Accessing Web-based Microsoft Exchange Emails

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iPhoto2gmail Plugin is a Great Productivity Tool for Photo Blogging

Introducing the iPhoto2Gmail plugin (http://iphoto2gmail.notoptimal.net/ ). 

This niffty app just reduces my time taken to upload dozons of photos onto my blog by more than half. In the past, I had to resize all my photos and upload them one by one to posterous using my Gmail account. There were also frequent encounters where my Gmail would be in a "still working" mode after a good 20 minutes and the 30 photos were still left humming in email. 

Using this iPhoto2Gmail app, I can just resize it with one click and immediately it will be sent to my Gmail account, ready for uploading. Wish there is a similar plug in for iPhone so that I can email multiple photos at once. By the way, they have the Apperture2Gmail app too. 

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How to Monetize Twitter? Here's what I think the new Twitter Product Manager can do

It's interesting to see that Twitter is now trying to monetize its popularity. This is nothing groundbreaking. Yammer, for example, is one that uses twitter kind of messaging system as an internal communications tool. Of course, to give credit to the company, Yammer has a different UI and implemented other features that have yet to be done on Twitter. ( http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/09/08/yammer-launches-at-tc50-twitter-for-companies/#comments ). Whether Yammer can take off, it the jury is still out. 

I've subscribed to Yammer but I didn't post any messages. It's just an idle account; Twitter on the other hand is very much close to my heart. Why so, I have asked myself. I think this lies in the culture of the company and the job nature of the user. There are only less than 10 Yammer users in my company. Most of us have smartphones and can check our emails anywhere anytime. I can't use Yammer to broadcast as my job revolves around strategic planning and budgets as well as go to market plans on our new initiatives. I deal alot with senior management and they are not on Yammer (in fact, I doubt they have heard about Twitter either). As a matter of fact, sending SMS is much faster and quicker if you want a more immediate response (at least that's what I experience). Sounds sad, but all is not lost. Does that mean there is no viability at this stage? To the contrary, I think there is. 

Back to what I think Twitter can do. This is by no means an exhaustive list or a detailed analysis. It's something that I thought of based on my work experience. Perhaps this list can be used for further brainstorming by Twitter or for people who are keen to be Twitter's first product manager. 

1. Twitter can be a new form of viral marketing tool for companies to try out. First understand your base first. What's the profile of your customers? Active base vs inactive. How many new twitter accounts are created on average per month or week for example. What is the size of the base in different geographical locations? 

2. Have a ready educational / sales kit. Twitter is new. Show them the benefits. My first targets would probably be those companies who already have their own employee blogs, forums or live online customer care or truly care about customer experience or educational institutions which are into e-learning.

3. Get one or two success stories first (even if it's not money-making). You need success stories to build credibility and momentum. 

4. Decide on the types of packages / solutions for the target markets. Yammer is in a pretty niche area. I do not think it's wise to restrict the business model to using corporate emails. It should be an option but not mandatory. SMEs may not have corporate emails. They may rely on the good old free emails by Yahoo or Gmail or Hotmail. 

5. If you still want to gun for the big accounts, just take note that big enterprises usually have strict policies on adoption of technologies. It will take quite a while before the company endorses such technologies. If you want to try out, always try to talk to the "innovation" department if the company has one and convince then to implement this as a trial. Or to the media department. Sell to the users the benefits. Then meet the IS. Tell them not only the ease of policing and cost savings, but also the benefits to the company. 

6. Scalability is important. I think unless you are already pretty established, it will not make sense to charge by per user account for large corporation. You may want to work out a different pricing scheme. 

7. Security and Audit trail. This can be important if this is to be used as part of a corporate tool especially for bigger enterprises. I'm not sure how easy it is to implement twitter with security features or with audit trail but these are things that Twitter has to think through if it wants to work with big corporations. 

