One of Komosion’s favourite software companies VM Ware has acquired Zimbra, a leader in open source email and our internal platform of choice. VM Ware is run in Australia and New Zealand by Paul Harapin, a great advocate of cloud computing and Software as a Service.
Feb 08 2010
Google Runs Its First Super Bowl Ad
Yesterday, Google CEO Eric Schmidt sent a tweet hinting at something most people probably never expected to see: a Google Super Bowl ad. Moments ago some 90 million Americans watched as Google showed off the search functionality that it’s famous for, in an ad called Parisian Love. (Source http://www.techcrunch.com).
Techcrunch commented that on the different approach Google took, “Amid dozens of ads focused on cars, beer, and busty women, the Google spot definitely took a different approach: it tells a love story through a series of search queries.
It’s a fascinating ad, have look below! Let us know what you think – cheers, Berry Driessen.
Feb 08 2010
One more nail in the coffin….
Rest in Peace: Internet Explorer 6
For those of you who haven’t heard it (that’s right, all four of you) – Google is officially dropping support for Internet Explorer 6 in it’s applications.
The following are some excerpts from an email that they sent out to all Administrators of GoogleDocs accounts yesterday:
“In order to continue to improve our products and deliver more sophisticated features and performance… over the course of 2010, we will be phasing out support for Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 as well as other older browsers that are not supported by their own manufacturers.
Google Apps will continue to support Internet Explorer 7.0 and above…
Starting this week, users on these older browsers will see a message in Google Docs and the Google Sites editor explaining this change and asking them to upgrade their browser.” (emphasis ours)
Komosion couldn’t agree more.We have been saying as much in all of our recent public presentations and information nights: IE6 is now over 9 years old. For a piece of software, that is positively archaic. And in an environment that changes as much as the internet does each day? That’s just crazy.
Jan 04 2010
Newest member of the Komosion Family.
Stephen's daughter, Rowan.
Well, it’s official: the Komosion family has a new addition.
As many of you will be aware, our Project Manager Stephen Brewer and his wife have been expecting their first baby, and it is with great joy that we can announce the arrival.
Stephen’s wife went into labour on Saturday the 12th December, and the lovely girl was born at 11:05 on 13th December 2009. What with the silly season and all it has taken us a while to get the news up. All are well and resting comfortably at home.
We wish them all the best, along with a hearty congratulations, and look forward to meeting the little person very soon.
Once settled in, we fully expect to appoint little Rowan as a junior member of the Komosion Crayon team, with special responsability for looking cute at all times.
Dec 11 2009
We look after you …
Erica and Janine taking care at the White Party
It’s good to know that when you’re dealing with Komosion, you’re dealing with a staff of dedicated, caring professionals, who always have the safety, and long-term health of your business front of mind.
Janine and Erica are just two of those caring, responsible, mature (sometimes sternly disciplining) members of our team.
As you can see, they take their directive to mingle and maintain industry contacts very seriously. Frequently they can be found attending events like this one, with one of the Austalian IT industry’s Twitterati (former Komosionite) – David Warwick.
The theme of the part was ostensibly “white”, but Janine and Erica seem to have taken this to mean pure on the exterior, but perhaps suggestive of a little bit naughty on the inside.
(Photos of LATER in the evening are unfortunately being withheld, on the grounds that we may incriminate.)
Dec 07 2009
Superb use of Twitter.
Now for those of you who aren’t on board yet, with how useful Social Media can be to your organisation, here’s an excellent example.
Twitter, largely regarded as the most spectacular example of social media gone mad, and which most corporations are still struggling with how it’s going to affect them, can be used to LISTEN to your audience, as well as broadcast to them.
One of our coders, Matty, just recently had this experience, and he rates it pretty highly. Matty is a compulsive Twitterer (Tweeter?) and you will generally see three or four Tweets from him throughout the workday.
