Although it is difficult at times to determine the usefulness of tools such as Twitter other than it being a branding machine. One article I read recently in .INC magazine I think takes a step in the right direction.

The article Social Networking Tell your friends about us. How to get Twitter endorsements, relates the story about how Tasti D-Lite modified their POS system so that when a customer bought a Tasti D-Lite treat, and that customer gave access to their Twitter account, a message was sent to Twitter “I just earned 9 Tasti Rewards points at Tasti D-Lite New Rochelle” which included a link to a website that encouraged reward program signup. With 60M monthly users of Twitter that is a lot of exposure. #in

So here are the three things analysts still play a role in:
1. Trusted advisor: Give me an independent view point, tell me what I need to do to align IT and business. Help me bounce around some ideas. Vet some proposals with me.

2. Knowledge transfer: Provide decision frameworks, share with us your expertise, teach us how to evaluate.

3. Technology purchases: How does that technology work? Who does a good job?  Does the tool fit my business requirements? Can you help me with my apps strategy? My enterprise strategy?”

No question the market is rationalizing between a PC/Laptop + PDA + #Kindle Like Device + Netbook. No question there are simply more and more connection points to the Internet…1B at last count. But I have to take issue with a couple of things. I just read yet another article talking up the tablet. The article suggests that we might see 10M sales of tablets in 2010 - sounds a bit OPTIMISTIC. The tablet is actually not new, its been around since th 90’s (remember them years). In fact I read an article in BW about this … origin of the tablet…is it really going to take off this time? There certainly is enough buzz. Lets talk at the end of the year.

You’ll notice that on your LinkedIn profile there is a section called “Who’s viewed my profile”:

With an advanced membership on #LinkedIn you would be able to gain more insight into who is viewing your profile. This of course begs the question of how you end up appearing in a particular search or view. With Google you are able to “prime” your page using SEO (Search Engine Optimization) techniques so that you successfully appear in more search results.  The company behind “Plenty of Fish” has figured this out quite well.

So I did a little research - not that thorough - really a quick look and stumbled upon uses of Analytic Reporting within LinkedIn (internal reporting) and also some very interesting anecdotal information on LinkedIn.

For instance one can:

§  see how frequently people change jobs in different regions

§  see large scale relationships between users across all the countries

§  see large scale changes in the popularities of different fields

one can do some kinds of career planning based on:

§  who is viewing your profile (e.g., senior managers or relatively junior people)

§  positions people have gone to from the position you are in or

§  positions people have come from that led to the position you want

§  which credentials will help you get a job

§  which schools will give you the best return

 (source:  http://ororke.com/paul/blog/?p=225)

So how big is LinkedIn? According to a blog by Jeff Weiner (great last name):

As of early this morning, LinkedIn has 50 million users worldwide and we’re growing that figure at roughly one new member per second.  When LinkedIn launched in 2003, it took 477 days — almost a year and four months — to reach our first million members. This last million took only 12 days.

The article goes on to state that it has 11 million users in Europe and 3 million in India. Notably The Netherlands has the highest adoption outside of the US at 30%.  Wow!

ComputerWorld recently published an article: ERP Getting it Right!

Of the many points to consider, I think the last is one of the best:

- Don’t Stay the Course
- Take Your Time, Do it Right
- The Modular Model
- Test Everything
- Staying Consistent
- Finding the A-Team

~ ” you have to make sure that they’re not only experienced in your vendor’s software, but also experienced in the particulars of your industry and its geography“. For instance if you are a vendor selling and servicing distribution specific solutions, it helps that your customer base is concentrated in that industry.

Along with a particular software solution the vendor will be able to offer industry specific advise and experience, gained from many years of interaction within your industry!

It interesting though to make a comparison between what is being said about the OS from Google just released. A lot of negative sentiment in the market about it. The MAJOR difference here though is that Google, my opinion of course, releases products that are sometimes a mile wide and not that deep on functionality. Apple on the other hand leans completely in the other direction, releasing typically a very solid solution, well thought out especially when it comes to ergonomic and touch / feel interaction.

Anyway here’s Steve on the iPhone’s release in 2007

Professional social network LinkedIn is showing a little Microsoft love today. In conjunction with the announcement of the beta of Microsoft’s Office 2010 at its Professional Developer Conference, LinkedIn and Microsoft have partnered to offer an add-on that integrates much of your LinkedIn contact information with your Outlook contacts.

The add-on to Outlook will provide professional and social context to any Outlook users everyday email experience. When you received an email from a contact who happens to be a member of LinkedIn, Outlook will show a collapsible pane that will show information on what the contact’s latest activity is on Linkedin.

So in Outlook, you’ll be able to see a picture of contacts (pulled from their Linkedin profile), who they have recently connected to on the network, and any status updates they’ve posted on the site. The add-on will also show you the most recent professional information about a contact, including the most recent job and city that he or she lives in. And if you aren’t connected with a contact on LinkedIn, you can easily invite him to connect within Outlook (but you cannot accept invitations yet; this feature will be included in the future).

The other bonus of the add-on is the synchronization between Outlook and LinkedIn contacts. Outlook will bring automatically consolidate information for existing contacts who are LinkedIn contacts and new LinkedIn contacts. Plus, you can send messages to a LinkedIn contact directly from Outlook. And if a contact in Outlook changes any contact information within LinkedIn, Outlook will automatically be updated too.

The add-on will ship with Microsoft 2010, but can be downloaded to work with Outlook 2003, and 2007. While social network has a Outlook toolbar that has been available for some time, this appears to be the first major partnership between LinkedIn and Microsoft.

