Eric Mack On-Line

I am evaluating Web 2.0/Office 2.0/Enterprise 2.0 applications for our company and clients. Today I signed up for some trials and in the registration process I noted that by registering I was "agreeing" to the "terms and conditions". So, being the kind of guy that actually reads the fine print, I did.

I found this section most reassuring: (Name redacted)

Continue Reading "Oh, yes. This makes me want to move my data into the cloud" »

Marc Orchant is moderating this afternoon's panel on GTD and Office 2.0 and the Office 2.0 Conference. Compared to other sessions, room is packed. I'm live-blogging, with the goal to have this live, including photo, before Marc steps away from the podium. (Just for Michael)



Marc asked for a show of hands: most of audience has read Getting Things Done, few have attended a GTD seminar.

Each presenter has a 2 minute demo window, then Marc will ask for questions from the audience...

First up: Robert Walker of Vitalist (www.vitalist.com)
Web-based, opens to dashboard. Can pull in feeds. Has mobile version (e.g. iphone.vitalist.com)

Second up; Mark Mader, Smartsheet.com
Results focused collaboration based on a spreadsheet model but with an emphasis on sharing - all in a browser.
Everything is a list. Implementation of hierarchies looks well done by allowing you to indent/outdent. Neat tool to show deltas between previous sessions. Seems to be more free-form spreadsheet than a structured task manager.
You can send the smart sheet, via PDF or Excel. once or repeatedly, over the web as a link. The Office 2.0 element is collaboration - the ability to invite others into the process to work with your lists.

Third Presenter: Michael Sliwinski, creator of Nozbe
Michael is CEO of Apvision.com. Invites us to test Nozbe live on the web at nozbe.com.  (One of the few presenters that mentions David Allen and concepts in the book.)  Also web-based. Includes time tracking. (Think GTD 2-in timer).  Good point: this is just a tool. get to work.

Last up: Tim Norton, Business planning based on GTD.
Tim is CEO of Plan HQ. Ties projects to goals. I like the names of sections: "What I've done this week" (Completed), "What I've got coming up" (Tickler) etc. Nice. Nice Backburner feature - will move things to Someday Maybe and sends an email alert to project participants.

2. minutes per presenter is not much time.

Marc invites Ismael to speak.
One book changed my life: GTD. What a great testimony! Book is a series of simple recipes. Ismael looked for a tool to help implement. Decided to do this inside of SaleForce.com.  Likes ability to attach tasks to leads, campaigns, etc. and see tasks by each. It took several thousand tasks to create Office 2.0 Conf. He uses delegated action management within Saleforce.com. Challenge: Salesforce was not designed with GTD in mind. Ismael has a goal to get to the moon, but he's looking for what the next action would be. (Ismael, "It's call Fred")

Marc does the wrap-up
Good Q&A session. Too fast to summarize, but I'll try, I may have to review audio.

1. How do you handle the necessity for people to narror down their focus to get things done, with the need to also see the big picture of what they are doing? (Ismael had a good point about the challenge of finding the next action for subprojects. I think the answer is to have a set of good questions.)

2. Is GTD Great only for personal productivity or can it also be used for teams/businesses? (Audience comment on lack of software suitable for implement GTD in a team.) Some of this boils down to process, not tool, e.g. how to make projects & actions visible. Brief discussion of Gyronix ResultsManager as a tool for Mapping - both ways - in the framework of MindManager.

Audience member complained about challenge of weekly review, needs reminder at task completion to prompt for next action. A valid complaint. eProductivity does that. Quick discussion about priorities and contexts. Marc did a nice job of explaining how the two relate. Context, time, priority. Good job, Marc.

3. Why web-based applications for Geting Things Done?
Michael: Accessibility, different devices, no need to sync.
other: option to plug GTD data into other applications, thougfh feed, RSS, gadgets, etc.
Other: huge population that will not follow GTD but will use tools to do the work for them. interesting.

[Sitting in conference ballroom. Wireless access points every 8 feet. This place is seriously wired. I guess if your work is in the cloud you better make sure you can access it. Fast, too. 45 Mbps.]
Office 2.0 Trends
Shift in work from application centric to information centric

Challenges of Office 2.0
Harder to separate work from life
We are faced overwhelming choice
Collaborative
Driving innovation at a record pace

What does Office 2.0 mean?
Continue Reading "Notes on the Future of Work" »

In just a few hours, Steve and I will try something new.

We will deliver our Office 2.0 presentation using our brain.

