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Web 2.0 technologies are gaining acceptance in a wide variety of venues.  Noted analyst and journalist, Dion Hinchcliffe has identified leading Web 2.0 software vendors and applications as they apply to enterprise applications.  Most note-worthy of his observations is the change in attitude for large enterprises evaluating participatory web components such as blogs and wikis. 

"We are past the early adopter phase. A survey of Enterprise 2.0 conference attendees that I gave back in 2006 (when it was called the Collaborative Technologies conference) resulted in only three people out of nearly 100 saying they had “ready access to blogs and wikis” at their workplace. This year the same crowd survey resulted in over two-thirds of attendees present reporting that they now have them within easy reach. This jibes well with my contacts with clients across a broad swath of industries from mid-Western banks, hospitals, government agencies, consumer products, and insurance companies that have been rolling them out internally. This also correlates with a broader survey I conducted on Facebook a few months ago. While emergent, social, freeform collaboration (aka Enterprise 2.0), hasn’t hit the early majority yet, it’s poised to from all indications." (Dion Hinchcliffe - Enterprise 2.0 Lively conversation driving change - ZDNet June 16, 2008 )

IMAGE (c) ZDNet - Click Image to visit the full story by Dion Hinchcliffe on ZDNet

NPR's Ira Glass has made a career of turning not-so-interesting stories into edge-of-your-seat tales.  In this brief video he offers some tips, suggestions, and tactics for making your not-so-interesting story a spark for engagement and conversation. 

Special thanks to CopyBlogger who first posted this video on their site.  If you don't already know about CopyBlogger, please check it out.  CopyBlogger was founded by Brian Clark, a new media writer/producer, entrepreneur, and recovering attorney.  He is a great writer and does a masterful job of making his not-so-interesting story (copy writing tips) a website worth visiting over and over and over again. 

I subscribe to the newsletter (http://www.copyblogger.com/email/ )and the RSS feed (http://feeds.copyblogger.com/Copyblogger ).

Back when it was called the "Architecture of Participation" it was easier to identify what was and what was not part of the latest era of online publishing.  Since then it got a cooler name, "Web 2.0" (thanks Tim O'Reilly!), and hundreds of start-ups have come and gone, but the fundamentals have stayed the same.  Online Architectures of Participation, The New Web, Web 2.0, etc., all convey a higher level of interaction and interoperability. 

It is still not clear to many publishers, business owners, website admins, and other interested parties, exactly which portions have true business value, and which are going to go the way of color fax machines. 

CRM Magazine this month released an article that played to some of these questions, and being the good people they are, they highlighted Near-Time as one of the platforms that is actually bringing business value, and validation to the elusive Web 2.0 space. 

  Titled The Second Coming of Web 2.0, this article surfaces many of the questions professionals have had about Web 2.0 deployments and what they mean for business. 

Our own CEO, Reid Conrad was quoted in this article - for your reference these and other highlights follow.  To access this article directly GO HERE . 

Highlights...

Cliché or not, 2.0 is useful shorthand for indicating a break with old ways of doing things; Web 2.0 is a major topic -- and so by extension is CRM 2.0, the use of Web 2.0 technologies to improve customer experience and CRM system efficiency. CRM magazine isn't above leveraging this concept -- consider our recent cover story, for example ("It's All Coming 2.0gether," December 2007), or any of a number of articles we've run since. But what's beyond the notation? What exactly is "Web 2.0," anyway?

There are several definitions -- and there's a lot of "I know it when I see it" involved -- but the most common ones revolve around social media. As William Band, vice president and principal analyst for business process and applications at Forrester Research, describes the trend in his March 2008 paper, "The CRM 2.0 Imperative," "[t]he social Web...includes fast-growing peer-to-peer (P2P) activities like blogging, RSS, file sharing, open-source software, podcasting, search engines, and user-generated content." Other 2.0 technologies include wikis, social networking sites and services, and even tiny content-delivery systems known as widgets. Combined with more-established technologies such as instant messaging, email, and forums, these are the tools that enable the creation of distributed communities built around common interests and goals, whether it's socializing, commenting on cricket teams, sharing a passion for theater, or forming a user group to swap software-development tips. This phenomenon has transformed the Web from a source of canned information, static messages, and banner-ad bombardment to a destination of sorts where people can interact with one another in the manner of their choosing.

Reid Conrad, the chief executive officer of social networking platform provider Near-Time , finds that the user-based genesis of Web 2.0 means his clients are usually familiar with one or more aspects of social computing. "Generally, [clients] have worked with individual enterprise 2.0 applications -- blogs, wikis, and such -- but haven't tied them together," he says. "Early users, not surprisingly, were IT professionals. Now we're seeing more line-of-business personnel -- many of our customers are Web 2.0 -- savvy and competent."

The Real Business 2.0

Despite this emerging familiarity, Web 2.0 fundamentally remains a new way of doing business -- in fact, maybe this is Business 2.0. "The traditional way our [users] interact with prospects is email; they have to change that old habit," Conrad says, adding that they have to think about when to use email, and why. Similarly, they must utilize the social environment to put information and content in the right place at the right time.

