IT|Redux

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Articles: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

From Vision to Execution
2007-09-25 04:16:00
Eight years ago, I moved to the United States with one goal in mind: building the first open source transactional workflow platform. I had drawn its architecture on a napkin ? literally, and found some people on Google who could help me put it together. Today, Intalio released Intalio|BPMS 5.0, or what I really consider to be the first working implementation of the original vision. While I will keep the full story of this incredible journey for future articles ? or a book maybe ? I would like to share some of its highlights with you tonight. [Continue...]
More About: Vision , Execution

What?s In The Box
2007-09-20 12:03:00
As the specifications for the Redux Model 1 are converging toward something realistic, we are now thinking about the whole product, including documentation, packaging, software, and web services. Here is an introduction to packaging, and an overview of what you should find in the box when you receive your device. [Continue...]

iPhone Redux
2007-09-19 12:03:00
When the iPhone was unveiled back in February, Steve Jobs claimed that it was years ahead of the competition. Most agreed, and many started thinking about what could make the iPhone even better. How could we out-do Steve and his team? The answer came two weeks ago, in the form of the iPod Touch. [Continue...]
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Form Factor Evolution
2007-09-18 12:03:00
Now that we have a suitable candidate platform for the hardware side of the story, we're allowing ourselves to become a little bit more creative with the form factor for the Redux Model 1. We're testing our ideas with different users, showing them sample devices like the HTC Advantage or the Sony Reader, and gathering invaluable feedback along the way. Here is what we're learning. [Continue...]
More About: Evolution , Form , Factor , Actor

OpenMoko
2007-09-17 12:03:00
Looking for a way to build the Redux Model 1 around the iPhone or iPod Touch allowed us to appreciate the benefits of leveraging an existing platform instead of starting from scratch. Nevertheless, this can only work if the platform is open enough, which the iPhone or iPod Touch are not, making it very difficult to build what we really want. An alternative approach would be to start from an open platform, and the best we could find so far is OpenMoko , and the Neo 1973. [Continue...]

Breakthrough and Setback
2007-09-16 18:08:00
No matter how hard I tried, I could not convince myself that yesterday's concept for the Redux Reverso would fly. Whatever we end up doing, we need a multi-touch screen on the front of the Redux Model 1, which means that we need a way to propagate user inputs back to the built-in hand-held, be it an iPhone or iPod Touch. With that in mind, I kept looking for a solution, and got a breakthrough earlier today while taking a shower. Watch out, this is getting pretty wild! [Continue...]
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Redux Reverso
2007-09-15 19:44:00
The idea of designing the Redux Model 1 as a mere shell wrapped around an iPhone or iPod Touch is getting me more and more excited, and I had a hard time finding my sleep yesterday night. What was keeping me awake was the fear that we could not propagate user inputs back to the hand-held. If so, the design would fail. When something gets in the way, don't fight it, just go around it. Could we apply such thinking to the problem at hand? If getting user inputs back to the hand-held is not possible, could we do without user inputs altogether? This is where I got another epiphany, and finally fell asleep. Sweet dreams... [Continue...]
More About: Reverso , Verso

Bring Your Own iPhone
2007-09-15 02:22:00
Following yesterday's article, my friend Darren suggested that it would be great if our Mini Tablet could run the Mac OS X operating system. I could not agree more, and this got me thinking. The only way one can legally build a computer around Apple's proprietary operating system is by building the computer around an Apple Computer, like Axiotron did with the ModBook. So what if we built the Redux Model 1 around an iPhone or iPod Touch? [Continue...]
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Form Factor
2007-09-13 12:03:00
Following our suggestion to develop our own device for next year's conference, we have been receiving quite a bit of feedback. Most people who know a thing or two about hardware design are essentially telling us that we are a bit crazy, and should modify an existing design, instead of trying to build one from scratch. But some folks who understand what we are trying to achieve and have done it before have already started to work on possible scenarios. There is not much we can share at this point, but things are encouraging enough to keep the dream alive. In the meantime, we're trying to refine our thinking about the device's overall form factor. [Continue...]
More About: Form , Factor , Actor

Redux Model 1
2007-09-11 12:03:00
For the first Office 2.0 Conference, every attendee, including the press, was given an iPod nano. For the second, everyone got an iPhone, at the exception of the media. For the third one, we will attempt something that has a very low likelihood of success: building our very own device. [Continue...]
More About: Model

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
2007-09-11 04:06:00
The second Office 2.0 Conference is just over, and it's time for a debrief. Overall, it was a success, and we received some amazing feedback about it. Attendees had a blast, sponsors got lots of traffic, and the press covered it extensively. Awesome! Now let's review what worked, what could have been improved, and what failed miserably, in order to make next year's show even better. [Continue...]
More About: Good , Ugly , The Good , The Ugly , The Go

