Sunday 26 April 2009

Turn process maps into online wizards: gStepOne

If you have a set of procedures that you would like to take someone through, online, then this application by gStepone http://www.gStepOne.com helps you do this. You are taken through the steps of linking any online information, like documents, videos, photos, form etc in a way that takes someone step by step through the process. For example, this could be for ordering a product, doing an expense claim, booking a meeting.

I'm always on the lookout for innovative ways to change how we do business and especially ways that combine know-what with know-how. Imagine if clinical guidelines could be set up using a system like this, where individual patients could have their treatment customised. Of course this would need to be set up on proprietary systems rather than on the Internet. gStepOne - if you're listening there is a market for this.

In the meantime, for non-proprietary procedures and processes this tool can be very useful.

Tuesday 7 April 2009

How to send your RSS feed directly to Twitter

Twitter http://www.twitter.com/ is the place to be. It is where people turn to get up-to-date information, breaking news and generally hang out. Twitter search is gaining in strength and popularity http://search.twitter.com/ From Twitter, someone can't subscribe directly to your RSS feed from your website or blog. So how can you set this up so what you write on your blog automatically gets sent to your twitter account?

There are a number of "feed" products online that will do this for you.

I use Twitterfeed http://www.twitterfeed.com/. What I like about this is it is easy to use and I can set up multiple feeds. If you make a mistake or get stuck, the help features are good. I got muddled for a while on exactly where to find the address of the feed I wanted to send to Twitter. This helped me through the process. You can configure how often you want the updates to happen and how many updates at a time.

While Twitterfeed is probably the market leader, there are some new systems coming online all the time. Feednest http://www.feednest.com/ is one. Or you can try Pingvine http://www.pingvine.com/ or Tweetmyfeed http://www.tweetmyfeed.net