workplace

Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg, the New Yorker and Women in Silicon Valley

Kara Swisher in Media on July 4, 2011 at 7:07 am PT

Well-known New Yorker writer Ken Auletta has taken on Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg in the magazine, with a largely glowing profile titled provocatively: “A Woman’s Place: Can Sheryl Sandberg Upend Silicon Valley’s Male-Dominated Culture?” My short answer is: No, she can’t. But good for anyone for trying!

Viral Video: “Brave” Finally Gives a Princess a Job

Kara Swisher in Media on June 29, 2011 at 3:35 am PT

Disney animated movie unit Pixar finally comes out with a film in which a female character is at its center and actually has something to do.

Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg on Women in Workplace: “Don’t Leave Before You Leave”

Kara Swisher in Social on May 18, 2011 at 6:15 am PT

In her second major speech focused on women in the workplace, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg told the graduates at Barnard College’s 119th commencement ceremony in New York yesterday not to “leave before you leave.” Her message–a version of which she also delivered last year to an audience at the Ted Women conference in Washington, D.C., in a speech titled “Why We Have So Few Women Leaders”–should be paid attention to in Silicon Valley, where Sandberg is one of the few high-ranking and high-profile women execs.

Asana Hires "COO-Type"–Van Zant First Biz Side Hire for Workplace Collaboration Start-Up

Kara Swisher in News on March 21, 2011 at 6:19 pm PT

As it gets ramped up for a wider launch, Asana, the high-profile group collaboration start-up founded by top former Facebook execs, has hired former SolarWinds product strategy exec Kenny Van Zant in a “COO-type of role.” Co-founders Dustin Moskovitz and Justin Rosenstein remain at the top of the leadership at the San Francisco company, which–perhaps in keeping with its yoga-style name–does not have official titles. But Van Zant will essentially fulfill the COO role, focusing on bringing Asana to the enterprise market in a socially-fueled “bottom-up” approach.

Social Enterprise Apps Are Popular, and So Is Attacking Chatter

Arik Hesseldahl in Enterprise on February 8, 2011 at 12:06 pm PT

BroadVision announces another social enterprise product, and like all the others in the marketplace, it takes a swipe at Salesforce.com’s Chatter.

The Men and No Women of Web 2.0 Boards (BoomTown's Talking to You: Twitter, Facebook, Zynga, Groupon and Foursquare)

Kara Swisher in News on December 21, 2010 at 2:44 pm PT

Simply put: The five top Web 2.0 superstar companies have no women on their board of directors. As in zero.

Aliph Collaboration Deal With Cisco for Jawbones in the Workplace Launches

Kara Swisher in News on September 30, 2010 at 5:00 am PT

In April, Cisco unveiled a wide-ranging collaboration with Aliph–a San Francisco start-up that is famous for the noise-canceling Jawbone Bluetooth mobile headset–to deploy its software and device in Cisco’s IP phones in the enterprise. It launches today. The idea is to use the Jawbone device and the software that manages it to allow workers to move around an office and have the call move with them, echoing increasingly mobile consumer behavior.

Jive CEO Zingale and Kleiner Moneybags Schlein Talk About Socializing Business

Kara Swisher in News on August 20, 2010 at 12:54 pm PT

In my ongoing quest to follow the money, BoomTown showed up at the Palo Alto, Calif., offices of Jive Software last week to talk about its recent $30 million funding. That brings the grand total of dough from big Silicon Valley venture firms to $57 million, all dedicated to making Jive the leader in bringing social tools to the enterprise. It’s probably too lazy to say Jive’s goal is to be the Facebook for businesses, but that just about sums it up.

The BoomTown Movin'-On-Up Tour of Twitter's New San Francisco HQ

Kara Swisher in News on December 22, 2009 at 1:54 am PT

Why Twitter invited BoomTown back for another visit to its latest HQ after my last one, I will never know. But the masters of microblogging did. So, here is my video of the lovely new digs in San Francisco, where a little over 100 Twitter employees toil–although it’s pretty pleasant toiling, with room for about 200 more–in offices most recently occupied by AOL’s now-banished Bebo social networking site.

Asana Gets $9 Million (No, It’s Not a Yoga Stance–It’s a Workplace Productivity Start-Up From Former Facebookers)

Kara Swisher in News on November 24, 2009 at 10:00 am PT

Yet another goofy Silicon Valley name did not prevent Asana–the productivity software start-up founded by former Facebookers Dustin Moskovitz and Justin Rosenstein–from nabbing $9 million in funding from Benchmark Capital and Andreessen Horowitz. The round, which was announced today, will be used to turbocharge Asana and its small team, who are aiming at the very dull and unexciting but very large and problematic workplace collaboration and communications market. In Sanskrit, “asana” means “sitting down” and refers to strong but relaxed postures in yoga–so presumably, Moskovitz and Rosenstein are trying to help frustrated workers achieve a digital form of nirvana.