There is a new magic quadrant out for Enterprise Team Collaboration and Social Software. This is the first MQ that focuses on this nascent space, so if Gartner has a quadrant they are getting a lot of inquiries from enterprise customers about these offerings.

<img src="/images/64360-56413/Team_Collab.jpg” border=”0″ width=”439″>

Some thoughts:

1. They have grouped Wiki’s, Blogging tools, Collaboration products and Community Software all in one MQ. Its obvious that these tools do very different things. In fact I dont even see companies choosing between SocialText and Jive Software. Usually they need both.

2. There are quite a few other smaller vendors they have missed. Take a look at this more extensive list of vendors in the community space.

3. They have missed very good open source vendors such as WordPress and Drupal (which a lot of people use for communities)

I would expect Jeremiah and Mike to provide more color, but this is a start, not sure if I’d call it a good start. My friend Dan has a good introduction to the MQ itself.

Update: Read the report in detail. It does have Pros and Con’s listed by vendor. It also talks about vendors they did not include: Cisco, Novell, Oracle and Sun. Some insight on the inclusion / exclusion of certain vendors:

“Note that although we look for evidence of market presence (10 customers with 500 users each
in production) in order to exclude some of the very small vendors, we deliberately do not have an
explicit test for minimum revenue. This has meant that the Magic Quadrant includes products
from less-established vendors, from vendors experimenting with new pricing models, and opensource
products. This helps to reflect some of the innovation and alternative sourcing options
available in this market. However, although the size, revenues and profitability of the vendors was
taken into account when assessing their ability to execute, you should be aware that some of the
vendors here represent more risk than those in Magic Quadrants with a high revenue threshold.”

 (C) Gartner 2007. All Rights are theirs.

Businessweek has a good piece on Old media.”the story of American
newspapers in the 21st century. The industry has reached a near-crisis
point. Many dailies are losing circulation at an alarming rate, and
local newspaper ad spending fell 3.1% last year, to $24.4 billion,
while Internet advertising rose 17.3%, to $9.8 billion, according to
Advertising Age.“

What do you think?

Baris has a video of Paul Pott in the British version of American Idol.

“Thomas Lee, who was also on the Boeing 747’s first commercial flight
from New York to London in 1970, described the latest experience as
“spectacular … fantastic … incredible.””

“I have never been in anything like this in the air before in my
life,” said Australian Tony Elwood, reclining with his wife, Julie, on
the double bed in their private first-class suite.

“It is going
to make everything else after this simply awful,” he said, sipping Dom
Perignon champagne after a lunch of marinated lobster and double boiled
chicken soup. He paid $50,000 for the two places.

Flight attendants handed out champagne and certificates to passengers,
some of whom paid tens of thousands of dollars in an online auction for
seats.

Most times I fly and someone asks me I say “uneventful, and safe”.

Regardless of how much they paid, why cant every flight be like this one – fantastic, incredible.

I dont think its a matter of cost – just a matter that airlines (especially ones in America) dont care or give a damm.

Larrysays MSFT put $250 Million as an investment in facebook. Valuation $15 Billion as expected. Wow. Makes Ning’s $42 Million palein comparison.

Vinnie asks a burning question on conferences. which do you attend, and what do you do to get most from them?

Jeff gives some tips on getting most of conferences.

I have previously covered 5 things to do and 3 things to not do at BarCamp.

Here are my tips on getting value from conferences:

1.      1.
  Have a list of 5 burning questions that I ask
everyone – end user, vendor, etc. Mostly around things we are trying to get a
better handle on

2.      2.
  Plan on “meeting many” but only networking (deep
meaningful conversations) with 5 (MAX for me)

3.      3. 
  Blog immediately about it so I can hear other
opinions (live blogging)

BusinessWeek said it first, indicating the VC model is broken. Then we got reports of far fewer VC firms than in 2000. But the newly minted ex-Google guys want to start a VC fund. Why?

1. Well they have the money, so they can.
2. There is real opportunity in the next generation of search – because we are tired of the old way apparently.
3. Its still the best gig in the business.

pic: from gapingvoid.com Hugh.

A few months ago everyone predicted the end of newspapers. Well they are all wrong. Its changing the industry, but newspapers are not dying (yet). New York Times reported stellar earningsyesterday and stock’s up 8%.

The New York Times Co (NYT.N: Quote, Profile, Research)
reported a 6.7 percent rise in profit on Tuesday because of higher
national advertising sales and a price increase for its flagship
newspaper, sending its shares up as much as 8 percent.

Most of the other newspapers are struggling no doubt, but dead! Yeah Right!

Apple reported strong earnings today. They just blew past most optimistic estimates. Interesting notes:

1. More small businesses are using iPhone. I understand if you are a lawyer or a small design firm or consulting outfit that makes sense, but restaurants, donut shop owners? Dont count on it yet.

2. Deferred revenue: iPhone revenue is recognized monthly over 24 months. Might be in the future JUST like your phone service you will start to rent your iPhone instead of buying it. Remember the GM Electric car?

3. Getting started on BestBuy relationship. I think this is very interesting. The biggest draw for the Apple stores is the “cool” experience they provide and the “geniuses” that provide you on hand support.

Nate‘s posting very frequently on Twitter on the San Diego fires. If you have a loved one or relatives in that part of the country, follow him there.