LinkedIn’s Director of Product Development, Elliot Shmukler says that the fundamental idea behind the product is to bring the value of LinkedIn to where professionals do their work and Outlook has a fundamentally professional userbase. LinkedIn also partnered with IBM’s Lotus Notes and Xobni, providing a similar integration. But what about Google Apps? Shmukler declined to comment directly on a potential partnership but did say that there will be future integrations with additional email clients in the near future.

The past few weeks have seen a few key partnerships for LinkedIn. The connection with Microsoft is a huge, considering the widespread user of Microsoft Outlook in professional environments. LinkedIn also recently launched integration with Twitter, enabling Tweets to be sent from LinkedIn’s platform and more.

I have been reading Augmented Reality for awhile now. In one application users are able to hold a business card in front of a computer and see a 3-D image of information. In a more recent article I read in Business Week, a Dutch company called Layar users are able to aim a phone in any direction and see on screen circles pop up indicating ATM locations. According to the article in Business Week, Layarhas 213 other applications including a guide to McDonald’s locations in Hong Kong…very cool!

Interestingly a number or most of their solutions are built for the iPhone and Android…

Source: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_47/b4156052745487.htm

Users can buy and download from a list of more than 300,000 Kindle-ready e-books, from the Bible to Angels and Demons. Kindle users can also subscribe to more than 90 newspapers from around the world, including the National Post.

CanWest - which owns the National Post - announced that the paper is available now on Kindle and that its other major daily newspapers across the country, including the Ottawa Citizen and the Vancouver Sun, will be available soon.

“Whether in print, online, or on the go on mobile devices and smartphones, our quality journalism is accessible to Canadians where, when and how they want it, throughout their day,” said Dennis Skulsky, president and CEO of Canwest Publishing.

Gordon Fisher, publisher of the National Post, said the Kindle announcement is “great news for National Post fans who can now subscribe to the full edition and have it delivered daily, wherever they are in the world.”

Newspaper and magazine publishers have embraced the Kindle as a way of reaching out to new readers and as a means for generating revenue, without the high costs associated with printing physical copies.

“The Kindle and other e-book readers like them — if they hit critical mass in the Canadian consumer marketplace — offer an incredibly convenient, inexpensive method of distribution and sales for newspaper-based content,” said Carmi Levy, an independent technology analyst based in London, Ont.

Amazon’s announcement brings to an end months of speculation about the device’s impending introduction to the Canadian market. However, questions remain as to why Canada was left Kindle-less when the device was available in more than 160 international markets.

In early October, Amazon unveiled an international version of the Kindle and announced it would begin shipping the device outside the United States, but Canada found itself on a list of countries that included China, Israel and Iran, where Amazon would not distribute the Kindle.

In an interview, Jay Marine, director of product management for Amazon Kindle, declined to offer a reason for why Canada was left out of the Kindle’s big international rollout five weeks ago.

“I’m not going to go into those details,” Mr. Marine said. “But I can tell you we’re thrilled to be able to ship into Canada today.”

Analysts speculated that Canada’s exclusion from the Kindle club could be related to international copyright issues or Amazon’s failure to secure a wireless carrier partner - Kindle users can purchase and download books to the Kindle over next generation (3G) cellphone networks.

According to the Amazon website, the Kindle runs on AT&T Inc.’S “3G high-speed data network in the U.S. and partner networks outside of the U.S.”

Representatives from Canada’s three major wireless carriers - BCE Inc.’s Bell Canada, Rogers Communications Inc. and Telus Corp. - declined to comment on whether any had reached a deal with Amazon to support the Kindle. Both Bell and Rogers confirmed they have roaming agreements with AT&T. Telus declined to comment.

When asked if Amazon had brokered a deal with a Canadian carrier to provide wireless support for the Kindle, Mr. Marine declined to comment on the company’s “business relationships.”

Although Amazon has remained silent about just how many Kindle devices have been sold - analysts estimate Amazon will have sold as many as 2 million Kindles by the end of 2009 - the company claims the paperback-sized e-book reader is the most popular product on its website.

Although the Kindle is by no means the first e-book reader to reach the Canadian market - several electronics companies including Sony Corp. sell their own digital book readers - Amazon’s wireless distribution system and consumers’ familiarity with the company’s retail sites could help it stand out, said Mr. Levy.

“As Apple proved with the iPod and later the iPhone, it’s not about the device, it’s about the content delivery infrastructure behind the device that will fundamentally change how consumers view it and interact with it,” he said.

“An iPod is just a media player without iTunes. Likewise, an e-book reader is just an e-book reader without a method of easily acquiring, buying and interacting with content.”

The company said the device, which is available for sale now and costs US$259, should ship to Canada in one to three days.

Research In Motion had a great third quarter with the introduction of the BlackBerry Tour in the U.S. and an increasing visibility around the world with the Curve and Bold. However, the really juicy stuff from the Canadian manufacturer has yet to be released: a touchscreen QWERTY slider to compete with the popular business phones from HTC and Nokia.

According to Electronista, the BlackBerry 9900 is expected to be a smartphone of this kind, and Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu says that the phone is currently in the prototype stage with the aim of being released in 2010.

Earlier this year, RIM announced that it’ll integrate a Webkit browser in a future version of BlackBerry OS, courtesy of a Webkit browser acquisition. The Kaufman Bros. analyst says he’s also heard that the BlackBerry 9900 might utilize browser technology from Google or Microsoft, which could mean RIM’s new browser will support Google Gears and Microsoft Silverlight (which it’ll need to be competitive anyway).

At a recent developer conference, RIM also announced that 3D graphics hardware acceleration and Adobe technology will be part of future BlackBerry smartphones. Let’s hope the BlackBerry 9900 will offer both, which would make it a nice competitor to the just recently introduced Motorola Droid for Verizon Wireless.