Entries For: April 2008
2008-04-29
21st Century Nomads
The Economist has a special report on the rise of digital nomads. It's fascinating to think that the concept of an office in the 20th century might be on its way to becoming as quaint a notion as a 19th century factory. Yes, factories still exist and offices will too, but it may turn out to be that the dominant work space paradigm in the coming years will have more to do with bandwidth and less to do with a single physical location. Of course, much of the world may end up being denied knowing the joy that is living in a cubicle farm. Yeah, like that's a bad thing.
Sadly, most of my adult life has been spent under fluorescent lights, and the thought of cutting ties with the cat-5 cable that connects me directly to the router in the data center in the next room is something that feels vaguely uncomfortable. I know that a lot of people are doing this now, from young urban adults who grew up with the internet, to people all around the globe, for whom mobile communications have opened up a lifeline to markets that would have been unimaginable 20 years ago. But what about those of us who came of age when the network was something that only existed in a closet where only the geekiest of geeks was allowed to enter? What are the chances that we'll be able to cut the cords that make us so comfortable, basking in the artificial glow?
I think we can make the adjustment, especially if you look at the benefits.
I have worked with people on different continents for years, but until recently, I had never been that person doing their work from thousands of miles away. Seeing it from the other end showed me that yes, you can be productive away from your desk in ways that you could never be behind it. You can do your work while meeting people you could never meet in your office, seeing things you would never see from a cubicle.
One of the things that was interesting to me was the notion that nomadism reinforces your existing societal ties and make your relationships with your close colleagues much tighter. You have to rely on them to keep up their end of the bargain, so the interdependency creates more trust. Makes sense. Nomadism can't work very well if you're working around the clock and your co-workers are calling in to meetings from the beach or golf course. What was confusing to me was that people are concerned that your relationships with society would suffer. I think this would be true in a strict telecommuting environment where you kept to yourself in a home office, but not if you work a good part of the time out in public. I would think that this would lead to a greater overlapping of societal spheres, and a better understanding of everyone around you rather than just those who sit closest to your desk.
The technology that makes digital nomadism such a viable option continues to evolve. Recently, Zoho announced improvements to their online spreadsheet as well as a partnership that will bring their tools to China. Google's online apps are constantly being revised. Yesterday, I was able to use one of Mac OS X's Leopard features for the first time, Back-to-My-Mac. (Ironically, I had to boot into Mac OS X Tiger in order to update my router in order to take advantage of this Leopard feature.) I can now access my home system from my laptop from any wifi connection (barring interference). Now, my whole backlog of files and useful little doodads are available to me wherever I go. This is not just insanely cool, but also insanely useful to the digital road warrior.
What other technologies are being brought to market that enhance our ability to move desk work out into the real world? I'll try and take a look around and bring some of the more interesting pieces out of the shadows over the next few weeks.
Sadly, most of my adult life has been spent under fluorescent lights, and the thought of cutting ties with the cat-5 cable that connects me directly to the router in the data center in the next room is something that feels vaguely uncomfortable. I know that a lot of people are doing this now, from young urban adults who grew up with the internet, to people all around the globe, for whom mobile communications have opened up a lifeline to markets that would have been unimaginable 20 years ago. But what about those of us who came of age when the network was something that only existed in a closet where only the geekiest of geeks was allowed to enter? What are the chances that we'll be able to cut the cords that make us so comfortable, basking in the artificial glow?
I think we can make the adjustment, especially if you look at the benefits.
I have worked with people on different continents for years, but until recently, I had never been that person doing their work from thousands of miles away. Seeing it from the other end showed me that yes, you can be productive away from your desk in ways that you could never be behind it. You can do your work while meeting people you could never meet in your office, seeing things you would never see from a cubicle.
One of the things that was interesting to me was the notion that nomadism reinforces your existing societal ties and make your relationships with your close colleagues much tighter. You have to rely on them to keep up their end of the bargain, so the interdependency creates more trust. Makes sense. Nomadism can't work very well if you're working around the clock and your co-workers are calling in to meetings from the beach or golf course. What was confusing to me was that people are concerned that your relationships with society would suffer. I think this would be true in a strict telecommuting environment where you kept to yourself in a home office, but not if you work a good part of the time out in public. I would think that this would lead to a greater overlapping of societal spheres, and a better understanding of everyone around you rather than just those who sit closest to your desk.
