I was just skimming through the blogosphere on the Google “Office” (which is nothing more than a control-panel served Mail, Talk, Calendar and Page creator) and came across this comment on Techcrunch:

People hardly care about collaboration in the corporate world. The term collaboration is overhyped. If I am preparing a technical design document along with couple of coworkers (say Mark and John), there is no need for collaboration. I contribute to section #1, John contributes to section #2, Mark contributes to section #3 and in the end we merge the documents i.e. cut and paste. I dont want John and Mark to see all the changes as I type , I only want them to see my version only after I finish it completely. I hate collaboration.

Reading this was rather strange for a couple of reasons: one, I wholeheartedly disagree (I believe collaboration and collaboration software make better, more productive professionals), and two, because it doesn’t reflect my view of the “corporate world”. Odd.

Amazon has been around for (what seems like) ages now. They’ve were here before Tim O’Reilly came up with the definition of Web 2.0. However, they still are by our standards the company providing the most compelling services out there: first with Mechanical Turk and S3, and now with the new EC2.

Techcrunch had the exclusive in the story detailing the new service. According to TC, here’s the gist on EC2:

Users of the service can setup a server instance which is hosted with Amazon, and then access and use the servers they setup just like any other. With EC2 there would no longer be a requirement to source and setup physical hardware and the virtual server instances are charged back to the user based on the CPU, storage and bandwidth usage.

I suggest you read the full post and the detail pages at Amazon Web Services, but this is huge for small companies willing to deploy new services without investing in machines with resources they may not need.

Why is Amazon the best of Web 2.0?

Amazon leads Web 2.0 because apart from targeting consumers on their own store (user-centric and user-generated content has been in since almost day 1 – and undoubtedly what gives Amazon the lead in online selling), they’re targeting developers building services – and the way they do it is huge.

Most developers face a serious problem when building a service: when buying server infrastructure, they usually don’t use everything they pay for in the first few months. Services like S3 and now EC2 allow them to buy and pay only for the infrastructure they need, minimizing expenses and maximizing availability. Smart.

Not everyone will go for this solution, naturally. As Tiago (our IT infrastructure guy) argued earlier in a discussion about this service, most managers still prefer to know how much they’ll spend on a monthly basis – but personally, I think smart developers will make great use of this new service. We’ll see.

Now, if only we could get our hands on one of those beta accounts. I’m definitely wondering if this is a suitable solution to scaling Goplan. Anyone listening? Thanks.

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… people need to be able to speak. One of the biggest issues I have with some of the blogs out there is that they just don’t make it easy for people to voice their opinion. Take a look at Bizinformer, for example. They’ve been in my reading list for a while, but I’ve never left a comment on their blog – and judging by their numbers, not many people have.

Reason being, they make it too hard. There’s 3 forms below the story, plus a voting system and some ads. I mean, can I get to the part where I say what I think? All I need is a text area and a submit button, and that’s it. Not that they don’t have it, its just buried between star ratings, related entries, “blog this at your site”, and “email this to your friends” widgets. Oh, come on.

Now, even though I’m using Bizinformer as an example (because I just happened to read one of their stories), this sort of frustration is common in the blogosphere. There are loads of blogs who, eager to take their content distribution to new heights, fill up their pages with bulky forms, tons of imagery or ads, and make it a hell of a mess for people who just want to say “I disagree”. Usability doesn’t just apply to applications or portals.

If blogging is a conversation, stop gluing our mouths and taping our lips.

David at Signal vs Noise has a great post about how depressingly wrong Paul Graham is when saying the only problem with (the now for sale) Kiko – a YCombinator funded project – was being in the way of Google in the online calendar space. Paul, who’s inspired many in the start-up world, may be trying to cover his tracks by putting the blame on Google for his projects’ demise, but by saying,

The best solution for most startup founders would probably be to stay out of Google’s way.

he’s just being (with all due respect), a little dumb. How are you supposed to do anything (in any area), if you’re afraid of a giant competitor? And thinking about it, wasn’t Google just a couple of guys some years ago? Were they afraid of competition? Paul, please.

Don’t fear, do it properly

Google took the search engine market by storm because they did one thing and one thing better than anyone else. If you have a great idea, even if its already been tried (with little or lots of success), give it a go if you believe you can succeed. Its passion, not fear, that builds great products. Thinking otherwise won’t work for you – ever.

If you have a great idea, go for it. Bite the “stray bullet” and be passionate about what you believe in. And stay away from this new Paul Graham that pitches the idea of being afraid.