Innovation Science

eMail Annihilation

43 Folders posted an interesting way to start afresh in the New Year with your e-mail. I know few people who don't complain that they can't keep up with the volume of e-mail that they receive. 43 Folder's suggestion is to create a Folder in Outlook (everyone uses Outlook, right?) called DMZ, select everything in your inbox and move it into the DMZ. Now, you have a fresh, clean inbox that can't intimidate you. Many people have a hard time getting started because they know how many e-mails are in there unanswered that need their attention. This eliminates that dread. Of course, from this point on you have to be diligent, but it's probably difficult to start being diligent when you have hundreds of unanswered e-mails.

43 Folders suggests that you still need to deal with all of those e-mails in the DMZ zone, but I have a better idea. Don't even look in the DMZ folder again unless you are looking for past information, and send and e-mail to everyone "explaining" that your Outlook got infected and destroyed your inbox, then ask people to resend any e-mails that really need your attention. Do this every month (kidding).

Web 2.0 Frees Me While Limiting Me

Wherein I claim that Web 2.0 makes my data less accessible while providing me with more freedom.

Dion Hinchcliffe’s post The Best Web 2. 0 Software of 2005 got me thinking about how these offerings have changed the way I work, what they enable and how they limit  me.

I use a variety of new web applications to create and store information. Software and services like 37signals’ Backpack (of which I’m a big fan), Writely, del.icio.us, and Calendarhub all move mechanisms and content from the desktop to the web. While this is enabling, it is also limiting.

In most cases, with these applications, lack of an internet connection means lack of productivity. I BART between San Francisco and Berkeley everyday during which I have no internet connection and no access to these services. As a result, I have no access to my data stored on those sites and no ability to enter data into their applications.

There are some attempts to work around this: Backpack allows me to send information to their database through e-mail, so I can write an e-mail while on the train, store it in the outbox, and then send it to Backpack when I next connect to the internet (assuming that I have the address for each of my backpacks in my Outlook address book). Good thing that I don’t rely on internet-based e-mail clients exclusively or even this option wouldn’t be available. Writerly allows me to write a document in Word while on BART and import it when I connect, but it does not give me access to my documents that I’ve already started unless I purposefully saved a copy on my desktop which would be a little outside of their proposed process. If I’m at a café without an internet connection (which do exist even in San Francisco), then I’m stuck again. Techcrunch wants to see all of MS Office online AJAX-style, but that again limits usability for me. Om Malik talked about concern with using online text editors because of security concerns, but I think that his reluctance also includes a fear of inaccessibility.

What’s missing is a seamless integration between the services’ online and offline states, whereby a desktop client takes over when I’m offline and seamlessly synchs my information with my online app when I’m connected. Current workarounds are cumbersome and add an extra layer of data management that these tools should be trying to reduce. While desktop integration may seem antithetical to the Web 2.0 movement, it’s fundamental to my needs until internet connectivity is present everywhere.

However, there is a very strong way in which these Web 2.0 services are freeing, and that is by allowing me to leave my laptop behind and still have access to my data. This is particularly important for me if a web software system provides a mobile version of their service so that I can access my data on my Treo. Web 2.0 services are also freeing as more connected computers are available to me in different locations. This frees me up from taking my laptop everywhere as long as I know I will have access to a computer. For the first time I may not bring my laptop with me when I visit my parents over the holidays—I will have access to everything I need through their PC, their internet connection and my data provided by Web 2.0 services.

Moore's Torrential PC and Information Overflow

I like Geoffrey Moore's call for a new metaphor for the PC UI that embraces multi-threaded information streams to appease our increasing demand for data:

The current UI is still tied indirectly to the PC’s original root metaphor, a typewriter.  It needs to transition to another—the stock trader’s workstation on Wall Street.  It needs to recast itself as a media machine, with many concurrent feeds that enable traders to scan for information, detect trends, and transact, all very rapidly.

This concept feeds into previous posts of mine and others on the increasing demands on our attention. While Geoffery does not discuss the fact that we are becoming overwhelmed with information, he rightly identifies the PC as being inefficient in relaying the multiple streams of information that we have come to require.

I would like to add to his request for a better UI by also suggesting that we need better tools for information management. There is a huge volume of information coming at us (or that we are mining) from multiple streams and the storage management of this information is becoming too difficult. I am struggling to find the right mix of tools to deal with all of the data that I wish to retain and be able to recall at some future time on multiple machines (work PC, home PC, Treo). I'm using a combination of del.icio.us, EverNote, ContentSaver, FolderShare, 37Signals, Outlook folders, and Windows folder structures to maintain information that I want to preserve for work and personal purposes, yet I feel like it's all a kluge. I need help in consolidating the vast amounts of information that I am trying to assimilate. AJAX is helping, but the panacea for this problem is not yet here.