Productivity 2.0 to hit hard tomorrow

by on March 22, 2007

OK, OK, I hate the “2.0″ moniker too, but there’s something happening in the Office space. The shifts happening here are tectonic. Deep. And are NOT about Google vs. Microsoft. If you focus on that you’ll miss the larger shift that’s happening here.

A new raft of services are coming along that are totally changing the workplace. Totally.

This is NOT about replacing Microsoft Office.

It is about something else: collaboration and simplifying our work lives.

Today I saw something that will totally transform my work life. SmartSheet. Its Web site doesn’t do it justice. This isn’t about recruiting. I’m going to use it to totally change how I work with other people.

It’s not the only service I’ve seen that’s doing this, either. More from the Office 2.0 Under the Wire conference tomorrow.

Oh, if you want to go to the Office 2.0 conference too, here’s a discount code (it’s a bit pricey at $595). See ya at 8 a.m.

UPDATE: Brier Dudley of the Seattle Times reports that SmartSheet is using Amazon’s S3 hosting services. That’s a double jolt of bad news for Microsoft. He recommends that Amazon buy SmartSheet and get into the Productivity 2.0 office game. Amazon is just making some brilliant moves lately.

  • I hope there will be a shift soon!
  • some guy
    Internet is SERIOUS BUSINESS. It requires ALL CAPS.
  • jojo
    This sounds huge, but what tectonic shifts are you talking about? Is Ray Ozzie at Microsoft about to release a bunch of innovative new web-based collaboration services to complement it's new Office 2007 productivity suite? Or is this just about Smartsheet.com? What is the big deal about tomorrow?
  • JoJo: http://undertheradarblog.com/under-the-radar-wh... has what's going on tomorrow.

    More tomorrow. But I'm seeing a TON of shifts in how people work together. The Office of tomorrow sure looks different than the Office that I used two years ago.
  • And Ray Ozzie? Microsoft is sure under attack from a lot of directions. It'll be interesting to see if Microsoft attacks back and how it does it.
  • Mike
    Do we really have to be more productive... again...
  • twitterer
    Ass. Why not DO something instead of write about it? It's not as if you're a respected journo, outside of your buddy clique. You know nothing dude, you're a hanger on. when you deliver on something other than shooting a video then you might get some real credibility outside of your twatter bubble. get a real job instead of whittering on about another new website you've found
  • LayZ
    "I’m going to use it to totally change how I work with other people."

    I thought that was what you were using Twitter for. Good god, man. How many times have you said something like this in the past? You are the definition of hyperbole
  • Stephane Rodriguez
    I think SmartSheet plays against an online version (read: sharepoint-integrated) of MS Project. So it plays against MS Office.

    College/universities moving en masse to Office 2.0, that's certainly a big deal.

    For everybody, and also against MS Office racket.
  • Who Knew
    Actually, I immediately thought back to the "I'm totally reorganizing my life around Windows Vista" comment made a year or so ago.

    Wake me up in another year to see how long this new lifechanger lasts for...

    WhoKnew
  • Haven't 37signals been doing this sort of collaboration successfully for years?
  • Al
    I like SmartSheet and remember when it was first announced. I however do have some issues with it :

    1) Why don't they have APIs, I need it to work with my other productivity 2.0 apps.
    2) I leans heavily on email for collaboration, my email box is not a good place to get me attention. Why don't they offer alerts, notifications etc.. via RSS like most other web 2.0 apps.

    Overall I like the idea but these 2 failings make it a bit to much like an island, it could almost run on your machine and not be web based. Contrast this with 37 signals - Basecamp which may be simpler but has those important integration and collaboration features. They are also missing out on the mashup market. I will be more likely to use it if they fix these issues.

    Oh and if they have fixed these, apologies, but I wasn't aware that they had done so.

    regards
    Al
  • Add Smugmug (also uses S3) to the list of startups that Amazon should buy.
  • Christopher Coulter
    This is NOT about replacing Microsoft Office.

    Of course it is, everything is always about that, it's just that Microsoft is so far ahead and commands so much marketshare, that anyone in this space would have to cop-out with such. Still SaaS and SOAs finally starting to be halfway viable, but the threat is more from the Marc Benioff's...
  • ryan
    I'm waiting for S3 and the other amazon web services to crash and burn. The entire amazon infrastructure is crap, and there isn't much you can do about that when you're in the middle of it. Mark my words, once seriously load hits it, there will be huge outages (think 24 hours+). This is an informed opinion.
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