Web Development Live

Helpstream, a leading provider of on-demand collaborative customer service solutions, today announced the general availability of the Helpstream Summer 2008 release, which contains over 130 enhancements to help companies understand customer attitudes, tap into community knowledge, and build winning relationships. By further integrating case management, knowledge management, and community collaboration, companies can leverage the power and familiarity of the Web to engage their customers in a rich, collaborative self service experience.

“Many companies turn to call deflection as a way to deal with increasing service demand, but in doing so they fail to engage the customer at a point where their attitudes and needs are conspicuously obvious,” said Anthony Nemelka, CEO of Helpstream. “By placing Community at the forefront of customer service, Helpstream enables anyone in a company or its community to be an effective customer service agent. This truly modern approach significantly expands the pool of knowledge available to each user by leveraging the Internet for what it does best connecting people to information quickly and effectively.”

The challenge for many companies is that their interaction with customers is too often one dimensional centered on resolving issues and ending the interaction. Consumer familiarity with Web 2.0 tools has led to higher expectations. Helpstream provides a convenient and affordable alternative to this one-size-fits-all service approach and helps companies embrace the web-enabled world to build customer loyalty through relationships.

Helpstream is an approachable application designed to engage users in a company’s customer community with an easy to learn and use interface, while offering internal service organizations the same benefits combined with ease of administration and a low cost deployment model.

The Helpstream Summer 2008 release continues to build on this idea by leveraging end-user familiarity with common office productivity tools, such as email and calendaring software.

Minutes after attending a seminar titled “Use Social Networking to Your Professional Advantage,” I opened my e-mail and found two invitations to join LinkedIn.com networks.

One came from a person I’d had professional contact with previously. I clicked “accept” and went on to other things. I didn’t recognize the other name, so I closed the e-mail without response. And, thanks to Ellen Levy, I didn’t feel bad about the tacit rejection.

Levy, vice president of corporate development and strategy at LinkedIn.com, just presented an overview of Internet social networking sites at the Central Exchange’s annual Women’s Lyceum, an educational and networking event. Understanding that attendees came to the conference from many different backgrounds and levels of Web familiarity, Levy prefaced her user advice with a primer. First, she explained, there was Web 1.0 — the mostly one-directional flow of information over the Internet. Think of Web pages.

We’re now in the age of Web 2.0 — an era of two-way communication that in three years spawned a host of interactive social networking sites. A show of hands indicated that about half the people used LinkedIn, a professional networking Web site, to build business relationships.

Even if you’ve never been on a social networking site, you understand the concept: It’s a cyberspace handshake. It facilitates connections. It does what Rotary meetings, phone calls, cocktail parties and e-mail have done for years.

Let’s say Joe wants a job at Hallmark Cards. Joe doesn’t know anybody in the human resources department or target department where he wants to work. But he is good friends with Sally, who has a Hallmark Gold Crown store. Sally knows people in Hallmark’s retail division. One, Bill, is the main liaison with Joan in the human resources department. And Joan knows that Fred is exactly the right person for Joe to meet. Fred, meet Joe. Joe, here’s Fred, who has someone vouching for him.

I made up that scenario, but that’s the six-degrees-of-separation concept.

A professional networking Web site might help make the connections that have always been an essential ingredient in job hunting, business development and sales prospecting. (A user also can get a wealth of professional responses quickly when posting a question on the appropriate area of the site.)

Levy emphasized that Web-based networking sites are only as good as the veracity and relevance of the people using them.

A LinkedIn connection may not make sense if you accept an invitation to join one’s professional network if you don’t know the person or don’t have ties to one’s business skills or services. “It should be a tool to leverage relationships you already have,” Levy said.

And a good professional network site should never be confused with a social networking site such as Facebook. The purposes are completely different, she said.

A professional networking site can be a good way to put your business profile — basically your resume and the services you can offer — online, where they can be seen by millions of other site users. It can spread “the message of you” a lot further and faster than passing out business cards and shaking hands at meetings.

