and Another Thing....: (mobile)

Showing posts with label (mobile). Show all posts

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Completely Redesigned Evernote for iPhone and iPod Touch « Evernote Blogcast

If you are a mobile worker, use multiple devices (including a smartphone), and are a compulsive notetaker like me, then you should be using Evernote. It automatically syncs with all of your Evernote instances (I use the Mac, iPhone, and web versions; although they have versions for most other platforms), all by itself, with no prompting from you. All of your notes are always with you!

This new iPhone version makes it much easier to add a new note, including incorporating snapshots. This makes it faster to write your notes and include pictures of the speaker and presentation. I use this feature all the time, and the new version really speeds it up for me.

It's also much faster and easier to find your existing notes using tags. This is a huge improvement over the previous version, and best of all, it's free.

Posted via email from dianaf's posterous

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

How to Become a Black Box Worker

or, perhaps a more formal name, "Modular Nomadic Worker." Sun Microsystems has a product called the Sun Modular Datacenter, also called the "Black Box." You can read more about it here. But basically, it's a complete data center in a box (container, really)! Just add power, water, and Internet, and it's good to go.

I started thinking about how "modular" I've become, with my smart iPhone and laptop plus wifi or 3G card, and I realized how similar I am to the Black Box data center. Just drop me anywhere with my (small) laptop bag and phone, and I am a "fully functioning" worker!

Here are the things I have that enable me to work everywhere:
* cell phone/ smartphone: iPhone (not yet 3G)
* bluetooth headset: Aliph Jawbone (red!)
* broadband card: Sierra Wireless 881 3G USB w/unlimited domestic plan
* laptop: MacBook Pro 17"
* webcam: built-in iSight
* wifi: Starbucks card for 2 hours free, plus possible free AT&T broadband customer at AT&T hotspots?, obviously also at home and in the office

With these tools, I'm able to work from wherever I am, whether it be from home, a conference, an airport, while travelling in my motorhome, or even in the office! I answer my phone and emails, and participate in desktop video conferences (using iChat AV and MeBeam), and even sometimes meet in Second Life. Rather than wondering where I am, my boss can just always find me.

I think I really am living in the Snow Crash metaverse now!

Friday, April 18, 2008

Travelling Workplace, Part 1

I saw this article on cnn.com today:
Next phase of working at home: Leaving home

As part of the discussion on where people are working, right now at this very moment I'm sitting in the parking lot of a restaurant in Davis, working from my motorhome. I'm using a high-speed Internet card for my laptop (getting 3G); here's what speakeasy.net said about my current connection:

Download Speed: 1640 kbps (205 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 967 kbps (120.9 KB/sec transfer rate)

My work phone line is forwarded to my cell phone, and I was even able to video chat with a co-worker a little while ago.

Also, speaking of "co-working," check out this place:
Cubes and Crayons

This is where I think the growth in workplaces will happen; specialized work places where people, who can actually work from anywhere, but have certain specific "life needs," like child or elder care, or even are looking for a specialized work place, like one optimized for graphics design, writing, conference calls, etc.

Or where "your co-workers for today" are specially picked, like for dba's, proof-readers, communications specialists, etc.

Anyway, just random Friday thoughts... have a good weekend!

Friday, September 7, 2007

GTD with Office 2.0:

Smartsheet shows "what changed", granular permissions,

PlanHQ shows also what you did

Do at least weekly review, maybe daily, schedule it

Sometimes you just have the mental aptitude to shred paper.

If you can't find the first actionable task, maybe it's not worth
doing. Staff Meetings start out everyone says what they need from
teammates.

Results Manager

(Office 2.0 Fri PM Notes, part 3)

-Diana

Enterprise Collaboration:

Collaborative tools need to be, have fun so people will use them.

Externally-based tools can't always be used, some companies are too
protective of their IP (Sony).

Zimbra, Clearspace,

No votes for video conferencing

Really incorporate The Wisdom of Crowds.

(Office 2.0 Fri PM Notes, part 2)

-Diana

Mind-Mapping:

(not sure I really agree with all of this)
Most useful tool now for collaboration. Align on language, context.
Nonthreatening. Virtual brainstorming.

McKinsey: Next Revolution of Interactions ( look this up and correct)
Past 30y reengineering, automation, outsoucing. Must increase
productivity of most knowledgeable workers

Now with Web 2.0, you can truly use for online collaboration. Before,
it was just duplicating paper-based tools (didn't transfer to online
collaboration). Will be lots more products appearing in this space now.