8. SME is a big untapped market. They can be the early adopters. Help SMEs to learn how to incorporate twitter into their websites and how to integrate with their CMS to do content broadcast for their followers. Or work with web-based services targeting at SMEs to see how to integrate twitter into the services. For example, SME may use an online project room and when an update is done, an automessage can be sent out to the relevant parties as Direct Messages. This also means that Twitter must have an easy way for "guest" use instead of making it mandatory for everyone who wants to use the service to have to register and sign up. 

9. Work with online communities websites to be the "enabler" for these communities websites. Have some capability built into Twitter that can do online polls or surveys. Have ready plugins that can be included easily into applications especially productivity tools like Outlook or Powerpoints. For example, if I made revision to a shared document, I can easily send an auto-message to my counterparts. Or complement an email marketing tool. 

10. Work with handset makers or even telco companies to have the twitter app made available on the phones either as a java applet or iphone app or blackberry app or see how to integrate it even more tightly into their services. However, you may want to think through if you want to work with them if they insist on rebranding or co-branding. Shozu (www.shozu.com) for example is made available on many handsets and have tie ups with some telco companies. 

11. Create some incentives for referrals. And constantly rollout new or improved features. Be open and transparent to feedback. 

12. Have different pricing models. Can be a subscription model, capped plan, pay per use, etc. 

13. Once you have a big enough mass market, you can even offer to do "twitter-broadcasting" much like SMS-broadcasting.

14. Another potential area is advertising. Something similar to location-based advertising. You walk into a mall and a promotional code is pushed to your twitter account. Well, Twitter probably needs to work with some key retailers to agree to adopt the Twitter platform first so that they can get their regular customer base to sign up to create the viral marketing effect. 

If you are interested to discuss more, leave me a comment or send me a tweet @poohwinn

================================

About this Job

As Twitter's first product manager focused on revenue generation, you will play a defining role in the formulation of Twitter's business. Your job will be to lead the definition and execution of the products and features that will lead to monetization of the Twitter platform. 

Responsibilities

• Define products and feature sets of commercial-oriented Twitter applications
• Manage the prioritization and development of new products and features
  
• Work closely with engineering to develop product functionality
• Work closely with customer support to solve issues and maximize user satisfaction 
• Do customer research to inform product decisions
  
• Create detailed cost and revenue models
  
• Define product positioning and marketing plans
  
• Analyze and report product success

Qualifications

• Experience managing web-based software products 
  
• Strong familiarity with online advertising and marketing models
  
• Strong grasp of user-experience design 
  
• Enthusiasm for talking to customers
• Great project-management skills
• Excellent written communication and presentation skills
  
• Active Twitter user

Bonus Points

• Strong technical and data-mining skills

Working at Twitter

Twitter offers competitive salaries and full benefits, including health, dental, vacation, 401k, and stock options. We work in a bright, sunny office in San Francisco. And you'll be joining a unique group of experienced folks who are doing their best work to create something great. 

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Compare Camera Quality of all 8MP Camera Phones - here's the verdict.

I thought pictures speak a thousand words and it may be useful for you to have some reference on the quality of the photos produced by the various 8MP camera phones.

If you are interested in the unedited image qualities of the 8MP camera phones, please take a look at the pictures below. Just to orientate you. All pictures are taken at 2MP with the exception of Sony Ecrisson C905. Images of C905 were taken at 3MP as there was no 2MP selection.

I have tested on all the current 8MP camera phones. The pictures are in the following order (remember it's a set of 4 photos for each phone)

1. Samsung Innov8 (with sliding keypad), 

2. Sony Ecricsson C905 (with sliding keypad) 

3. Samsung Pixon (touch screen) 

4. LG Renoir (touch screen).

For each phone, there is a set of 4 photos. The first two photos (using auto-focus and macro functions respectively) were taken with all lights switched off. This was to test the quality of the pictures with the flash. The last two pictures (again, using auto-focus and macro functions) were taken when the (incandescent) lights were switch on and the white balance was set to auto. All photos were not edited. 

Hope this provide some use to you. 

See the full gallery on posterous

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Special Post: Farewell to my Uncle Forever

This post is a special post in loving memory of my uncle who passed away peacefully today. Just a day ago, I finished the book by Rick Warren, The Purpose of Christmas. This book is given to me as a gift. My feelings are mixed. Perhaps it's time for my uncle to bid goodbye to the earthly world. But I feel a tinge of regret that I did not get to see him for the last time.

