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Richard Seltzer -- Welcome, Rob and Sameer. We'll be starting in about 10 minutes. In the meantime, you might want to look at my Coola Fan Page at http://www.samizdat.com/coola.html and a couple of articles of mine at the same site /palm.html and /palm2.html
sameer -- So how many people generally participate in this chat session?
Richard Seltzer -- Sameer -- We might get anywhere from 3 to 30. Usually about 6-10. Afterwards, I edit the transcript and post it at my site and get it indexed at search engines, and the average transcript generates about 1000 page views over the course of a year.
Richard Seltzer -- All -- it's time to start. Please introduce yourselves and let us know your interests.
Richard Seltzer -- Welcome, Bob. I understand that you plan to use Coola with your new ebook project. Can you describe what you plan to do and how you hope to benefit? Also, please give us a URl so we can take a look.
Bob@CottageMicro.Com -- Hello everyone. I'm Bob Zwick an independent consultant and software developer in the Dallas, Tx. area.
Richard Seltzer -- Welcome, Ron. Do you have a palm device and have you had a chance to try out Coola? If so, how have you been using it?
Ron Rothenberg -- I have not had a chance to try Coola yet - I will download it as soon as I get home this evening.
Richard Seltzer -- Welcome, Mary -- Have you tried Coola? If so, how do you plan to use it? I see that you are at the Kennedy School of Government. Are you working with Kathleen in the KSG online pilot?
sameer -- Coola is a service that allows people to take specific pieces of information like an address or appointment from the web or an email and place directly in to the appropriate palm app.
[Editor note -- another way of putting it: Coola has a quick and easy way for transferring pre-selected chunks of information from the Web or an email message to a palm device. You click on a link on a Web page or in an email, and the associated information will be added to the appropriate application on your palm (schedule, address, or memo) the next time you sync. This capability makes it easy for you to make your information readily accessible for future reference by friends, customers, and business associates who use palms.]
Richard Seltzer -- Kathleen -- I believe that Coola is unique -- letting you "palm-enable" both Web pages and email, letting you do palm-to-palm messaging, and also setting it up so you receive just the information you need (not a fire-hose channel of info) and get it in the application where it belongs.
sameer -- I don't know have any other applications that seamlessly intergrate web content with the core apps of the Palm
sameer -- Sample buttons are located at www.coola.com/starterpage.html
Richard Seltzer -- Sameer -- What kind of demo Coolets have you placed at the Coola site? What new ones are you working on?
sameer -- Richard -- right now there are appointments for some Palm User groups, and NFL team schedules, recipes, and travel information like calling codes and airline reservation #s.
Richard Seltzer -- Sameer -- If you had time enough, I could easily imagine a whole reference library of useful info in Coolet form. But I guess that the purpose of your sample page is to stimulate the imaginations of others -- to get other Web sites to do that kind of thing. I don't think Coola intends to be a "destination" site, but rather an enabler. Is that the case? (It must be tempting to try to do it all...)
sameer -- Richard, you hit the nail on the head. We do not want to be a destination site. We have no interest in becoming a portal. We want to be a tool for users. Along those lines we do not want to host a whole lot of Palm enabled information. Ideally users would see how they could use coola and begin to Palm enable content that is important for them.
Richard Seltzer -- Bob -- Interesting. Is this up and running now? Or when do you plan to go live? And what's the URL?
Bob@CottageMicro.Com -- a sample of an eBook, METRO by Jeff Edmunds, can be found at http://www.cottagemicro.com/ebooks/metro/ [Editor note -- for transcripts of our chats about Metro, see www.samizdat.com/chat136.html and www.samizdat.com/chat135.html] I also intend to use my program for creating company directories and webpage directories with Coola Sync. An example of that can be found at http://www.cottagemicro.com/phones/
Richard Seltzer -- Bob -- Excellent. Glad you got together with Jeff Edmunds. I'll have to link to that from my Readers' Room and Writers' Showcase www.samizdat.com/readers.html
Richard Seltzer -- Bob -- By "automated" do you mean that you didn't have to create a separate Coolet for each page, but rather they are automatically generated for each page? If so, did you do that on your own or with the help of the folks at Coola? And was it difficult to do?
Bob@CottageMicro.Com -- Richard - the program automatically creates a local web page that has a separate Coolet upload button for each page of the book.
