Steve Richards: Productivity

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Thu, 26 Aug 2004 18:56:34 GMT

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If you want to know why I switched have a look here

http://steves.businessblog.com/blog/_archives/2004/8/25/129522.html

Study tips

Fri, 13 Aug 2004 15:56:03 GMT

I came across this site in the OneNote forum, it has some nice concise tips for studying and note taking

http://www.westshore.edu/webs/ltc/study_skills_resources.htm

of particular note is the Cornell Note Taking Method, which although not fancy does provide some insight into the fact that learning does not stop when you finish taking notes!

Outlook - Domino Connecter

Thu, 12 Aug 2004 23:42:53 GMT

I was seduced, (for the third time), into installing the Microsoft Outlook Domino Connecter for the following reasons:

I wanted a single place to manage my RSS feeds, personal email, tasks, calendar and work email
My trial of mNotes completes in a few days and I needed to decide whether to buy it, or whether I could use Active Sync alone, (as my Local Notes replica would now also be in Outlook)
I would get a unified search environment, (because X1 would search my Notes data, which would now be in Outlook)
Graham said it works fine for him

I have tried it twice before, and had to give up both times, despite considerable effort. I kept telling myself the problems were to do with the sequence I did things, by interactions with mNotes, X1 etc, because I did not leave it alone – i.e. I tried to use it! Having tried again a few times these are some of the problems I have had:

Synchronisation is painfully slow
It does not synchronise according to a regular schedule, it just does it in the background, but not as frequently as I would like
It affects the stability of Outlook quite badly, Outlook has hung on me at least 3 times today
It created duplicate email and calendar entries, (never did figure out why, but assumed it was some sort of cascade effect caused by replica’s and mNotes).
I ended up with a corrupt document in my Local Replica, I am currently creating a brand new local replica to see if I can fix it
It does not handle standard s/mime signed documents, (gives a security subsystem error)
Formatting of some message is a bit strange
X1 tries to index entries as soon as the headers arrive, then triggers a pull of the body causing a dialog to keep opening up, very annoying
if you do a full synchronisation, you can not use Outlook until its complete, (either that or Outlook was hanging).

It’s the stability problem that was the killer for me. I could have carried on trying to work through the other issues. I also got worrying that there were some version issues, Windows 2003 Server, Outlook 2003, Notes 6.51 is hardly a combination that has been well tested!

So I have just trashed it yet again and gone back to good old Notes! Which is surprisingly refreshing because it does work reliably. I also like the fact that it’s nice and colourful, especially when you use custom colours for emails from certain people, and colour different calendar entry types! I just hope this new replica works ok!

Inspired by interest in my humble office ...

Tue, 10 Aug 2004 18:50:51 GMT

There are two discussion threads active on the GTD forum on Offices. The first is asking people about their home offices and I have replied to this with some links to my blog. Inspired by the interest people seem to have I have updated some of the pictures and added a couple of new ones. Of particular note is my new baby spider phone, (brand new and 2/3 off retail price off eBay!):

Then Eric Mack got into the act with this "not so tidy" desk post, and another post that links to his blog:

I cope with this by having a designated untidy area:

My wife and kids also have a desk each, and share this one in my office, which helps keep them away from mine:

I need help

Sun, 08 Aug 2004 10:28:52 GMT

This is a posting that I made to the GTD discussion forum.

I am about to start a small research project into personal productivity, I am going to be looking at the following main areas:

Personal knowledge management
Time, task and action management
Communication and collaboration
Team working
Subscription and research

As you can see these are quite relevant to exponents of the GTD methodology, and so I need your help.

First I wanted to explain a little about my personal experience with GTD and history in using similar techniques.

“I love to be organised”

I am one of those people who likes a clear desk, who like kids to have tidy bedrooms, who likes to be in control. I invest a lot in my IT, and a lot of my time in researching how to be organised. I can also invest a lot of time in establishing a new system. But once that new system is established, I find it hard to keep going. Here are some of the reasons why:

I only tend to be motivated to create my list of, “everything that needs to be done”, when things are out of control. The process of creating the list brings me back in control and that tends to last about a month. During that month I gradually begin to feel that I am working for my system rather than my system working for me, so I give up.
I find that although they all seem important when I write them down many of the items on my, “everything that needs to be done list”, never actually get done, as new things keep being added. So in reality I am only ever working with the things that filter to the top. In most cases I already know about the things at the top of the list. It’s the 80/20 rule all over again, I only ever work on the top 20% of my list, and most of the stuff in the 80% never gets touched because new items keep adding themselves to the top 20%.
During the times of my life when I am not following a GTD like methodology, I find I value the fact that my Brain forgets the 80% that’s never going to be done, and lets me keep my sub-conscious focussed on the 20% that is, and my conscious on the 5% I am working on. When I do follow GTD, I find myself distracted by the 80% feeling it’s important and must be progressed, managed, tracked, researched etc. For example for a month I captured research notes in Microsoft OneNote on everything related to my GTD list. Most of that time was wasted because in the end I never got around to the tasks. After the month was up I ended up deleting most of it because I wanted a tidier and better organised OneNote.
I find my Brain balances, “Important/Urgent” , pretty well
I generally always do some form of daily and weekly review and I get close to the “mind like water”, feeling.
I have seen lots of projects suffer because of too much project planning, and too little project management. By that I mean the project manager and project team start to serve the system, they spend all of their time and energy on task definition, tracking, reporting etc and not enough time on requirements, millstones, dependencies, estimating.
I think the above problem with projects is the same problem I see with GTD. Too much attention to managing your tasks and not enough time managing your time and goals.

Ok so you sort of get the idea of where I am coming from with the above, but I said I needed help. Well I have seen a few posts in this forum that really got me thinking. I will repeat a few of the key points here:

Someone said that it was the act of making the list of things to do that was key, not the resulting list. They tested it with for example shopping lists. If you make the list and then forget to take it with you, you still end up buying everything you need.
This was built on by someone who said that if you forgot the list you might actually do better because you might respond more openly to inputs/ideas that you have while out shopping, and maybe reassess your needs more openly as well, (i.e. decide not to buy things, whereas if its on this list you feel compelled to buy it).
In a critique of presentations someone reported how PowerPoint stifles many meetings. The bulleted list stops people thinking, because it trivialises issues, and the slide by slide format constrains discussion and debate. I have actually tested this myself by presenting on an eWhiteboard and its amazing how liberated you feel.
Discussions comparing “Putting first things First”, top down methodology, (which works like my Brain, but perhaps not everyone’s brain), and GTD help to bring the debate into focus
A few people have pointed to Life Balance and there is certainly a lot of thought gone into that software. I tried it for a while, but again concluded that I was likely to end up being controlled by the software, and spend a lot of my time working for it, rather than it working for me!
Finally its obvious that a lot of people love GTD more than I do, I want to understand why!

