Live Mesh Is Open To All in the U.S.

How exciting! I just blogged this news over on ReadWriteWeb:

Windows Live Mesh is Microsoft’s software+services data synchronization platform. Because of its complex nature, most people assume that file synchronization is all there is to Live Mesh, but in reality, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Microsoft has big plans for the service and syncing files between computers and the cloud is just the start. When Live Mesh launched, it was currently a closed “technical preview” (that’s Microsoft for “beta.”) But now it appears the Mesh guys have quietly opened up the platform for all of the U.S.

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The Microsoft Zune is definitely the underdog when it comes to MP3 music players. In this market, there is only one king and everyone knows it’s the iPod. It’s hard for anyone offering an alternative MP3 player to get ahead, even when they have the marketing budget of a company like Microsoft. 

And the Zune – it’s not all bad, you know? The team knew they had to do something a little different to set it apart when they built it, so the Zune offers some unique features like wireless sync and wi-fi sharing of music, pictures, videos, etc. There’s also an all-you-can-eat subscription service (the Zune Pass) available and the Zune marketplace contains over a million DRM-free tracks (and not at jacked-up rates, either).

The features alone weren’t enough to convert the legions of Apple fans, but at least the Zune was making waves. Zune was establishing itself as an alternative…and that’s a good place to start.

Then came the quirky television commercials. Some people loved them, some just thought they were odd. Whichever side you took, you have to at least admit they were memorable. They were different. They were artistic and they didn’t look anything like the iPod commercials. (I personally thought they were cool…and I hate most commercials.)

Zune TV Ad

But where the Zune marketing efforts veered off course was in sponsoring Diggnation. Although Alex claims to really like the Zune, listening to Kevin Rose discuss the device, like in this recent paid advertisement (see below) reeks of disingenuity. Everyone knows Kevin is a hardcore Apple fan and the only reason he’s sitting on the couch is to make some money.

Alex & Kevin Talk Zune 

It’s like the Zune marketing team wanted to buy their way to the top by purchasing a bit of Alex & Kevin’s geek cred, but that’s just not how it works anymore. Yes, there was a time when a famous spokesperson could sell a product, but today’s youngest generation of consumers, Gen Y, is wary of being marketed to and not quite that gullible.

They want to know what the people they admire, be them famous singers, actors, or even internet stars really believe in. They don’t want an infomercial.  This generation can tell the difference between a pitch and a conversation and they can smell a marketing stunt from a mile away. And Kevin Rose talking Zune? That one is so obvious it’s just sad.

And what kills me is that it was unnecessary, too. Zune was building a brand for themselves as something unique. Something different. From its very launch when one of the color choices was a controversial chocolate brown, Zune was standing up and saying – “hey, look at us, we’re not an iPod. We’re different!” 

That “uniqueness” is the brand - the TV commercials mirrored this sentiment as did the other marketing efforts like the site Zune Originals, which lets you customize your Zune by having it engraved with select artwork. And it’s not cheesy stuff either – there’s a huge selection to choose from and it’s all that same weird, quirky stuff from real, honest-to-goodness artists.

Plus, there’s the occasional extra-hip Zune available there, like the current Joy Division Zune which is, in fact, so hip that it doesn’t even have mass market appeal.

And let’s not forget the latest addition, Zune Arts, which I recently blogged about here. The site features content (desktops, wallpapers, buddy icons, etc.) from several visual artists, all of which is downloadable for the Zune.

Their latest offering is what even may be a first – a graphic novel made just for the small screen. Does anyone else even offer that? Is that the start of a whole new form of media? Who knows, but it’s definitely interesting…and it works.

So, the Zune marketing team should stick with appealing to the indie crowd and whatever notoriety they achieve there will trickle down to the masses over time. (It’s why bands like “Death Cab for Cutie” are now getting airplay.) Going the indie route takes time, but it can worth the effort in the long run.

What doesn’t work, though, is buying 8 minutes of time to have the one guy who can’t stand any Microsoft product sit on a sofa and pretend to be interested. And seeing that the video has only achieved 1000+ views, the entire audience seems to agree.

This article is from Channel 10, a Microsoft blog for tech enthusiasts. To subscribe to Channel 10, the link is http://on10.net/Feeds/RSS/. To subscribe just to my posts, the link is: http://on10.net/blogs/sarahintampa/RSS/.

