In an interesting business move, Socialtext (previously covered on WebWorkerDaily) today opened up its enterprise organizational collaboration software to smaller organizations with its new Free 50 offering for groups of up to 50 people. Previously, Socialtext did not have a freemium model (just a free trial), and instead offered its internal social networking, messaging and collaboration tools at a per-user [...]

Mergers and acquisitions stir the blood, triggering unconcealed excitement in numerous lawyers, financiers, executives and the media. Another core group has a different reaction to M&A: the employees of newly unified companies whose emotions typically span skepticism to loathing. A strong employee communications program addresses these sentiments and constructively channels the power of the workforce, from the C-suite down, by [...]

The US Small Business Administration reports an uptick in start- up loans in Massachusetts from 52 issued in the first three months of this year to 35 loans in April alone. President Obama created the Recovery Act in February, eliminating fees to borrowers and allowing the SBA to guarantee up to 90 percent of each loan. In the first quarter [...]

Is the Mashpee Wampanoag’s dream of opening a casino in Middleborough near an end? It depends on whom you ask. Supporters of the $1 billion project say a disagreement between the tribe and its financial backers over contract terms forged two years ago is a minor blip. Opponents see the dispute as one more indication a mega-casino resort will never open [...]

It turns out it’s the gregarious types who thrive in virtual work setups, since they connect nonetheless. It’s the shy types who feel isolated… Five years into the mainstreaming of mobile work, there’s a growing enlightenment, buttressed by new research, that the benefits of working remotely are actually a bit more complicated, and nuanced, than the cheerleaders said. In all [...]

In its “Employee Engagement Survey,” the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) Research Foundation teamed with Buck Consultants, an ACS company, to determine how organizations are communicating with employees to keep them engaged and productive. The survey includes responses from nearly 1,500 participants representing a broad industry and geographic base. The survey results are being released today at the annual [...]

Mark Kelly, the manager of the Middleton Municipal Electric Department, said 13 municipal power companies have already signed on to the project, and several more may join in the next few weeks. The power plant would be built on Sharpners Pond Road, somewhat behind the Candlelite Motor Inn. It would run at times of high electricity demand. The so-called “peaking” [...]

The seismic success of Facebook, Wikipedia, Twitter and other social computing tools often creates soaring expectations for viral adoption of social computing in business settings. While the “just build it and they will come” strategy works in the consumer world, it’s a dangerous approach for business: users may never come, or they may come and waste their time. That’s why [...]

The newly elected leaders of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe have opted not to endorse a deal they have with a group of deep-pocketed casino investors, the latest impediment to the tribe’s efforts to build a $1 billion casino in southeastern Massachusetts. The tribal council, hoping to get a more favorable deal, voted unanimously last week not to reaffirm a 2007 [...]

Aon recently studied how workers used Web 2.0 media at home and at work. Researchers surveyed more than 8,000 employers in the private and public sectors. Aon analysts find that, despite employers’ belief that Web 2.0 media may detract from productivity, workers – both millennials (born 1980 and later) and non-millennials – are leveraging the technology to perform their jobs. [...]