A PC as Good as a Mac
2007-08-31 02:52:00
Among all the devices a gadget lover can crave for, the OQO has been way up there on my list for a long time. Unfortunately, it was not distributed by any major retail chain when it was first release, which made it difficult to get a sense for its fairly unique form factor. Last year, I got to play with the model 01 and was quite impressed. But this year, we signed OQO as sponsor for the Office 2.0 Conference, and we got sample units of the model 02 to showcase on the Mobility Area. Here are my first impressions about the device. [Continue...]
More About: Good

Office 2.0 Unconference
2007-08-30 20:42:00
The Office 2.0 Conference will be preceded by an Unconference (aka Open Space) kindly organized by Kaliya Hamlin, Identity Woman, and Ross Mayfied, Socialtext CEO. The unconference is open to all conference attendees, as well as the general public. It will take place on September 5th, 2007, from 9:00AM to 5:00PM in the Impressionist room at the St. Regis Hotel, San Francisco, CA. Registration is now open. [Continue...]
More About: Ferenc

iPhones Shipping
2007-08-28 07:31:00
Organizing a conference is a little bit like staging fireworks: it's a lot of tedious work for a short yet memorable experience, all the more so as you get to share it with a lot of people. The Office 2.0 Conference is not different, but some people get to do most of the tedious work, without enjoying much of the spectacle in the end. So is the case for my better half May, and I thought that she deserved a little bit of credit. Here is what she is working on in the background. [Continue...]
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Got WiFi
2007-08-17 07:38:00
The one thing that people did not like about last year's Office 2.0 Conference was the poor quality of the network. At the time, the St. Regis Hotel had a 3Mbps connection to the Internet, with a third allocated to hotel rooms, a third to meeting rooms, and a third to public areas. With about 450 attendees, that sure was not sufficient. When we talked to their IT folks earlier this year, they proudly told us that they had doubled their capacity, bringing it to 6Mbps. Needless to say, we were not that impressed, and went looking for a better solution. What we found is almost akin to science fiction, and here is the story of how we got there. [Continue...]
More About: Wifi

PlayStation 3 for Office 2.0 in the Living Room
2007-08-08 21:01:00
So you've decided to attend the Office 2.0 Conference, but you already own an iPhone, and you would not have much use for another one. Well, you're not the only one in this position, and we have been working hard to find a suitable alternative gift that could be used with Office 2.0 applications. If you already own an iPhone, it's likely that you do not need any other mobile device, therefore we looked for a static one, and our choice went to the Sony PlayStation 3. [Continue...]
More About: Living , Playstation , Living Room , Playstation 3

The Most Beautiful Demo Pod Ever
2007-08-07 22:06:00
Last year's demo pods where cool, but this year's will set a new standard, thanks to Apple's release of brand new iMac computers. With their black and silver cases, they will perfectly match the Dell SE198WFP screens we will use to display the logos of our sponsors for the conference. And much like last year, all these sleek iMacs will be on sale immediately after the conference for a cool 17% off retail price. [Continue...]
More About: Beautiful , Demo

Name Tags and Signage
2007-07-30 08:24:00
Our quest for a paperless conference is coming to an end. The weekend was quite productive, and we found solutions for badges and signage, for both demo pods and meeting rooms. We are now ready to order 60 iMac computers and 60 flat panel displays. We will keep the displays for future events, but the iMacs will go on sale immediately after the conference. If you want to get one (or more) for 15% off retail, please feel free drop us a line. [Continue...]
More About: Tags

The Quest for a Paperless Conference
2007-07-28 18:16:00
One of our goals for this year's Office 2.0 Conference is to go completely paperless. From a back-office standpoint, we're pretty much done, and our setup is doing wonders. So the real challenge is to get rid of any printed materials during the conference itself. Our two biggest problems are sponsor logos on demo pods, and name tags worn by attendees. Here is how we are trying to solve them. [Continue...]
More About: Quest , Ferenc

The Need for Speed
2007-07-28 03:44:00
For me, producing the Office 2.0 Conference is nothing more than a hobby, and the reason why we organize everything in the last two months that precede the event is just so that we do not get distracted by it during the rest of the year. This also contributes to create a sense of urgency, which from the outside looks like momentum, and momentum is a critical success factor for any conference business, or any business for that matter. In other words, we've got a perfect example of self-fulfilling prophecy at play. Unfortunately, this also creates a situation where a lot of things have to be done in a record time, and the need for speed is never felt so acutely than during these two Summer months. Here come EchoSign and the iPhone, two perfect examples of Office 2.0 productivity tools that will help you get things done, faster than you ever thought was possible. [Continue...]
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OpenSAM is Promising
2007-07-27 01:58:00
The Office 2.0 Bug Tracker created more than a year ago is not evolving much these days, and there is a very simple reason for that: most of the bugs that have been identified early on, such as the lack of a proper infrastructure for single sign-on across applications, or the inability to copy-and-paste data from one to another, have yet to be fixed. Nevertheless, some dedicated folks are working hard to fix them, and among them my friends Eric Hoffert and Tom Snyder, founders of ShareMethods and iNetOffice respectively. Together with other Office 2.0 companies, they have created the OpenSAM consortium, which aims at developing the standards that will fix these bugs once and for all. What follows is an article contributed by Eric. [Continue...]