The technology that makes digital nomadism such a viable option continues to evolve. Recently, Zoho announced improvements to their online spreadsheet as well as a partnership that will bring their tools to China. Google's online apps are constantly being revised. Yesterday, I was able to use one of Mac OS X's Leopard features for the first time, Back-to-My-Mac. (Ironically, I had to boot into Mac OS X Tiger in order to update my router in order to take advantage of this Leopard feature.) I can now access my home system from my laptop from any wifi connection (barring interference). Now, my whole backlog of files and useful little doodads are available to me wherever I go. This is not just insanely cool, but also insanely useful to the digital road warrior.
What other technologies are being brought to market that enhance our ability to move desk work out into the real world? I'll try and take a look around and bring some of the more interesting pieces out of the shadows over the next few weeks.
2008-04-22
I Can't See You Naked
I hate giving presentations. My hands get sweaty, I get anxious, and I can hear my pulse. I know that imagining your audience naked is supposed to help relax you, but I can't do it. Since when has anybody ever been more comfortable in a room full of naked people? I can't see you naked. I don't want to see you naked.
Last week I gave a presentation - on giving presentations. Ironic, eh? I'm comfortable with the prep, I like the process of organizing the points to be made into a narrative, and enjoy creating and designing the slides themselves. Just don't make me give the presentation.
One thing that was brought to my attention this week is the importance of prepping your equipment for a presentation. Yes, you need to make sure that you use fonts that are available on any PC, just in case. Verdana and Trebuschet are nice, plain san-serif (no squiggles) fonts that are on every PC and Mac. If you have included sound or movies make sure that your presentation system has good speakers and that they are turned up loud enough for the back of the room to hear.
Also important if you are going to switch from your slides to anything else on your computer - say, a live demo of a web site - make sure that you have set your computer's display resolution to the same thing as the projector. Usually projectors have a top resolution of 800x600 or even 640x480, while today's laptops can have resolutions upwards of 1920x1200. Make sure you practice your demo/presentation at this lower resolution or you might find yourself demoing a web site that looks unexpectedly horrible and unwieldy at lower resolutions. You can easily change your resolution in your control panels (Windows) or System Preferences (Mac).
Last but not least, don't forget water. Always have water available, even if you don't think you need it. Getting parched in the middle of a presentation is very unpleasant, and only amplifies your anxiety. Plus, if you get a question that requires a well-framed response, you can take a second to gather your thoughts while you take a sip. A very handy prop indeed.
There's plenty of advice out there on how to be comfortable while giving a presentation from people who aren't nervous about giving them in the first place. For the most part, I find the advice distracts from doing the most important things to get you through a presentation. Be prepared, make sure your equipment is prepared, and know your stuff. If you are passionate about what you have to say, and have the knowledge and supporting evidence to back it up you should feel good about standing in front of anybody and attempting to persuade them that your ideas have merit.
If not, imagining that they're naked isn't going to change their minds.
Last week I gave a presentation - on giving presentations. Ironic, eh? I'm comfortable with the prep, I like the process of organizing the points to be made into a narrative, and enjoy creating and designing the slides themselves. Just don't make me give the presentation.
One thing that was brought to my attention this week is the importance of prepping your equipment for a presentation. Yes, you need to make sure that you use fonts that are available on any PC, just in case. Verdana and Trebuschet are nice, plain san-serif (no squiggles) fonts that are on every PC and Mac. If you have included sound or movies make sure that your presentation system has good speakers and that they are turned up loud enough for the back of the room to hear.
Also important if you are going to switch from your slides to anything else on your computer - say, a live demo of a web site - make sure that you have set your computer's display resolution to the same thing as the projector. Usually projectors have a top resolution of 800x600 or even 640x480, while today's laptops can have resolutions upwards of 1920x1200. Make sure you practice your demo/presentation at this lower resolution or you might find yourself demoing a web site that looks unexpectedly horrible and unwieldy at lower resolutions. You can easily change your resolution in your control panels (Windows) or System Preferences (Mac).
