Qwiki: Search as an Aural and Visual Experience: Online Collaboration«

I’m all for new search technologies and finding information on the Web. I recently wrote aboutmy initial impressions of ReSearch.ly, which looks to provide context within social searches of Twitter content.Qwiki, now in alpha, takes another approach, offering an“information experience” that“transforms static information into interactive stories.”

So what does that actually mean? The site presents a montage of images, video, animations and other visual resources culled from search results, and overlays it with real-time narration, using text-to-speech technology. The result is information as a watchable experience.

For me, the actual experience of watching the content is eerie and unsettling. I’ve never liked the way text-to-speech technology sounds; it’s strange and unnerving to my ears and brain, sounding almost, but not quite, human in a way that could mean trouble, like HAL in2001: A Space Odyssey.

My first search was for“Tok,”the rural Alaskan community where I live and work. The text-to-speech voice sounded nearly human, but with mispronunciations and odd inflections that are inherent in the technology. Qwiki pronounced my community as“Tawk” rather than the correct pronunciation,“Toke.” Right away, this interfered with my ability to appreciate the visual montage.

The audio was accompanied by a flowing stream of imagery that seemed at first to correspond with the narration. But on closer examination, many images had nothing to do with what was being said, other than being from Tok. For example, when the narration mentioned Tok School, the images that appeared were of a gift shop and an RV park. Another image of a burned-out old gas station showed up, and I immediately wondered how I could remove such a photo, and replace it with something more representative of the community. Ditto for an image of a coffee shack that isn’t even in Tok, but is over 200 miles away, near the community of Glennallen.

My second search was for“karaoke.” I found the experience of this information less off-putting. However, the images in the presentation, while colorful and interesting, seemed less familiar. Many turned out to be of displays and equipment common in Japan.

My third search was for“social media.”The narration was a bit convoluted and the visual presentation consisted of a single static screenshot of Flickr.

My final test search was for…me.Here’s what I found(login required). And here’s what it looked like–apparently I have one of the dirtiest minds in business–or at least that’s what was displayed during the entire presentation!

Qwiki may give us a new phrase to replace“Googling ourselves.” We can now“get a Qwiki” and“give a Qwiki.”

Currently, Qwiki covers over two million reference terms, which feels sufficient for pretty good results when searching for a not-too-uncommon term. You can also search for people and places.

For me, the visual and audio dissonance of Qwiki was initially disturbing, but I tried to look past that and appreciate that I was“experiencing information.” Presentations are short–about 30 seconds–which is just enough time for narrative content from a paragraph or two from a Wikipedia entry.

Conceptually, Qwiki is a fascinating step forward in the presentation and consumption of search results. Since the site is in its alpha phase, it’s available only by invitation, although you can request one atQwiki’s website. You’ll probably start itching to fix what isn’t working, but Qwiki doesn’t yet have a Wikipedia-like system for collaborating on editing information. However, the company is very open to input on ways to improve the experience.

Give Qwiki a try, and let me know what you think of it. What implications do you think it will have for the future of search?

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Study of New Year’s Resolutions: Get Organized in 2011: Business Collaboration News«

A recent survey of New Year’s resolutionswe talked about yesterdayfound that the number-one resolution is to get organized. Sixty-one percent of those polled pledged to keep their business emails and documents more organized in the new year.

This survey was conducted online in December 2010 by Harris Interactive on behalf ofIntermedia. Respondents were employed U.S. adults who have a New Year’s business communications resolution.

We’ve written extensively on how toget more organized, how totame your inbox, and how toimprove collaboration, but the folks at Intermedia add these suggestions:

• Work off your business priorities, not your email inbox. Highly productive workers use email as a communication tool for business results, rather than responding to emails as they come in. Focus on what needs to get done for your job and prioritize email review and response with that in mind.
• Collaborate online rather than simply sending messages back and forth. Email is great for communication, but not always the best tool for collaboration. Tools for document management solve this problem and are available online.
• Unify communications to get back one hour of your life per day. Rather than use separate tools and devices to check email, make phone calls, and instant message colleagues, businesses increasingly use“unified communications” to combine them in one tool. Sage Research estimates this system can increase productivity by over 12.5 percent, or one hour per day for each worker.

The survey also found that workers resolve to respond more quickly to business communications. We’ll talk about that tomorrow.

How do you plan to get more organized in 2011?

