This triggered me to start a list of my own discoveries on the net or even outside the realms of cyberspace.  Some would be recommendations from colleagues and friends.  Others would be pure research or a result of ads and constant surfing. Here is my first list for your consumption.

Google Wave

This is still considered new and only a few lucky ones have access to the tool.  I am one of them.  I’ve been using it for a couple of weeks now and it has been a great experience.  Everyone in the ProFora team has it and we get things done more quickly.  What’s great is the documentation piece.  Though you can try to edit a blip, everything is recorded once a wave has started.

I received 8 invites to give and it’s all gone.  My colleague received 20! I’m waiting for the next “wave” of invites from my other Google Wave account.  I think they stopped sending them at this point until they are ready to take the load again.  For newbies, the complete guide is a great resource.

pleasenotify.me

A simple and free web application by Paste Interactive is pleasenotify.me.  It’s a reminder system for you or someone in your team to finish a task.  Delegate and put a deadline by placing your email and the recipient’s.  He will then receive a notice through email that a task needs to be done. A link is found within the body of the email for him to click on to trigger the process of it being completed.

Neat stuff but it looks impersonal.  All I see is an email address telling me to do something.  Not unless I know the person or have memorized their email, it looks odd.

Memo To Me

Similar to pleasenotify.me, it is a web based reminder system but focuses on events as well.  Sending a reminder that a birthday or anniversary is coming up is great to have.  I would recommend this to men in general since they seem to forget important dates.

Tweetboard

I’m still waiting for our alpha invite so I can’t give any feedback as of yet.  But, the tool is promising.  Both a viral engine and communications tool, it is a great application to add to your website or blog if you’d like to keep the conversation going within your organization or community.  One can follow any conversation at a certain time as it shows the thread of a certain topic.

More on the next issue of New & Shiny Toy Discoveries.  If you’ve found interesting applications that I should check out, let me know.

Image courtesy of Andrea See