Sparkspring

Today

Today is a day for quiet, for listening. For breathing and thinking…

Wunderkit revisited

The other day I rather damned Wunderkit with faint praise. Along with Basecamp I said the two project management services were beautiful but that similar functionality could be had from other, separate services. I also made the observation that Basecamp had no comparable mobile apps.

Well, I’ve had cause to revisit Wunderkit and am happy to discover that many of the early teething troubles have now been resolved. Both web and iOS apps are now faster and more reliable.

Much is spoken about social project management and while some apps preach social and attempt to execute it by tacking it onto the side Wunderkit actually weaves your work and social interactions so closely together you couldn’t imagine doing it any other way.

Their free offering features collaborative task and note apps and their upcoming paid ‘Pro’ accounts will feature the addition of file storage and numerous as yet unannounced apps. Starting at $4.99 a month it seems like it could be a good deal compared to Basecamp’s $20 basic offering.

Let’s be clear

The problem with new and emerging technologies which change the way we do things is that unhelpful and often impenetrable jargon spews forth which attempt to describe but actually conceal the goodies within. As a result the very people who may benefit from the changes are alienated and react against the new but obscured possibilities.

In all the talk about cloud and social isn’t what we’re really trying to say is that it’s simply a better way to do business. Not very specific I agree but surely a more beneficial starting point.

Google+ is a very busy ghost town

There’s a lot of guff flying around at the moment about Google+. One the one hand it’s a massive 90 million-strong network that is flourishing. On the other hand it’s a ghost town. The problem is both sides are right.

Let’s assume the relatively new network does have 90 million users. That’s great. I’m delighted for them. The problem for me is that I don’t know a single one of those 90 million users. Oh wait, no, I tell a downright lie. I do know one other user but they don’t know anyone else on it apart from me so neither of us use it.

And that’s the problem, at least for a large number of people like me and my friend. As far as we are concerned Google+ is a ghost town despite the fact that 90 million other people are using it. We already use and have thriving networks elsewhere (Facebook and Twitter of course) and no amount of force feeding us Google+ results in our Google searches will change that. At least not yet.