I never had any sympathy or understanding for the fanatics on both sides of the barricade of this 62 year old war. That also applies to the fanatics, from both sides, that have made of any negotiation process a farce, and a waste of time and resources, defrauding the hopes of those that dared to believe in them.

I never understood it and I think I never will

Having said that, what happened today, in international waters, shows that Israel has lost all respect for what is known as International Law, but most importantly, Israel’s Government has lost all respect for human life by committing mass murder and trying to blame those that are trying to help the population in Gaza, by taking to it humanitarian help. Help that is needed due to the blockade imposed by the Israeli Government.

As I said, I don’t understand the fanaticism from one side or the other but the fact is that the Israeli Government, that is the sole responsible for today’s events, can’t go without being punished for this terrible and premeditated act of violence, by the International Community.

Enough is enough!

On March 14^th, Portugal’s major opposition party (PSD – Partido Social Democrata or Social Democrat Party in English) approved a law in congress that prohibited party members from criticizing its leadership 60 days prior to any official election the party was involved in. As soon as the congress was finished the main contenders for the party’s election, taking place 2 weeks later, declared that this law didn’t make sense and needed to be changed. The fact remained that the law was approved and diminished the freedom of speech inside a democratic party.  This law was immediately coined by the press, and even party members, as the “Lei da Rolha” or “The Cork Law,” which refers to corking the mouths of the party members.

During the same congressional session the PSD party reversed an existing practice providing press accreditation to bloggers. Another member of the blog collective “31 da Sarrafada” and I went to the location, despite no longer having any formal authorization, and reported via twitter what was happening. After 10h of making contacts and some well-humored pressure, we finally got inside where the Congress was taking place with two smuggled accreditations (given to us by members of opposing candidates for the party’s elections). The fact was reported by two online newspapers due to the fact that we approached every member of the media to report this situation.  By the end of the congress, we had produced more tweets about the event than anyone else reporting from inside.

The Cork Gate

Last weekend the PSD party convened for another congress, this time to acclaim the new leader and to choose the new party direction. The “Cork Law” was not going to be discussed and the general feeling was that no one inside the party, or the new direction, wanted it to be a part of this Congress.

So I decided to take the cork, literally, to the PSD Congress. During the Easter holidays I got my nephews to paint 99 wine corks with the number 31 (top, bottom and side) and took them to the Congress. For those who know me you know how strongly I feel about the importance of freedom of speech in a society that more and more seems to be formatted by biased media. Freedom of speech is a corner stone of any democratic country and of any democratic organization, such as a political party. Thus, this law being approved was, to me, an aberration of sorts. For this congress bloggers received formal accreditation and we had the same working conditions as the journalists that were covering the Congress’s works.

On the first day Congress was taking place I started giving corks to the members of the press that were present on location as well as approaching some well known members of the party and giving them a cork while explaining my concerns. Some accepted it with a smile, some accepted it because they couldn’t refuse it, and some accepted it and immediately got the joke.  One of the new faces of the party’s direction even showed the cork to the TV crew that was interviewing him live on television some moments after.

By that time some online newspapers had already started to report this action.

When you mix a political event producing no relevant news with media hungry for something relevant you have a winning combination if you want to call attention to any given subject.

Saturday morning a TV anchor told me he wanted an interview regarding the corks for live television. By the end of the day I had been interviewed by every television and radio station, national news agency and newspaper covering the congress.

Prominent party members and congressional delegates had been interviewed and questioned regarding “The Cork Law” and political commentators were discussing the subject.

My objective was to bring the discussion to the PSD congress and that objective was more than fulfilled.

Methodology

There is no real secret behind this action but some things should be taken into consideration.

1. Know your target audience: There is a difference between giving a cork to an anonymous party delegate or to one of its most influent members. Target those that matter and approach them.
2. Define your subject: This particular action was about freedom of speech not about politics.  Focus on the main subject and make sure you get your message across in the clearest way possible.
3. Be provocative (but polite): No one likes a bully. Don’t be intrusive, don’t interrupt people while they are talking to others; wait for the right moment and deliver your message.
4. Gather media attention: The fact that the corks were first given to the members of the press was not by chance. The teaser for this action had been posted on Twitter and Facebook by uploading this photo on the day prior to the Congress.
5. Use social media to spread the word:  For every cork that was given I would send out a tweet naming the person that I had given it to. I should’ve used a #hashtag and that is something that should be kept in mind: information has to be easy to find and #hashtags on twitter are the best way to manage that.