Visual Thesaurus

(Office 2.0 Fri PM Notes, part 1)

-Diana

Online Communities:

Most Internet content produced by us now, not big corporate sites.
Approximately same rate (percentage) of errors.

Empty Quarter: least likely to use social tools, most senior authority
2% troublemakers

Companies creating online communities get new ideas for uses of their
products. Share best practices with each other. Community may/will
morph into something else; but you (company) don't own it anymore,
it's now their community.

Afraid to open up because you might hear something bad. But others may
defend you anyway. You may also get the new great idea. Offering joint
ownership with customers

Ideastorm. Know that ideas will not all succeed.

What resources should you expect to allocate? Many people may already
be blogging, etc., so may just start contributing, without much
additional time.

When Intel started theirs, had 90% Intel contributors; within year
switching to 90% non-Intel.

(Office 2.0 Fri AM Notes, part 4)
-Diana

Knowledge Workers 2.0:

"bursty" workers
Mgmt recognizes both are valuable worker types, output-based, not time-
based
Frequent spectacular failures (already dying in video games).
Still must have a reasonable approach to project
Not just age-based

IT groups already ask SMEs (establish authority, sharing)

These workers usually expect high compensation (they think they are
worth more), high profile projects, high responsibility.

Bursty people don't always work bursty, sometimes have heads-down work
too.

Rewards: can't be expected or gets complicated (disappointment), not
as valuable.

(Office 2.0 Fri AM Notes, part 3)
-Diana

The New Platform:

Who owns the customer when they work via an aggregator
(salesforce.com, Zoho, OpenSAM)?

Cross-application activities: single sign-on, copy & paste,
preferences (date formats, etc.), dictionary, highlight colors,
printing, access/ ACLs, versioning

File formats! Can't I have open document format?

Use Facebook as sso? But mesh model vs. hub and spoke model.

(Office 2.0 Fri AM Notes, part 2)
-Diana

Office 2.0 Setup:

Applications and data live in the Cloud only?

My Office 2.0 Setup

Tools are not usually able to integrate, even copy & paste, also which
app do you look in?

Next year they will use a tool that natively integrates with
salesforce.com

600 attendees plus press, presenters, etc.

(Office 2.0 Fri AM Notes)
-Diana

Thursday, September 6, 2007

Web Practioner:

ROI on these Web 2.0 tools, which are free, compared to ROI on
existing internal tools like email, collab, IM, etc.

Success in implementation requires champion(s). Ask forgiveness, not
permission crowd.

Tools on the Internet, is disaster recovery improved?

Death of the Application:
Iteritive releases ( or permanent betas) instead of big (bi-) annual
releases. Less disruptive, expensive.

Software as a service; now there are many choices of word processor,
spreadsheet, task mgr (see office 2.0 list).

It doesn't matter what phone, email program, etc., others are using,
we can still communicate transparently.

Long-tail apps... Product life cycles are accelerating.

(Office 2.0 Thurs late-PM Notes)

-Diana

Meet Charlie (Pfizer):

Easy to remember URL
None of the people on the team were in the same department.
Sandbox: get people to post what they want to do; others will chime in
if they are also interested, or if they have already started one.

Culture & Technology:
Mellenial generation unsure of business mores and social tools, but
will go dull steam ahead, unlike current gens. Dress codes, conformity.

GenY wants responsibility in their new worklife. Existing managers,
previous gens want less/ no responsibility? Who gets replaced, and
why? More transparency as well will expose workers, too.

Successful corporations will be a "marketplace" for workers.

Collaboration: have we solved all of the one-brain problems, so now
all that's left are multi-brain problems?

Don't forget that the average IQ is 100.

Current young gamers are willing to die (fail) over and over again.
Current workplaces not so forgiving of failure.

(Office 2.0 Thurs mid-PM Notes)
-Diana

Office 2.0 Thursday AM Notes:

People enjoy collaborating
Cultural adoption don't send docs, send links
Decisions: what do I need to know?
What do I need to produce ?
What do I need to communicate ?
(where's the value?)

Pan for gold, I Love Lucy skit in my inbox, email is my favorite app?
No.

Enterprise 2.0:
Mgmnt support
Usability
Integration
Accessibility
Top down - mgrs can lead the way
Training- not how but why and what's different
Templating no blank page
Solving problems

Adoption: New tool must be 9x better than what it replaces (9x better
than email?)

No Long Tail of users, small percentage of people participating in
Enterprise can be a small number (top small)

Feed the open mouths, don't force others. Be patient

Morgan Stanley created system to convert email groups to discussion
forums

(Office 2.0 Thursday Morning Notes)
-Diana