I was hoping that in discussion of this post more nuggets like those above might help me work this topic through in my mind in a more open way that I have been able to do by just reading the GTD books.

The final problem I have is the systems that support these processes just don’t work for me. When I look at my starting list again:

Personal knowledge management
Time, task and action management
Communication and collaboration
Team working
Subscription and research

I really need an integrated system that supports all of these. I have not found such a system. Although if I were able to use Outlook for my email maybe I would get close with the combination of NewsGator, Outlook, Outlook GTD plug-in and OneNote.

Another good diagram showing personal information management flow

Wed, 04 Aug 2004 18:10:29 GMT

In this post I described my "information processing pipeline". Here is a diagram that touches on the same area.

It was created by Mario Asselin in a response to this paper "Distributed KM" by Martin Roell

The blogging workflow

Wed, 04 Aug 2004 13:16:35 GMT

This is a very very nice summary of how blogs work by Roland Tanglao at Streamline, it complements my comments because it provides more details of some of the server side infrastructure:

1. Joe Blogger writes something and publishes it to his blog.

2. Joe's Blog system updates his site's HTML, updates his RSS file and sends a 'ping' message to the 'Aggregation Ping Server' indicating that his site has updated.

3. Search engines like Google and RSS specific services like Feedster, Technorati and PubSub periodically ask the Aggregation Ping Server, "Which sites have updated?".

4. Since Joe's site sends pings and has an RSS file and is easy to update frequently, Joe's search engine rank is higher than a 'normal site'.

5. Techie Teresa uses a program called an RSS reader to subscribe to Joe's site. The RSS reader checks Joe's RSS file for updates periodically (usually once/hour or once per day) and notifies her of Joe's updates. Teresa no longer wastes time manually surfing Joe's site. She just checks her RSS reader.

6. As a result, Teresa's information flow is more efficient and she can monitor more sites in less time.

7. Joe Surfer (who is not related to Joe Blogger) still can access blogs the old fashioned, slow and less efficient way using his web browser and search engines.

Use Virtual PC, then you need this site!

Tue, 03 Aug 2004 21:26:41 GMT

Absolute goldmine, lists every OS you can image and provides details on whether its works on Virtual PC. I was pretty amazed by the list, especially compared with VM Ware. Where a product has issues it also has notes of workarounds. Even better if you want to keep up to date with the latest additions there is an RSS feed.

Also if like me you have VMWare Workstation, GSX Server and VPC then this is a good review to help you decide which to use. I also suggest checking out the comments on the review.

I used to love my Blackberry - but this looks like a dream

Tue, 03 Aug 2004 19:44:25 GMT

The new Seimens SK65. Full blackberry functionality with a really innovative format, tri-band. Hopefully it has a decent task manager! For more details check out this web site.

Connected car and other concepts

Thu, 29 Jul 2004 19:15:44 GMT

These video's are pretty good examples of some of Microsoft's integrated innovation ideas. Illustrated by the connected car concept

I'm not the only one who thinks multiple monitors are cool!

Thu, 22 Jul 2004 12:03:53 GMT

This video of Microsoft Reasearch into large screens and multiple monitor support, shows some of the cool things that you can start to do with all of that screen real-estate.

http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=14162#14162

Diagram of my home network

Thu, 15 Jul 2004 18:35:51 GMT

I described my Office in a previous post. In this post I thought I would provide a bit on insight into my home network. The following diagram should give you the basic idea.

The hub of the network is a little 4 port 100MB switch. All three servers and one laptop are plugged into this
There are two dedicated servers on the network

Server 1 is a dedicated application server. It only runs Windows 2003 Server and GSX Server 3.1. All application servers and some test desktops run on top of GSX server.
Server 2 is a dedicated management server, and Active Directory domain controller. This server runs the MOM Express 2005, and acts as a backup of my main file server, using Windows 2003 Volume Shadow Copy.

My desktop PC also happens to run Windows 2003 server, as this allows me the flexibility to access it via Windows Terminal Services from anyhwere in the house, mirror my data files, and also runs as AD domain controller for resiliance. It also runs VMWare Workstaton.
When I need access to my company network, I run up a corporate standard PC in a VM on my Desktop Server and VPN from there, (VMware allows me to share files between my Corporate network and my PC network, with full network isolation).
The Pinter/Scanner is plugged into the management Server and the Desktop application server, one connection via USB and the othere via parallel.
For flexible use around the house and offsite I also have a laptop which runs Windows XP Professional, but can access Linux from the VMWare application server. The laptop and my PDA both connect via WIFI.
My eldest daughters both have PC's. One laptop and one desktop both connected via WIFI.
All machines are part of the home AD Domain and use roaming profiles.
All data access except from my desktop server is via DFS
All print access is via my desktop server
Windows Terminal services is used extensively by everyone in the family
My desktop has three screens all driven from my desktop server. One display via analogue, one via DVI and one via a virtual display adaptor from Maxivista.
I have a KVM switch that allows my Keyboard, Mouse and Secondary display to be connected to either my desktop server or my application server for console access, although its more convenient most of the time just to leave a Windows Terminal Server session open.

In a future post I will explain a bit about my home lab, which is all virtual for maximum flexibility and runs a mix of Windows and Linix servers and clients. I will also expand a bit on my desktop application environment and security.