He was expecting a replacement phone from Optus, and when it hadn’t arrived he made a post about it. (It’s the lower one, hilighted in this image.) Notice how he included the word “@Optus”? That targets the Twitter account with the name Optus, and makes sure your message shows up in their home page feed, whether they are following you or not.
What happened next?
10 minutes later Matty received a phone call from Julz, an operator at Optus’ customer service desk, and was given a live update on the status of his replacement phone, and asked if there was any other way that they could help him out. Then Julz wished him a good weekend.
Now THAT’s customer service.
And frankly, you can’t buy that kind of good impression on a customer.
What does this tell us?
That Optus is listening. They are actively monitoring what is being said about them in the Blogosphere, and acting on what they hear. Not only does this ensure that they are giving their customers good service, but that they are making damn sure that they are part of the conversation that is going on about them.
They are actually invovled with and to some extent influencing the word of mouth that is going on out there about them. Not only is this a very smart thing to do, but it puts forward the impression that they are a forward thinking, intelligent, connected company. One of the businesses of the future.
Komosion has been helping one or two clients recently, with Twitter-based campaigns and Twitter accounts. Nothing that is live yet, so we can’t share it here. We’ve been using Twitter ourselves, though – to the extent of having a “Twitter Wall” up at both our early Christmas parties.
The “Walls” were a data projector, plugged into a laptop that constantly updated a Twitter Feed that was dedicated to our parties. The result was that anyone who knew we were having the party could send a Tweet to that wall. We got messages of cheer and celebration from our teams in the other city, apologies for not being able to make it, and posts from clients within the party saying what an excellent time they were having.
Feel free to contact us about how you can use Twitter in an inventive and effective way to open up new avanues of Digital Marketing for your company: you may be surprised how easy and successfil they can be.
Nov 26 2009
Does E-Bay support Mac browsers…?
Here’s an interesting one.
Stephe’s wife was recently having some trouble completing an order on E-Bay. She went through all the possibilities, and jumped through their hoops, and eventually got into an email discussion with the support staff at E-Bay. This was their response:
> Thank you for writing to eBay’s Customer Support. My name is Grace and I
> appreciate the opportunity to assist you with your concern.
>
> I’ve investigated the situation for you, and the problem you are
> experiencing is due to a browser issue.
>
> In this case, I suggest that you try to use either Firefox or Internet
> Explorer as your browser since they are the ones supported by our
> system.
…
> Warm regards,
>
> Grace A.
> eBay Customer Support Team
She was using Safari at the time, on her Mac. Now, why wouldn’t E-Bay support that part of the user base?
Personally, at Komosion we support IE6 and up, Firefox 2.0 and up, and Safari 2.0 and up.
Nov 23 2009
A Fair to remember
On Saturday 21st November Marie attended Very Special Kids’ “A Fair to Remember” held on the front lawn of Very Special Kids House in Malvern.
Very Special Kids are one of our valued clients, who have been using KomodoCMS to help cheaply and efficiently spread teh word about their good cause for over five years now. They are a fantastic organisation that supports families throughout their experience of caring for children with life-threatening illnesses, like cancer, muscular dystrophy, neuro-degenerative and genetic conditions and rare syndromes.
There were stalls selling all sorts of goodies – toys, flowers, fruit baskets, plants, jewellery and Christmas gifts. Marie spent her time looking through the many racks of great clothing on offer. There was a petting zoo for the little ones, yummy things to eat and a rock band played for the adults in the crowd.
The day was organised entirely by the wonderful volunteers and friends of Very Special Kids and raised $114,000.
Oct 27 2009
Inaugural Xmas KTweet a success!
Komosion held their Melbourne “Xmas Tweet” party last night, at 3 Degrees in QV Square.
The Twitter Wall was a huge hit, with the Celebrity Heads game going well, and lots of incidental posting.
Afterward, some of the Komosion crowd went out and relaxed at the local Chinese restaurant, where everybody could congratulate themselves on a night well run.
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