Google Buzz: revolution, evolution, or devolution?

HBRs Umair Haque takes an in depth look at Google Buzz. Quite frankly, after a few days as a user and the amount of privacy issues encountered with the lack of anything breathtakingly new, I have to agree.

Google Buzz and the Five Principles of Designing For Meaning - Umair Haque - Harvard Business Review

Tomorrow's products and services have to be designed not just for mere consumption, but "designed for meaning": they must yield lasting, shared, meaningful economic gains — or else. Or else we continue our voyage into a no-future future. That's the big picture that tomorrow's radical innovators must redraw. I think Google Buzz is actually really, really cool — it's just not yet a meaningful service. It lives in the shadow of yesterday's big picture, instead of redrawing it. Redrawing the big picture of prosperity, by going from Great to Good: that's today's fundamental challenge.

Haiti Is a Marketing Lesson

Haiti Is a Marketing Lesson - Dan Pallotta - Harvard Business Review

"The reason people are giving so much money to Haiti is simple: They are hearing about it. They are seeing and reading about the catastrophe over and over again on the front page, in prime time, and in viral web appeals 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This is not a singular occurrence: Every so often, for brief moments, disasters trigger the deluge of media for humanity as is enjoyed every day by the likes of Budweiser, BMW, and the iPod. If it had to be paid for, the media that is currently publicizing Haiti would cost many tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars. But alas, we would never let humanitarian organizations spend that kind of money on advertising, despite the fact that it might bring in many times more dollars than it costs."

Interesting read, considering the fact that even for-profit marketers seem to ignore these fundamentals sometimes.

Latest Releases of WSO2 Mashup and Gadget Servers

We announced the releases of WSO2 Mashup Server version 2.0.2 and WSO2 Gadget Server version 1.0.1 yesterday. These releases as usual include improvements and fixes and in case of the Mashup Server, a new Host Object in addition to the collection already available. So make sure you have a look at the brand new HttpClient Host Object once you download 2.0.2.

I'm really happy about the traction WSO2 Gadget Server is gaining since its initial release in December 2009. It not only fulfils the last mile of our SOA platform story by providing a presentation layer, but also uses the Google Gadgets Specification to make this presentation layer SOA centric and interoperable with other portals such as iGoogle. And the most encouraging part? The users get it. That is a great feeling.

Our next major set of releases will come in March 2010, code named Iridium and will have some major enhancements and features. We are also doing a great amount of work targeting the Cloud. The WSO2 Gadget Server will soon be available as a Service, with Mashup Server to follow.