A company called Seriosity has introduced a new tool for email productivity, Attent, which attacks what they say is the main source of information overload: SENDERS! Yes, it’s the people sending email that are the real problem that need to be addressed, according to Attent, so they’ve come up with a system for businesses to implement which is supposed to make people stop and consider if something is worth emailing. 

With Attent, each employee is given a set amount of “Serios” per week, which are basically like virtual dollars. For each email you send, you can attach a certain number of Serios to it, depending on importance. More important emails are sent using more Serios. The system works as an Outlook plugin, and, since it only works with other people who also use Attent, the company would have to roll this out to everyone to make it an effective tool.

While this is an interesting idea, the reasoning behind this idea is that you can force people to email less by forcing them to calculate how much they can “afford” to email, and that seems to me a pretty much a knee-jerk reaction to dealing with info overload.

For one thing, Attent can’t stop people outside the company from emailing, so it only forces internal employees to turn to phone calls and face-to-face requests which may be even more disruptive than emails.

From personal experience, I found that a lot of people chose to email simply because email was the absolute fastest way to send out a request for help, a question, or to share a message with a large number of people. When this became a burden, such as it was at one of my I.T. jobs, the real cause that should have been addressed was why were people turning to email instead of using the tools to them at hand? Why were people sending emails instead of logging help desk tickets? Why were people sending emails instead of referring to online documentation? Why were people sending emails instead of doing the job themselves – which they had the ability and permissions to do, but not the know-how?

The problem that must be addressed in every company are the underlying causes that lead some people to use email far more than necessary – and use it first, without thinking things through. This tool, Attent, aims to do that, but without  deeper understanding about what’s wrong in the particular company.

For example, in my situation, implementing a I.T. support email address that directly posted items to the helpdesk instead of arriving in my inbox would have been a big help. Training people where to find the answers they need and how to use the tools we had in house would also have cut down on the emails. (Unfortunately, I didn’t have the authority to implement changes, because believe me, I would have!)

At another job of mine, where I did have authority to make changes, I spent a good part of a day out of the new hires’ week of training teaching the new employees about our in-house web resources – one of which was a SharePoint site. Even for those who had never been exposed to SharePoint, the majority were able to understand pretty quickly how they could use it and it definitely helped cut down on requests in the future as people weren’t emailing in basic questions like where to find a certain file or bit of information. They already knew where it was online.

Often businesses tend to overlook the value of training, but then they end up working harder due to the lack of training of their new employees. The value of real, instructor-led training is something every business needs to understand because, once in the thick of things, employees will never find the time to study user manuals or do research – everything becomes “I need an answer now.” The best time to reach employees and set out what the expectations are for them is at the very beginning of employment before they become reliant on using their preferred tools and processes that result in increased efficiency for them, but that decrease the overall efficiency of the company as a whole since they put the burden on other people who have mastered the use of the company’s informational systems.

Of course, training isn’t a panacea for the entirety of the information overload problem, but it’s certainly a better use of a company’s money that setting up a virtual economy where emails have a price tag associated with them, in my opinion.

For dealing with the remainder of the email, tools that add efficiency to the process of sorting through your inbox - like my business email add-on of choice, ClearContext - are really the way to go. Heavy use of filters, rules, and informational auto-responders can also help cut down on the flood. However, real solutions to today’s information overload problem are going to much more in-depth and complex than an Outlook plugin. Maybe IORG will come up with some answers for us.

(Image courtesy of Seriosity)

A friend of mine recently asked me for my thoughts on Apple’s MobileMe. Apparently, he wasn’t aware of my big conflict of interest. However, after some time, I thought, why not? At the very least I can share my thoughts about why I won’t be using it, and why you probably will.

Mobile Me

For those of you who haven’t heard, MobileMe is Apple’s new sync/cloud storage platform. Whether you’re on your Mac, PC, iPhone, or iPod Touch, you can access your email, contacts, calendars (and via “push,” too). An online photo gallery and an “iDisk” are also available as online storage spaces for your files. Taken at face value, MobileMe sounds great, doesn’t it? And for many people, it will be. Like all Apple products, MobileMe’s UI is beautiful and easy to use, but MobileMe shares another trait with Apple products, too: it’s a tightly closed platform.