Microsoft and integration

Mon, 12 Jul 2004 22:32:33 GMT

I have thought for a long time that Microsoft don't make much use of their own software to build pre-integrated solutions for their customers, (unlike Oracle for example). They seem to have caught onto the idea at last, (not from listening to me though :-)). Anyway a few months ago they started to talk about solution accelerators, which are solutions built from sets of MS products with associated processes, procedures and best practices as well as custom systems integration. These solve particular business problems, like for example, the process of hiring new employees. There is also evidence that Microsoft is doing the same at the infrastructure level where the range of tools available to them is even richer, SQL Server, BizTalk, SharePoint etc. This is a good example:

Microsoft also plans to make available to enterprise partners a "zero touch provisioning" accelerator that will enable end users to self-service tasks such as requesting the installation of an application or resetting a network password.
"We built in a rules-based engine based on BizTalk that can automate requests, get approved by a manager, and install a new application," Hassall said. "And the opportunity is not just for desktop deployment but add-ons for server infrastructure using SMS and Active Directory and BizTalk in providing an infrastructure for installation and provisioning services."

The company also plans to make available to enterprise partners a "zero touch provisioning" accelerator that will enable end users to self-service tasks such as requesting the installation of an application or resetting a network password.

"We built in a rules-based engine based on BizTalk that can automate requests, get approved by a manager, and install a new application," Hassall said. "And the opportunity is not just for desktop deployment but add-ons for server infrastructure using SMS and Active Directory and BizTalk in providing an infrastructure for installation and provisioning services."

Microsoft's latest marketting phrase - Integrated innovation is starting to mean something. If you want to see more on this topic then enter "integrated innovation", into the search box on the left, include the quotes!

This is just so cool!

Mon, 12 Jul 2004 22:15:25 GMT

Microsoft research have come up with some really cool tools for capturing and manipulating whiteboard contents captured using low quality web cams. My whiteboard is right behind me, (so my web cam points right at it, so it would work just great, but the downloads are MS only. The best trick is it removes the person writing on the board from the image. Here are some of the key points:

Other systems use expensive cameras or dedicated electronic whiteboards. The Live Whiteboard system, developed at Microsoft Research by Zhengyou Zhang and Li-wei He, uses whatever whiteboard you already have. It only needs an inexpensive Web cam and some clever software.

Live Whiteboard doesn't just deliver a video stream of the whiteboard. The software takes out all the shadows and uneven surfaces that come through on a Web cam, and turns the whiteboard into an image that allows viewers to see the whiteboard notes. Through a series of image processing procedures, the originally captured image is first transformed into a rectangular bitmap to correct perspective distortion, and then color-enhanced to increase contrast, saturation, and to provide a clean uniform white background.

In addition, if the remote viewer wants to focus his attention only on the content, the system can take out the image of the person who is writing on the board. The remote viewer sees only the new content magically appearing, he never sees the person who is writing the content. This saves even more bandwidth.

The full news article can be found here, and the web site for the developer with more info and the research reports can be found here.

Office news

Sun, 11 Jul 2004 18:46:40 GMT

A new version of open office is available. The main improvements are:

Enhancements to the open-source productivity suite include support for PDF and XHTML exports and improved compatibility with Microsoft Office, according to the OpenOffice Web site. The new release, for example, will support forms conversion within Word documents and import text document layouts with more fidelity. OpenOffice 1.1 also boasts enhanced support for mobile device formats such as Palm's AportisDoc, Pocket Word and Pocket Excel.

IBM has ideas of its own, taking a thinner approach with its WorkPlace products

A wild card in the Office wars is IBM, which plans to offer server-based word processing, spreadsheet and presentation functionality to buyers of its WebSphere portal. At the very least, that could allow large customers to negotiate better Microsoft Office pricing/licensing, observers said. (See IBM Plans Sneak Attack On Microsoft Office.)

The MS Office team are majoring on quality for their next release, does this imply major changes, requiring major testing, or just good practice?

Software development, especially for a product as feature-rich as Office, is a repetitive process comprising what can seem to be endless feedback loops and rework.
"We're trying to reduce the iteration of that cycle because it's extremely costly," said Steven Sinofsky, senior vice president of Microsoft's Information Worker Product Group. "We want to use our development resources more effectively, yielding higher-quality code and not iterating what customers never see," he said.
The Office 12 team will rely on new tools, including Buddy Web, a system developers can use to privately share releases, according to the memo, from Eric Fox, Office development manager at Microsoft. Buddy Web had previously been used by the Outlook team.
In addition, the Office group will have access to Big Button, a system that gives developers easy access to the appropriate set of tests for their code.

Office 12, will not reply on Longhorn, not really a suprise, but its in print.

Microsoft knows it would be folly to leave the hundreds of millions of Windows XP and 2000 users out in the cold and force an upgrade to the shiny, new and radically different next version of Windows, code-named Longhorn, which is now expected to come out in 2007 or later. Office 12 initially was slated to ship with Longhorn, but the next-generation Windows platform slipped and Office didn't, according to one insider. "The Office team is disciplined. They nail down their feature set, set a schedule and usually hit it," the insider said.

Read all this in the context of my previous posts on Choosing an office suite

Getting things done

Sun, 11 Jul 2004 17:51:23 GMT

Atlantic published an article about the tools and techniques promoted by David Allen the author of the book "Getting Things Done", which I read a few months back. I liked the book and gave it a quick review here. However for a better introduction its a good idea to read the article. I have repeated a small snipit of it here to get you started.

The doctrine that inspires this devotion starts with the idea that the difference between done and undone tasks is more stress-inducing than most people recognize. In earlier times, Allen says, work was more physically exhausting than it is today. But it produced less anxiety; because people could easily tell what they had to do and whether it had been completed. Either the wood was chopped or it was not. The typical modern day, he says, is a fog of constantly accumulating open-ended obligations, with little barrier between the personal and the professional and few dear signals that you are actually "done." E-mail pours in. Hallway conversations end with 'I'll get back to you." The cell phone rings. The newspaper tells you about movies you'd like to see, recipes you'd like to try, places you'd like to go. There are countless things that everyone really "should" do more of--exercise, read, spend time with the family, have lunch with a contact, be "better" at work. The modern condition is to be overwhelmed--and, according to Allen, to feel not just tired but chronically anxious, because so many things you have at some level committed to do never get done.

The anxiety is compounded, he says, by a foible of the human mind: it can't remember, and it can't forget. No one can possibly remember all the promises, deadlines, and other "shoulds" of personal and occupational life. The proof is the need for datebooks. No sane person tries to keep all future meetings in his or her head. But, perversely, the brain also can't forget; at some deep and not very efficient level it is always stewing about the things you should have done but haven't, and it tends to remind you of them at the worst time--typically, 3:00 A.M. A vague but powerful awareness of all these uncompleted promises, or "open loops," is what Allen sees as the basic source of work-related stress, Again, datebooks illustrate the point. People complain about their schedules, but they rarely wake up at night worrying that they won't remember to go to the airport on the right day. That is because they trust their datebooks and trust themselves to look at their datebooks regularly.

