Coolest Technologies Demoed at Web 2.0

By Clint Boulton

No. 6 Vyew

Vyew is a Web-based collaboration and conferencing platform that allows users to upload and annotate files, take screen captures, white-board and use plug-ins to create content. The software also boasts live conferencing sessions via text chat, Webcam and VOIP (voice over IP). For example, Vyew can allow medical professionals to access a shared work space containing lab results, X-rays, audio and video scans to collaboratively diagnose an illness.

Today, most social networks measure the popularity of features by ratings and votes. Startup Spigit, which provides lightweight business intelligence for social networks, calculates the validity of users and content based on contributions, user reputation, community feedback and buzz to help enterprises improve their networks. The company demoed IdeaSpigit, a new application geared to help companies that want to make actionable the feedback they receive from customers and partners.

A collaborative platform for small businesses, OpenACircle essentially provides a private meeting room for up to 12 members. Participants can e-mail each other, post and share documents, and leverage audio and videoconferencing applications for multimedia meetings from PCs or smart phones. Cisco WebEx Connect, IBM Lotus Sametime and other apps do this, but not for free.

Forgive the silly name. Octopz rocks. The company makes online collaboration software for architectural engineers and industrial designers, allowing them to communicate via text, VOIP and Webcam while working on three-dimensional models and schematics on their PCs from any location. New features also include the ability to access Web services such as Flickr and Yahoo Maps.

Easily the coolest-looking technology eWEEK witnessed on the show floor, SocialMix is a super mashup of social networking sites. Want to access Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and Twitter from a single canvas? Zude SocialMix enables that in a secure fashion. Don’t ask how it does that, given the complex nature of the permissions capabilities between social networks and the various language protocols this involves. eWEEK has seen the future of social user interfaces and it is SocialMix.

During a quick 10-minute presentation on stage, Amit Mital, general manager of the Live Mesh team at Microsoft, showed thousands of people a video of a boy jumping into a pool. Though not even in product form yet, Live Mesh wins the coolest-product award for its potential impact on the millions of people using Windows on desktops, laptops, cameras and smart phones all over the world. It also has the potential to choke Microsoft if it fails, as Google rolls ahead online.