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Use Downtime Projects to Recharge, Try New Work Habits: Business Collaboration News«

What are you doing this holiday week? Many of us are sitting back, playing with new gadgets and eating things we shouldn’t. But quite a few web workers take advantage of the break to focus on new or ongoing personal projects that spark their passions.

It’s no wonder. When else do we get a good ten days (or more!) off work, and can actually spend that time at home? For me, this is a good chance to make serious progress on projects, try ideas I’ve been toying with but have had no time to work on, and fuel the inspiration that will kick-start the new working year.

If you’re working on a personal project, or you’re considering resurrecting one over the break, here are a few ideas to help you stay focused and motivated, while enjoying the holidays at the same time.

Make Sure Your Break Is a Break

First and foremost, you’ll probably appreciate the break more if you accept that this is holiday time. For me, recharging the batteries is imperative— that’s what holidays are for. So if you can afford to, don’t force yourself to work if there’s something else you’d rather do. The idea of the passionate personal project is that it fills you with a sense of adventure, fun, and excitement— not that it feels like work. If the thought of working on your project seems blissful, do it. If it doesn’t, do something else.

The fact that you’ve decided to work on a personal project doesn’t mean you need to dedicate the entirety of your break to it. The thing I love about this time is that I can work when and as I feel like it. If I wake up and the sun’s out, I might spend the day outside instead of at my desk. On the other hand, if I get right into my personal project and want to pull an all-nighter, I can. Don’t force yourself into a timetable.

Experiment as Broadly as Possible

It can be good to use this time to experiment with the peripheral aspects of a project, as well as with its focus. I’ve found that this approach can help me understand what motivates and supports my work, and can make my money-earning tasks more enjoyable.

So don’t just experiment with your discipline, experiment with everything. As a remote worker, I like to change my work location while I’m focused on personal projects. Instead of sitting at the desk I use for the other fifty weeks of the year, I move around, and the simple change in location somehow alters my perspective.

I also rely entirely on my level of interest (rather than any of the usual motivations) for getting work done. I’m trying a different approach to milestone setting, as well as testing various discipline-specific techniques I’ve never used before. Doing things differently gives me more interest in continuing my personal project, because I’m not just creating something, I’m learning all the time. What I learn can be applied to my day job after the break.

Find a Balance

Working as you feel like it is great, unless you get to the start of the new year and feel like you need a holiday to get over your holidays! Giving yourself over to your passion for a personal project can be extremely fulfilling, but it can also burn you out. Balance is important.

Don’t forget to take time off, see friends or family, and have fun doing other things. By mixing things up and pacing yourself, you can maintain the impetus for your project without running yourself down or squandering valuable opportunities to be with the people you love. Balancing your desires can help you get more out of your project than a rigorous work schedule might.

Share Your Passion

When I’m working during a break, I tend to hole up, shut down my email and phone, and immerse myself in my project. That’s great, but occasionally it’s good to come up for air. One beneficial way to do this is to get in touch with someone else who’s also working on a personal project.

This gives me a sense of support and solidarity. Although I might be tucked away in my own world, I feel connected to others who share the same sense of passion (even if their areas of focus are completely different from my own). But finding out what others are doing can give me ideas for experimenting with my own approach, style, or project— all of which may improve the outcomes of my efforts.

What’s helping you stay inspired while enjoying the benefits of time off during the holidays?

Imagebystock.xchnguserpepo.

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Does Crowdsourcing Commoditize Freelance Expertise?: Business Collaboration News«

As crowdsourcing— the act of taking a job traditionally performed by a designated agent and outsourcing it to a large group of people— goes mainstream, there’s a heated debate going on about whether the practice commoditizes expertise. The most recent crowdsourcing trend is sites that curate crowds of freelance experts to attack complex tasks that require specialized knowledge. For example,uTestbrings together software-testing experts,Local Motorsworks with car designers,InnoCentivematches scientists to research efforts and a number of companies organize graphic designers.

As a freelance expert, should you jump in, or are you ringing your own industry’s death knell?

Having built an expert crowdsourcing site for the past year, I’m convinced these sites don’t have to commoditize expertise. Quite the opposite, I think they can give it direct value.

Freelance experts’ hourly rate typically includes three basic transaction costs: customer acquisition, customer retention and work performed. Take freelance graphic designers, for example. First they need to find customers, which requires sales and marketing investment and time. Once they have customers, they haveto maintain them, whether it’s answering the phone, reporting on progress or dealing with billing and collections. Sometimes very little of a freelancers’ time is devoted to doing real design work. Typically, these people became freelancers because they love design, not because they love managing overhead.

