See What’s Out There

The web is changing fast as is our relationship to the software we use. I am a big believer in”cloud computing” or “software as a service” or whatever you want to call it. This is the concept that most of what we do on the computer will be done online, using the computing power of remote servers off in some server farm (probably owned by Google). Salesforce.com is a pioneer in this concept, selling even large companies on the idea of putting their data in an online system. The advantages are clear — nothing to install, no worries about backup, hardware, etc. always available online from anywhere you are.

This new world is a threat to Microsoft who still prints money by selling us their Office suite for hundreds of dollars and Windows for hundreds more. And so Microsoft is trying to buy Yahoo! because, as David Pogue wrote yesterday, “Has it come to this? Is Microsoft’s innovation engine so dead that the only way it can grow is to buy other companies?” Mostly, yes.

The smartest nonprofits right now are turning to Google for pretty much everything. On Google you can run your email and replace your Microsoft office suite. It’s a huge savings in dollars (up front and for maintenance) and an even bigger savings in headaches. (Google gives away to nonprofit what they charge everyone else $50 per user per year for. So, being free, it’s really a great deal.) We just bought a Mac at home and my daughter said she needed Microsoft Office to be able to write her documents. Nope. Try Google Docs. When I explained to her that she didn’t have to use her thumb drive to transfer the file from one computer to her school computer — she just had to login to Google — she loved it. Nothing lost again, thank you very much.

Yahoo! doesn’t want to be bought by Microsoft. Who can blame them. Microsoft is the old school now and Yahoo! used to be the very essence of the internet. I am hopeful that Yahoo! can find a way out of it, but I don’t think they will. Microsoft is offering too much cash. In their negotiations, Yahoo!’s Jerry Yang would be wise to listen to Shpigler. He’s an Israeli — and I can tell you from my 5 years living in Israel that Israelis know something about negotiating. So, listen to what Shpigler has to say and maybe you can also learn something about negotiating too.

One of the things we tell nonprofits is that our world is only getting more media saturated. With broadband becoming more pervasive — past the desktop to the TV and mobile device — every organization needs to move from telling people what they do to showing people. With video sharing sites and social networking, blogs and content portals, there are many more places to put those great photos and video already.

It is only increasing. So if you start investing in video training and professional documentation it will pay off in a big way over time.

Have a look at what Microsoft is up to in this video from Popular Mechanics. And imagine what it might means to your organization’s future not to have a strong library of images and video in a world where there are all kinds of these new venues for information.