SAFIRA 2.0

OutMarketing, our marketing outsourced, strongly recommended that DID created a brand name to address the market.

Being that DID is being strongly inspired by Y-Combinator, the brand names that quickly pop out of the thinking hat were the likes of Safira Combinator, Y-Lisbon, and Y-World.

I must say I’m not in love with any of these options, or even with this line of thinking. Being inspired doesn’t mean copying everything and every step of our muses. Being so, I want a new and original brand name that captures the DID spirit.

CMP gave me the idea of launching an internal contest open to all Safira employees to come up with an original brand name. And here it is!

Since you saw on Safira 2008 what DID is all about, I guess you’ll be able to come up with some pretty good ideas that go along with the spirit of what me and PAC showed you.

What I want…

Originality. Can’t be a copy or close adaptation of and existing brand of any 2nd generation incubator out there.

Must symbolize the process of turning something rough into a sexy thing, a lump of coal into a diamond. Get the picture?

Must go along with the current SAFIRA brand. Imagine replacing the “Information technologies” we have under our logo with the new brand. It should still read well and sound cool.

What you’ll get…

If one of your proposals is chosen, it will be rewarded with a ticket to the Cirque du Soleil - Quidam, the very same show we awarded in the Safira Awards.

You may send as many proposals as you like. I’m not obligated to choose from any of the proposals I receive. If I don’t like any of them, I don’t have to choose one, and there will be no winner. Ok?

Until…

I’ll receive proposals until the 7th of march. You have two weeks to come up with a brand name that will symbolize SAFIRA’s innovation efforts.

So start those creative engines of yours, and post your best shots in the DID moss site. It will be on the main page so you can’t miss it. Post any questions you may have as comments to this post, so I can answer in public.

Bring it on.

I just created a group named Safira at ma.gnolia.com.

This is great for sharing bookmarks about Safira applications, blogs, wikis and everything else that is a part of our corporate Web.

By bookmarking this URL, you’re bookmarking the only URL you’ll ever need to find out where Safira’s internal and external sites are

By subscribing the RSS feed Ma.gnolia about Safira, you get the latests links as soon as the moderators team posts them.

By joining the group, you can contribute with bookmarks that you learn about, and help with the tagging.

Will love to get feedback on this.

Have a great day.

The respected IT weekly newspaper Semana Informática asked me to answer some questions for a special about web 2.0. This is what they asked, and my answers to those questions.

Let’s see what comes out of the printer.

( I apologize for posting in Portuguese, but that’s how I answered. Don’t have time to translate)

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Google SAFIRA

Index and search an entire enterprise using the Google technology, the best and most widely used search technology. At SAFIRA we do it with the Google Search Appliance, aka GSA, which is nothing more than Google in a yellow box.

Create awesome mashups and plug-ins to index reference corporate data and internet Web Services. Return everything there is to know about a customer, in a coherent results page, just by searching his customer ID. It’s easily accomplished by developing Google plug-ins that index our ERP, CRM, documents, project wikis and everything that has an URL or runs on a database. And that’s just the beginning. Search employee information (except salary receipts), corporate news, pools, surveys, group calendar and every other bit of data.

Remeber life before Google? Didn’t think so. Make Goggle SAFIRA the front door to our corporate web 2.o, just like Google.com is the front door to the Internet.

Visit www.safira.pt or www.google.com/enterprise for more information on Google Search Appliance.

Devise and implement a plan to attract and retain a solid user base, just like launching an online public service. Listen to user feedback, improve and launch new features, improve usability a reliability to keep your users happy and coming back for more.

This project is part of SAFIRA’s Enterprise 2.0 initiative created to completely revamp the way we work, communicate, collaborate and manage the company, by introducing a new breed of social software behind and across the firewall. Be a part of a corporate cultural shift!

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