But as much as Levy championed the professional development possibilities of Web 2.0, she reminded attendees of something that most knew well: “Time is a scarce resource.” Use networking sites judiciously. Understand that others might not have the time you do to dig deep into the site. And, most of all, she said, don’t get sucked into making a contest out of how many “connections” you can list. It’s not a matter of quantity; it’s the quality that counts.

The “Nouvelle Vague”, or new wave - playfully and perversely -
reinvented cinema. Now, professional music fans Marc Collin and
Olivier Libaux, cracking a joke and making an art statement by
dubbing their outfit Nouvelle Vague, are reinventing post-punk via
sultry, faintly kooky, bossa nova renditions of new wave classics
by the likes of Joy Division, the Specials, PIL, XTC, and their
post-punk ilk. Layering the in-joke further, “nouvelle vague”
translates to “new beat” in Portuguese, the native language of many
of the bossa nova guest vocalists. Their studio album A Bande
Apart, was presumably inspired by Jean Luc Goddard’s 1964 film
of the same name.
Given the duo’s name, it’s not surprising that Collin is a film
buff. He released Coming Home in 2007, a collection of
classic film soundtracks including Gato Barbieri’s Last Tango
in Paris and Michel Legrand’s score for the original
Thomas Crown Affair. Collin is scoring James Boss’ The
White Wall, a post apocalyptic sci-fi film.
“These days in film, you can’t compose the whole soundtrack like
Lalo Schrifin or John Barry used to do, it’s more difficult for a
composer now to really put their own personality into a movie. But
with this film, I can do the whole thing.”
His cinema obsession is something he shares with Philippe Cohen
Solal, a former cinema soundtrack composer, who leads modern
tangoists the Gotan Project, joining Nouvelle Vague on their
Melbourne sojourn. His latest project, The Moonshine
Sessions is a collaboration with former Bob Dylan sideman
Bucky Baxter. Enlisting such country luminaries as Jim Lauderdale
and David Olney, the album achieves a highly appealing dirt-floor
ambience; faithful to country while exploring a striking, if
delicate, marriage between delightful twang and electro tang.
Having selected Charlie Rich and Glen Campbell tracks for Nouvelle
Vague’s Late Night Tales album in 2006, Nouvelle Vague’s
Collin is by no means immune to country moods either.
Solal’s DJ-versus-pedal-steel interpretation of the album has
been a feature of recent Nouvelle Vague European shows, Solal being
an ’90s old house acquaintance of Collin.
Solal also took direct inspiration from cinema for Moonshine
Sessions. “I compare my work to a film director’s. I write the
story (the songs) and direct each singer like an actor to perform
the song with the right emotions. I cannot create music without
thinking of the different levels of soundscape; upfront or far
behind, our ears are hearing and we are feeling.”
Inspired by Blondie and the bands on Manchester’s Factory
Records whose songs he would cover years later, Collin’s musical
interests have roamed widely but his passion remains the post punk
era. “I am more a child of post punk, which was more musically
interesting than punk. Punk was extraordinary for the freedom, for
the politics, for the movement but musically I prefer post
punk.”
He curated a double disc of post punk curios and favourites in
2007, Nouvelle Vague presents New Wave, including
Joy Division’s live cover of the Velvet Underground’s Sister
Ray, and Etienne Daho’s version of Pink Floyd’s debut single
Arnold Layne.
“Post punk bands supposedly came from nothing but with this
compilation we can see they were inspired by lot of different bands
like the Velvet Underground, the Rolling Stones and black
music.”
If Collin remains a (post) punk at heart, the vocalists his duo
have employed to sing songs by Bauhaus ( Bela Lugosi’s
Dead) Killing Joke ( Psyche) and Echo and the
Bunnymen ( The Killing Moon) are anything but. Collin has
tried to employ vocalists - including Camille - with only a passing
familiarity with the material. There’s a sense of discovery in the
vocalists’ performances and it gives Nouvelle Vague their
X-factor.
“I only play the songs once or twice, so the vocalists remember
the melody, so they aren’t so familiar,” he says.
“If one becomes a really big fan of one song, you try and
remember everything about the way the singer was singing it.”
Collin says 20 tracks are already completed for another Nouvelle
Vague collection, comprising versions of songs by Wire, Soft Cell
and the Sex Pistols, in the form of God Save the Queen.
The highlights may lie in re-invention of the Human League’s 1982
smash Don’t You Want Me? and a duet with the Specials’
Terry Hall. “Imagine if James Brown and Aretha Franklin did
Don’t You Want Me? in the ’60s,” Collin says. “Our version
is like that! Terry Hall was very pleased what we did with
Friday Night, Saturday Morning on our first album, so we
duetted on Our Lips are Sealed.”
So, barring his own taste, what shapes the track listing on an
NV collection? “My ability to arrange it,” is the swift
response.
Australian music hasn’t escaped Collin’s keen ear either.
“Hunters and Collectors were a really great band. Mental as
Anything, I remember. I used to listen to that when I was
young.”