Below you can find one of the many television news clips, with subtitles, so you can understand what is being said.

Thanks to Franklin Ferrer for encoding the video(s)

One of the most challenging tasks of my job is to manage some of my remote/online teams. Team-building and management is already a difficult task when everyone is at the same place during any given number of hours, but the paradigm of what a team is has changed dramatically in recent years. New business models give new ways of operation: We are not bound any longer to any given physical space, ubiquitous access to an internet connection has made every household a potential working place and, in this connected world, a project/team manager is able to work with those who are the right people for a specific task, no matter where in the world they are. Managing these remote teams requires extra effort and attention should be given since one thing remains certain: Without a team around you pushing toward the same goal you are nothing.

The following is a list of five tips that, in my opinion, are the cornerstone of team-building and management applied to remote/online teams. They aren’t in any particular order of importance since all of them are basal to build and manage a team.

1. Connect: Know that place where everyone hangs out in the office, drinking coffee or outside smoking a cigarette? You don’t have that when all of your team is scattered around the world, in different time zones but you do have things like Skype, MSN, GTalk or IChat (my favorite for a variety of reasons is Skype without a doubt). Make sure that you create virtual coffee breaks with the members of your team just to chat without it being related to work. This is imperative for relationship-building.

2. Communicate: This should come without saying, but I have to stress the importance that communication has in managing teams, especially when they aren’t in the same space. E-mail and Google Wave can play a great role in keeping everyone in the loop of what is happening around a project. It is far better to send more information than you should than to fall short. Team members might hint that you are sending way too much information, but the first day you fail to update them on something THEY think is vital—you’re in trouble.

3. Engage: Today’s structures do not allow for a hierarchy similar to that of big corporations where you have a so called chain-of-command and information is shared on a need-to-know basis. If you are working with a talented team scattered around the world with different backgrounds and cultures it’s a shame if you don’t ask them to contribute with their opinion. Mind you, we are not talking about decision-making, someone has to make a final decision and that should be the project manager but, if you engage your team on the pre-decision process, you will create a team spirit where every opinion counts and it’s taken into consideration.

4. Listen Really. Listen and listen carefully. The most important percentage of being a great team leader is to be able to listen to the people that are working with you. Get to know them and who they are and how they react in different scenarios. By listening, you are creating a powerful communication channel, one that will enable your voice to be heard when necessary.

5. Delegate No man is an island and no one can do everything alone. Remember the old saying, “It’s lonely at the top?” Forget it! It’s only lonely at the top if you want to be lonely! Notice where specific abilities lie within your team and make them responsible for certain tasks. That will spread ownership and increase team building, team management and take the decision process to a macro level.

What strategies do you use for online team management? Anything you would add to this list? Please, let me know in the comments.

Picture Credits: tONtOn CoPT under a CC License

Of course that every crisis is specific and some of these guidelines might not apply at all. Please bare that in mind while reading this post.

1. Observe before you get involved

If you are really trying to help the first thing you should do is to watch what is happening on your timeline: Try to identify the sources of information and start following them; look for what hashtag(s) are being used and keep track of them; Identify keywords that are being used and setup a Twitter search: the best online tool, in my opinion, is TweetGrid. This website allows you to setup a search grid with multiple keywords  that you can monitor in real time. It also allows you to Tweet and RT right from the website. Unlike TweetDeck it doesn’t spend API calls something that is very important.

2. Try to add value

When I started to try and help on #tempmad (the hashtag that was used to gather information that was coming from Madeira) 90% of the information that was being tweeted was in Portuguese. Instead of just making RTs of that info I started to translate them into English and sending them out. I also asked some of my followers to RT that info. My thoughts were with the Portuguese community (1st, 2nd and 3rd generations) living abroad, specially in the U.S.A., where there is a big Portuguese community as well as South Africa and Venezuela, that were looking for information on Twitter. My (wonderful) Twitter network started to RT the content that I was translating and spreading the word.

3. Target influencers and send them information

One of the beauties of Twitter is that everyone is available to you. TV journalists, editors, producers, radio hosts they are all on twitter just like the rest of us. Target them and send them info that you want to see spread to a wider audience. Be factual, be polite and be persistent. By doing a quick search on Twitter I got to find whose CNN, Sky News and several radio hosts in Venezuela were online and started to send them information regarding the events in Madeira. After some tweets I got feedback and a request to send them more info via e-mail. Incredibly CNN, Sky News and radio stations in Venezuela were giving the news about the events in Madeira before Portuguese media. Something to think about.