If you are serious about personal productivity though then you could do worse than invest some time reviewing the discussion forum that David Allen's company hosts. There is a very active debate in this forum and its quality stuff.

Some progress in server infrastructure for processing XML documents

Sat, 10 Jul 2004 19:17:30 GMT

Its interesting to see the slow but sure emergence of middleware to exploit XML documents. Microsoft have WSS which can manipulate Infopath docuemnts stored in its document libraries for example. InfoWorld report on a mor ambitious tool from IBM, code named Project Cinnamon, you can get the full details here, but here is the real content:

Cinnamon was born in IBM's Almaden Research Center and is a tool designed to automatically create mappings among different forms of data. By allowing users to define how an XML document gets mapped into a database such as DB2, the technology makes it easier to store those documents and to manage their content.

The upcoming utility hopes to address one of the thornier problems associated with XML-based development. Although XML serves as a clear standard for how content in a document is defined, the schema or definition of that content can be markedly different from document to document. This makes it impractical to place thousands of different documents in even a single data source and be able to retrieve certain data using a single search engine, an IBM representative said.

InfoWorld also says:

Some analysts think the upcoming technology can play a central role in helping corporate users crystallize the implementation of their Web services and SOA (service-oriented architecture) visions.

It may play a part, but I think "central role" is over stating it a bit.

More on the conflict between personal productivity and enterprise IT management

Fri, 09 Jul 2004 23:42:13 GMT

I wrote about this topic a while back. Its nice to see some discussion starting up on it for two reasons:

Its really interesting, and a topic that deserves more public debate
I want to do some research on it, and need all the input I can get. My own blog is sort of work in progress research but I want to spend a month or so giving it some real attention

Check out this post which gets the debate started. Eric Mack has a real good contribution.

In fact if you are interested in personal productivity in general then the discussions on the Getting Things Done site are of a very high quality.

3 Monitors is the way to go!

Tue, 06 Jul 2004 23:25:58 GMT

I have been quite happy with my two monitor setup at home, but using maxivista I am now able to drive three monitors from my main desktop PC. This is just great. I can now have my email in one, my RSS feeds in another, be using Office in another etc. I am also using a lot of virtual PC's and I can have these displaying on different monitors. So I can have RedHat on one monitor and SUSE on another and still be using Office on my third. It really must have driven my productivity up 20% when I am doing this sort of work, which is probably 50% of the time. That's at least £100/day. A staggering return on investment - the third monitor, (old laptop), was being scrapped and Maxivista is about $40!!

The other great advantage is that your concentration and focus is not disrupted, you might think it would be, but it seems that by not switching applications all the time, and by being able to focus on the task at hand on your primary screen, the other two monitors just provide supporting information.

We really must get more people to understand the value proposition of multiple screens!

Some background on NewsGator and Syndication

Fri, 02 Jul 2004 11:34:15 GMT

This post by Brad Feld, a Venture Capitalist who has recently invested in NewsGator is useful if you too have invested in a copy and want to understand a bit about where the tool is going. But its also interesting if like me you want to understand a bit about syndication in general and the market opportunity as investors see it. I recently posted on how I see the market from a technical perspective for behind the firewall corporate environments, in discussion with NewsGator this market is certainly in their plans.

Greg adds a bit more detail in his blog

WIndows 2003 Server, anywhere access

Wed, 30 Jun 2004 12:36:45 GMT

It's TechED Europe this week and Microsoft have announced more details of the next release of Windows 2003 Server. The area of most interest to me is, "anywhere access", which Neowin reports on. Anywhere access enables users to use terminal services over port 80 (HTTPs/RPC), Outlook over port 80 (HTTPs/RPC) and also file shares from within corporate LANs over port 80 (HTTPs/RPC).

These are very interesting developments, the WTS capabilities removing one more advantage that Citrix has over Microsoft. The file share access is interesting, as file share access using WebDAV is already available I can only assume that this is CIFS access tunnelled over HTTPS, this would be a big improvement over WebDAV as it would support more applications, the properties dialog and other features not available today using DAV. I thought Outlook over HTTPS was already part of Exchange 2003 server, so I am not sure why this is included in a feature list for Windows 2003 server unless its actually provided by the OS or probably IIS rather than Exchange.

These HTTP access mechanisms are useful not just in providing internet access to corporate resources but also for corporates wishing to provide controlled access on their WAN for third parties, aquisitions or businesses in the process of being disposed of.

Workspace design

Mon, 28 Jun 2004 22:02:29 GMT

One of my favourite topics just started to get an airing on the web, Work Space design. It’s been an interest of mine ever since I can remember, it’s the frustrated Architect in me, (I was never good enough at art to take it at University). Anyway what really bugs me about the topic is my belief that it has a huge impact on individual and team effectiveness, but receives very little focus and even less investment by many companies. Even companies that reap huge profits from their consultants tend not to invest in their productivity. I talked about this in a previous post, but mainly from an IT SW perspective.

Since I have been working from home I have invested quite heavily in my own work environment and I certainly notice a huge improvement in my productivity. The biggest improvement comes from two large monitors driven from the same desktop PC, supplemented by a management console that I use to monitor my lab and anything else that I need to check frequently. I also have a dedicated portable that I can just pick up and carry away whenever I need to move around the house, I use a dedicated portable for this because I don't get any issues with windows being resized and moved around between monitors and because I want my primary machine to be my desktop, (that way I get two large 19" monitors").

As all of my machines run Windows Terminal Services, X Windows or Remote Desktop, I can easily connect to any of them from any machine, and I have dedicated short cuts to them all to make it really quick. As my desktop is running Windows Server 2003, I have two short cuts one to take over the console, and the other to login a separate session.

I have made a few other investments:

1. A fan to keep the air moving

2. A nice big table next to my desk in case I have meetings or need layout space

3. Everything within easy reach

4. A great scanner and Paperport to minimise the amount of paper clutter

5. A good but simple filing system

6. Music

7. A good speaker phone

8. A desk lamp

Anyway that’s a bit about me. But what about a workspace design in a corporate context, I might talk a bit about my experiments in this area, (mainly flexible offices), in another post but I wanted to link to some other interesting posts that I have just come across.

