Jive Software has acquired Filtrbox , a Boulder-based startup that monitors the social Web to help clients understand and better participate in online conversations. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Jive sought a social media monitoring company to bring into its Social Business Software (SBS) platform. The goal is to extend the social footprint of the Jive platform. Jive sees the market becoming far more oriented around conversations on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. These conversations affect everything from product development to sales strategies. Monitoring is critical to following and capitalizing on the conversation flow. Sponsor Jive looked at several companies in the space before deciding to approach Filtrbox. The choice came down to the Filtrbox user experience; its collaboration features; the scalable architecture and the social intelligence baked into the product. The Filtrbox architecture may be the greatest value to Jive. Filtrbox Founder Ari Newman said its architecture is a hybrid that leverages the cloud. He would not say much more about it though its business model reflects a cloud based approach. Services that leverage the cloud effectively let users scale up and down, depending on demand. Many charge on a per use basis. Newman said Filtrbox charges $10,000 per year for up to six users. Customers get unlimited use of the platform. How companies leverage the cloud will determine how they fare in the market. The ability to crunch large amounts of data is vital for understanding the real-time nature of how conversations flow. Jive seems to understand this and appears to be moving more toward a cloud-based strategy. Initially, Jive will market Filtrbox through its Jive Market Engagement solution along side Radian6. Jive and Radian6 formed a partnership back in September. Here's what Jeremiah Owyang and his colleague, R "Ray" Wang had to say about the partnership. Radian6 and Filrtrbox are essentially in the same space. it is unclear how the relationship between Jive and Radian6 will be affected by the Filtrbox purchase. Filtrbox will be fully integrated into the Jive SBS platform in the second quarter of this year. Discuss

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Jive Software Buys Filtrbox: A Purchase All About The Social Web

Yesterday, Wolfram Research shut down the iPhone-optimized version of Wolfram Alpha , the company's "computational knowledge engine." Many pundits speculated that Wolfram decided to shutter the mobile site in order to drive more users to the company's $50 iPhone app. Earlier this morning, we got a chance to talk to Schoeller Porter, Wolfram's product manager for the iPhone app . According to Schoeller, the reason for killing the mobile site was simple: not enough people were using it. Sponsor It is important to remember that while Wolfram offered an iPhone optimized landing page, the actual results pages were always identical to those of the regular web version. All Wolfram did was shut down this landing page. According to Porter, users can still get the same result pages by entering their queries into the search box on the default Wolfram Alpha website. Porter argues that nothing of substance was actually removed. Why Did Wolfram Kill the Mobile Landing Page? In our conversation, Schoeller Porter pointed out that this landing page was only meant to be a test, and traffic to the site had decreased to the point where the company simply decided to pull the plug. It's not surprising that Porter would defend Wolfram's decision to shut down the mobile site as a traffic issue, and not as a ploy to sell more of the company's pricey mobile app. According to Porter, users can still choose to get a good mobile experience through the website and those users who need a mobile experience can always get the mobile app. Until now, though, the mobile landing page offered a happy medium between the regular desktop website and the mobile app. Currently, the team wants to focus on enhancing the experience on the default website and the mobile app; Wolfram is also thinking about mobile apps for Android and BlackBerry. Why Not Just Keep the Mobile Site Up? One could argue, however, that it really wouldn't have cost Wolfram a lot of money or manpower to keep the mobile landing page up for the time being. The company also didn't help itself by killing the mobile site without any explanation on its blog. The fact that the mobile site now features a big add for the iPhone app only helped to fuel the speculation about Wolfram's intentions. Discuss

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The Real Reason Why Wolfram Alpha Shut Down Its Mobile Site

Volvo IT has a policy against using its network to post racist and other defamatory information against individuals. But it is considerably less visible and not nearly as thorough as other corporate policies for posting information to the Internet, on blogs and social networks. The Volvo IT policy is an Adobe PDF file that details pretty clearly what is deemed inappropriate. Sponsor Earlier this week, Wikipedia banned editing from machines inside the Volvo IT Department for racist remarks left on the pages of two well-known Pakistani Cricket players. From Volvo IT's policy: "It is not allowed to use e-mail for sending or any other way of transmission for sending or receiving any information which is racist, obscene, offensive, threatening; or which includes harm to minors, hoaxes, malicious code, unwanted advertising, material intended to disturb other's equipment, or which is sent in a way that includes breach of any person's rights, copyright, privacy or other rights. It is not allowed to impersonate other users, to distribute pornographic material, to upload, download or distribute child pornography or illegal software. It is not allowed to send or facilitate unsolicited commercial email or bulk emails or to mail bomb, i.e. to intentionally try to impede another person's use of e-mail services." Besides this, Volvo IT and the Volvo Group have not developed a detailed policy on best practices for using the Internet. There is no visible information for how employees use the Internet, best practices for blogging and how to conduct oneself on social networks. There is actually little on both sites to show any use of social technologies for its purposes. In contrast, we looked at policies from larg organizations that do have policies. We believe more detailed policies provide the opportunity to better educate employees and can prevent incidents like what happened at Volvo IT. Here are some policies that we found worth highlighting. Interestingly, microblogging has not filtered into these policies in much of any way. Cisco Systems Cisco is considered one of the most advanced users of social technologies. It is increasingly focused on enterprise collaboration technologies. Its policy on posting to the Internet is clearly written by the legal team. And it covers the bases. "Your Internet posting should reflect your personal point of view, not necessarily the point of view of Cisco. Because you are legally responsible for your postings, you may be subject to liability if your posts are found defamatory, harassing, or in violation of any other applicable law. You may also be liable if you make postings which include confidential or copyrighted information (music, videos, text, etc.) belonging to third parties. All of the above mentioned postings are prohibited under this policy. When posting your point of view, you should neither claim nor imply you are speaking on Cisco's behalf, unless you are authorized in writing by your manager to do so." IBM IMB provides a thorough guide to posting, embracing the concept of posting online but also being cognoscente that an employee's personal and professional life are now so intertwined. To help matters, IBM created a video for employees about practices to follow.

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The Volvo IT Rants and The Importance of a Corporate Internet Policy