MobileMe will quickly lock you into Apple’s walled garden – and you’ll pay to get in there, too. For $99 you get 20 GB of storage or you can get the family pack for $149…per year. For every 20 extra GBs you need, you’ll also need another $50. And if you already use another email address, like your own domain or email from another free webmail provider like Gmail or Yahoo, you’ll have to give that up, too, or at least learn how to forward, because MobileMe requires an @me.com address.

Of course, if you’re already an Apple user with a Macbook, iPhone, iPod Touch, and whatever else Apple invents for you to buy, you’ve probably already signed up to be notified about MobileMe and are eagerly awaiting the day you can begin using it.

Live Mesh

Microsoft, on the other hand, like the nerdy, older guy in the Mac vs. PC commercials, has been busy coding a developer’s platform called Live Mesh that’s cool, but sort of secretive, too. I mean, with blog posts like this, it’s clear that they’re not even talking to the consumer anymore, so only true computer geeks are still listening. And that’s really too bad because, like all the complex tools that have come out of Microsoft throughout the years, Mesh could also be the next great thing if they could just hire a UI guy to slap some adorable little icons all over it.

OK, I jest. Don’t get me wrong – UI is very important stuff. Arguably, one of the most important things to the consumer these days. Yet it seems we’ve decidedly moved away from a time when caring about what was under the hood was important. Who builds their own PCs anymore? Who replaces their menus and file explorers with crazy, downloadable replacement programs? Who configures the heck out of their tools, applications, and settings so they have a truly personalized computing environment? I guess just me. I’m the one. Everyone else seems perfectly fine to deal with the lovely, yet homogenized world that Apple has created for them. And when something doesn’t work right - like, say, Flash on the iPhone, then it’s just somebody else’s fault.

Meanwhile, Live Mesh is being quietly ignored as the blogosphere drools over iPhone 2.0 (Yes, I’m getting one. That’s not the point). The point is, the blogosphere has given up on Microsoft. The Apple fans (check the comments) are downright terrifyingly vicious in their devotion. Hey, I love my Apple stuff, and if I was rich like you, I’d probably supplement my computing world with a bit more of it; but for now, I still believe there’s more to tech than just what comes out of Apple.

Anyway, back to Mesh. Since no one is bothering to explain it that well, here’s my go at it. It’s a platform not a service. It’s not a web app. It’s not a website where you go and upload files so you can say you offer “cloud computing.”

Or, even better, to quote Steve, “MobileMe could be "built" on Mesh. Unlikely of course, but the opposite isn’t true.” Or yes, even a service like Twitter could run on Mesh.

But for now, Mesh is about sync and access anywhere. I right-click a folder and choose “Add to Mesh.” Now it’s anywhere I have access to computer. A PC, but Mac and Mobile are still coming soon.

And it’s not some crazy proprietary .NET rehash, either. Says John Carroll, “they aren’t proposing protocols for data exchange that would be alien to most web developers. HTTP, RSS, REST, ATOM and JSON are are standard protocols, and though FeedSync may be new-ish, it is an XML protocol based on ATOM and RSS…This is a real shift, in other words, for Microsoft. They are starting to realize that it is better to be the generalized platform used even on non-Microsoft platforms ”

So when Mesh doesn’t work on the iPhone, guess what? It’s not going to be because it wasn’t using the proper protocols. It will be because Steve Jobs didn’t want it to.

Anyway, if what I know about Mesh really happens one day, it will be totally cool. Revolutionary. But then we’re back to the secret thing again. Sigh.

So I await the tongue-lashing from my friends who will once again depress me by explaining in detail all the reasons why Mesh is going to fail.

They have no idea, but really Microsoft is either going to live up to this:

….or it will fail big-time, but for this round, there’s no gray area.

So, excuse me for hoping that they still have them in them to do the former.

Go here. I’ll wait.

You back?

Now tell me again how uncool all that Microsoft stuff is. Seriously.

DeepEarth is one of the most amazing things I’ve seen in a long time. I blogged about it on Channel 10 and one of the commenters pointed me to http://silverlight.idvsolutions.com which shows off DeepEarth in even a more incredible fashion than the original link I had posted.