4. Do not try to reinvent the wheel. Join efforts instead

Dário Ornelas is a computer science student from Madeira, currently living in Lisbon. Alexandre Gamela is a Portuguese journalist living in Birmingham,UK. Dário had set up a netvibes website where he was gathering all the info that was coming from people in Madeira, via Twitter, and other data that he was gathering from the Internet. Alexandre had setup a Google Map where he has adding pictures and videos that were showing up on Twitter (and that was being used by online newspapers and television stations later on). All the information on Dário’s netvibes site was in Portuguese. It took one Tweet, two DMs and a 5 lines of G-Talk chat for Dário to grant me access to the website where I started to translate the available information to English, based on the information that was already on the site. Alexandre also put his map on this site and suddenly an ad-hoc team of 3 people was being used as an independent hub for information coming from several sources.

5. Be responsible and don’t give up

From the moment that people are relying on the information you are sending out your responsibility grows. Double and triple check the information you are giving or posting on a website. In case of doubt ask different sources in order to get the facts right. No matter in what part of the world you are, official channels will try sooner or later to put a cap on the information flow and try to discredit  any other information. Don’t give in to any propaganda and keep doing what you were doing from the beginning: trying and help people.

In the case of  #tempmad, one of the decisions that was taken, by the three of us, was to setup an e-mail address so that friends and family members of people in Madeira, that were abroad, could contact us in case they couldn’t get any news. We would then forward that information to Linda Machado (someone that was from the first moment one of the most reliable source of information coming out from Madeira), that was tireless in trying to get back at us with good news. Be aware that to get into such an endeavor can be hard and very stressful. Only do it if you think you have what it takes to, if necessary, pick up a phone and tell someone across the world that one of their relatives/friends are missing. Once more, the use of TweetGrid, with the right keywords, was invaluable to reach out to people and letting them know we could help in trying and locate their relatives or friends. We got calls for help from many countries including Slovenia and we were able to locate almost everyone.

6. Be bold

If you think that something makes sense and that will help people, try and make it happen. When the first donation accounts started to show up on several websites they were missing an IBAN or SWIFT code. Knowing that the Portuguese community was willing to help I got on the phone with 3 major banks in Portugal (that were managing the solidarity accounts) and asked to speak with their Communications Director. Two of those banks that were contacted, immediately changed the information that was on their website in order to have the IBAN and SWIFT codes available.

By using Twitter, TweetGrid, a netvibes website and MSN/G-Talk, a team of three people that had never met, based on the information that was being made available on Twitter, were able to produce an information central that was fundamental in the first 24h after the events in Madeira. None of this would’ve been possible without the people tweeting from Madeira and without the power of the twitter community (local and international) that showed that we all can put our differences apart to try and help those that need it the most at a certain point. I hope that this post helped shed some light on the backstage of what happened in this specific event and that it can be useful if there is need for it. Any questions, tips or comments are, as usual more than welcome.

Photo Credits: Paulo Henriques | Originally posted at Bit Rebels

No Sábado (dia 20 Fev 2010) quando entrei no Twitter apercebi-me que alguma coisa de bastante grave estava a acontecer. Não tinha qualquer ideia de quão grave era a situação mas percebi, rapidamente, que havia informação que precisava de validação para depois ser espalhada pela minha rede. Um dos meus primeiros pensamentos foi o de passar essa informação aos media estrangeiros e, em especial, aos que trabalham em países com grandes comunidades Portuguesas de origem Madeirense. Já há muito tempo aprendi que temos sempre um não como resposta e tudo o que vier depois é sempre uma vitória. Foi com este espírito que procurei no Twitter os jornalistas, apresentadores e produtores de orgãos de informação estrangeiros que estavam online para depois entrar em contacto com eles. Por outro lado, tentei também encontrar um contacto de mail que pudesse usar para fazer chegar a informação. Foi através destes dois métodos que entrei em contacto com a CNN, Sky News e diversas rádios na Venezuela a quem tentei disponibilizar a informação que me ia chegando através do Twitter.

A Informação

A informação veio, em primeiro lugar de duas pessoas: Linda Machado (uma cidadã portuguesa que vive na Madeira e que tem feito um esforço enorme para nos manter, a nós, que não estamos lá, informados) e André Rodrigo de Freitas*, o secretário do Presidente do Governo Regional da Madeira que tem sido incansável no seu esforço no terreno e em nos enviar, via Twitter, toda a informação oficial.
São estas duas pessoas, e todos os outros madeirenses que perante a adversidade fizeram um esforço adicional de enviar informação via Twitter, que são de louvar. E não exagero quando digo, e perdoem-me o comentário político, que ambos merecem muito mais uma comenda presidencial do que Pedro Santana Lopes.

