* LATEST SMALL BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY COLUMN:

IBM spins OpenOffice
I've been using the OpenOffice productivity suite for all my document, spreadsheet and presentation work for the last two years with great success (even though 95% of the people I exchange documents with were using Microsoft Office, nobody ever noticed). However, OpenOffice.org, like many open source efforts, needs some marketing help, a big name to push them into the spotlight. And while I’m surprised IBM has volunteered, that's exactly what is happening, with a twist.

There are a few complications. IBM calls its new office productivity suite, built upon OpenOffice, Lotus Symphony. This disappoints two groups. The first group, fans like me of OpenOffice, wish it kept the OpenOffice name to help further the open cause. The second group wishes the old Lotus Symphony office suite, an early competitor to Microsoft Office, had climbed out of the grave. Of course, I'm assuming people remember Lotus Symphony at all, much less remember it fondly. If you do, let me know.

To read Gaskin's column in its entirety, please click here.

* LATEST SMB NEWS NOTES:

Heading to Chicago
The fall swing of ITEC regional conferences start this week in Chicago. On Wednesday morning the 17th I'll be giving the keynote speech: Technology Is Broken: How to Fix IT for Your Business. The rest of the day and on Thursday I'll lead a new ITEC feature, the "unconference" camp where attendees pool together their experiences, good and bad, and share with everyone else. Other camps focus on customers, Open Source software, and new media marketing.

Hiring Techs
When big companies have trouble hiring and keeping techs, as this article says, how can small companies hope to hire technical help? You probably can't match the salary or benefits of large companies. Luckily, technical people often value more than just money.

Mail Storage and Misuse
My Google Mail account shows I'm using only a fraction of the 2911 megabytes of space I have available, but many users are pushing the top limits of that huge amount of personal storage. Google announced they plan to speed up their push to give users more space.

James Gaskin writes books (16 so far), articles and jokes about technology and real life from his home office in the Dallas area.