The new expert crowdsourcing sites eliminate most of the overhead costs by bringing customers and experts together and automating service, support and billing. The freelancers perform work and get paid directly for their expertise. While the hourly earnings may appear lower than traditional freelance work, once the transactional costs of being a freelancer are removed, the hourly fees for direct work can be about the same. The upside is that the time freelancers spend finding and managing clients can now be applied to actually doing the work they love.

The critical issue for freelancers is to find sites that allow them to earn more for their work than they could on their own. Some crowdsourcing sites are approaching this point, especially sites that offer a collaborative compensation model. One such example is uTest, where top software testers are earning as much as $5,000 per month— many while working primarily during evenings and weekends. uTest has had a number of testers from the U.S., the UK, Russia and India report that they are currently earning more from uTest than their full-time jobs as testers.

The collaborative model is an evolution of crowdsourcing incentive systems. In the early days of crowdsourcing, companies issued requests for submissions. Potentially, hundreds of participants could respond, but only the one or two“winners” collected any prize money. Considering all the work the “losers” did, this model heavily favored the project sponsor over the people doing the work. More recently, crowdsourcing companies have adjusted to models that pick multiple winners (with payment distributed among them) or have moved to collaborative models in which each contributor to a final result is compensated.

When uTest’s testing experts work on a new software release, they each get paid for every bug they find. Some find many bugs, some only a few. Chances are high that most earn something but those who do excellent work earn more. uTest is built upon a meritocratic reputation system: Testers who get rated highly by customers get paid more, get invited to more projects, and get paid more for their work. Conversely, testers who don’t satisfy customers earn a poor reputation, and don’t get invited to future projects. True expertise is rewarded.

The per-bug payout rates uTest experts earn can rival the effective earning rate they would make freelancing on their own. In this model, project sponsors win as well because they get exactly what they want: a comprehensive and collaborative testing result from many participants, and a payment system that is based solely on performance. With software,“more is better” applies, and uTest’s ability is to provide multiple test engineers provides better coverage than any one individual.

While it’s moving fast, the crowdsourcing industry is still young and the underlying models are evolving quickly. The industry is stratifying into two distinct types of crowds: curated crowds of experts and general crowds that enjoy participating. In the participation model, the crowd may accept limited or no monetary compensation as reward, participating is reward enough. For expert crowdsourcing sites, the long-term sustainability test is simple: “can a freelance expert make a better living being part of my crowd than on their own?”

I believe that expert crowdsourcing does not by definition commoditize expertise. In fact, if done right, it focuses everyone on what matters most: the results of expertise.

Niel Robertson is a three-time entrepreneur and CEO ofTrada Paid Search, a crowdsourced paid search marketplace. You can find Niel on Twitter at@nielr1. He will be talking about“The Human Cloud: The Elastic Workforce in the Enterprise,” at ourNet:Work conferencein San Francisco on Dec. 9.

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Coworking: How Much Does It Cost?: Business Collaboration News«

We’ve written extensively about the benefits ofcoworking— the growing movement of independent café-like collaboration spaces for freelance professionals— here on WebWorkerDaily. But how much does it cost to rent a desk at a coworking space?

Deskwanted, a online marketplace for coworking desk space,  has carried out a study to determine average coworking costs in the U.S., the UK and Europe. A membership that includes a permanent desk with 24-hour access costs an average of $365 a month in the U.S; a similar space in the UK will set you back $342 a month, while in mainland Europe the average cost is $362 a month.

The study also looked at the cost of renting a desk on more flexible terms, which revealed a much greater variation in costs between regions. In the U.S, a flexible desk arrangement (such as working on shared tables during office hours) costs an average of $150 per month, while elsewhere it’s much more expensive: at an average of $263 per month in the UK and $259 per month in Europe. The cost of renting a desk for a day also varies quite markedly between the regions: $23 per day in the U.S., $25 per day in Europe and a whopping $51 in the UK. Deskwanted’s analyst Carsten Foertsch believes that the variation in prices is due to the fact that American coworking spaces offer a great variety of plans compared to those in the UK and Europe, which tend to be more standardized and include facilities not generally included in the U.S.

How much do you pay for your coworking space?

