Some on target predictions from James Carlini about emerging technology trends in 2011.

Technology predictions for 2011 (WTN News)

Dancing Snowman Scam Spreads Virally on Facebook http://ping.fm/G58TG

Do You Need Those Other Social Networks? http://ping.fm/hdl8I

Always assume competition http://ping.fm/GUSni

10 Things I Know For Sure About Building a Business http://ping.fm/ctLmE

Rumblings From the LibreOffice Camp Signal Good Things Ahead

Rumblings From the LibreOffice Camp Signal Good Things Ahead: "

So the big winner here in a fork for open source business application suites - Google. Anyone else with any thoughts?

We've written widely about developers of the open source OpenOffice productivity suite resigning, with broad implications for the suite and for LibreOffice, the promising new fork of OpenOffice. Although it's only been a matter of weeks since the fork was announced, The Document Foundation (TDF) and community members are working away at a new suite, and there are signs that users will see much improvement in it, as compared to OpenOffice. Judging from these signs, and what has been achieved with previous OpenOffice forks, users are still likely to win following the big OpenOffice brouhaha.

OpenOffice has millions of users, and if a fork of it achieves meaningful goals, that is good news. It's not unheard of. Many people already favor the Go-oo fork of OpenOffice, which is lighter, faster and has surprising extras. Many people lament certain problems with OpenOffice, citing its spreadsheet and database as particularly lacking.

If you're interested in checking in on the status of LibreOffice, Bruce Byfield provides a good guide to the latest information, in this post:

"Recently, though, more concrete information has been released. This information appears in LibreOffice blog entries, notably those of Charles Schultz for November 10 and October 28, and in TDF announcements, one in German and the other in English."

In Byfield's post, he also supplies more information directly from the folks at LibreOffice. Most interesting of all, it sounds like the LibreOffice suite is being retooled to put content ahead of ever more features--probably a good idea. We all consume much more content now than we used to, and OpenOffice never really detoured to reflect that trend.

Among other things I'd like to see in LibreOffice is a much improved word processor. I spend most of my day in browsers, word processors and on email, and a truly great word processor would be a great centerpiece for a new overhaul of OpenOffice.

Byfield also reports that the LibreOffice folks are looking closely at new hardware platforms. That may or may not be a good idea. Netbooks, for example, are showing less promise than they once did. Could a retooled OpenOffice have a future on tablets, though?

One thing's for sure: LibreOffice's reimagination of the OpenOffice suite is going to be a big open source story, and one that may benefit a lot of users.

Related Activities Comments (1) Post a Comment Ask a Question

Related Software OpenOffice (19 alternatives, 25 reviews) Go-OO (add alternative, 1 review)

Related Blog Posts What If You Threw a Proprietary Software Party and Nobody Came? (post comment) The Forking OpenOffice Community Bodes Well For Users (5 comments) OpenOffice.org 3.3.0 Almost Here - Is It the Last? (5 comments)

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How to Write Better Emails http://ping.fm/muwJ7

How to Use Blekko to Rock at Your Job http://ping.fm/lgYAW

Nerd Vittles http://nerdvittles.com/

FLASH - Marketing Person Changes Light Bulb...

Ok for all my tech friends who doubted marketing person skills - yes I did change a light bulb in the headlight of my old minivan, and have the pictures and dirty hands to prove it.  How am I suppose to shake and close a deal now?  OMG, I can not even touch my computer.

History lesson: 35 years of open source software http://ping.fm/Nq1Vi

Is the Cloud Right for Unified Communications? http://ping.fm/38kGJ

451 CAOS Theory

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On innovation and participation Posted: 15 Sep 2010 07:17 AM PDT Two of the themes that have risen to the surface in the open source blogosphere in recent week are innovation, and the apparent lack of it when it comes to open source; and participation, and the continued lack of it when it comes to corporate contributions to open source projects. The H recently asked why there is no more new open source, while OStatic asked why open source lags the innovation curve. Meanwhile Ian Skerrett called for increased focus on corporate contributions, citing a similar call from Matt Asay, and gainingsupport from elsewhere. It occurred to me – not for the first time – that these issues might be related. I previously noted that in the data management space we are seeing the Apache Hadoop ecosystem the various NoSQL databases being driven by open source corporate contributions that are innovating beyond the realms of the established relational database and establishing new database market segments. So why haven’t we seen this level of corporate user-driven open source innovation in other market segments? I think the reason lies, in part, the fundamental tensions at the heart of traditional open source-related business strategies. One of the most often–repeated statements about open source business strategies is the observation made by Marten Mickos, that open source users include those who will spend time to save money, and those who will spend money to save time. Most traditional open source-related business strategies – be they the provision of support services, subscriptions, dual licensing, or closed source extensions – are based on separating those that are likely to spend money from those that are likely to spend time. It stands to reason, though, that those who are prepared to spend time are more likely to participate and contribute code. Given that, as I previously noted, is it not somewhat unfair to expect those that have already spent money to save time to also spend time on open source contributions? Then of course there is the fact that copyright assignment policies, vendor-dominated development projects and cathedral-style development models – all of which have dominated commercial open source business strategies in the last ten years – act as a barrier to corporate participation. Meanwhile most commercial open source support agreements, even without any of the above barriers, are based on an agreement that modifications to the core code base will not be supported. It is also true to say that vast majority of the open source-related vendors in the last decade have focused on disrupting established markets, rather than crating new markets. That isn’t to say that they haven’t innovated, but if it is true that open source developers scratch their own itch, then the dominant itch over the last few years has been market disruption. What makes the Hadoop and NoSQL movements is that their growth is driven less by the itches of the associated vendors than it is the itches of the users/developers. Indeed we see vendors in these markets being led by existing users/developers in trying to figure out the opportunities for commercialization. The fact that the rise of these projects has coincided with an increased focus on collaboration and community, as well as commercial interests, has been welldocumented on this blog. In short, the dominant business strategies that epitomised the vendor-dominated open source development/distribution projects of open source 3.0 limited the potential for corporate participation in collaborative development and the focus on disrupting existing markets limited the potential for true, market-establishing innovation. The increased focus on collaborative development communities, indirect revenue generation, distributed copyright ownership and permissive licensing are more likely to deliver both innovation and corporate participation.