"We're finding organizations that more and more want to interact in any given format," Conrad says. "You have different forms of interaction for different purposes. Put executives in a wiki format and expect them to produce content? Well, good luck. But those same execs would be very comfortable participating in a forum." That represents a change to the idea of building valuable content: It has to be done continuously, in a living forum, instead of just creating a deliverable for several months down the line.

The Internet has opened up a whole new world to golf enthusiasts, but also to golf pros, and it would be hard to find many who have taken advantage more than Jeff Ritter, who has been providing instruction at the ASU Karsten Golf Course in Tempe since 2000. [from 3/28/08 Arizona Republic article Many golfers looking online for lessons ]

Jeff currently operate 2 sites on Near-Time, his corporate website Jeff Ritter Golf and his subscription-based golf instruction site Golf by Design .  Capitalizing on his success, plans were just confirmed for a third site on the publishing and collaboration platform, My Golf by Design.  The new site, expected to launch in June, will allow subscribers to upload video of their golf swing and receive online lessons and consultation from Jeff.

"I've been shocked by the response," said Ritter, who also writes for two golf magazines as a result of his postings and has seen sales of his golf instruction book climb. "We have so many good instructors in the Valley, and that creates a lot of competition for instruction, so to attract clients from outside the area is a nice bonus and at the same time gives our golf community valuable exposure."

Leading technical publisher, O'Reilly Media has launched an interactive online community around their upcoming title iPhone Hacks - Tips & Tools for Unlocking the Power of Your iPhone and iPod Touch . 

Launched on Near-Time Premium, this site offers iPhone enthusiasts an opportunity to gain advanced access to hacks, tips, and tricks to make their iPhone experience even better.  Members of this community site can make comments, participate in forum conversations, and help author the book by submitting their own hacks. 

A free 30-day trial is available on the site.  Subscriptions to the site are $5.99 per month or $24.99 per year. 

Is the "Musification" of Publishing Imminent? 

In this Beyond the Book "Extra" - presented in anticipation of the 30th annual meeting of the Society of Scholarly Publishing beginning May 28 in Boston, host Christopher Kenneally examines whether current "packaging" trends in the music industry (think iTunes) will make their way into the publishing world. 

Taking on the questions are executives from two leading solutions providers for book and journal publishers - John Sack, Director and Associate Publisher of HighWire Press , and Joel Bush, Director of Publishing and Media at Near-Time .  Both companies are recent Copyright Clearance Center RightsConnect Partners. 

Listen to the interview HERE.

Cannot find Image Contentnation.com , an online community of social media enthusiasts focused on developing a new book on social media, was launched earlier this week at the annual Buying and Selling eContent conference [conference wiki ] in Scottsdale, Arizona by content industry expert John Blossom, President of Shore Communications, Inc., a leading consulting and research company servicing the electronic publishing industry. Mr. Blossom is the author of an upcoming book on social media to be published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. using materials developed on Contentnation.com by Mr. Blossom and its community members.

The book being developed on Contentnation.com, to be entitled Content Nation: Surviving and Thriving as Social Media Changes our Work, Our Lives and Our Future, focuses on the broadening impact of social media as its availability through online publishing technologies enables both individuals and major institutions such as corporations and governments to communicate more influentially without using traditional media outlets. By Mr. Blossom's calculations based on recent market research there are now 73 million people worldwide using social media to influence others, a number approaching the population of Egypt, the world's 15th largest nation.

Contentnation.com offers free membership for those would like to create content and makes the developing content of the Content Nation book available on a free basis in Web page format.

Contentnation.com is being hosted by Near-Time, Inc., a leading provider of social media publishing technologies. The Near-Time publishing platform combines the capabilities of wikis, weblogs, forums, tagging, bookmarking, embedding content and other key social media publishing technologies with easy-to-use features and sophisticated administrative features that enable the rapid development of highly valuable social media for enterprise, ad-supported and premium online communities. "The Contentnation.com Web site is an excellent example of how our integrated social media publishing technologies can enable the rapid construction of many forms of highly valuable content," said Reid Conrad, CEO of Near-Time, Inc. "Near-Time has worked closely with Mr. Blossom to help make the Content Nation project a success and has benefited from his insights into leading publishing technologies."

Web 2.0 extends to mobile devices with the release of Near-Time Connection

Members of Near-Time spaces can now access content and participate in the community from their smart phone using Near-Time Connection.  This newly available feature is optimized for phone browsers and gives users full read, download, and comment access.  

For publishers, this extends the availability of content and community interaction beyond simple web access.  Community members can stay up-to-date on discussions and developments from their iPhone, BlackBerry, Treo, or other smart phone device.  Visit Near-Time for a complete Connection feature tour --> Near-Time Connection.

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Members of this space can access the mobile version by clicking the "Mobile Device" link in the right-hand sidebar. 

With the release of Connection, the company also announced that they are bringing Web 2.0 content and community interaction to homepages everywhere with the addition of an iGoogle gadget.  iGoogle users can access and participate in their community directly from the iGoogle homepage. 