The Malaysian government may appear to favour the use of the ODF (OpenDocument Format), with plans to adopt the standard in its ICT deployment, but Microsoft has been able to convince a growing number of Malaysian IT companies and independent software vendors (ISVs) to incorporate OOXML (Office Open XML) into their offerings.

Developed by Microsoft, OOXML is a close rival to the ODF, which is championed by open-source vendors and major IT houses such as IBM and Sun.

ODF has a first-mover advantage, having gained certification from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) while OOXML is still seeking approval from the global standards organisation.

Microsoft’s document format, however, had received a much-needed boost when European standards body Ecma International ratified it in December 2006.

Microsoft’s latest success story in Malaysia comes from Tradenex.com, the IT arm of the Federal of Malaysian Manufacturers which represents over 2,000 manufacturing and industrial service companies.

Familiarity breeds adoptionTradenex.com last month launched nexCONNECT, an electronic business collaboration platform that links suppliers, distributors, logistics and financial institutions via the web. The Microsoft .Net-based system will incorporate OOXML as one of its standards.

The platform is targeted at small to medium-sized enterprises with limited budget and IT capabilities to invest in leading-edge technology to support their business.

“This will allow users to interact with nexCONNECT in the familiar Microsoft office environment [encompassing products such as] Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office 2007, that they are so used to, with the aim to simplify its usage and adoption,” said Soon Koi Voon, chief executive of Tradenex.com, at the recent launch of nexCONNECT.

Asked why OOXML was preferred over the ODF, Soon said the decision was based on commercial realities. He estimated that over 90 percent of companies ran their operations using Microsoft Office and the Windows platform.

The Malaysian government may appear to favour the use of the ODF (OpenDocument Format), with plans to adopt the standard in its ICT deployment, but Microsoft has been able to convince a growing number of Malaysian IT companies and independent software vendors (ISVs) to incorporate OOXML (Office Open XML) into their offerings.

Developed by Microsoft, OOXML is a close rival to the ODF, which is championed by open-source vendors and major IT houses such as IBM and Sun.

ODF has a first-mover advantage, having gained certification from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) while OOXML is still seeking approval from the global standards organisation.

Microsoft’s document format, however, had received a much-needed boost when European standards body Ecma International ratified it in December 2006.

Microsoft’s latest success story in Malaysia comes from Tradenex.com, the IT arm of the Federal of Malaysian Manufacturers which represents over 2,000 manufacturing and industrial service companies.

Familiarity breeds adoptionTradenex.com last month launched nexCONNECT, an electronic business collaboration platform that links suppliers, distributors, logistics and financial institutions via the web. The Microsoft .Net-based system will incorporate OOXML as one of its standards.

The platform is targeted at small to medium-sized enterprises with limited budget and IT capabilities to invest in leading-edge technology to support their business.

“This will allow users to interact with nexCONNECT in the familiar Microsoft office environment [encompassing products such as] Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office 2007, that they are so used to, with the aim to simplify its usage and adoption,” said Soon Koi Voon, chief executive of Tradenex.com, at the recent launch of nexCONNECT.

Asked why OOXML was preferred over the ODF, Soon said the decision was based on commercial realities. He estimated that over 90 percent of companies ran their operations using Microsoft Office and the Windows platform.