to provide high quality communications tools to their users without the hassle of installing and maintaining software or hardware.'

Those applications are already out for a while, however the new thing is a web-based administration interface for creating user accounts and assigning permissions. It targets the small- and medium-sized businesses that want to communicate and share information more effectively while drastically reducing maintenance costs.

Although I'm not using Pages at all, Google Apps are excellent AJAX-based communications tools reducing the amount of friction to interact with eachother and to improve communications. The rapid adoption of broadband has made it possible to move more and more applications to the Web and I think it's a first step to a Web-based collaboration-suite with an option to buy further premium services later on.

Before using Google Apps one should read the terms and conditions carefully and think of questions about privacy, ethics, security and technology support. It might also be interesting what happens in case of an outage or data losses. I would also like to see an integration of Blogger, a tool to instantly take part in a worldwide live-communication. For the instance the service is in beta and this means according to Google:

'Furthermore, organizations that sign up during the beta period will not ever have to pay for users accepted during that period (provided Google continues to offer the service)'.

Labels: productivity

  ¶ 'First Version of Google Business Apps' posted by eA : 8:12 PM  0 comments links to this post