Intel Corp has formed a partnership with top Internet software makers to create a standard set of Web tools for office workers to share information with colleagues, the companies said on November 07.
The world's biggest computer chip-maker said it is aiming to take the excitement of Internet sites like Wikipedia, MySpace and YouTube into the business world.
Intel is working with makers of commercial blogs, wikis and syndicated news feeds to create SuiteTwo, a complete package of "Web 2.0" business work group collaboration tools.
Web 2.0 is the term Internet industry insiders use to describe software that makes it easier for users to publish and share information among themselves, in contrast to more passive ways of using the Web that earlier software tools encouraged.
The Intel partnership offers small businesses and work groups inside larger companies "Web 2.0 in a box," by improving on internal and external communication systems.
SuiteTwo is set to be released early in 2007, said Lisa Lampert, managing director of Intel Capital's Software and Solutions Group.
Intel's partners include Six Apart, a leading maker of blog publishing software, Socialtext, a provider of a form of group blogging software known as wikis, and NewsGator and SimpleFeed, providers of instantly updated news feeds. SpikeSource packages the software and provides technical support.
Socialtext said SuiteTwo will cost a business $175 to $200 a year per user, or about $15 to $17 per month. Intel Capital, the venture capital arm of the semiconductor maker, assembled the group.
The SuiteTwo announcement was made in San Francisco at the opening day of the Web 2.0 Conference, an annual event that attracts the Internet industry's biggest movers and shakers to debate the future of Web trends.
MAKING WEB 2.0 CREDIBLE FOR BUSINESS:
Intel plans to make SuiteTwo available to its world-wide network of personal computer makers, and computer and software resellers for distribution. "Intel and our fellow partners will be marketing this extensively," said Lampert.
The package will be resold not just by PC makers like Dell Inc and NEC Corp but also the world's biggest technology resellers, like Ingram Micro Inc and Tech Data Corp She said it will be optimised to run on Intel-based computers, in a competitive swipe at rival computer processor maker Advanced Micro Devices Inc. Ross Mayfield, chief executive of Socialtext, said such software helps businesses harness the "collective intelligence" of both their workers and their customers.
"These tools help businesses know what their employees are saying, what they are working on, what they are paying attention to, as well as what they are seeing in the external world," Mayfield told Reuters.
SpikeSource is offering versions that run on the three main business software systems - Microsoft Corp's Windows and the increasingly popular alternatives, Red Hat Inc Linux and Novell Inc SuSE Linux.
Initially, the software suite will be offered in English and Japanese languages. Future releases will include tools for podcasting, business networking, staying connected wirelessly and other features, the companies said.
More details can be found at http://www.suitetwo. com/.
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