Bob@CottageMicro.Com -- Richard the program is UP and Running and a FREE download can be found at http://www.cottagemicro.com/ebooks/
sameer -- Bob, do you mind if we highlight this from Coola's site?
Bob@CottageMicro.Com -- sameer - please do link to any of my sample sites.
Richard Seltzer -- Bob -- How difficult was it to set up that automatic button creation? Did it involve any fancy tricks? Would you be willing to share the "how to" with others? If so, could you send me the info by email and I'll add it to the transcript.
Bob@CottageMicro.Com -- Richard - the auto button sync creation was programmer magic of course :-) but as a user all you do is check make coola links and add your Coola ID Number. The rest happens automatically.
Bob@CottageMicro.Com -- Richard - you mentioned a reference library, that is how the eBookIt project got started. I have ambitions to start with the books in the Gutenberg project and convert them to talking audio books with Coola Sync. One person with eBookIt should be able to convert one or two dozen books a day. Not including the narration of course.
Tim Horgan -- Hi, Richard et al. We (CIO.com) just put a Coola app on our site. We're using it, to start, on our events calendar, to let readers download info about upcoming events (these are across the industry, not just our own). It's online at http://www2.cio.com/forums/events_index.cfm
Tim Horgan -- Next we'll be adding Coola buttons to our own events, so that attendees can download the detailed schedule for the 3 day event to their Palm Pilot.
sameer -- Tim, what has the response been from your users?
Tim Horgan -- Response: Just put it online yesterday, so none, yet. We have been asked to do something like this for our own events though, so we believe it will be used.
Tim Horgan -- One of the reasons we're adding Coola to CIO.com is that we're convinced that remote computing is becoming more important to our readers (senior executives), and we want to have experience in the technologies available to support that reality before everyone jumps on the bandwagon. We're learning a lot from the limited work we've done so far.
sameer -- Tim We have heard this a lot from users. We will be responding.
Richard Seltzer -- Tim -- Thanks for pushing the Mac issue. It's important for the Coola folks to hear that. They have a long list of projects that they want to undertake and your feedback will help make that a higher priority. By the way, do you subscribe to the Palmac email list? palmac@topica.com You might find some useful tips there.
Kathleen Gilroy -- I came in a bit late, but I gather from the earlier emails that this does not work with the MAC yet. This seems odd because people in the MAC community are very big Palm users. Something like 40% of MAC users have Palm Pilots.
David -- Kathleen, we definitely do plan on supporting Mac in the future.
sameer -- Kathleen, Mac support is in high demand and we will respond.
sameer -- Bob, i am not sure i understand your question. We are compatible with any PIM software. We dont provide the sync because we are not a sync player but rather an open pipe for information.
Richard Seltzer -- Sameer and David -- I use Coola with the Palm Desktop, but I believe it works just as well with Outlook and other PIMs. Isn't that the case?
sameer -- Yes, richard that is true. We are compatible with any PIM
Kathleen Gilroy -- Hi Richard and Bob, I have been thinking about a similar application to this one where we upload all of the activities in a course to a web site and then with one click they can be downloaded to a palm. It looks like Coola only does a few fields in a database. Can it be expanded to support this application?
sameer -- Kathleen, integrating Coola with your idea is proabably pretty easy. Coola can easily be expanded to carry more data.
Bob@CottageMicro.Com -- Kathleen - it's a great way to sync lessons, tests, and schedules
Richard Seltzer -- Kathleen -- Right now Coola handles the standard Palm apps -- schedule, address book, and memo. But the technology makes it easy to expand this for other apps. You should talk to Shirish Jamthe, the chief technology officer. You can reach him at sjamthe@coola.com
Kathleen Gilroy -- Yes, Richard. We are thinking about fully integrating the Palm into our interface design. That's why I wanted to join this discussion -- to see how far Coola can help.
Bob@CottageMicro.Com -- Kathleen - eBookIt will currently convert any text, lessons, tests, manuscripts, papers etc. to electronic documents with Coola Sync and evan narration for visually imapired students. Free free to give it a try.
Richard Seltzer -- Kathleen -- Considering that you usually operate with a virtual team of busy professionals, I suspect that you would find it useful to get the whole team registered at Coola and included on one another's circle of friends. That would make it easy for you all to synchronize your schedules -- getting the latest details on meetings and joint projects on your palm whenever you sync.
Kathleen Gilroy -- I'm not sure I understand how this would work -- synching the team. Can you explain it in more detail?