Just uploaded 'Unified Communications' to SlideShare. http://slidesha.re/cSHzqg

Google vs Oracle, open vs closed, or good vs evil http://ping.fm/8RlEU

The Art of the Elevator Pitch: 10 Great Tips - ReadWriteStart http://rww.tw/b5AnoS

RT @TechCrunch Delta Flight 1843 From JFK To Hell http://tcrn.ch/buGR46 Truth, short airline stocks

Five Ways Android Will Defeat iPhone and BlackBerry - http://shar.es/0aFd7

New Zealand rejects software patents | opensource.com

New Zealand rejects software patents | opensource.com

Cutting the landline cord - and losing family identity.... http://ping.fm/oOasc

Censorship is a network engineering issue (to be overcome) - Ethical hacker interview regarding WikiLeaks release of war papers

Indian Ministry brings $35 IPad like low cost computing device to reality – Prices to drop further [Exclusive pictures] http://bit.ly/b9y5T9

Great people talk about ideas, average people talk about events, small people talk about other people.

crunch Xbox 360 Giveaway http://ping.fm/s5w0p

Steve Jobs announces custom Apple duct tape fix, same duct tape only 200% higher price. Apple store will place on phone for free with new purchase.

Venture capital funding for open source software-related vendors increased 11.5% in the second quarter, the third consecutive quarter of positive growth following a 6% rise in 4Q09 and a 38% increase in 1Q10. http://blogs.the451group.com/opensource/2010/07/12/vc-funding-for-oss-related-vendors-up-11-5-in-q2/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+451opensource+%28451+Open+Source+Blog%29

Open source SIP integrated VoIP video calls from Android based devices http://ping.fm/92VBT

Open Source Means Cost Savings http://ping.fm/1AqdG

Large systems with inbuilt complex bureaucracies have a hard time changing. Take advantage of that. http://ping.fm/4dz6h

Google Android continues growth on Apple Apps
http://ping.fm/ckEDs

The Promise of SIP - Trans-modal Glue, No Jitter Blog | blog: http://bit.ly/cymDLL

I follow my friends and see what's going on nearby with Buzz for mobile from http://m.google.com googlemobile

Did Microsoft Pressure Dell to Change Ubuntu Linux Statement? No way, The VAR Guy http://bit.ly/bM7yVc

What Entrepreneurs Can Learn from OK Go http://bit.ly/azsYtY

Starbucks caves free WiFi July 1 - yes!
http://ping.fm/UOTmF

Is Your Startup Too Geeky?

Is Your Startup Too Geeky? - Is that even possible? Good discussion on how to relate start-up to customer solution profile.

65,000 Android Devices Shipping Daily, According To Google : Mobile Marketing Watch - The Pulse Of The Mobile Marketing Community

I am looking forward to the Sprint 4G device in June...

65,000 Android Devices Shipping Daily, According To Google : Mobile Marketing Watch - The Pulse Of The Mobile Marketing Community

Facebook and Twitter fans more likely to open their wallets

Facebook and Twitter fans more likely to open their wallets

Posted using ShareThis

For Startups, How Much Process Is Too Much? - The Conversation - Harvard Business Review

For Startups, How Much Process Is Too Much? - The Conversation - Harvard Business Review

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Fresh and Meaty StartUp Jobs | StartUpers

Fresh and Meaty StartUp Jobs | StartUpers

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Entrepreneurs: Beware of Vanity Metrics - The Conversation - Harvard Business Review

Entrepreneurs: Beware of Vanity Metrics - The Conversation - Harvard Business Review

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Methods of Work: It Didn’t Happen If You Didn’t Write It Down « Design By Gravity

Methods of Work: It Didn’t Happen If You Didn’t Write It Down « Design By Gravity

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6 Great Approaches to Public Speaking - ReadWriteStart

6 Great Approaches to Public Speaking - ReadWriteStart

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Domino's Does Itself a Disservice by Coming Clean About Its Pizza - Advertising Age - Garfield's Ad Review

Great review of how not to redirect your ads and consumer opinion. BTW, new garlic crust does make it taste almost like a real pie - if you do not have a good real pizza place around, you can fall back on them.

Domino's Does Itself a Disservice by Coming Clean About Its Pizza - Advertising Age - Garfield's Ad Review

Leadership and Innovation in a Commoditized World - Now, New, Next - Harvard Business Review

Leadership and Innovation in a Commoditized World - Now, New, Next - Harvard Business Review