Site TempMAD

Foi também através do Twitter que tomei conhecimento do Mapa feito pelo Alexandre Gamela (que conheço do Twitter) e do site feito pelo Dário Ornelas (que não conhecia e nem sequer seguia).  Entrei em contacto com o Dário, via Twitter, a disponibilizar-me para o ajudar e, em especial, para fazer uma versão bilingue da informação para poder redireccionar os media internacionais para o site que ele tinha criado. O Dário disponibilizou-me imediatamente o acesso ao site e a partir desse momento ficámos os 3 (o Dário, o Alexandre e eu) a fazer a manutenção e actualização do site, trocando opiniões via GTalk com o Dário, de acordo com a informação que íamos recebendo via Twitter.

No Domingo, e após falar com o Dário, abri a conta de e-mail tempmadinfo@gmail.com para termos um e-mail geral de contacto e onde agregar informação, em especial para aqueles que procuram familiares e amigos desaparecidos. Desde a abertura dessa conta já demos boas e más notícias mas sei que, todos, temos o sentimento que o que estamos a ajudar, mesmo com os custos emocionais que esta missão acarreta.

O Ruído

Sinceramente, não tenho como colocar isto de outra maneira: Deixem-se de merdas!!! A sério!

Tenho a certeza que nenhum de nós os 3 fez o que fez com esperança de ter qualquer protagonismo. Vejo comentários no Twitter e, os que os fazem, têm sorte em a realidade virtual não estar mais desenvolvida pois levavam de imediato um par de estalos. Vejo ataques pessoais serem feitos (em especial ao Paulo Querido) que não fazem sentido nenhum: Gostem ou não gostem o peso que o Paulo Querido tem no Twitter em Portugal, e na comunidade de língua Portuguesa, não é de menosprezar e o que o Paulo fez foi espalhar a informação pela sua rede que, pelo trabalho que ele tem desenvolvido, espalha as suas mensagens abrangendo muitas mais pessoas do que é normal. Também já vi comentários a atacar o trabalho do Alexandre e do Dário (na linha do “querem ser os donos da informação“) que só fazem sentido para quem não conhece o Twitter: Nesta corrente de solidariedade no Twitter só ficou de fora quem quis! Só não passou informação quem não quis, só não ultrapassou o seu umbigo quem o tem demasiado grande!
Provavelmente os mesmos comentários que vi dirigidos quer ao Paulo, quer ao Alexandre quer ao Dário, também estarão a ser feitos sobre mim mas sinceramente não me interessa. Hoje, assim que pude, entrei em contacto com o Banif, BES e BBVA para disponibilizarem nos seus sites também os IBANS das contas de solidariedade para que a comunidade estrangeira possa também, e de uma maneira mas simples, enviar donativos para a Madeira. Se amanhã me ocorrer outra coisa que penso que possa ajudar, também o farei. Continuo a enviar updates via Twitter e via e-mail para os contactos nos media estrangeiros. Continuamos a responder a pessoas que nos escrevem a perguntar se podemos ajudar a localizar os seus familiares e amigos. Quem quiser ajudar é só dizer.

Conclusões

Pessoalmente, fiz e continuarei a fazer todos os possíveis para manter o site actualizado com as informações que nos vão chegando. O peso emocional que senti ontem ao receber, e de ter “o dever” que enviar para o  Twitter a notícia da morte de uma criança de 3 anos (que não conhecia mas com quem criei uma relação emocial forte) é algo que não esperava (e que me afectou bastante) mas, como já tive oportunidade de dizer ao Alexandre Gamela, quando nos metemos nestas coisas temos que ir até ao fim e ajudar o máximo possível.

O importante não é quem fez mais, quem merece as palmadas nas costas, que nomes são referidos ou não na lista de créditos de um filme não existente: O que é importante é que TODOS, sim TODOS, os que têm participado na #tempMAD com informação, RTs, demonstraram que como comunidade podemos ajudar aqueles que mais precisam de nós numa determinada altura. O que é importante é que todos ajudámos a desfazer dúvidas, ajudámos a estabelecer linhas de contacto, em suma, ajudámos como podíamos e o melhor que sabemos.

Como já disse, quem quiser ajudar é só dizer. E os que não quiserem,  que se fodam!