Richard Seltzer -- Kathleen -- Go to the "my coola" area, there you can add people to your "circle of friends". Have your friends do likewise and add you to their "circle". Then you can create Coolets for meetings, contact info and memos, and send them directly to your friends -- without using email or creating links on Web pages. The next time the friend syncs, the info will be in his/her palm. This is great for setting up meetings, and sharing critical information. It's a way of communicating without using email -- a way to put important information in the place where you need it most -- the palm that you carry with you everywhere. Check my article about this at www.samizdat.com/palm2.html Email has become so crowded these days with spam and irrelevancies, it's great to have a way to make sure you get the most important messages and have them with you wherever you go so you can read and deal with them at your leisure.
Richard Seltzer -- Tim -- I'd be interested in how this kind of technology can change work/team relationships and procedures. I could easily imagine senior executives having their executive assistants/secretaries in their "circle of friends" and using Coola to send changes in schedules and important messages and documents to read on the plane, etc.
Bob@CottageMicro.Com -- Richard - It sounds the Circle of Friends" feature is a perfect collaboration tool. Can you explain a little more about how it works?
Richard Seltzer -- Bob -- Yes, I see it as a collaboration tool -- one for very intimate business/personal relationships. If you want to talk to somebody, you can use the phone or instant messaging or voice over IP. But if trust the other party enough to give them access to your palm, the two of you can share schedules and memos going straight palm-to-palm, even though your palms aren't wireless. Yes, it's a new and I believe potentially important tool. It will be interesting to see what creative uses people make of it.
sameer -- We are looking in to various partnerships with various sites.
Kathleen Gilroy -- Sameer, would you be interested in exploring a partnership with us where we would create a version of this for distance learning applications? What kinds of partnerships are you exploring?
Richard Seltzer -- Kathleen -- Coola is in startup mode right now. They just did the first beta release of their software last week, and I believe they plan their official launch for sometime in September. Right now, they need to focus on getting as many users as possible as soon as possible, while at the same time getting more and more early adopters using this in their Web pages and email.
sameer -- Kathleen you should email shirish to discuss partnerships at sjamthe@coola.com
Richard Seltzer -- Sameer -- It's interesting to see this technology right at its inception, while it's still in beta. It seems such a simple and powerful idea. It will be very interesting to see the directions in which it evolves, in response to user demand (like what we've heard today with regard to Macintosh and distance education). For now, though, you have a very interesting challenge on your hands -- trying to spread the word, to get lots of new users and lots of new Web pages and email with Coolets.
sameer -- It is challenging and very interesting. Everyone sees different uses of Coola and how it can help them comminucate or get information that they want. I think the message will spread and will develop a userbase quickly. The Beta release has already been a success. And the feedback we get will help us make a better more in demand product.
sameer -- Richard -- as of now i have not heard of that but it makes perfect sense. Another good idea would be for someone with event listings that always changing such as speakers at a conference or Panel members. Also another natural is contact information like we do with the signatures.
Richard Seltzer -- Kathleen -- While I believe their intent is uniformity (trying to get out the Coola brand) the code is very easy to read and edit. All you need to do is substitute your <img> for theirs.
sameer -- Kathleen -- at this stage we need users to learn to get used to seeing the coola button and using it. In the future when Coola is more ubiquitous we may be more open to customized coola buttons.
Bob@CottageMicro.Com -- sameer - one suggestion that I have is for Coola to have a bigger selection of graphics to use, especially ones that are a little smaller than the one available now.
Richard Seltzer -- All -- Also, please send me your suggestions on the directions you'd like to see Coola head in -- what they should prioritize (like Mac). Thanks for joining us today. Before you sign off, please post your email and URL addresses so we can keep in touch. (Don't presume that the software captured it). We'll be taking a summer break for the next few weeks, then returning in late August. Have a great summer.
Richard Seltzer -- Steve Walters -- You signed on just as we were ending. (It's now 1 PM in Boston). Please send me email with your questions and comments, and please look for the edited transcript of this session at www.samizdat.com/chat.html in a few days.
To connect to the chat room, go to www.samizdat.com/chat-intro.html
Unfortunately, Coola in no longer in business, but their technology
and business model provide insight into what's possible.
Go to Coola fan page
Related article The Web and your palm -- sometimes
less is more, when it's the right less
Related article: Sync to people: building relationships
palm-to-palm
Transcript of chat session on what you can do
with Coola
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