News for Today, Nov 21

Interesting news of the day (for November 20 too, as I was out of the office):

• Macromedia released Central (Developer Edition), which enables the development of applications that can access information spread over a network both in connected and disconnected (offline) mode. Once a connection is re-established, the software automatically updates the information held locally, similar to Groove Workplace. IM and presence capabilities from AOL IM and ICQ will be available via an SDK later on. Central Product Page InfoWorld. Support for handheld device access is planned. Digit
• AOL enabled users to log into its IM network from multiple computers simultaneously using a single screen name. Previously, the second log in attempt would disconnect the first active log in. I tried it with Volker Weber and it worked great: iChat on two Mac's and the AIM client on a PC, although my Sametime 3.0 client on another PC would not connect. BetaNews
• Salesforce.com announced a partnership with Research In Motion to enable wireless access for users from RIM BlackBerry devices to hosted data in the Salesforce.com system. eWeek
• MetaLogix, a consulting company and systems integrator, said its work with Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server and Windows SharePoint Services is "driving revenue growth". LocalTechWire
• Tony Kontzer, InformationWeek, has published an interesting article on real-time teamwork. HIGHLIGHTS: Page 1 ... plans of the South University School of Pharmacy for online learning and collaboration (video-conferencing, voice-over-IP, IM, shared spaces), and some explanation of contextual collaboration and collaboration componentisation; Page 2 ... issues of ROI for real-time and document-centric collaboration, particularly for knitting together components from multiple vendors; Page 3 ... some details on products (Siemens, Oracle, IBM Lotus); case study of Dow Corning's corporate portal based on SAP, with the idea that " ... all these collaborative tools [are made] part of the portal architecture ... "; Page 4 ... case study of Nektar who is using IBM Lotus software for collaboration; concluding comment about the human/cultural issues. There are some decent charts in the article, including Delphi's one entitled "How important are these apps to your real-time collaboration strategy priorities?" on page 4.