Last but not least, don't forget water. Always have water available, even if you don't think you need it. Getting parched in the middle of a presentation is very unpleasant, and only amplifies your anxiety. Plus, if you get a question that requires a well-framed response, you can take a second to gather your thoughts while you take a sip. A very handy prop indeed.
There's plenty of advice out there on how to be comfortable while giving a presentation from people who aren't nervous about giving them in the first place. For the most part, I find the advice distracts from doing the most important things to get you through a presentation. Be prepared, make sure your equipment is prepared, and know your stuff. If you are passionate about what you have to say, and have the knowledge and supporting evidence to back it up you should feel good about standing in front of anybody and attempting to persuade them that your ideas have merit.
If not, imagining that they're naked isn't going to change their minds.
2008-04-15
Your Presentation Is Not Your Presentation
Filed Under:
I'm giving a presentation on presentations today. Seems a bit self-referential, especially when the gist of the material is that your presentation is not your presentation.
Powerpoint, like nuclear fission, gun powder and disco music, is not a bad thing unto itself. It's how we use Powerpoint that is the problem. We create slide sets that contain all of the information we want to impart to our audience with nary a thought as to how to go about presenting the information to them ourselves. Flip from slide to slide, let the audience read the paragraphs of text we've put in there - or better yet, read it to them - and then sit down after the last slide that says 'in summary' or 'in conclusion' and get back to doing the work at hand.
None of us are professional presenters, and many of us hate the process of getting up in front of people and talking. It makes sense that we would want Powerpoint or Keynote to take over the heavy lifting, but if you want to create something for people to read, use Word, InDesign, or Quark. If you are giving a presentation, you want to sell something - an idea, a thing, or a perception - to your audience. Maybe you just want to convince your boss that the work you are doing has a point. If you treat your presentation as a sales opportunity instead of an obligation, you're more likely to get what you want from the experience.
Something else to keep in mind is that a presentation is an opportunity to tell the audience a story. Everybody loves a story, right? Make sure yours has a beginning, a middle and an end. Take your audience from the place where they are without the marvelous things you have to share with them to the place you would take them if they were swayed by your argument.
There are some very helpful guidelines for creating slide sets, that come from the masters of this particular art form. You don't have to be Steve Jobs in order to give a good presentation, as long as you follow these simple guidelines.
Seth Godin wrote Really Bad Powerpoint (PDF) a few years ago, and shares his rules for avoiding bad Powerpoint within (paraphrased):
Guy Kawasaki has his 10-20-30 Rule, which breaks down as follows:
Finally, Edward Tufte has a couple of nifty quotes on the subject (& The Cognitive Style of Powerpoint to boot):
From a design perspective, avoid the built in templates that come with Powerpoint. Everybody's seen them, and if they haven't then you're using the ones that are particularly ugly. You don't have to do anything fancy, just be consistent with your fonts, avoid clashing colors, and use high quality images. If it's jaggy, ditch it for something more pleasing. Learn how to crop/mask images as well as how to align and distribute objects. If you have two pictures side by side, make them the same size. If you learn how to do those few simple things, your presentations are going to go a whole lot better.
As for the nerves, the sweaty palms, etc. that come with presentation jitters, I can't help you there. I will tell you that it gets easier to stand in front of people talking about things you care about when they are paying attention and are interested rather than looking away and trying to figure out how much longer they have to endure you reading what's up on the screen that they already skimmed in your handout.
More Resources
Powerpoint, like nuclear fission, gun powder and disco music, is not a bad thing unto itself. It's how we use Powerpoint that is the problem. We create slide sets that contain all of the information we want to impart to our audience with nary a thought as to how to go about presenting the information to them ourselves. Flip from slide to slide, let the audience read the paragraphs of text we've put in there - or better yet, read it to them - and then sit down after the last slide that says 'in summary' or 'in conclusion' and get back to doing the work at hand.
