Google Earth was a big one. Others come along and try to do the same thing, but somehow miss the mark. Virtual Earth (or whatever the name of the competitor is) doesn’t have the same “pizzazz”.
I’ll start listing some as I think of them that I think are particularly good examples.
Site: oDesk
http://www.odesk.com/
What is it?
This is a web site that joins IT and Administration staff with employers. It is a little like EBay, where people post jobs and other people bid to do those jobs. That’s where the similarity to EBay ends. Unlike EBay, the lowest bidder doesn’t necessarily get the job. Also unlike EBay, you can limit who sees your job (i.e. only offer it to people you select). So… this site is somewhat like a freelance locator page, while also allowing the workers (providers) to form longer-term, more meaningful working relationship with the “employers”. It also allows people to form teams, and therefore facilitates virtual organisations.
Why is this so good?
For the employer:
- jobs done for true “market” rates.
- “per hour” employees can be monitored for activity – or just to see how they have do what they do (learning).
- provides the option to outsource locally or globally, depending on the ideology of employer, work type offered and cost.
- the skills of the employee are quantifiable (tested) before hiring.Feedback is always clear.
For the provider (worker):
- Their payment is guaranteed. If they do the work, they will be paid.
- Their market for employment is expanded globally.
- The quality of their work is reflected in feedback.
Why is it so good:
It is brilliant! I believe this is the future of most software development, administration and office work. Why? Because it allows people to work from anywhere and companies can quickly expand IT/Administration and shrink as required. I’ve seen other freelance sites but they don’t have the ease and power of this site. It has more tools and yet is easier to use. Just a well put together site that “just works”.
I have used it a number of times from things as diverse as conversion of PDFs into Excel documents, web research and small development tasks. Every time I have been very happy with the outcome.
Site: CodeProject
http://www.codeproject.com/
Put simply, this is a collaboration site where articles and code examples are provided as a communal developers resource.
Why is it so good?
There are lots of them, right? Expert exchange and even “StackOverflow” – so what makes this one different? The quality of the articles. Maybe it is the communal nature of the site, and maybe it is the monthly quality prises offered for the best articles. Whatever the case, this is the site you go to when you need to know how to do something BEFORE going to help, Google or a text book.
For example, I found MS standard progress bar was “ordinary” and wasn’t very striking – a quick search turned up this gem:
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/progress/ProgressODoom.aspx
Site: EndNote
http://www.endnote.com/
What is it?
End note is an add-in to MS Word. It makes Uni assignments and research much easier. You enter in the details of a reference, then you simply press the “insert” reference button to reference your text. You locate the reference you entered and EndNote takes care of the rest. It takes care of:
- Reference list at the end
- Formatting of citation and reference
- Figure and table lists
Okay… that’s a little savings… but so what… right?
Well, it also has the ability to hold a copy to the file (pdf or whatever) so you can locate and read the material again. It holds onto a copy of the URL where you located it. But most of the on-line journals allow you to download the EndNote reference (so you don’t even have to enter it yourself).
That’s fantastic for a researcher who wants to double check their references, or look up sources. For a uni student it means they can have several repositories of research that they can draw on at any time, making uni life much easier.
Site: Mathcad
http://www.ptc.com/
What is it?
A computer version of a maths exercise book. It is a little like a spreadsheet in that you normally use it for maths, and you can plot information in a graph. But unlike a spreadsheet it isn’t so much about “storing, sorting and displaying” data, it is more about processing it. At the most simple level, you can put an equation in, press = and get an answer. 5*2= 10.
But you can also do this f(x):= 5*x
And then do this f(2)= and it will give you 10.
f(5) = and it will give you 25.
So you can literally define equations. I use this for business (finance, accounting, and economics), statistics and research. The applications are almost endless and there are forums with people able to help on almost any issue: http://collab.mathsoft.com/~Mathcad2000/login
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