DeepEarth came into existence thanks to an open source community effort that was meant to be a learning experience for the participants as to how to use the DeepZoom feature in Silverlight. Combine that with Virtual Earth and it’s pretty much insane.

Do you get that analogy? You will if you’ve been hanging out on the internet long enough. I’m recalling how hard it was to get a Gmail invite back when it first launched. That was the elite service to get into back in 2004. Luckily, I didn’t have to wait too long, allowing me the ability to snag the email address sarahperez at gmail. It’s nice to have your name without any numbers on the end!

Well, it’s beginning to look like Windows Live Mesh is this year’s Gmail. Invites are so scarce that a site called ShareMesh has launched to try to hook up those in need of an invite with those who have invites. As it stands right now, there are 2291 people looking for a Mesh invite on the ShareMesh site and only 268 users with invites to give.

It’s a great idea to organize everyone interested in Mesh via a website, but ShareMesh is still missing the bartering component that the Gmail Swap (warning: ads!) website had back in its day. Remember how people were offering up favors, gifts, services, postcards, other invites, and even cash in return for receiving a Gmail invite? That’s what ShareMesh.com needs…bribes.

My friend Vlad remembers eBay invites going for $20 on eBay. He will be happy to know that we’re not there yet with Mesh (because he thinks Mesh will doom Microsoft).

I’ve been using Mesh for a bit now, and I am happy to report it’s pretty darn cool.  You can read more about my Live Mesh experiences on Channel 10.

I started this post as a review of Spicebird. But my thoughts, here at the end of day, drifted. It happens. But if you bear with me, I actually make a point…I think:

FIREFOX

Recently, I’ve seen a couple of new Mozilla-based applications being discussed in the blogosphere, one of which is Spicebird. Now, to complement the music browser Songbird and social browser Flock comes this open source collaboration client offering integrated email, calendaring, IM, task scheduling, and RSS. Unfortunately, the CNet’s Download Blog reports that Spicebird is "not quite ready to fly," claiming it had some serious bugs that needed to be addressed first.

My first thought when reading about Spicebird was that I already have a Mozilla-based RSS reader, email, and calendaring program: It’s called Firefox. In Firefox, I can access my Google Reader, Gmail, and Google Calendar.

GOOGLE

I suppose if I wanted them all together on one page, I could customize my iGoogle page to display widgets for these things, but I tend to use my iGoogle page for more important purposes…like FriendFeed updates and lolcat pictures.

However, a widgetized portal isn’t the same as an integrated program where everything works on one page or in one window. Hopping from tab to tab in Firefox like I do, necessary even to go from Gmail to Google Calendar, is, quite frankly, just as inelegant as hopping from window to window is when using various desktop software applications.

And let’s be honest here, even Google Apps is just an iGoogle page bundled with default widgets and ways to set permissions so Google can pretend there is some level of I.T. control and sell it to businesses. (See? Users can’t add lolcats to their page because you’re in control!)

OK, maybe I’m being a tad facetious, but the point is that despite the usability Google’s offerings, their productivity applications still sorely lack in other aspects. Even Microsoft Outlook users have the ability to do things that really shouldn’t be so hard for such a pretty AJAX interface.

For example, why can’t I drag and drop a Gmail email into my Google Calendar? Or forward contact information from my Address Book to someone else where they can add them to their Address Book with only a click? (Seriously, add a field for that in my contacts window.) Why can’t I add a task to a to do list? Where is the to do list? I can share a post in Google Reader, but why can’t I share the whole darned feed with someone? Why can’t I put HTML in my signature? All those things I just mentioned and many more I can do with Outlook out of the box, yet somehow…somehow…its very nature of being an old-school program - dreaded installable, paid-for software -means it can’t compare to its online counterparts. (Or can it?)

[Oh, and by the way, Microsoft Outlook doesn't need some downloadable "Gears" app to work offline. If you lose your internet connection, it just tells you "you are now working offline." ]

CLOUD APPS

Don’t get me wrong, I know why I moved to online apps - so I can get to them from any computer anywhere. Plus, they’re free. But is it really too much to expect that they should be able to offer me the features that I gave up by switching?  Or am I just supposed to be content with the fact that I get all new features instead (IM in my email! Avatars! Labels!)?