None of us are professional presenters, and many of us hate the process of getting up in front of people and talking. It makes sense that we would want Powerpoint or Keynote to take over the heavy lifting, but if you want to create something for people to read, use Word, InDesign, or Quark. If you are giving a presentation, you want to sell something - an idea, a thing, or a perception - to your audience. Maybe you just want to convince your boss that the work you are doing has a point. If you treat your presentation as a sales opportunity instead of an obligation, you're more likely to get what you want from the experience.
Something else to keep in mind is that a presentation is an opportunity to tell the audience a story. Everybody loves a story, right? Make sure yours has a beginning, a middle and an end. Take your audience from the place where they are without the marvelous things you have to share with them to the place you would take them if they were swayed by your argument.
There are some very helpful guidelines for creating slide sets, that come from the masters of this particular art form. You don't have to be Steve Jobs in order to give a good presentation, as long as you follow these simple guidelines.
Seth Godin wrote Really Bad Powerpoint (PDF) a few years ago, and shares his rules for avoiding bad Powerpoint within (paraphrased):
- No more than 6 words per slide
- No cheesy images (clip art, etc.)
- No transitions
- Custom sound effects are ok, but use sparingly
- Don't hand out print-outs of your slides
Guy Kawasaki has his 10-20-30 Rule, which breaks down as follows:
- No more than 10 slides
- No more than 20 minutes
- Nothing smaller than 30 pt. font
Finally, Edward Tufte has a couple of nifty quotes on the subject (& The Cognitive Style of Powerpoint to boot):
- "There are many true statements about complex topics that are too long to fit on a Powerpoint slide."
- "Simply use Powerpoint as a slide projector rather than as an informational tool."
From a design perspective, avoid the built in templates that come with Powerpoint. Everybody's seen them, and if they haven't then you're using the ones that are particularly ugly. You don't have to do anything fancy, just be consistent with your fonts, avoid clashing colors, and use high quality images. If it's jaggy, ditch it for something more pleasing. Learn how to crop/mask images as well as how to align and distribute objects. If you have two pictures side by side, make them the same size. If you learn how to do those few simple things, your presentations are going to go a whole lot better.
As for the nerves, the sweaty palms, etc. that come with presentation jitters, I can't help you there. I will tell you that it gets easier to stand in front of people talking about things you care about when they are paying attention and are interested rather than looking away and trying to figure out how much longer they have to endure you reading what's up on the screen that they already skimmed in your handout.
More Resources
2008-04-09
Gadgets
Back in my oh so heady youth, when a company would make a presentation about setting up an online store, coding the back end of an online store, or storing product information in a database, the preferred generic, non-industry specific products that were proffered for theoretical sale were widgets, or their interchangeable counterpart, gadgets. Every once in a while a rookie salesperson would combine the two into Gidgets, and was forced to endure a flood of questions on the viability of a store that sold nothing but surf cinema paraphernalia.
Of course, a lot of what we thought we knew about the internet way back when turned out to be wrong. Gadgets and widgets aren't generic placeholders for real products you might sell, they're actual things that you can use to help market your organization. Well, actually they're virtual, not actual things. Virtually actual. Well, those quick little apps for your desktop that you think are really cool for an hour or two and then forget about after that.
The web has gotten in on this now, with Google Gadgets being the latest entry. We've been using Gydgets for ours. (No, Sally Field and Sandra Dee have nothing to do with Gydgets - as far as I know.) In both cases, you are walked through what used to be called a wizard, and you fill in various options to create your widget, gydget, gadget, flibberdygibbit thingamabob. Basic assumptions are made, and with an RSS feed and a YouTube channel of your own, you can create a blob for people to stick on other pages to promote your pages. Only, the results are varied. This is what my Google Gadget ended up looking like:
Those missing images? Ascii code that wasn't translated correctly somewhere along the line. Blech. Was it worth it to figure out where? Nope. And so, my experiment with Google Gadgets came to a close, and I put a note in the back of my head to check back on it again sometime in the future.
Or to simply make a Facebook app via Netvibes. More flexibility, more exposure.
Google Gadgets actually hung in there better than the ones I tried before finding Gydget.com. I won't bother boring you with the names of busted widget companies, and just say that the lack of flexibility on these nascent tools leaves a lot to be desired at this point. Focus on your content, and if one of these gidget-gadget-widget-thingamabob makers comes up with something useful, use it. And if, like Gydget, there's an interface to track where your flibberdygibbet is being used, you too might be dissapointed to find that there aren't that many people out there interested in promoting your stuff over theirs:
Depressingly enough, the 9 spots where the Untangled Gydget is located? Yeah, they're all me. More depressing? That makes this our most popular Gydget. The nice thing is that they're built and don't require any maintenance, so if they start taking off later, yippee! We could start a campaign in ou newsletter to promote them, and maybe then we'd see some traction, but that's not really what Social Edge is geared towards. If you're trying to get your visibility up through a word of mouth campaign via your most passionate advocates, this might be worth doing. Otherwise, your time and energy is probably better spent applying for a Google Adwords grant.
Of course, a lot of what we thought we knew about the internet way back when turned out to be wrong. Gadgets and widgets aren't generic placeholders for real products you might sell, they're actual things that you can use to help market your organization. Well, actually they're virtual, not actual things. Virtually actual. Well, those quick little apps for your desktop that you think are really cool for an hour or two and then forget about after that.
The web has gotten in on this now, with Google Gadgets being the latest entry. We've been using Gydgets for ours. (No, Sally Field and Sandra Dee have nothing to do with Gydgets - as far as I know.) In both cases, you are walked through what used to be called a wizard, and you fill in various options to create your widget, gydget, gadget, flibberdygibbit thingamabob. Basic assumptions are made, and with an RSS feed and a YouTube channel of your own, you can create a blob for people to stick on other pages to promote your pages. Only, the results are varied. This is what my Google Gadget ended up looking like:
Those missing images? Ascii code that wasn't translated correctly somewhere along the line. Blech. Was it worth it to figure out where? Nope. And so, my experiment with Google Gadgets came to a close, and I put a note in the back of my head to check back on it again sometime in the future.
Or to simply make a Facebook app via Netvibes. More flexibility, more exposure.
Google Gadgets actually hung in there better than the ones I tried before finding Gydget.com. I won't bother boring you with the names of busted widget companies, and just say that the lack of flexibility on these nascent tools leaves a lot to be desired at this point. Focus on your content, and if one of these gidget-gadget-widget-thingamabob makers comes up with something useful, use it. And if, like Gydget, there's an interface to track where your flibberdygibbet is being used, you too might be dissapointed to find that there aren't that many people out there interested in promoting your stuff over theirs:
Depressingly enough, the 9 spots where the Untangled Gydget is located? Yeah, they're all me. More depressing? That makes this our most popular Gydget. The nice thing is that they're built and don't require any maintenance, so if they start taking off later, yippee! We could start a campaign in ou newsletter to promote them, and maybe then we'd see some traction, but that's not really what Social Edge is geared towards. If you're trying to get your visibility up through a word of mouth campaign via your most passionate advocates, this might be worth doing. Otherwise, your time and energy is probably better spent applying for a Google Adwords grant.
2008-04-02
I'll do that later
Filed Under:
I saw a Digg headline this morning that read 6 Habits to Avoiding And Overcoming Procrastination. My immediate thought was, "I'll have to read that later." Then I remembered that I had said the same thing about my post for Untangled yesterday. And last week. Sometimes the best of intentions aren't enough to get you to get things done.
So herein I give you my helpful tech hints for each of the 6 habits to avoiding and overcoming procrastination. As a professional procrastinator, this is sort of like listening to a politician talk about how not to lie, but hey, I'm throwing the caveat in up front, so proceed at your own peril.
1. Take It One Step At A Time
I'll start with GTD, or Getting Things Done. It's not tech, per se, but a lot of tech tools have emerged to support this project management methodology, for Mac or Windows.
2. You Don't Need To "Have To," You Need To "Want To"
So, you don't want to do something, just don't do it. Hmm... How about tools that take care of things you can't stand? One of the most underused features on the Mac is Automator. Very handy for ridding yourself of repetitive tasks. Another tool that is cross-platform and will help automate the processing of media on Mac or Windows is DeBabelizer. With either of these tools, you can change a "Have to" into a "Have to, but it won't take long."
3. Brainstorm Your Way Out
A whiteboard is the best friend of the brainstorm, as long as it is easily cleaned. When you want to structure your thoughts a bit more, and share them with others, where do you turn. On a PC, you use the old stalwart Visio. It's a very solid package that leaves little to want for. Unless you happen to be on a Mac, where it doesn't run. That's where OmniGraffle Pro comes in handy. It reads and writes Viso files and is pretty handy in and of itself. Omni's other products are useful too, particularly OmniOutliner. It's simple, but I use it almost every day to manage random flotsam and jetsam snippets of text and what have you. It's great for on the fly documenting of development processes.
4. Time Yourself
For Windows. For Mac. (P.S. VersionTracker. If you need freeware/shareware for Mac or Windows, this is a great resource.)
5. Eliminate Distractions
There are word processing apps that are designed to help you focus on your writing instead of formatting and everything else you could be doing with your text in Word, Pages, StarOffice, and other kitchen sink apps. WriteRoom is available for Mac, while DarkRoom runs on Windows. Prefer a web app? Okay, you got it. Personally, I see green text on a black background and I flash back to the terminal apps of my youth. And shudder. But it might work for you. Especially if you're too young to remember what a mainframe crash was like.
Other distraction eliminators:
For Windows.
For Mac.
6. Stop Being A Perfectionist
In the spirit of step six, I'll just quit while I'm ahead and hit publish. Then again, I'll mention that if you've been meaning to set up a blog, but you haven't figured out where you want to host it, or what software to run it on, just go to Blogger and get going.
Okay, now that that's out of the way, back to work. Or, I could...
So herein I give you my helpful tech hints for each of the 6 habits to avoiding and overcoming procrastination. As a professional procrastinator, this is sort of like listening to a politician talk about how not to lie, but hey, I'm throwing the caveat in up front, so proceed at your own peril.
1. Take It One Step At A Time
I'll start with GTD, or Getting Things Done. It's not tech, per se, but a lot of tech tools have emerged to support this project management methodology, for Mac or Windows.
2. You Don't Need To "Have To," You Need To "Want To"
So, you don't want to do something, just don't do it. Hmm... How about tools that take care of things you can't stand? One of the most underused features on the Mac is Automator. Very handy for ridding yourself of repetitive tasks. Another tool that is cross-platform and will help automate the processing of media on Mac or Windows is DeBabelizer. With either of these tools, you can change a "Have to" into a "Have to, but it won't take long."
3. Brainstorm Your Way Out
A whiteboard is the best friend of the brainstorm, as long as it is easily cleaned. When you want to structure your thoughts a bit more, and share them with others, where do you turn. On a PC, you use the old stalwart Visio. It's a very solid package that leaves little to want for. Unless you happen to be on a Mac, where it doesn't run. That's where OmniGraffle Pro comes in handy. It reads and writes Viso files and is pretty handy in and of itself. Omni's other products are useful too, particularly OmniOutliner. It's simple, but I use it almost every day to manage random flotsam and jetsam snippets of text and what have you. It's great for on the fly documenting of development processes.
4. Time Yourself
For Windows. For Mac. (P.S. VersionTracker. If you need freeware/shareware for Mac or Windows, this is a great resource.)
5. Eliminate Distractions
There are word processing apps that are designed to help you focus on your writing instead of formatting and everything else you could be doing with your text in Word, Pages, StarOffice, and other kitchen sink apps. WriteRoom is available for Mac, while DarkRoom runs on Windows. Prefer a web app? Okay, you got it. Personally, I see green text on a black background and I flash back to the terminal apps of my youth. And shudder. But it might work for you. Especially if you're too young to remember what a mainframe crash was like.
Other distraction eliminators:
For Windows.
For Mac.
6. Stop Being A Perfectionist
In the spirit of step six, I'll just quit while I'm ahead and hit publish. Then again, I'll mention that if you've been meaning to set up a blog, but you haven't figured out where you want to host it, or what software to run it on, just go to Blogger and get going.
Okay, now that that's out of the way, back to work. Or, I could...
