I wrote in June of the need for Microsoft to deliver cross-platform support for Mac (and Linux users) to combat efforts from both IBM Lotus as well as Sun’s OpenOffice. Today comes news that Microsoft will abandon Entourage for Mac and release a version of Outlook for Mac at some point in the future. Microsoft is also released a business edition of Mac Office with improved Exchange and Sharepoint integration. Still, with these products being developed by a separate BU they are still different from their Windows counterparts. Microsoft needs to set a goal of one application for all platforms.

The Enterprise 2.0 team is gearing up to build the the program for the first annual San Francisco conference coming this November and we’d like to hear your success stories, case studies and the valuable lessons you’ve learned working with E2 tools and technologies in your organization. Submit your proposal through the Call for Papers, open until July 31. We’re looking for sessions and workshop proposals in the following topics:

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Several opinion-makers trying to influence President-Elect Obama’s technology policies thorough blogs. Part of the intent, no doubt, is to simply use a historic election and a public focal point to aid mass communication. But it does seem like these bloggers seem to be nurturing long-shot hopes that they’ll actually be heard. Here are three examples:

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Now that Microsoft has officially launched SaaS versions of Exchange and Office, they’ve begun making plans to deliver the next version of Office via SaaS as well. Microsoft’s move into the SaaS space is in some ways reactionary, as they look to fend off challenges from Zoho and Google, but it is also going to create concerns for the hundreds of companies that offer their own suites of hosted Microsoft apps.

As a recent convert to OpenOffice I’m still not sure the SaaS market for office apps is going to replace thick versions of document, presentation, and spreadsheet applications, but I do look forward to the continued ability of SaaS-based office productivity suites to enable easier document collaboration.

In the wake of light weight solutions, legacy software, scalable applications and hosted options cropping  up left, right and center, it’s natural for a company to feel scattered and overwhelmed. With data distributed across multiple systems, integration can often seem impossible.

Luckily there are services out there to help. I spoke with the guys at Jitterbit at Dreamforce ‘08 about their business and their quest to overcome integration challenges.

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TechCrunch: Interview with Ray Ozzie on MS Cloud-based OS (Azure):
Ray Ozzie on Azure, Office unchained, and Openness

LinkedIn opens up Open Social-based platform to developers, focuses on business applications:
LinkedIn’s New Apps Are All Work and No Play | Epicenter from Wired.com

Microsoft introduces new Windows OS and mentions plans for web-based MS Office to compete against Google Docs and Zoho:
Microsoft Introduces Windows 7, Ending Vista Brand - NYTimes.com

Did your company make an announcement or did I miss any significant news? Feel free to comment.

The Office 2.0 Conference is a fun event to attend with many interesting web-based apps to explore. Ismael Ghalimi is a very passionate conference host, who boasts 100% use of web/SaaS-based applications to run the event. Ismael has also taken a firm stand on the use of paper and signage at his conference with nary a pulp-based product in sight. I got quite a few demos while attending the conference today, but a few of them stood out for me.

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The Office 2.0 Conference is coming up next week, taking place from September 3-5 at San Francisco’s St Regis Hotel. Ismael Ghalimi coined the phrase “Office 2.0″ a few years back and is the producer of the conference. I went last year and heard some great speakers. So I am eager to attend this year’s event and have already perused the agenda to map out some of the most interesting sessions.

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Steve’s comments below got me thinking about why we don’t just accept information overload, but actually ask for it.

There was plenty of chatter in the blogs this weekend over the decision by the Obama campaign to text its supporters news of the VP pick as soon as it happened (well, as soon as the campaign was ready to release it). Most of it seemed centered around (1) the timing of the text’s release (another 3am brouhaha), (2) the “next-gen Internet outreach” approach, and (3) the pick himself. Mainly lost in the discussion was whether anyone really needed to know the information in real time, on their cells and PDAs.

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It has been a long while since I’ve seen a new product that has completely blown me away, but tonight I saw just such a beast.  At the Oracle booth here at Enterprise 2.0 I had a chance to get a short look at Oracle’s “Social CRM” applications built on top of Oracle Fusion Middleware.  IMHO the “killer-app” among the three they demonstrated was something called “Oracle Sales Library.”   The idea behind OSL is to enable organizations to create a repository for their PowerPoint presentations, and enable individuals to use social computing capabilities to support creation of new presentations.

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