I never met my grandfathers as they passed away before I was born. My grandmothers passed away when I was in my teen and early twenties respectively.  Sometimes when I see some elderly folks, I reminisce the times I had with my grandmothers. I often wonder given the short life span of my grandparents, will my own parents live to a long ripe age? And how about myself? Every night before I turn in, I count my blessings that I have one more day with my family and loved ones. I am grateful for the times I have with them. So, my friends, put aside your work and make a commitment to spend this Christmas with your family and loved ones.

Merry Christmas.

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Lego = Innovation = New Revenue Growth

See this little complimentary gift from Cisco. Lego has made it into the big boys' league.

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Cloud Computing. Is it ready?

Attended an IDC breakfast event last week on Cloud Computing. Here're the highlights.

1. In terms of IT growth worldwide, US and Europe are the dark spots. Japan and Asia (ex Japan) are showing positive albeit more tapered growth because of the financial crisis.

2.Definition of Cloud Services = Consumer + Business Products, Services and Solutions delivered and consumer on real time over internet (*note = it's real time!)

3. Definition of Cloud Computing = emergent IT development, deployment and delivery model, enabling real time development of products, services and solutions over Internet (thus enabling cloud services)

4. Cloud Services attributes should have: -

    ~ provisioned off-site and by third party(ies)

    ~ via Internet (a hybrid will be over MPLS network to address the concerns of the large enterprises who are inclined to do outsourcing but not running the apps over Internet. Hey, Mr Telco, you have a part to play here!)

    ~ near real-time deployment; dynamic and scaable

    ~ pricing model = fine-grained, usage based (or at least as an option)

    ~ User Interface = Browser (or subsequent successors thereof)

    ~ Shared resources 

5. Worldwide IT Spending (precrisis estimates): in 2008, On-Premise IT $367M; Cloud IT $16M and by 2012, On-Premise IT$ 461M, Cloud IT $42M (CAGR for On-Premise 5%, for Cloud 27%). I think the economic crisis which leads to spending cuts and more outsourcing will be positive for Cloud Computing. Enterprises will be willing to "take some risks" at a more open system for the less sensitive applications. 

6. Top Apps for Enteprise Adoption over next 3 years include: IT Mgmt Apps, Collaborative Apps, Personal and Business Apps. 

7. Key trends for next year in the ICT area: NextGen Customer Care, Cloud Computing, Thin Client & Virtualisation, Sustainability and Green IT. 

8. Besides Cloud Computing, Enterprise Search and Next Generation Customer Care are equally important. Cloud Computing is primarily driven by the focus on cost savings whereas NextGen Customer Care and Search are new growth opportunities. 

In my view, the most immediate opportunity in cloud computing lies in the SMB segment, particularly those without their own IT departments and are growing. We should focus on the end-user apps that these SMB needs. In my experience, any SaaS apps in the Finance & Accounting area should not be the top priority. Many SMBs are cautious about having their financial data hosted off-premise and many still prefer to entrust it to a service provider (accounting firm) that they trust rather than a SaaS provider. Be patient. If your SMBs have not used other biz apps other than the basic productivity tools by Microsoft Office, it will take some time to educate them on the benefits. However once the trust level is built, they will hardly switch. Besides, SMBs have less complicated decision making process; in fact for the smaller size companies, the owners generally decide on the IT matters. Finally, prepare to offer similar solutions by various providers at different price tiers and complexities (of course, that only applies if you are an aggregator). If you are a SaaS app developer, make sure that your user interface is not too cluttered with too many functionalities. Sometimes a powerful tool may not be the right tool for the SMBs. They only need to meet one objective. Give them a simple software that meets the objective. Don't attempt to offer more if that means a steeper learning curve. Many SMBs are not tech-savvy and if you simply rely on online marketing and selling, that won't work. Work through channels, conduct free educational workshops. Offer incentives to try out and experience the benefits without commitment. 

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