PhotocourtesyFlickr userhyku.

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WWD Screencast: Meetzi: Business Collaboration News«

Meetziis an app that aims to help make meetings more focused, actionable and on time. You can use it to build and distribute agendas; keep your meetings on track using its built-in timer tools; and then use it to share notes and action items after the meeting has finished. I made a short screencast to show you how it works:

Meetzi is free. You cansign up here.

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How Web-Based Tools Level the Enterprise Playing Field: Business Collaboration News«

We’re well aware of how advances in technology – particularly the Internet – have transformed the workforce. Thanks to fixed and mobile broadband, workers are no longer shackled to their desks from dawn until dusk. Their office is wherever their smartphone, laptop, netbook or other device of choice is.

While communication tools likeSkypehave succeeded in mobilizing an entire generation of workers, collaboration tools are now driving change within the walls of traditional enterprises worldwide. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) tools, such asHuddle,YammerandJive Software, are breaking down the communication silos that have developed within organizations.

Traditional, inward-looking enterprise software, such as SharePoint, often reflects the structure of a traditional business. Staff using these complex tools can work with people in their department, but collaborating with people outside of this silo is a challenge. Cloud collaboration tools remove these barriers and enable everyone to connect and work with everyone else. Information can be easily shared, knowledge“gate keepers” are removed, people can see who is contributing to projects (and who isn’t) and traditional business hierarchies start to crumble.

Everyone from the managers in an organization to interns can benefit from the flat structure that web-based collaboration tools are starting to nurture. Rather than being restricted to using people on their team for a project, managers can now draw on expertise from across the organization. Regardless of where they are located, what their job title is or what department they’re in, the best people can be selected for a job. Knowledge and expertise become the defining factors for choosing project teams rather than where people sit within the business hierarchy. Boundaries blur and you simply have a group of people working together.

An example of an organization that treats its workers as a global talent pool is independent digital marketing agencyAKQA. With more than 900 employees across seven offices worldwide, AKQA’s staff often need to work with colleagues across multiple territories. Teams are assigned to projects regardless of which office they are based in. For example, a campaign may involve a creative team based in Washington D.C. and a technology team in London. To reduce email traffic between staff and the time spent traveling to and from face-to-face meetings, AKQA deployed Huddle as its standard global collaboration platform. As well as enabling staff to brainstorm ideas and work together on pitch materials, secure branded workspaces enable clients to access campaign content, approve and comment on documents, and keep track of projects in real-time.

Collaboration tools are also shaping enterprises by removing the communication barriers between organizations. Rather than being a self-contained unit, today’s enterprise is an increasingly fluid network of customers, partners and suppliers. As SaaS tools work across firewalls, staff can connect and work as effectively with people outside of their company as they can with the people sitting next to them. Faced with the challenge of successfullycommunicating and working with its dealer and subsidiary network in an economic downturn, Toshiba America Business Solutions (TABS) turned to Jive Software. An online community called Toshiba eXCHANGE was set up as the key information portal for TABS’ network of dealers. Rather than using email, phone calls and an intranet to gather information, dealers can go to Toshiba eXCHANGE to ask questions, share best practice, and view recent campaigns and product collateral. Three months after the community launched, 1,892 users were participating in discussions and sharing their knowledge.

Since WebWorkerDaily launched in 2006, technology has not just extended the enterprise beyond the office walls, it has started to change its structure. Thanks to online collaboration tools, the fragmented flow of information across organizations is now becoming a thing of the past. The enterprise is no longer dictated to by inflexible legacy technology, but shaped by collaboration tools that let groups form naturally and enable everyone to participate.

Andy McLoughlin, Co-founder and EVP Strategy atHuddle, can be reached on Twitter@Bandrew. See Andy speak about how collaboration tools are reshaping the enterprise at ourNet:Work conference, coming to San Francisco on December 9th.

PhotocourtesyFlickr usertoffehoff.

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Is Your Business Tapping Into the Human Cloud?: Business Collaboration News«

It wasn’t that long ago that the phrase “everyone is connected” was relegated to science fiction or New Age spiritualists. Today, the phrase denotes much more than ethereal connections between distant bodies and minds— it reflects the reality of modern life. In fact, we are all connected, whether through our social graph or everyday devices such as our cars’ GPS, cell phones, televisions and books. What connects us all— through the various accoutrements of our lives— is the cloud.