* Há uns meses atrás tive um desaguisado com André Rodrigo de Freitas no Twitter pois não concordei com uma foto+legenda que ele tinha colocado no Twitter. Isso resultou que ele me tivesse bloqueado situação que permaneceu até Sábado passado. Um exemplo, na primeira pessoa, de como os problemas do passado, de repente, deixam de ter importância quando todos somos confrontados com eventos desta magnitude.

Since Saturday I’ve been trying to help in spreading awareness for what happened in Madeira. I think that these pictures tell a lot about what is happening there. For updated information regarding the events in Madeira please go to the TempMAD website
All photos by João Gaspar, via José Leonel Barbosa, via António Quintas. All photos are the property of the author and can’t be used without the express authorization of José Barbosa.

Last year the number of new articles posted on Wikipedia dropped to 20,000 per month, one third of those that were created in 2006 and the number of edits and active editors has also declined.

Why is this happening?

One of the reasons, in my opinion, might be that Wikipedia is seen by most of us as a resource and not as a tool: I find it amazing that there are still lots of people that don’t know they can contribute with content that will be available to the whole world.

But the main reason, I think, is that for a long time there is a war going on inside Wikipedia, a silent war that has been growing in scale and violence. Wikipedia can be a wonderful resource for fact checking but the truth is that if you are looking for some disruptive theme what you will find is a one sided view on the subject (Global Warming and The USofA education system come to mind). Over zealous editors, or just editors with a political agenda, try to the best of their ability to have information that reflects their point of view and not a balanced one. Also the chance that a new article gets deleted by an editor as been raising exponentially since 2006 and its now thought to be at a 25%, meaning that 1 in every 4 new articles gets deleted. With deletion comes frustration. With frustration comes abandonment (which is just a nice word to say “I’m not wasting my time on this!”).

The fact is that without new content, reflecting what is happening in the world around us, Wikipedia will cease to be the ultimate resource for content and will be just an archive.

Unless there is a way to bring democracy back to Wikipedia, a way to take some power out of the super-editors and the defeat of the proposal for Global sysops, I don’t think Wikipedia can be saved from itself.

What do you think? Did you ever contributed to a Wikipedia article? What is your experience? Let me know in the comments, please.

Picture Credits: Sifter under a CC License

Thinking of those getting a new Windows based machine I have compiled a list of free applications that will help you protect your computer, make it a universal media center, a proper workstation as well as some not so well known free goodies that might be of interest to you (either you have a new computer or not). With this set of applications you will be able to enjoy a wide set of media formats, put to use the webcam and microphone that comes with your new laptop as well as do some work… in January 2010.

1. Avast Anti-Virus

Avast is a light and fast anti-virus application that allows you to keep your system safe. After you install it on your machine it will be able to monitor Internet Mail, Instant Messaging programms, any network you might be connected to as well as your web browsing. The virus database is updated almost daily and all you need to do is to register. From my experience the given e-mail address, when you register, is only used to confirm your registration, i.e., I haven’t received any mail that can be considered spam. [Official Site]

2. Open Office

Open Office is the open source movement’s answer to Microsoft Office but without the price tag. Programmers, translators and UI designers from all over the world have perfected this work tool that you can use on your day to day and that is totally compatible with the Microsoft Office Suite, meaning you can read and save documents in Microsoft Office format.[Official Site]

3. GOM Media Player

GOM is probably one of the most complete media players that you can find these days. In a world of non-standards for video formats this is the player to have on your computer to play all of those videos. [Official Site]

4. Any Video Converter

Webcams are a standard in today’s laptops and you will probably want to use yours a lot. The trouble with most webcam softwares is that they only record in one video format and you have no control over it. With the All in One Video Converter (Free Version) you will be able to save your videos in the most common formats including those that you can send to directly to mobile phones. [Official Site]

5. Audacity Audio Editor

The “cherry on the top” of this list is a full featured audio editor that will allow you to record, edit and export audio files to the most common formats so you can share them with the world. It allows for you to add multiple audio tracks and also includes some really neat sound processing tools like the much loved “hiss” and “noise” reduction that will work wonders on your voice recordings. [Official Site]

Did you find this list useful? Do you know of any other applications that are free and that you recommend? Let me know in the comments!

