Dim Dim

DimDim.com: free, open-source web conferencing.

Says it all. Pretty disruptive business tool.

You need it!

And it has Mac desktop sharing even.

You can also deploy within your own corporate environment.

A little buggy on the interface but otherwise it’s good stuff.

New Google Maps Feature - Terrain

Check out Google Maps. They’ve got a new “Terrain” button which allows you to see elevation maps of the entire world! It’s highly detailed and very useful for geography buffs.

The cool thing about this new feature is that you can see the world unblemished by large cities. It’s like going back in time to an era before civilization!

Update: Check out Yosemite! And a very flat Singapore.

1M installs for class Facebook apps - Is it repeatable in Singapore?

I read this post with great interest. Justin Smith interviews the teams that made it past 1M installs with their apps.

One thing I’ve just learnt is the term “viral tuning”. I wonder where that came from?

But my point is to debate twhether this is repeatable at the upcoming Facebook Apps class at NUS.

I’m not too sure really. Because at Stanford, the user base is much more established. People use it more often and more passionately. Also the interconnectivity or meshing is much stronger. Stanford’s campus culture is such that people mix around a lot through various interactions, definitely much deeper than at NUS. NUS is very cliquish whereas Stanford has the open Californian culture.

So my gut feel is that Apps developed here might find it hard to grow out of this small pond. The network linkages to a large hinterland population is just not there for virality to seriously take off. Not unless someone in the class already has more friends abroad. We’ll see!

Nevertheless, all the best! Better to have developed something than nothing!

Social Network Sites: Definition, History and Scholarship

If you feel like reading a paper on SNS:

http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/issue1/boyd.ellison.html

It’s elementary but provides a nice overview from the academic perspective.

Zuck is officially a Billionaire

Simple analysis of yesterday’s FB announcement will tell you that the young Mr Zuck is now a billionaire on paper.

If he still has 10% of the company, it’s worth $1.5B now.

Assuming he has 30% which isn’t too far off the mark usually, it is about $4.5B. Microsoft has awarded him a big fortune with the new valuation.

I think this is already more than the Google Founder’s valuation at Google’s IPO.

Is it possible to pirate Facebook Apps?

I was thinking, since the Facebook API is publicly available, is it possible to reverse engineer it?

For example, if you run a smaller network like Multiply, is it possible to create a kind of wrapper API that allows Facebook Applications to run on Multiply.com?

This came about after thinking about how you can run “linux” on Windows (co-linux) and Windows Apps on Mac and run old games using emulator, why can’t a competing social network develop a reversed engineered API?

That way application devs can expand the market share of their apps quickly.

FaceForce is Good Stuff

FaceForce is a new Salesforce AppExchange application that combines Facebook info into Salesforce CRM.

It’s good because this idea is long due: mashing up Social Networks with CRM tools.

Social networks like Facebook has excellent data inherent in the social graph.

With the opening up of the API, companies will be seeking ways to mine the data for better information.

If only the Facebook Inbox and newsfeed actions can hook directly into such application. I.e. allow you to answer Facebook inbox messages, wall postings, discussion from within a CRM application. With more apps and more users, marketing support/analytics tools like these should be able to deliver immediate business ROI.

(InfoNugget: I had a coffee with FaceForce creator Clara some time back when I was in Palo Alto. She’s a really amazing woman.)

Tripit.. How simple can things get?

How simple can software go?

Tripit is a new service that can help you organize your travel.

All you have to do is email all your travel confirmation emails to plans@tripit.com and you’re done. It will automatically sort out your itinerary and create a travel plan for you that includes google maps, directions, booking details and your own notes.

I love software that is just so simple to use. You don’t even need to register to use an application like this. Today’s technology is sufficient to build more of such apps that can automatically parse incoming input and sort them to the right users. Developers should think of ways to make their software as easy as this.

From: Reddit Blog