iPhone Experiment
2007-07-25 06:12:00
When Steve Jobs first unveiled the iPhone back in February, I was immediately convinced that this device would turn into a great tool for Office 2.0. This belief got reinforced when Apple decided to use the built-in web browser as main development platform, thereby adopting a pure Office 2.0 approach for all application developments. My first impressions after using the device for a couple of days exceeded my original expectations, and when time came to select a device that could be given to every attendee of the Office 2.0 Conference, our first choice naturally went for Apple's latest creation. There were a couple of problems though: First, could we buy that many devices, knowing that we are expecting anywhere between 500 and 750 participants this year? Second, could we get the devices activated before people show up for the conference? Today, I am pleased to report that both problems have been solved, and that every participant to the Office 2.0 Conference will receive a shiny ne...
More About: Iphone , Experiment , Peri , Rime

vator.tv Competition
2007-07-24 06:12:00
The Office 2.0 Database was created in March of last year, and references over 650 applications today. This means that we have been adding an average of about 1.4 applications every day. With such a deluge of options, identifying the most promising applications is becoming quite a challenge, and we need a better way for vendors to pitch their wares. Here comes vator.tv, an online pitching service recently created by a friend of mine. Vator.tv lets you upload your video pitch for an idea -- any idea -- and join competitions that receive the participation of industry analysts, press people, and venture capitalists. In a nutshell, it's YouTube for pitches. [Continue...]
More About: Competition , Petit

Office 2.0 Conference Website Now Live
2007-07-18 06:26:00
The website for the upcoming Office 2.0 Conference is now live at the o2con.com url, short enough to be typed from a mobile device. We opened attendee registration, press registration, and hotel reservation. We also issued a first call for speakers and started a conference blog. [Continue...]
More About: Website , Live , Ferenc

Office 2.0 Tools for Conference Organizers
2007-07-16 12:03:00
At IT|Redux, we like to eat our own dog food, and when time comes to work on the next edition of the Office 2.0 Conference , we put together a complete setup made of various online applications that we use to do pretty much everything. Here is a sample of what we have been using so far. [Continue...]
More About: Tools , Ferenc , Organ

Lab Work
2007-07-13 16:33:00
The first Office 2.0 Conference was very much an accident with a happy ending. It was put together in less than two months, yet turned out to be pretty successful. Because we had so little time to organize it, we had to innovate on many fronts, and improvise for pretty much everything. This largely contributed to create an interesting buzz, and lots of creative energy. So when time came to start thinking about its second edition earlier this year, we pretty much decided to wait until the last minute before doing anything beside setting a date and booking a place for it. We're less than two months away from the actual event (September 5-7, 2007, register here), and time has come to get some work done. Here is where we are. [Continue...]
More About: Work

iPhone First Impressions
2007-07-03 08:01:00
When the iPhone was announced back in January, we knew that something really special was about to be released. Sky high expectations were set, promptly followed by a frenetic launch that established a new standard for any other consumer electronics product to match. Even though some users experienced difficulties during the activation process, while others complained about the sluggishness of the AT&T network, the actual product seems to meet everybody's expectations, high or low. Mine were definitely on the high end of the spectrum, and after three days of experimentations, here is what I came away with. [Continue...]
More About: Iphone , First Impressions , Impressions , Impress , Impression

Office 2.0 Conference Redux
2007-05-25 07:01:00
Due to the upcoming release of Intalio|BPMS 5.0, the closing of a new round of funding, the struggle to schedule an IFR checkride, and the responsibilities that usually come with parenthood, the last couple of months have been some of the most intense I have been through in a long time, which resulted in my temporary absence from this channel. Things are calming down a bit, and regular blogging should resume very soon. In the meantime, we set the dates for the second edition of the Office 2.0 Conference , booked a venue, and released the registration website. [Continue...]
More About: Redu , Ferenc

Idea Exchange Rocks
2007-04-12 13:03:00
A couple of weeks ago, I explained how Intalio is outsourcing its product management function to customers using a process we call Demand Driven Development. Following the release of this article, I have been exposed to the Idea Exchange , and must say that I am very impressed by the quality of the implementation that Salesforce.com developed for an idea quite similar to ours. [Continue...]
More About: Change , Rock , Rocks

Office 2.0 Japan
2007-04-12 07:57:00
Many readers of this blog are from Japan , and several of them have recently expressed interest for an Office 2.0 meeting to be organized there. After some preliminary investigations, we have decided to organize such an event, albeit at a small scale, to take place in Tokyo on June 26th. [Continue...]