And as to my main reasons for switching: 1) cost 2) access anywhere, these might not be that big of a deal in the coming future.

MESH

In case you haven’t been paying attention, Microsoft’s big bet on Mesh means that you’re going to be installing software to the Mesh, not to one PC, then another, then another. The gory details on this are fuzzy, but something big is coming.

And they don’t mean just their applications - although I’m sure they wouldn’t mind - but any applications. Like free ones. Which means that Google (or any web app) might not be able to win dominance by their very nature of being an online, access-anywhere app. Any piece of software can become an install once, access anywhere app. All that will matter is that the app delivers features that the user wants or needs.

Maybe the Mesh team haven’t come right out and said all this yet…it’s hard to break through the dev speak and figure out what they mean, especially since they prefer to use terms like "unified application management," or speak in "big picture" views like Ozzie:

"Developers will need to build applications that can be delivered seamlessly across a loosely coupled device mesh by utilizing a common set of tools, languages, runtimes and frameworks – a common toolset that spans from the service in the cloud to enterprise server, and from the PC to the browser to the phone"

But if you’re installing software to Mesh, then what does this mean about the software business model? Will software be licensed based on number of Mesh devices it should install to? Listen to what David Treadwell has to say about Mesh, for example:

One thing that we feel very good about the Microsoft business model…is that mesh makes it a lot easier for people to own multiple devices.  Today people struggle with if you have 2-3 pc’s and a cell phone, and music player and other devices, it’s kind of a pain in the neck to keep the data across all the devices, to keep the applications across all the devices. So by virtue of making it…more easy…for users to have multiple devices that they use in different situations, it’s fairly clear to see how there’s some benefit to accrue to Microsoft because we think our devices are compelling, the software that runs on those devices are compelling, and so people will be more excited about owning multiple devices.

And then, on the Gillmor Gang podcast, all these industry pundits get access to David Treadwell, Mesh’s top guy, and they waste his time asking him questions like this:

"So the real question is: whether or not there’s gonna be a transport to take Twitter messages in through the mesh?"

You’ve got to be kidding me.

How about, will Microsoft be releasing all new versions of their applications for Mesh? How will Microsoft Office work on Mesh? Will people purchase Microsoft applications based on the number of Mesh devices it gets installed to? If you have to rebuild a PC, can you just re-install an app from Mesh back to the computer? If you have one Mac and one PC, can you just buy 2 Mesh licenses for Microsoft Office and install it over the net to both devices instead of having to buy Office Standard and Office for Mac? How can I.T. restrict Mesh-enabled work PCs from being shared with Mesh-enabled home PCs? And so forth and so on…

Oh no, they wanted to ask about how Mesh and FolderShare are going to work together. Who cares? Scrap FolderShare for all I care. FolderShare is a tool. Mesh is a platform.

And maybe after Treadwell said this:

Just like you can choose to map a folder to any client device, you’ll be able choose whether or not to map a given folder to the cloud storage as well.

…they could have asked more about the cloud storage platform instead of moving on to how Mesh competes with Amazon’s web services.

*sigh*

I said you had until Tuesday at midnight. I lied. I have plenty of comments now left by people looking for Mesh invites, so I may as well give them out now.

Deciding Who Won

This was a tough decision. I only have five invites, so who can I say is worthy of them? I wanted to be picky and not just hand them out like candy since they are so scarce. I wanted the people who received them to really want to test and run Mesh and also have use for it. Like I said before, if you just want five GBs of online storage, use SkyDrive. Mesh is all about the sync. (It’s actually about MUCH, MUCH more, but for now, it’s about the sync).

Now, I did enjoy my Twitter debate with krishnan, and while I understand nikan’s point about convincing the non-believers, I decided to give Mesh to the full on Kool-Aid drinkers who are not jaded and skeptical, but are excited to play with this new technology.

There will be plenty of time later to put Mesh through its paces…believe me when I tell you that this is barely scratching the surface of Mesh. S, for right now, I just wanted to award the invites to people who sounded like they really, really, really wanted it.

