Richard MacManus of Read/WriteWeb reports that Zoho is moving towards a fully integrated web office suite with their single sign-on capability. Zoho is apparently also planning a downloadable version of their software, thus moving towards the synchronized web.
The podcast jam launched this morning with a keynote by Richard. Richard is a New Zealander who writes and consults on next generation web technology. I chose it as the first podcast because Richard describes how Office 2.0 represents a radical change from 1.0 desktop office suites and makes a good case for his position. I agree with him.
It’s convenient that Richard is not U.S. based, because one of the ideas with the podcast jam was reaching out across different dimensions, including geographical. However, I wish we could have gotten beyond the U.S./England/Australia/New Zealand crowd, as we all seem to meet regularly on the web and at conferences. Later today, I’ll publish my interview with Rosemary Stasek, based out of Afghanistan. That represents the podcast jam’s only foray beyond the English-speaking world. It’s an eye-opening expedition, as we hear about the poor utility infrastructure in that part of the world, about how government offices do without bare necessities, and about how Rosemary is training Afghani women to speak up for themselves. It might seem an ideal place for web-based office software, but in reality, they are too focused on other issues than trying the latest online spreadsheet. Look for the interview at the Office 2.0 Podcast Jam website later today.
7 Comments
Hi Anne. I came across a cool e2.0 company in Israel. I’ll send you the link. I agree; we need more international perspective.
Great, thanks, Susan. I reached out a little beyond the usual countries, but didn’t have much luck.
Hi Anne,
I look forward to listening to Rosemary’s podcast - you’re right, we need to get more of that international perspective. Even though I was initially invited to talk on international themes, the reality is that us kiwis are living in the same western world luxury that the US (and UK, Europe, Aust, etc) is. So hearing it from people in countries like Afganistan is much more useful and gives us all a reality check.
Richard - your podcast was perfect, just the thing to kick off the jam. I was thinking of you for international less because you are in NZ and more because you have been running a series on web apps around the world. However, most of those web apps seem to be more social and consumer oriented than office oriented.
My interview with Rosemary is now available; hope you enjoy it. I was amazed by some of the things she told me about living and working in Afghanistan.
Anne, yes that’s true most of the international apps coverage I’ve been doingn has been for consumer apps. Although interesting to note some of the office 20 vendors are international - Zoho from India, Morfik from Australia, etc.
I didn’t even realize that Zoho was out of India. The web really dissolves national boundaries–hard to tell where things are coming from and it doesn’t really matter, except for language and cultural issues.
FYI, I just completed an interview with the Zoho evangelist about where the tool is today and where it is going. More importantly he speaks about the security and privacy of your data when you use Zoho tools.
http://www.centernetworks.com/interview-with-zoho