It starts with the results of a survey by Microsoft which concludes:

Nearly two-thirds of office computer users tie the fatigue they experience during the week to working at the computer for long periods. In addition, nine out of 10 said the design setup of their workstation directly affects their ability to be most productive at work. More than 50 percent of those surveyed said one of the best ways employers can show their commitment to employees' success is to provide them with the latest technologies so they can do their jobs more efficiently.

I particularly liked this bit:

This compares with 23 percent who said they would prefer motivational tools such as morale-building and social outings, and 16 percent who would opt for perks such as free soda and parking, which are commonly offered in workplaces today.

It goes on to say:

Researchers have found that individual performance increases by 25 percent when employees use an ergonomically designed workstation

However this is from a study in 1991, so is probably not that relevant today, but check it out and make your own judgement. 25% is a lot!!

In a similar survey by Logitech, reported by CNN, it states:

In a survey by office furniture manufacturers Logitech asking workers to grade the design of their workspace, 56 percent rated their office or cubicle as a "C" or below.

Only six percent of employees gave their office an "A" grade.

More than half of those who rated their desks as "C" or worse said they would feel more valued if they were given more input into shaping their environment and 84 percent said their comfort levels could be improved.

According to the research, workers now spend an average of 37.5 hours at week at work -- more than 14 hours a week longer than in their living room -- and a majority say they place equal importance on the comfort and design of both.

To get you thinking here are some hints and tips on Work Space design taken from PowerHomeBiz.com

· Do try to arrange your space in an L-shape or triangle, with a swivel-style desk chair in the middle of the configuration. With a spin of your seat or a slight roll backward or to the side, all essentials are within arm's reach.

· Don't skimp on comfort, especially when it comes to your desk chair. Choose one with a cushioned seat and back, adjustable height so your feet are flat on the floor, a back that tilts and curves, and wheels on the bottom to get around easily.

· Do group equipment and furnishings into different centers of operation. These might include your computer, phone/fax, mail handling area, and worktable.

· Don't be stingy about storage space and lighting. Put in as many cabinets, cubbies, and shelves as you can without crowding your workspace. Illuminate individual work areas with their own direct lights.

· Do plan with portability in mind. Cordless phones and laptops allow you to move your work close to your children, if necessary. Other portable conveniences are furniture on casters, baskets that can quickly be repositioned when needed, and a rolling cart to easily transport files and correspondence so you can work in the kitchen, family room, or even outside for an hour or so.

· Don't set up your office where it should be; put it where you want it to be.

· Do personalize the room by hanging up children's drawings and other favorite artwork, propping family photos on the desk, painting the walls your favorite color, including a knickknack or two, and adding other special touches. These not only make for a cozier space, they can help reduce stress.

· Don't do everything at once if money and/or time are tight. Start with the bare-bones basics, adding on when you can afford more. As your profits increase, you may even consider hiring a professional designer to help you make improvements. Most charge between $75 and $150 an hour for a consultation, and it would not take long to toss around some design ideas.

· Do plan for future growth. Architects and designers recommend that you project 25 percent more space than you currently require, especially if you're remodeling your home to accommodate an office or buying a new house with work-at-home potential.

Tablet PC for Jennifer

Fri, 25 Jun 2004 21:57:09 GMT

This is a short article that I wrote for the occupational therapist who works with one of my daughters who has Raynauds and Scleroderma.

There are a variety of different types of technology assistance that would benefit Jennifer in an educational setting. My perception is that a range of techniques will be required that reflect the unpredictable nature of her symptoms and the variety of different tasks that she needs to perform. There is no magic bullet solution that meets all of her needs.

Writing

When Jennifer has to write for extended periods there are a number of issues that need to be considered:

1. Her ability to dictate in a fluent fashion is limited at this age

2. Her hands get cold

3. Her hands get tired

4. Sometimes the movement/dexterity of her hands is limited

What solution options are available in addition to traditional pen and paper?

1. Voice recognition

2. Hand writing recognition

3. Simple gesture recognition

4. Different types of keyboard

5. text substitution

Each option is considered in brief below:

Voice recognition

Voice recognition is still not a mature and easy to use technology. Some of the important characteristics are described below:

1. The software, (SW), requires training and this process requires some dedication and can be very frustrating

2. The SW works best when the person dictating has mastery of fluent speaking

3. The SW works best in a quiet environment, although some people have reported success in a normal office environment with a high quality noise cancelling microphone

4. Considerable skill is required to use the SW for anything other than raw text input. In addition keyboard less editing of text input can be complex and very frustrating.

All of these characteristics are indicators that Voice Recognition will not be a magic bullet for Jennifer.

My view is that one should expect to use the SW as a complement to other techniques, where it is appropriate, and almost always alongside a keyboard and mouse or a stylus.

Hand writing recognition

Hand writing recognition has improved dramatically in accuracy and is now approaching 99%+ accuracy in SW that will be available in the mainstream operating systems by mid 2004.

Hand writing recognition may seem a strange option for someone who struggles with spelling, and traditional pen and paper however there are some significant advantages:

1. The SW works for people with fairly bad handwriting. Jennifer’s writing is neat by comparison

2. The SW allows the person to write large letters, much larger than would be appropriate for pen and paper

3. The SW recognises words by comparing against a dictionary, so for a poor speller accuracy can be increased significantly

4. The SW does not require significant training

5. Correction of words that have been incorrectly recognised is a fairly natural process and presents likely words from the dictionary improving spelling

6. If the digitiser used for entering the text is a Tablet format PC, the screen is warm and will keep Jennifer’s writing hand warm.

7. Using the same Tablet PC interface it is possible to transition between voice input and handwriting input seamlessly. This is useful for example if the stylus is used for correction and voice for bulk text entry. Or the stylus used for difficult words or for maths and voice used for descriptions.

8. Maths SW is also available to automatically calculate the answers of maths problems

9. Handwriting can be captured without conversion to text. Or can be converted to text later if required

Voice recording

As a complement to the two techniques above, rather than convert voice to text, it is also possible to record voice directly. There are some significant advantages to this as a complementary technique:

1. If Jennifer is getting behind she can just record her voice and she or her SSA can translate to text later if needed

2. Notes and annotations can be saved as voice

3. Note taking SW is available that merges the voice and text streams so that it is possible to hear the person’s voice at the same point in time that a note was being written.