Picture Credits: nouQraz under a CC License

“Twitting on Twitter costs job for Vodafone employee in Hungary“

You can read the whole thing right here but to put it in a nutshell:

T-Mobile Hungary was having some troubles with their network and Müller Tamás the person tweeting with  Vodafones Hungary‘s twitter account made a RT of the rival company by adding:

“OK, give us a call“

Because of it  Müller lost his job. For using Twitter in a fun and engaging manner Müller got fired. I fail to understand how this can happen and its another great example of how brands really don’t get it. What Müller did was to inform those following Vodafone Hungary’s account what was going on with T-Mobile and adding a piece of information in a very cool way: “Hey we are online. If you need any help in sorting that out we are here” and at the same time by telling its followers: “This is why we are better than our rivals. We even help them.” all in 4 words: Twitter genius

Furthermore  Müller was the only one actually using Vodafone Hungary’s Twitter account that didn’t have any update since this happened. The worst mistake you can make is to stop Tweeting and not facing the consequences of whatever happened.

What is the solution for this? Give Müller Tamás his job back and he can apologize to T-Mobile Hungary via Twitter. (Not that he has to but just to clear the air).

Or we can give them a call

Please help make some pressure on Vodafone Hungary by:

1. Tweeting: #VodafoneHU @Vodafone_HU give @muellah his job back. Engaging on Twitter is not a crime.

2. E-mail: Send a e-mail to ugyfelszolgalat.hu@vodafone.com asking for Müller to be reinstated on his job.

It is bad enough that there are companies that don’t get twitter like apparently is the case of Vodafone Hungary. It is even worse that they fire employees that do.

Update: Would you really get rid of a employee that comes up with the idea of inserting an advertising on Google everytime people are searching for “your rivals’ brand + crash?”

—

Picture Credits: Mallala Museum via Flickr [CC by-nc-sa]

For many, this was the first time that they were hearing about AppJet’s main product Etherpad, a web based application that allows multiple users, on different locations, to edit a text in real time.

The industry took this as a natural step but for millions of users that used Etherpad on a daily basis this was nothing but bad news: one of the first measures implemented by Google was to immediately cancel the ability to create new free etherpads or open new accounts. Etherpad was shutdown for new and current free users and existing clients were to be shutdown, as well by, March 2010.

Etherpad was one of the most loved resources by online groups of activists to prepare documents, among them Telecomix, that used the application to produce content in several languages to be sent to European MPs regarding Net neutrality and other relevant on-going discussions.

As soon as the announcement was made at AppJet’s official blog the comments section got filled with negative comments towards Google and AppJet alike and Telecomix started to raid Twitter, using #faxpad, asking for programmers to join the Telecomix team in order to think about alternatives to Etherpad.

In the meanwhile the comments box at the official Etherpad blog was getting more traffic than ever and not good traffic at all.

The answer from Google came 24h later and , surprisingly, has escaped the radar of the big online sites: In the form of a new blog post, Etherpad’s ex-CEO Aaron Iba, announced the following:

Dear EtherPad Users,

Many of you were not super thrilled with the transition plan we announced in our last blog post, which I guess is really quite flattering. We have worked with Google and the Google Wave team to make the following changes to the plan, which I think you will appreciate:

* We have re-enabled pad creation from the EtherPad home page.

* We have begun planning how to open source the code to EtherPad and the underlying AppJet Web Framework. We will continue maintaining new pad creation from the EtherPad home page at least until we have open sourced the code, and work hard to make sure there will be no or minimal service disruption in the future.

* We are working with the Google Wave team to get all EtherPad users a chance to try out the Google Wave preview within the next couple of weeks. We do realize (as does the Google Wave team) that Wave doesn’t yet have all the functionality you rely on, and isn’t yet as mature as EtherPad. We are confident that in the long term you will be really happy with Google Wave, though. That’s why we decided to join them!

The team we are joining already gets open souce, and we hope that by releasing the code to EtherPad we will not only help you transition your existing workflow, but also contribute to the broader advancement of realtime collaboration technology.

I am sorry for disrupting your productivity, and I hope that this new transition plan helps you out.

The blog post, made on a Saturday, is a huge setback to Google’s original intentions of shutting down the service to new and current free users. It is also interesting that, if confirmed in the future, Google has bought a company to acquire technology that will available as open source. I don’t want to speculate regarding the reasons that were behind this decision and what talks went on during the hours between the first announcement and the second.

What I can say, without a doubt, is that a group of passionate users have put social media to a good use and made Google reverse on a decision that it had made. What I can also say, in defense of Google, is that the company is listening and is humble enough to recognize when a decision that was taken was wrong.

** Full disculosure: I am a active member of Telecomix. The views expressed on this post are mine and mine alone.

Picture Credits: MargoLove under a CC License