• Obama 2012 campaign playlist revealed courtesy of Spotify

  Depending on your taste in music and tolerance for others’ tastes, President Barack Obama’s latest social media move – sharing his 2012 campaign playlist via streaming music website Spotify – might be a case of over-sharing: Ricky Martin, REO Speedwagon and James Taylor all made the cut.

• Microsoft teams up with 24/7 for customer service software

  Microsoft has entered into a broad partnership with customer-service software provider 24/7 that the companies expect will yield a superior cloud-based platform that large companies can use to better address their customers' needs.

• Office 365's Lync Online to gain interop with consumer IM networks

  Lync Online, the instant messaging, online meeting and PC-to-PC voice and video communications tool in Office 365, will gain interoperability with non-Microsoft IM networks.

• Before Facebook: How other recent dot-com IPOs have fared

  Although Facebook (FB - to be traded on NASDAQ or NYSE) is by far the most high-profile dot-com company to go public over the past year, it is actually one of several companies that have led to a revival of web company IPOs. And while many dot-com IPOs have been long on hype, they haven't yet paid off in terms of shareholder value.

• Facebook ripe for ridicule as it suffers outage a day after IPO filing

  Social networkers resorted to Twitter during and following a brief Facebook outage on Thursday, a day after the company filed for its initial public offering.

• 9 hot technology startups to watch in 2012

  While there are sure to be a lot of new networking and IT companies that emerge in 2012, these nine stood out for their potential to deliver game-changing innovations in a wide array of fields, including Cloud computing, enterprise search, and mobile application development. (These are in addition to seven hot Cloud companies and seven storage companies to watch that we highlighted last year.)

• With thick skin, Google CIO finds job rewarding

  When Ben Fried left his post as IT managing director at Morgan Stanley and took over as Google's CIO in May 2008, he knew what he was getting into: supporting a user base full of technology experts and computer industry stars, like co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, CEO Eric Schmidt and Vice President Vint Cerf. In a recent interview with IDG News Service, Fried spoke candidly about his job and shared tips and advice for fellow CIOs, including the urgent need for tablet device strategies. An edited transcript of the interview follows.

• Wikipedia celebrates a decade of edit wars, controversy and Internet dominance

  Wikipedia and its users are planning more than 300 celebration events across six continents for the 10th anniversary of the free, online encyclopedia that has become an Internet juggernaut by spreading access to information with a model that lets anyone edit its articles.

• 12 amazing productivity boosters

  It's official: I can no longer think of a single person I know (unless, of course, you count my two-year-old) who doesn't have more work on their to-do list than any human being can reasonably be expected to handle. If you're like everyone I know, chances are you could use a few new tools to help you manage your priorities, simplify your life, and accomplish more. This guide is for you.

• Why Google Docs will be a 'killer app' for tablets

  Google on Monday announced that it will introduce versions of Google Docs for tablets running both the Android and Apple iOS4 mobile operating systems.

Whitepapers about collaboration

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  Improving Productivity in the Connected Enterprise Through Collaboration

  In the market for collaborative applications, a large convergence is beginning to take hold, and the consumerization of IT is central to this movement. The technologies that people use as consumers are impacting the way employees, customers, and partners want to interact and collaborate at work. People want to take the same technology experiences that are available at home and plug them into their daily work lives. This movement is setting worker expectations as both employees and corporate consumers. Workers need to have the choice and flexibility to consume the applications they want, where they want, and on their preferred device. Read on.

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  The new collaboration: enabling innovation, changing the workplace