Harlan Hugh created custom version of Personal Brain for us that will work for the more than 500 iPhones at the conference. (Thanks, Harlan!)
Here's our presentation on Knowledge Worker Mobility and Productivity.

Our backup PowerPoint deck is also on the web

The idea of Office 2.0, that you can move your applications and data into the cloud has people on both sides of the fence. Some argue that they feel more safe, knowing that their information is always accessible to them from any computer. Others argue that unless you can maintain a local replica of your data you are at the whim and mercy of the availability of power and internet access providers. They point to the recent internet and power outages in San Francisco as an example. I often find myself in this camp. Today, I got a new perspective on Office 2.0 and while I'm not sure I'm any closer to a conclusion one way or another I thought I would share the experience...

Early today, we had a downpour accompanied by... a thunderstorm accompanied by... a lightning strike... at the power pole... in our front yard.

I'm still assessing the damage but the net effect so far is that it blew out the power transformer and sent a massive power surge into the house over the power and phone lines. This did several things: first, it shocked my daughter who was upstairs turning on a light, it also shocked me, right through the keyboard. Then it  blew out much of the network equipment in my office.
Continue Reading "A look at two sides of Office 2.0 Accessibility" »

Marc Orchant and I wrap up our three-part tour of his gadget bag as Marc gives Michael Sampson and me a hands-on demo of his current Nokia N-Series handheld multimedia computer.



Continue Reading "Batman would love it: what the phone has become" »

Whether it's GTD or geek gadgets, Marc is one of my favorite people to talk with about mobile productivity.  Marc's completed the tour of batman's gadget bag; now he shows us the amazing array of mobile productivity devices he carries inside that cool bag and then shares how he makes it all work together.


A few of the goodies inside Marc's gadget bag (as of June 2007)
Nokia N800 Internet Tablet
Nokia N95
Stowaway Sierra BlueTooth Keyboard
Treo 700p
iPod

Will Marc add an iPhone to his bag?
Ten minutes into the interview, I ask Marc if he will purchase the new iPhone...

"No, not the first generation. Absolutely not. Apple has a number of issues to resolve..."
Marc Orchant, June 18, 2007

[Less than 2 weeks  later, Marc decides he can't wait for iPhone 2.0]

Continue Reading "New gear for the mobile Office 2.0 worker" »

He would probably wear like Marc Orchant carries. He would probably also be platform agnostic and live in the cloud



As part of my prep for the upcoming Office 2.0 conference, I'm listening to past interviews I've done, looking for excellent examples of people that are living and working the Office 2.0 lifestyle.

Listen in to this interview with my friends Marc Orchant and Michael Sampson as Marc gives us a tour of his gadget bag. This near-bulletproof gadget bag carries everything that Marc uses for mobile geek productivity.

The conversation is not strictly limited to gadget bags, though, as Marc shares how much of his data lives in the cloud allowing him to work from anywhere he has an internet connection.

We stop for a brief commercial break -  to plug Michael's excellent article on Calendaring & Scheduling in Messaging News Magazine. A worthy read!

We then continue discussing about Marc's [then current] mobile devices kit and all of the glue that he uses to get all of these to work together nearly as in sync as do in Lotus Notes....

Continue Reading "If Batman had a gadget bag..." »

Personal Knowledge Management expert, Steve Barth  and I have been invited to speak at the Office 2.0 Conference in San Francisco, September 6-7, 2007. We're on the Knowledge Worker Mobility and Productivity track. I'm delighted to see that also in this track are fellow productivity blogging buddies and GTD geeks, Marc Orchant and Buzz Bruggeman. Marc will be on a panel discussing GTD and Office 2.0, while Buzz will talk about Actionable ideas.

With BETA 1A now out, I'm now free to focus on the conference. Today. I'm reviewing some of my recent articles and presentations along with some podcasts from the archives of the digital sandbox. Soon, I'll toss those ideas onto a mind map and start playing with them to see what I want to talk about. The challenge for me is never deciding what to say, it's deciding what not to say. Mark Twain once said something to the effect of "...ask me to speak for a day, I'll need an hour to prepare; ask me to speak for an hour and I'll need two weeks." I feel like that.

This promises to be an exciting conference, not only because of an excellent selection of topics and speakers but also because all attendees will receive a free iPhone as part of the iPhone Experiment.  Mine arrived Friday; at last, I can now sing the song.

Continue Reading "Mobile Productivity at the Office 2.0 Conference" »