Here are the top 5 I’ve chosen (and why):

• Ashish Mohta thinks Microsoft is "changing the way of the web." Plus he was the first to comment. Points!
• Phil dug Groove back in the day and is a fan of cloud computing.
• Shawn has 4 computers, 3 of which run Vista so he can really put Mesh through its paces. He has also participated in Microsoft betas in the past, so is familiar with providing feedback to the devs. Plus, he’s a tech news podcaster, so he will have the ability to talk about Mesh in the tech community.
• Chuckpalm  said he’s been waiting for something like Mesh for years. He’s also a podcaster, which again meets my other requirement about being vocal. (I don’t need to be on your podcast, though -  bribes are not accepted - but I appreciate the enthusiasm.)
• Alpesh was looking for a master sync for his various devices and participates in the SharePoint community.

Runners Up:

If you weren’t in the top five, you were either a hater (love you guys!) or just darned unfortunate.

Perry, close but no banana. You weren’t quite as enthusiastic, but you did say you have four computers and a Windows Mobile device, so you could really benefit from using Mesh. You will also be ready when mobile support is announced in the near future, which will be interesting. I was *this* close to giving the invite to you, but the others have the added benefit of being tech community participants, which was one of my requests. However, I’m going to encourage my winners here to please send you one of their invites. (Can someone please volunteer for that?)

Also, Vijay - man, you made it tough. As much as I would love to give out Mesh to someone who wants to prove Vlad wrong, I feel that some of these guys made a better overall case as to why they wanted to test out Mesh. But again, winners, please consider giving one of your invites to Vijay. Because proving Vlad wrong would be awesome.

Runners up, you should also know that if anyone doesn’t claim their Mesh invite, you’ll win by default.

Claim Your Invite:

Winners! To claim your Mesh invite, please email me or comment here with your email address you want the invite sent to.

My email is sarahperez (AT) gmail (DOT) com.

Live Mesh is just about the hottest thing the tech world has seen in a long time. The product represents Microsoft’s vision for cloud computing, designed to blur the line between data stored on a computer and data stored in the cloud. This game-changing "software plus services" platform promises to synchronize devices, enable collaboration, unify management of devices and applications, and much more.

Right now, select people have been invited to the tech preview of Live Mesh. This preview is only the smallest hint of what’s to come, but even still, it’s pretty amazing. The Mesh preview lets you install Mesh to your PCs and synchronize your files to Live Mesh, using up to 5 GB of online storage.

Five Mesh Invites

What I just discovered today is that I have the power to invite five people to Mesh. Given the scarcity of invites (some people at Microsoft can’t even get in!), I decided that I don’t want to hand these out haphazardly. I’m not interested in giving out invites to people who just want to have a look-see. I want to give out invites to people who are genuinely interested in this technology and who can benefit from using it. I know how insanely excited I was to get invited and I’m looking for people who feel the same. 

Who Should Get Mesh

After thinking about it for a bit today, I decided that the best way to find those people might be to hold a contest of sorts. Basically, the rules are as follows: just convince me that you’re a good candidate for Mesh.

I don’t care how you want to go about this. You can write one sentence or record a whole video. As long as I’m convinced, you’re in. The deadline is going to be midnight on Tuesday. I know that’s kind of soon, but hey, it’s not like I’m holding Mahalo Idol here. I’ll post the winning entries, whatever they are, right here on the blog.

Just a Few Requests

I do have a few requirements though. I can’t hold you to them or verify them (it’s honor system time!) -  they are just things I hope you will bring to the table.

1. You need to run Windows. Although Mesh will be supported on Macs and mobiles (and who knows what else) in the future, right now it’s PC-only. Mac/Linux users shouldn’t bother applying.
2. You should have more than one computer. The best thing about Mesh right now is the syncing. Why would you want Mesh if you only have one PC? For online storage? Just go use SkyDrive instead.
3. You should be a blogger or technology participant in some way. The reason I say this is because, ideally, I would like to see someone who’s interested in providing feedback about Mesh. Whether you want to blog about, promise to provide feedback to the Live Mesh team, or whatever, I don’t care. I just want to give the invites to someone who’s involved.

Get Started!

So that’s it. Hopefully you don’t think I’m going overboard with this whole invite contest thing. I just need a way to be picky but fair. I am looking forward to seeing what you come up.

Oh yeah, I’m in! I’m so excited to be trying out Mesh’s tech preview I can hardly stand it. I *will* be playing with this all weekend, I’m sure. More to come…