We’re constantly relying on the cloud for many purposes: for directions, information and entertainment. But more than that, the cloud has become a way for us to connect with each other. We use it to connect with our friends and family via Facebook and Skype, update our personal blogs, store and share photos online and even express our rage and emotions on Twitter.

The cloud has become part of our daily business lives as well:  the“human cloud” is enabling companies to use dispersed teams to get the best talent available regardless of location (or price) and many are using crowdsourcing and other innovative means to achieve their goals. The cloud sells for us (though your corporate website/storefront), it holds our customer data (Salesforce.com), it files our documents (Dropbox), it signs our contracts (EchoSign), it manages our people and business (Central Desktop) and it invoices our customers (FreshBooks).

We are all connected in business, too. It’s through the cloud that we connect with our colleagues, employees and customers around the globe, no matter their time zone. We collaborate and strengthen our relationships with our suppliers, vendors and partners through the cloud every time we host a web meeting, post a status update or comment on an activity stream.

Whether it’s cost-cutting, downsizing, rightsizing or globalizing, utilizing the human cloud is critical to your business. Here are some tips and strategies getting the most out of the cloud:

• Escape the email black hole.Business applications are ripe with messaging systems for commenting, updating, discussing and sharing. Use these tools to communicate“in-line” and to provide appropriate context to the conversation, instead of starting an often cryptic conversation via email.
• Use wikis and social intranets to build knowledge. The read-write web has made the“dumb” intranet a relic. “Modern intranets” leverage wiki technology that empower employees of entire companies to contribute and maintain knowledge bases, user manuals, employee hand books, company calendars and announcements – all easily retrievable in an instant via search.
• Embrace tools that encourage access from anywhere.Traditional and on-premise software make it difficult for remote workers and external collaborators to access files, projects and data. Cloud applications make it easy to invite external users into a secure environment to access and share information from anywhere. Embrace tools and common practices that encourage employees to store data in the cloud for others to access when on the road, working from home or on their mobile devices.
• Be everywhere your customers are. Traditional marketing is dead. Traditional advertising mediums such as TV, radio and even print are primarily measured by their ability to drive traffic to websites. Social media has created new channels for businesses to connect with their customers. You don’t have to spend a lot of money on advertising to reach your customers anymore; but you do have to be everywhere your customers might be— including Twitter, Facebook and blogs— and you need to be able to engage them in a meaningful dialogue.
• Evolve before competitors catch up.Today, CRM is social; the supply chain is collaborative; marketing is crowdsourced; customer support is transparent; even finance has moved to the cloud. The excuse that“your business is different” and that you can’t leverage the cloud no longer applies. Entire industries are changing as a result of the cloud, including stalwarts such as advertising, print, TV, music, film and logistics. Even truck drivers remain constantly connected to the Internet while driving to communicate with their operators, vendors, suppliers and customers. Look for ways that the cloud can transform your business before your competitors do.

When you examine your business and look at the technology landscape, embrace the cloud for its abilities to strengthen your business relationships, to optimize your supply chain and to gain deeper trust and loyalty with your customers.

The cloud is already part of your personal life. Now make it a part of your business, and everything will truly be connected.

Isaac Garcia is CEO& Co-founder ofCentral Desktop. He’ll be speaking at ourNet:Work conferencein San Francisco on Dec. 9.

Photoby stock.xchng usertrublueboy.

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24 Ways, an Advent Calendar For Web Geeks, Returns For Its Sixth Year: Business Collaboration News«

Web geeks rejoice!24 ways, an advent calendar for web designers and developers, has returned for its sixth year. Every day until Dec. 24, a new article— many of them penned by web luminaries such asJeffrey Zeldman,Eric MeyerandPeter-Paul Koch— will be published on the site, covering topics such as design, CSS and JavaScript techniques, and business development tips.Archivesfrom each of the last five years’ of publication are also available.

This year, you can also buy the 24 articles that will be published over the next month in printed form. The24 Ways Annualwill be published byFive Simple Stepsand costs£8 ($12.48 USD) to preorder (the book will ship in the New Year). All proceeds will go toUNICEF; 24 ways is looking for a sponsor to pay for the printing costs so that all revenue generated will be donated.

24 ways is produced by the team atedgeofmyseat, the company behindPerch, a lightweight CMS I’vewritten about previously. They deserve a great deal of credit for their hard work in putting together this fantastic free resource year after year.

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