Tag: software
New Service Aims to Drastically Change the Way Virtual Teams Communicate
by Ranju Chaudhary on Sep.25, 2010, under Latest Web Technologies
Quick Pitch: Sococo makes Team Space, a new mode of online communication that uses smart spaces to make online communication natural and intuitive.
Genius Idea: The virtual office is as old as the Internet itself. From lightweight options, including chat rooms Yammer and Skype to more robust solutions in the vein of Basecamp, Colaab and the almost defunct Google Wave, there are a host of online tools that exist simply to make business-related person-to-person and person-to-team communication easier. Socoo enters the crowded space with its interpretation on online communication: Team Space.
Team Space is an always-on group communication tool for remote teams, where team members are organized at desks in a virtual office building and can interact with each other through voice, chat and multi-screen sharing.
The Team Space can include private offices, common areas, conference rooms and personal spaces. The service is “alive” thanks to a feature called Social Awareness which allows users to see who is talking to whom, who is free to engage with and who is busy at work.
As a user, you can click in to any of the areas to join meetings in progress or start a one-on-one conversation with a coworker. Once you join a room, you’re immediately connected to room members via voice, chat and screen share. You also have your own personal space where you can share applications and documents with other Team Space users.
Sococo recently launched at DEMO and, for now, the Team Space software is available in beta for Windows; a Mac OS X version is currently in alpha and you’ll need to contact Sococo to grab it.
Sococo’s Team Space is certainly a neat twist to an old problem, but we’re curious to see if it actually becomes a practical solution to team communication. Obviously, the limited Mac support will be a hinderance to adoption for the time-being. Also, will it be a system resource hog? Will all team members embrace it? What about team members who only have mobile capabilities? These are fair questions that will influence user adoption as well.
What do you use to collaborate and connect with remote team members? Will you be trying Team Space? Share your thoughts in the comments.
The Bike Share System of the Future is Powered by Wireless Technology
by Ranju Chaudhary on Aug.12, 2010, under Gadgets
This Fall, New York City denizens will have the opportunity to test an experimental public bike share system. SoBi, the Social Bicycle System, presents an alternative to traditional public transportation and will allow riders the freedom to find and unlock nearby available communal bikes using an Andriod or iPhone application.
SoBi is the first public bike share system to rely entirely on wireless technology for tracking, locating and unlocking bikes. The system is compromised of three elements: the social cyclist, the central server and the social bicycle.
Here’s how it will work: after creating a SoBi account — via web, mobile phone or street kiosk — a cyclist will have unlimited access to bicycles in the bike share system, which will be equipped with GPS, a secure lock and wireless communications. Once the cyclist locates an available bike, he can use a pin code to unlock it. The central server will approve and track the transaction.
SoBi’s technology accommodates bikers who plan to make short stops on their ride. Riders can hit the hold button on the lock panel to ensure that no other public bike share riders swipe their bike. The hold, however, only lasts ten minutes. For those commuters looking to track down a bike in advance, the SoBi system is also setup to allow them to request a bike via text message or mobile application.
SoBi is designed with both the cyclist and the city in mind. Riders have their own SoBi profile which tracks their rides and even calculates calories burned. Users can also view a map of their travel habits, share their trips and see if friends are biking nearby.
Those managing the SoBi system will have access to a wealth of data on all bicycles in the fleet. Fleet management tools include inventory stats, status alerts and bike density data so that staffers can keep an eye on the fleet and redistribute bikes as needed.
SoBi creators claim that the their solution is cheaper to deploy and easier to manage than other city-share programs being tested elsewhere. If executed as planned, the SoBi system would also present commuters with a convenient alternative to city transportation.
Founder Ryan Rzepecki is an Urban Planner and former New York Department of Transportation. He expects a prototype of the system to be ready in four to six weeks. Until then, you can watch him explain the SoBi system in the video below:
