2011 Engaging New Technologies: Productivity

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This presentation was given by Meghan Musolff (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor) and Bryan Loar (Director of Knowledge Management & Research, SC search consultants) as part of the Engaging New Technologies session at the 2011 VRA + ARLIS/NA joint conference on March 26, 2011.

For the last section of the Engaging New Technologies session, my colleague Bryan and I are going to focus on productivity technologies.

Our formal goal for this section…..

… is to present technologies that you can use to bring organization to your life (both professional and personal).

But our real goal….

…is to make YOU more awesome than you already are! It is our hope that the technologies presented in this section will help you do just that and make you more productive along the way.

Why is this topic important?

It’s about utilizing and working in the cloud.

Cloud computing is a commonly heard buzzword and basically the idea is that information is stored elsewhere, rather than on your local computer. It’s about not being tethered to one computer and having access to YOUR information at anytime and from any location. It’s generally thought that working in the cloud leads us to be more productive and allows for more collaboration and improved project management. Technologies presented in this session utilize the cloud to help you be more productive.

It’s about avoiding information overload.

There is so much stuff out there [here's just an example of the amount of stuff added in the last 5 seconds...] (source: http://www.personalizemedia.com/garys-social-media-count/)

and it’s being created at such a speed that it’s hard to imagine, let alone keep track of. The technologies presented in this section will help you avoid information overload and separate the treasure from the trash.

While we want to avoid information overload, it’s also about keeping current and in this day and age, this is no easy task! That said, it’s an important job as our users expect us, as information professionals, to be on the cutting edge of what’s out there in new educational technologies.

Similar to other groups, we’re going to focus on what you need to know now (so Meghan is going to discuss technologies from the recent past and those used now) and the future (Bryan is going to discuss technologies for the nearfutureand the far-reaching future.

We’re going to divide our technologies into three separate categories: information management, project management, and task management. The plan is to discuss a few examples in each category, but more examples can be found on the Engaging New Technologies Diigo page (http://www.diigo.com/user/Engagingtech).

That said, there are also great all-around productivity sites like lifehacker.com (http://lifehacker.com/). This blog is devoted to “life hacks” or tips and advice for all sorts of areas of productivity for professional and personal life.

Let’s move onto the different categories. My goal is to provide you with a basic definition of the category and then an example of a technology you may or may not be familiar with from each category. Something to keep in mind, and an issue I address in my examples, is that unfortunately technologies come and go. Something we depended on yesterday, disappears (or comes with a cost!) today. But it’s about taking the skills learned from using that technology and applying them to a similar (but hopefully improved!) technology.

Our first category is information management. Technologies presented in this section help us answer the question: How do we make sense of all the information of there?

Hopefully, you’re all aware of RSS (or Real Simply Syndication) feeds. The idea is that RSS feeds exist to help us as both content creators and content consumers. You can use RSS feeds to push out new content to your users AND likewise gather new content for yourself from pretty much any online resource (website, blogs, etc.)

These feeds are commonly gathered into aggregators, with Google Reader (http://www.google.com/reader) and Bloglines (http://www.bloglines.com/) being popular choices.

Here’s a screenshot of Bloglines (which is typical of most aggregators; list of feeds on the right and then a reading pane where you are given a snippet of the feed). There was a Bloglines scare there for awhile, but it was acquired by a different company and seems to function in basically the same way as before…..

Also included in the category of information management, is the concept of social bookmarking or compiling a list of website links, describing them with tags, and then sharing these links with the public.

One of the most popular social bookmarking sites is delicious (http://www.delicious.com/). But, remember what I said about disappearing technologies? Delicious might not disappear, but its parent company Yahoo! is looking for buyers.

So, what are some alternatives?

The Engaging New Technologies group is using Diigo (http://www.diigo.com/user/Engagingtech) and I encourage you all to check it out to see both our resources, as well as to experiment with the technology. Google also has a social bookmarking site called Google Bookmarks (http://www.google.com/bookmarks).

Google Bookmarks allows you to “bookmark” sites, create lists of sites, and share the sites with others. In this screenshot, I've bookmarked some sites, created a list to organize the sites, and my colleague Bryan has shared his list of sites with me.

Our second category is project management. Technologies presented in the section help us answer the question: How do we easily and effectively collaborate with our peers?

So, for committee work and other collaborative projects, Google Groups (http://groups.google.com/) was really the go-to technology for project management. But what once was pretty awesome, has now become pretty meh. Google Groups has lost its functionality to upload files and has become pretty cumbersome to use.

There are a number of project management alternatives out there…

…but one I would like to briefly show is Onehub (http://onehub.com/). Onehub allows you to create one workspace for free (others are available for a price). You can add files, add tasks, create a committee calendar, have comment discussion threads, and share everything with others of your choosing. It also has a nice notification system.

And finally, task management. Technologies presented in this section answer the question: What tools exist to help us use our time better?

I love this category, because it’s really about taking old concepts, but implementing them with new technology.

Let’s take conductingpolls as an example. Pretty old concept, cavemen probably conducted polls.

But Doodle (http://www.doodle.com/) allows you to conduct polls online: Need to schedule a meeting? Vote on a topic? Doodle is awesome in that it allows you to create any type of poll and send it out to folks of your choosing. Now, you’re all hopefully familiar with this tool, but Doodle has recently made some changes. There is a new interface and homepage, the ability to link personal calendars for one-on-one meeting set-up, and Premium accounts for personalizing and branding polls—just to name a few changes. It goes back again the idea I mentioned in the introduction—having the ability to adjust easily to any changes that these technologies present.

Another old concept becomes new again is To-Do lists. “To-Do list” technologies can be crazy complicated and intense…

…but I really like teux deux (http://teuxdeux.com/).First of all it’s fun to say (perhaps with a beret, a neck scarf, and a glass of wine), but it’s the simplicity of the darn thing that I enjoy. Basically you just create to-do lists under specific days and there you go!

I also love that there is a “Someday” category. I have tons of things to add to my “Someday” list….

Thanks Meghan! In this section, we will further explore the categories Meghan covered and extrapolate current trends to peek into the future.

There are a number of great task management solution available. Although Remember the Milk (http://www.rememberthemilk.com/) has been out for a while, it has a catchy name and it works…

across multiple platforms and devices. The list includes iPhone, Android, Web-based applications, Microsoft Outlook, email, and text messaging. It is a great example of user-centric technology in the sense that users are not locked into one proprietary system.

Building upon the idea of cross-platform/cross-device solutions, we can envision the combination of some existing technologies.Microsoft Surface 2 was unveiled at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show (CES). The large-scale device allows users to drop, drag, and input information through touch. Furthermore, the device can communicate with other mobile devices as well as ordinary objects that have special infrared tags.Also at the 2011 CES, LG demonstrated the thinnest organic light-emitting diode (OLED) televisions to date. With a depth of just 2.9 millimeters, the televisions could easily be mounted flush with a wall. And if the wall was curved? Sony has experimented with bendable OLED displays.Wacom’s pen tablet technology has been around for decades. More recently, software has been developed to recognize users’ handwriting and transform it into text. Imagine taking the thinness of OLEDs and combining it with the input and recognition features of Microsoft Surface and pen tablet technology. Now take that combination and create a large-scale productivity device, like the wall calendar, that works across platforms and with other devices.

5pm (http://www.5pmweb.com) and other cloud-based project management products like those listed offer a number of advantages over server-based products. Creating projects can begin immediately because IT is not needed to build the infrastructure. Many products like 5pm offer easy integration with Google docs and mobile devices. One of the greatest advantages of using products like 5pm is that there are…

No gatekeepers. In traditional project management solutions, you have to send your updates to the project manager who then updates the system.

With some cloud-based products like 5pm, you can send your update to your project manager, CC a special email associated with your project management account, and automatically update your project. This is a great advantage over traditional systems because users do not even have to go into the system. Instead, they use email which requiring little-to-no training.

Let’s take automation a step further. In the future, we may see the combination of artificial intelligence (AI) with project management (PM). By analyzing current and past projects as well as our communications, artificial intelligence may be able to suggest new projects, help with their creation, and assist during the project.

Simplicity has been a catch-phrase for some time. User interface specialists strive to provide clean, easy-to-use interfaces. Akin to simplicity is the creation of task-specific technologies. Instead of providing a smorgasbord of different, poorly designed utilities, engineers build a devices or pieces of software to accomplish precisely one utility really well.Readability (http://www.readability.com/) is a good example of this combination. The Internet browser add-on removes advertisements and other distractions to pare down content from news sites, blogs, and other sources to create a more enjoyable reading experience. What it does is…

To create a page that precisely communicates the information you want—without unnecessary options.

What if instead of adding layers to our reality (i.e. augmenting reality), we were able to remove unwanted distractions. Thus, we cut through the clutter of our environments to create a simplified reality.

Dashboards are a great way to collocate disparate sources of information into one, easily managed display. iGoogle (http://www.google.com/ig), Netvibes (http://www.netvibes.com), and other dashboards can bring together customized search tools, portals to productivity applications, and RSS feeds.

Dentsu London and BERG have explored dashboards that are integrated into our typical media consumption. Here the firms have demonstrated a networked television that not only displays breaking national news but also updates from the user’s personal social network.For more information, please see the following:Media Surfaces: Incidental Mediahttp://www.dentsulondon.com/blog/2010/11/03/mediasurfaces/

Here again dashboards are highly integrated in TAT’s exploration of possible future screen technologies. Everyday surfaces could become dashboards allowing users to create fully customizable, information-rich environments. For more information, please see the following:The Future of Screen Technology: An Open Innovation Concept Videohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7_mOdi3O5E

Ambient information is a concept where information-rich displays and environments are created without disrupting the user. Rainmeter (http://rainmeter.net) is an excellent example. The utility combines customizable dashboards and desktops in an aesthetically pleasing way. Here we see that Web-based information like the weather and Gmail are mixed with the user’s computer system information, calendar, and last song played in iTunes—all of which recede into the background and do not demand the user’s attention.

In “Screen We Aren’t Watching,” Dentsu London and BERG have visualized the concept of ambient information. The screen automatically refreshes, displaying the user’s social network updates. The use of subdued colors and minimal contrast make the information available without demanding a person’s attention. BERG’s Jack Schulze draws a parallel between this concept and clocks—both continually display updated information without being disruptive. In the future, networked devices like this may be as ubiquitous as today’s wall clocks.

This concludes our presentation on engaging new and potential future productivity technologies. Thank you very much. Meghan and I hope you enjoyed this presentation, and we welcome your comments and further discussion. Please feel free to contact us.

To learn more about the technologies discussed as well as others not covered during the Engaging New Technologies session, please visit http://www.diigo.com/user/engagingtechFor technologies specific to productivity, please visit http://www.diigo.com/list/engagingtech/productivity

The images used within this presentation were used for non-profit, educational purposes.