Collaboration

I think online collaboration has great potential. Say an organization needs to have a document created by managers in 3 locations across the country. A number of relatively recent developments allow that document to be created in the virtual, without resorting to costly travel.

By now most everyone has heard of Skype, the free VOIP service. It allows anymore to call another computer with for free, and it also provides video call service too. Combine Skype with the collaborative features Google Docs, which lets you collaborate in real time with other people on documents, spreadsheets, and presentation, and its like your in the same room.

Skype itself has some sweet collaborative features, too. There are many plugins that allows for things like screen sharing, virtual whiteboards, etc.

Lynda Gratton, in her article for the Sloan Management Review, makes a few good point sabout online collaboration. Most notably, organizations need to make it easy for online collaborators to learn about each other, and that its best that some colloborators already know each other. Teams will be much more productive if they know where others responsibilities lie and what others are skilled at.

Microsoft bids $44.6 Billion for Yahoo!

Read the WSJ.com article here.

According to that article, one of the main reasons Microsoft wants to acquire Yahoo! is help them complete with Google in the online ad market. Besides that, I really don't see ANY reason for Microsoft to do this. Theres little synergy between the online services that Microsoft and Yahoo provide. They both have IM, mail, maps, a web portal, search, an online music store, and many other overlapping services. It appears that Microsoft wants to strengthen their "Live" online services, a brand that doesn't come close to living up to its origonator, Xbox Live. Another thing to consider is that "Yahoo!" is a much stronger brand than "Live."

So here's what I see happening if this goes through: They combine their ad services. Everything else stays seperate. Would Microsoft waste the "Yahoo!" brand. No. Would Microsoft throw away everything they have done with "Live"? I doubt it.

Even it does work out, they still won't be able to dethrone Google.