Read more in the article from Publishers Weekly
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http://www.authorlink.com

(Authorlink February 14-21 Edition): Today’s publishers face a gaping landscape of technological change, from everywhere they turn-- in writing and development, production, distribution and consumption, in bean counting and legal departments. These transformations are no longer theoretical. They’re well past a tipping point, and are shaping every aspect of the publishing industry of tomorrow.

In New York this week, at the second annual O’Reilly Tools for Change Conference, publishers have been gathering the tools they need to understand, embrace, and prosper from the tectonic shifts affecting their industry.

On the conference floor, we’ve been talking with innovators in the exciting and passionate future for books. Listen in to some of the people we have spotted as key innovators in the unstoppable movement toward the books of tomorrow, and consider how these transformations may affect you as an industry profession.

 
Visit Authorlink to hear interviews from the floor of O'Reilly Tools of Change -

• Digital Strategy and Action - Brent Lewis - Harlequin Enterprises
• How Open Does "Open" Need to Be, in the Universe of Free? - Michael Jensen - The National Academies
• Digital Publishing Beyond eBooks - Bill McCoy - Adobe Systems
• Collaborative Content - Joel Bush - Near-Time
• SEO for Book Publishers: Beyond Book Search - Jamie Low - SearchEngineMarketing.com 
  

Online community enables readers to have accelerated access to prepress content and interaction with authors

Near-Time and O'Reilly Media today announced the prepress launch of Software Craftsmanship on the Near-Time platform.  The site, (http://softwarecraftsmanship.oreilly.com) features the entire book contents and includes interactive components powered by Near-Time.

Software Craftsmanship: Apprentice to Journeyman is a forthcoming title from O'Reilly Media, authored by Dave Hoover and Adewale Oshineye.  The corresponding site is designed to enrich the content by encouraging reader participation through forums, commenting, and other interactive features. Reader feedback and updates to the content will drive content development before the book goes to print. 

"Needless to say, O'Reilly get's the future of publishing. It's about customer interaction, accelerating time to market and expanding the product lifecycle. It's a new game and we are excited to help define it with O'Reilly", said Reid Conrad, Near-Time CEO

Near-Time is a leading interactive publishing and collaboration platform. Near-Time combines wikis, weblogs, forums, and other advanced web technologies, along with built-in monetization options, giving publishers a wealth of options to build on-demand interactive publishing sites.  Publishers are leveraging this powerful platform to add value to their projects throughout the content lifecycle - Prepress, Frontlist and Backlist.  Near-Time's ease of adoption and community building features deliver high-margin revenue and power direct relationships with readers. 

"O'Reilly has been on the forefront of collaborative development experiments for some time," said Allen Noren, Director of Online Marketing and Digital Initiatives at O'Reilly Media. "Those have required the cobbling together of multiple tools that don't always work well together. What the Near-Time system does is integrate those tools--an authoring platform, blog, a forum, a robust permission system, as well as a for-pay and subscription gateway-in one integrated platform. I'm very interested to see how our readers respond to this."

Could not generate link to image with ID:   Tom Taulli, a well known analyst and author covering technology, media and finance topics is moderating the forum which accompanies online access to his book The Complete M&A Handbook - The Ultimate Guide to Buying, Selling, Merging, or Valuing a Business for Maximum Return.

This unique community oriented site leverages many new features of the Near-Time Premium platform, including role-based access tied to various subscription price levels.  Subscribers to the site (MergerBook) can choose to simply access the entire book contents in wiki form, or they can join the community forming around this perennial business topic.  Book access and read-only access to the forum is $40 per year - participation in the forum and book access is $80 per year.

Related Links:

MergerBook: www.mergerbook.com

MergerGuru: www.mergerguru.com

Near-Time: www.near-time.com  

Each year, EContent Magazine publishing a list of 100 companies that matter most in the digital content industry.  In the words of EContent Magazine editor-in-chief, Michelle Manafy,

It seems like the whole world is creating, tagging, and delivering content these days. Once the domain of trained professionals, content is now everybody's business. In many ways, the general public leads the publishing industry in its comfort with, and usage of, digital content tools - from blogs to podcasts to wikis.

However, this does not make these consumer-only tools. Those of us in the industry well know we need to tap into the iterative process that characterizes Web 2.0 - which means we need to play on the same field, using many of the same toys and tactics.

I particularly appreciate the fact that this list bridges several gaps.  It takes into account what consumer tools are doing. A lot of innovation happens at the consumer level - the risk factor to releasing content or publishing information at the individual level is much more manageable than it is at the corporate level.  It also takes into account what tools and platforms are useful for enterprise content management as well as for publishing in a more traditional sense.

Let's face it, the lines are blurring all around us and the tools on this list are enabling innovative, creative, outside-the-box people and organizations to apply massive leverage around massive amounts of digital information.

EContent 100 list on their site

EContent 100 introduction and category descriptions

EContent 100 judging team

EContent 100 companies by category