Let's talk business

20 tips to survive the workplace

Guy Browning provides 20 tips to surviving life in the workplace including biodegradable email.

Disclaimer: follow his advice at your own peril

 

Technorati tags: email, workplace, The Guardian, work, office

OfficeTalk 4.5.1 now out

Today we've released OfficeTalk 4.5.1. You can download it from the main Softalk website. Probably the most significant thing about it is that it now has a free single user license. Just download the 30 day trial and it reverts to a single user at the end of the period.

However, we're sure that most people that work in a team will want to register and stick with it .

If you don't know about OfficeTalk it's an alternative to Outlook, ACT! or Goldmine. Its biggest benefit is that it has actually been designed to help small and medium size organizations to collaborate and work together as a team. It provides shared calendars, task lists, contacts, email and project management. OfficeTalk's other big benefit is that it handles contacts properly by associating them with a company or organization. This makes it really easy to update records and you can see at a glance the history and pending activity. 

Softalk's PR company (well actually that's me) has also experimented with issuing a 'social media release' about it. This is a new way of doing news releases or press releases and was pioneered by Shift Communications, a technology PR firm with offices in Boston and California. Softalk and BMA PR are one of the first to use this format and the beta of a new tool called PRX Builder, created by Shannon Whitley.

You can take a look at the release here:

• Softalk Media Center
• PRX Release
• PR Newswire (to follow shortly)

And a more traditional version here:

• SourceWire
• Softalk Media Center

 

Technorati tags: Softalk, OfficeTalk, collaboration, social media release, news, software, small business, SME, SMB, PRX Builder

Work.com for small business owners

Work.com is a new Web 2.0 site designed to help more than 25 million US small business owners run their businesses. The launch press release says:

"Work.com features unique "How-to-Guides" for more than 1,000 business topics, ranging from start-up basics to advanced management techniques. The Guides are written by business experts who can now share their expertise with others through a new form of "Expert Generated Content" (EGC). Work.com is being launched by Business.com, the leading business search engine and directory."

I'm delighted to add that the Softalk Let's talk business blog is featured as one of the Best Blogs and Forums (well actually the only one at the moment) on the messaging how to guide.

 

Technorati tags: small business, work.com, business.com, web 2.0, messaging, management

Management guru Charles Leadbeater's new web first book on collaboration culture

Management guru Charles Leadbeater has published a draft of his new book on the collaboration culture, called We-Think, on a website and asked for your comments.

This is another great example of how the social interweb is enabling us to do things it was impossible to do before.

That said, it's also a good example of one of the barriers that ebooks face. I might dip into bits of of the draft, but I'd still far prefer to have a paper copy I can read properly whenever and wherever I want. And crucially that I can pass on to a friend to encourage them to read it to. None of the stupid digital rights crap that prevents me from enjoying what I've paid good money for.

I also like the idea of having both a print and digital version. The print one is to read and enjoy. The digital one I will keep and use as an easily searchable reference.

Thanks to Antony Mayfield for the link.

XP: A PR Guru's Musings

Technorati tags: Charles Leadbeater, We-Think, Antony Mayfield, Business, management, collaboration

Dilbert on tech support

If you don't already, then subscribe to the Daily Dilbert.

This one is for anyone who does tech support

Thanks to BT Business Blog.

Technorati tags: Dilbert, technology, support, business