Simple gesture recognition

There are alternatives to hand writing recognition that involve significantly less hand movement and much simpler gestures. This software can be used as a complement to the other techniques. It has the following important characteristics:

1. A stylus is used, so it has some of the benefits of handwriting recognition when used on a tablet, i.e. the writing surface is warm

2. The stylus movements are much simpler, generally just straight lines and L shapes

3. The movements can be small or large

4. A game is available to aid in learning

Different types of keyboard

There are a wide variety of specialist keyboards available that allow single handed typing. Gel keyboards for low impact etc. Although the mobility of a device with these keyboards is limited and they are only likely to be of benefit for extended text input.

Text substitution

Used in conjunction with most of the above, this allows short words to automatically be expanded to long ones, or difficult things to type to be substituted with easy things. It has the disadvantage of making people lazy, but it would help Jennifer. For example if you type:

1. dt, then the date and time can be substituted like this: 03/11/2004 @ 02:48 PM

2. dont can be automatically converted to don’t

3. address can be substituted to

Road

Town

County

Postcode

Note taking

A lot of school work is about note taking, research and idea assembly for projects etc. A variety of powerful techniques are available including, some of which have already been mentioned:

1. Ability to record teachers words, make text notes and listen to the teachers words later to reinforce the text note or to clarify the note

2. Ability to take notes using a keyboard, voice recording, handwriting and handwriting conversion to text. Or a mixture of these

3. Ability to annotate scanned in workbooks, text books and handouts, annotations can take any of the above forms

4. Ability to aggregate information from lots of sources, scanned, web, and personal input into a project

All of these mechanisms are integrated in products like:

1. Microsoft One note

2. Microsoft Journal

3. Agilix GoBinder™ For Students

Annotating

Annotating is key for students. In Jennifer’s case especially so as she is likely to focus on annotation of existing material and notes, rather than note taking. The primary technologies available are:

1. Freehand drawing using a digitiser, ideally integrated into the tablet PC format

2. Freehand writing

3. Handwriting converted to text, likely to be used for project work and other formal submissions

4. Voice annotation, (see comments above)

5. Voice to text, (see comments above)

Compilation/Project work

Project work is ever increasingly important. Project work involves:

1. Research

2. Assembly of material

3. Integration of information from diverse sources

4. Annotation of this information

5. Original input

All of these activities are served by Note taking solutions like Microsoft Onenote described previously.

Diagrams and Art

If any activity suited itself to the tablet, stylus driven input model it’s diagramming and art. Software is available that:

1. Converts freehand gestures to lines, circles, flow charts etc

2. Software is available that allows the production or graphs, and other diagrams using mouse or stylus

3. Voice or text annotation or freehand writing annotations can be added to these diagrams

4. They allow a person with reduced dexterity to produce neat well organised work

5. They provide powerful ways to correct mistakes, especially useful for people with low dexterity.

Other considerations

1. It would be great if Jen did not have to carry lots of books, notes etc around with her. A tablet format device with scanned notes and books or eBooks would be ideal.

2. Preparation for the future. The skills learnt in using technology to support the learning process would be invaluable in later life

3. Self sufficiency. The tools described would potentially reduce the level of SSA input, but make Jen more self sufficient and equip her better for later life.

Recommendations

1. Jennifer should continue to spend a significant amount of time reading out loud at school and home, as this will improve her fluency and prepare the ground for voice recognition SW later

2. Jennifer should undertake a trial of a tablet PC, recommended to be Tablet PC version 2004, (available mid year), for approximately 2 weeks for handwriting recognition. Potentially small changes made now in her style could significantly improve successful use later

3. Jennifer should begin to play with voice recognition SW at home, (equipment is available), so that it comes easily and naturally to her when she has to learn it for real

4. Jennifer should begin to play with Microsoft OneNote to keep her personal diary, so that she becomes familiar with navigation, and use, (voice annotation, voice recording etc)

5. Consideration should be given to equipping her with a Tablet PC and handheld scanner during her first year at high school. Access to ebooks and scanned books should be explored through the school and school book suppliers

Tips for using Lotus Notes and GTD methodology

Fri, 25 Jun 2004 10:51:56 GMT

I recently read Getting Things Done, and wanted to apply it using Lotus Notes. I struggled a bit and to tell the truth I have not fully implemented it even after a month of playing around. I am trying again now that I have a new PDA, better synchronisation software, mNotes and some hints and tips from Eric Mack on using Notes and GTD and on using Notes for task and action management.

Choosing a PDA - can it really be so difficult!

Thu, 24 Jun 2004 16:59:40 GMT

I used to have an IPAQ years ago and despite using it a lot in the beginning I gradually stopped using it mainly for the following reasons:

I did not like having to sync it
It was too big to carry around everywhere
I did not have a case that gave me instant access to it when carrying it around, so it tended to be in a bag
The battery life deteriorated to the point where it could not be relied upon
It did not have enough storage space without a great big expansion jacket add-on

Then along came a Blackberry which I instantly fell in love with, I have talked about my love affair with my Blackberry before in my gadget blog. However I recently started working from home and the subscription costs to the Blackberry service no longer seemed worthwhile so I decided that I would take that money and invest it in something that was a higher priority, I decided I would try a traditional Palm or Pocket PC PDA again.

The process of choosing is a classic example of the tyranny of too much choice.

