Arik Hesseldahl

Recent Posts by Arik Hesseldahl

Salesforce.com to Promote Chatter.com During the Super Bowl

Get ready to start hearing about a new social collaboration tool, called Chatter.com, at the office. Its creator is Salesforce.com, which plans to promote it in “bookend” TV spots–one before and one after the half-time Super Bowl show next month. Both spots will star the pop group the Black Eyed Peas. The company says it’s the first time that an advertiser has collaborated on an ad with the half-time show’s act. (What is it with tech companies and Will.i.am these days?)

I got a quick look at Chatter.com today with the folks at Salesforce. At first glance it looks a lot like Facebook. Almost identical. Kraig Swensrud, VP of marketing at Salesforce, told me that’s deliberate. Facebook, he says, has trained people to collaborate in a certain way, and was always in mind as Chatter was being built. “The fundamental mantra was, ‘Why isn’t collaboration software more like Facebook?'” he said. Now apparently it is.

So far, Chatter has been available only to companies that are already Salesforce.com customers. Come Jan. 31–next Monday–the company is throwing open the doors to any and all companies for free. All you need is a corporate email address. The hope is that Chatter users will eventually become Salesforce.com users too.

Below is a screenshot of what a Chatter profile pages looks like.

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Just as the atom bomb was the weapon that was supposed to render war obsolete, the Internet seems like capitalism’s ultimate feat of self-destructive genius, an economic doomsday device rendering it impossible for anyone to ever make a profit off anything again. It’s especially hopeless for those whose work is easily digitized and accessed free of charge.

— Author Tim Kreider on not getting paid for one’s work