My experience went something like this:

Every day I changed my mind because I loved my Blackberry so much
Email and Calendar on a PDA always seemed like a compromise compared to the Blackberry, but everything else I wanted from a PDA either was not an option or didn’t work too well, like tasks for example.
I have a company supplied phone and for some reason its incredibly difficult to get GPRS approved so I would have a PDA that was only online at home, making the transition from the BB even more difficult
On the days when I did decide to go the PDA route I alternated between Palm and Pocket PC.
Each day I switched from wanting a lovely large high resolution screen at all costs, to wanting a small Bluetooth and wireless equipped machine

I finally managed to make a decision to swap from the BB as follows:

I gave myself the money from a years BB subscription and asked myself how I wanted to spend it
I decided that it was useful to break the instant email addiction
I decided that when I was out of the house it was most likely that I was not working so getting a device that had many non work related distractions would be a good idea

I made the Palm/Pocket PC decision as follows:

I run Windows 2003 Server on my desktop and I was able to make sure that Active Sync worked fine and that Wireless worked fine with Pocket PC before I made the purchase
I had quite a lot of software left over from my old IPAQ. Particularly eWallet and Pocket Informant which I really liked
I use Lotus Notes at work and came across some fabulous synchronisation software called mNotes and I was able to check this out before I made the decision, (its available for Palm too but I couldn’t test it)
I was familiar with Pocket PC and knew that it was good enough

I made the decision on which form factor to get as follows:

I knew from past experience that having a small device was important if I was to be successful in motivating myself to carry it around
The small devices were cheaper than the half or full VGA models
The VGA models had problems with some applications using the screen in VGA mode that required hacks to get around and whilst these seemed to work for most people they seemed to stop WIFI working for some people
The VGA models were first generation. Next generation models were likely to be much better, but I didn’t want to wait
I decided that if the next generation models were really great then I would do a bit of cascading and make my eldest daughter very happy when she starts High School in September!

I finally decided on an IPAQ 4150 because:

HP has a good reputation and they are going to be in the market for the long term
I had an IPAQ before and that gave me confidence
It is very small
It has a great screen
It has a good software bundle
It has Bluetooth and WIFI
I found a great case, holster style that fits on my belt and is as close to the Blackberry case as you can get. That decision was easy I wanted something exactly like the Blackberry, this is it.
I got a good deal and had money left over for the case and 512MB storage card
Battery life seemed ok, but a high capacity battery is available if I have problems

The Tyranny of Choice

Thu, 24 Jun 2004 16:58:40 GMT

An article in Scientific American, titled The Tyranny of Choice has sparked a considerable debate on the web about the problems faced by western societies as a result of too much choice. In fact the idea is a very old one, I came cross it years ago but it is not mentioned very often by your every day Happiness literature which tends to talk more about internal changes that people can make to the way they think rather than factors from their external environment.

You can sum up the material prior to this article as follows:

The intent of advertising is to make us dissatisfied with what we have
If we meet people who have more than we have, or have different spending priorities or saving priorities then we tend to be dissatisfied with what we have

These two factors are the main environmental factors that effect happiness. In my experience they are even more powerful than having somewhere warm and dry to live and enough food to eat, which I soon got used to. However some people disagree with this and consider these to be essential, (Hygiene factors in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

This new article extends the model a bit with the following concepts:

Too much choice can be a bad thing
Especially if when faced with a choice you spend a lot of time and energy of assessing the options and agonising over them. This is a particular problem now days with the popularity of “what xxx” type magazines and the Internet which:
- Exposes us to ever increasing choice
- Provides access to a huge amount of information on each option
- Provides access to a huge amount of often conflicting opinion about each option
Even worse if when you finally make a decision you then continue to expose yourself to options and opinions that may change the choice you made and lead to dissatisfaction. In fact this can easily happen anyway because often the way that tradeoffs are prioritised when making a decision then change once the decision has been taken and real life experience refines or overturns them
These factors are compounded with easy credit which does not provide a natural limit on peoples capacity to dream and plan to acquire things.

I don’t want to repeat the article, but it’s worth mentioning that it identifies different personality types who are affected by the above to a greater or lesser extent.

There are a few articles that discuss this topic in more detail and I have provided a few of the links here:

Worth repeating is a great quote by the great physicist Richard Feynman, who when faced with the dessert menu in restaurants always chose the chocolate option. As Feynman saw it, while the other desserts might be better, they might not be. On the other hand, the chocolate option was always pretty acceptable - so why fret for ages over making a choice that might be wrong anyway?

In many ways Richards approach mirrors my own, I am happiest and most at ease when I am doing simple familiar things, that I don’t have to think about, but which I know I enjoy. When faced with the option to do something different I will often avoid it to reduce the risk that I won’t enjoy it, rather than take the risk that I will enjoy it more. However when faced with choice I definitely suffer from the problems described here. Read my blog entry about choosing a new PDA for an example.

To convert or not

Mon, 14 Jun 2004 09:34:13 GMT

Working Smart has a short discussion on whether to convert your hand written notes in OneNote, I had not really considered this topic from any other standpoint than speed. In this article the basic premis is that handwritten notes are much more expressive than typewritten, and the seamless inclusion of diagrams and other visual clues can greatly add to the quality of the notes.

When I demonstrate the computer, as I inevitably do, I usually do so by handwriting some text in Microsoft OneNote. Immediately, people ask, “So, does it automatically convert your handwriting to text?” Well, yes, it can ... if I want. But, 90% of the time I just leave my handwriting “as is.” Here’s why ... to quote Linenberger again:

Taking notes in ink:

facilitates creativity in your note taking
communicates more about the meaning of your notes
integrates better with sketches and expressive marks on the note-taking page
is a better way to represent information copied from whiteboards and presentations
is a faster way to record notes, faster than even the most speedy and accurate handwriting recognition.
I can virtually guarantee that after a few days or weeks of taking notes primarily in ink, you too will be convinced that this is a highly effective and preferable method of note taking on the Tablet PC (Linenberger, p. 237)

Using a Tablet PC in Meetings

Mon, 14 Jun 2004 09:29:19 GMT

here is a great summary of the main reasons that Tablets work better in Meetings than laptops, maybe its a cultural things but its certanly true that I switch off if a person I am with is using a laptop to tap away. If I am meeting someone with a Tablet I find we converge around it. often I project the tablet screen so that everyone in the meeting can see the meeting notes being captured as well.

Using a Tablet PC during a typical management meeting is totally different from using a laptop. It’s the difference between night and day. The difference between success and failure. Here’s why.

Discretion: Nothing is more distracting than, during a management-style meeting, having a meeting participant typing away on a laptop. In contrast, working with a Tablet PC in your lap appears no different from what you would be doing with a pen and notepad in your lap. This is particularly true if you use, as recommended later in this book, an executive-style portfolio case that makes your Tablet PC resemble an executive notepad portfolio.

Communication barriers: Placing a laptop with the screen flipped up in front of you on a conference room table creates a physical barrier between you and others in the room. This is literally a barrier to communication. The Tablet PC is normally on your lap, and out of sight. Or it is flat on the desk like a writing pad.

Personal effectiveness: Research shows that if you use both hands to accomplish a task, a much larger percentage of your brain becomes engaged in that operation. Typing with both hands tends to totally engage your brain in the typing activity and makes you visibly less tuned-in to the meeting. In contrast, writing with one hand during a meeting is second nature to most of us. The brain stays mostly engaged in the meeting activities. We all can take notes and participate in a meeting at the same time. Using a Tablet PC in a meeting is little different from this.

Eye contact: Related to the above point, and for the same reasons, many users have reported that it is much easier to maintain periodic and consistent eye contact with others in a meeting when using a Tablet PC versus using a laptop. This has a dramatic affect on the perception of others that you are engaged and personable. Lack of eye contact also limits your ability to read body language of others, adding to your distance from the meeting (pp. 15, 16)

Personal Information Disaster!

Thu, 03 Jun 2004 16:58:05 GMT

I wrote this post then lost it! So this is just a place holder to remind me to get around to writing it again.

links I need are

http://www.novell.com/products/ifolder/

http://haystack.lcs.mit.edu/index.html

http://esw.w3.org/topic/PersonalInformationDisaster

http://www.kde.org/

http://oopm.openoffice.org/

http://news.com.com/2009-1016-5103226.html?tag=nl

http://www.adambosworth.net/archives/000021.html

http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/office2004/office2004.aspx?pid=highlights

http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2004/06/17.html#a1025

http://www.opensource.org/halloween/halloween11.html

and my own blog entries

Which Office Suite?

Thu, 03 Jun 2004 16:22:43 GMT

Which Office Suite? Is shaping up to be a fascinating decision making process. I am not ready to expose all of my thinking on this topic but it goes something like this:

Some people think its easy, MS Office alternatives are cheaper and most people don’t use the bells and whistles in Office so people will migrate provided the alternatives meet peoples core needs.
I think its more complex than this and as a minimum the costs of migration, lost productivity, and compatibility and rework need to be factored in
Intertia is a big one in Microsofts favour, for a business that has SW Assurance or an EA, the decision is deferred probably for at least 2-3 years after their EA expires and probably longer if they do a lot of data interchange. That probably means 4-5 years from now!
But this is the trivial stuff. Sure direct and indirect cost comparison is important but I want to consider:
1. How do people really use Office and is it really true that people only use a small amount of the functionality, and if they do, do they all use a different small amount?
2. I also want to consider vision, MS has a vision for Office, What is that Vision?
3. How open is that vision, probably not very! Is the value proposition worth the lock-in? Is the ‘integrated innovation’ that Microsoft are fond of worth the lock-in
4. What’s the vision of the competition, for some of them is it to catch up with Office 97. For others it’s a complete reworking of the concept. So it’s important not to just ask the question can it do what office does!
5. Remember the vision is the important stuff, if the decision is 4-5 years away!

Maybe that all sounds a bit dry, so why do I think it’s so interesting:

Consider how many users of Office there are
Consider how much of Microsoft’s profits come from Office and how desperate MS are to keep that profit coming in, desperate people innovate!
Consider how important Office is to drive MS Operating system sales and how important OS sales are to MS profits, desperate times two!
Consider how desperate the competition is to break the MS Office Suite monopoly
Look at the last few versions of Office, basically a stagnant product, innovating sure, but within a straight jacket imposed by the fact that all of the core Office stuff is effectively done, and improvements are marginal.
All the real interesting stuff requires further client side, client server, peer to peer and device type to device type integration
Hence we see the push in the Office System areas, Mobility, WinFS.

So its integrated integration where the action is from Microsoft's perspective and they are pouring billions into it, how are the competition addressing integrated innovation, or do they have an alternative perspective. How do the differing approaches affect real enterprises and real users, (see this blog for the difference). Thats the question I want to answer!

As a twist the answer may not just depend on the type of person you are, but on the type of device you use. So maybe portable device users and especially tablet device users will have a more compelling reason to stick with MS because for these people the flexible input technologies, online/offiline experience, home/work integration, device integration etc are more important.

Some of the important links are listed below:

Advantages of the OpenOffice.org XML File Format Used by the StarOffice Office Suite

Migrating to StarOffice Software from Microsoft Office

Draft of OO Product Concept Document

Accepted OO Projects

Calendar Feeds

Thu, 03 Jun 2004 16:04:41 GMT

In this blog, I started to talk about the evolution of subscription beyond news. Here is a great example of how this might work. This site describes the RDF Calendar format. It provides a few examples, (I have added a few as well), of why you migt want to subscribe to a calendar, and includes ToDo list examples:

Subscribe to you travel itinery and have the events automatically added to your calendar, flight times etc, and automatically updated
Subscribe to a list of bugs which flow into your todo list
Subscribe to an event schedule, for example football matches
Subscribe to a favorite TV show

More information is available here

Some of the scenarios are listed below:

EventDiscovery
CalendarScraping
TravelTools, PathCross
CalendarSynchronization
ScheduleAnimation
OpeningHoursUseCase
AnnounceOMatic
HTML views of calendars (see datebook2html.xsl in telagent for example)

One more example of the Personal Information Disaster that is the web today!

Getting things done

Sun, 30 May 2004 00:41:17 GMT

Just finished my first read of this book, (it really needs reading twice), and found it pretty good. Unfortunately it also left me being very frustrated because the methodology proposed is so well supported by the outlook Add-in, and I have to use Lotus Notes. There is a template for Notes, but so far as I can figure it only seems to be available through coaching sessions.

There are some very good blogs on how to refine the methodolgy:

http://blogs.officezealot.com/marc/archives/000582.html

http://www.shahine.com/omar/PermaLink,guid,a8bb7588-179d-4d6f-aa5e-703ea2275e57.aspx

and of course Dave's blog

http://david.davidco.com/

One of the key concepts in the book is, "A mind like water", ie emptying the mind so that it can focus on what needs to be done. The concept is sometimes misunderstood and there is a great post here that explains it very well.

An excellent article on blogging and RSS

Fri, 28 May 2004 21:47:37 GMT

Here is an excellent article on RSS and Weblogs. It has good coverage on discussions and collaboration aspects, which I neglected in my own simillar article.