WORK LIKE BATMAN

Do you have a pile of work to do from your home office, a "white collar" desk job, or need to complete long hours of data entry (it is tax season now)?

WATCH YOUR POSTURE, ROBIN!
Most of the time...stand up while you work! This burns more calories, gives you more energy in general, and makes you sound better on phone calls!

The line about posture is out of the Dark Knight Returns book from Frank Miller.

TO THE BAT COMPUTER!
Get a sweet (sweeet) keyboard and mouse combination...it is the most used part of your computer, right?
There are multitudes of ergonomic designs from companies like Microsoft.

I prefer the wireless, rechargable, orange-glow-in-the-dark Divino variety from Logitech,
especially when it looks sleek, uses secure Bluetooth technology, and can be branded with a minimalist Bat logo.

Recently, Logitech launched a contest for some nifty prizes ala Dark Knight.
Swag!

CAPE AND COWL
Keep a neutrally-coloured blazer or jacket at your desk; dark beige, dark, blue, or grey seem to work well for most people. Layers of professional clothing are a nice (successful) way to handle temperature changes throughout the day within an air conditioned office, right?

Keep your clothes in shape by avoiding those 1960's "Bat Poles"...

WHY AIR MILES ARE NEEDED FOR WEB 2.0

Before Web 2.0 evolved, the concept of "Customer loyalty" was pervasive in the software industry (E.g. "we've only ever used Microsoft Outlook for CRM").



In many people's view, this was the result of a combination of factors including the following:

• steep prices for software, making it prohibitive to buy from another vendor
• unique "killer" features of one title over another
• investment of intensive staff training, and costs of subsequent re-training

With the establishment of Web 2.0 software applications, smaller agile
companies were able to come up with competitive products that were
able to quickly pull "loyal" customers away from the giants. Some of the advantages are as follows:

• low fees for software
• streamlined features to get the job done
• easy-to-learn minimal staff training

Moreover, note that competing companies can copy all of the
functionality, terminology, and marketing from other companies
extremely easily...(e.g. compare the glaring similarities between American Basecamp and the European iTeamwork, for
instance).

In the current environment then, with high exportability of data
records, think about how easy it would be for you to buy one software
title...
use it for a while and then say "nah, there's something better over here..."
....and quickly change vendors
(e.g. people that used Evite from Yahoo now use
Facebook for event management;

Australian Diigo quietly took over Furl for online management of bookmarks;
Delicious is contending with Yahoo and Google Toolbar for bookmarks)!

Did Web 2.0 move us into a world of low customer loyalty, copycat
features everywhere, and high migration?

For instance, there are sooo many vendors for free (and almost free) Web 2.0 software for
task management lists, todo lists, and sticky note applications,
that it boggles the mind which one to choose.
Most sane people likely just "go with the marketing flow."

How do Web 2.0 vendors retain customers? To ponder...

• "Air miles" point / discount programs to make customers reluctant about switching vendors?
• How comfortable are you with the vendor's business philosophy - are you in-tune?
• With more organizations from your industry using the same application, there may be more apt support for your specific needs, right?
• Do you keep buying more and more disparate mini applications, or just get one giant application that is much more robust?

GO! JUMP ON THE TIMEBRIDGE FOR OUR MEETING!

The Timebridge tool (from a subsidiary of Yahoo) eliminates the "coordination" requisite for meeting with two or more people.
http://forum.37signals.com/basecamp/forums/3/topics/9853

By the way, one of Alan Moore's characters, Jonni Future, also uses a ficticious "Timebridge" device...

...and my friend Shazia was also impressed with my Web 2.0 geekiness
during her recent visit. Wow! Shazia! Impressed! Wow!

Online and phone meetings just got easier; try it for yourself!

http://www.timebridge.com/home.php

As expected, the emails sent are coded so that click-throughs automatically identify the Attendee for the meeting.

This is similar to the coding in Messages from Basecamp Project Management, wherein reply emails get attached to Basecamp Message threads.

Web-based software vendors could utilize similar technology as an alternative to the BCC idea when users need to coordinate meetings.

Frank has invited you to a
meeting:Click this link
to reply:http://app.timebridge.com/meeting/reply/sReQBKyUhzujUjfFMessage from
Frank:========================Please click the "Reply" link to enter your
availability for this meeting.

Timebridge is definitely one of those "killer applications" because it is so quick, simple, and effective!

It can even "reach into" meeting attendees' calendars to find open time slots. Nifty, eh?

NOTE: In practice, people are currently a bit reluctant to believe that it is actually quick, simple, and effective. To wit, the application never requires new users to "create an account," which in my view is one of the best features!

Service is free, and users can opt to pay for their online meeting service (ala GoToMeeting from Citrix or NetMeeting from Microsoft). Let's keep an eye on how well they are doing when it comes to attracting cash, ya? Yahoo?

NOTHING=GOOD CRM...SEARCH FOR NOTHING ON A REGULAR BASIS!

Speaking of nothing...

With oodles of details about your customers in a given "digital phone book" or CRM (customer relationship management) software, it is really nice to get reports of all the details that you have stored.



Almost as important is to report on what is missing. "Looking for nothing" can accomplish any of the following important questions:

• Which customers are missing a postal code / zip code before we send out our mass mailers (you can read that as "ma$$ mailer$" when the bill arrives)?
  
• What city is the most popular office location for our customers? Is the city spelled correctly so that I can get the proper numbers (e.g. Calgary, calgary, Cal gary)?
  
• Who is missing a job title? How accurate is the spelling of the job title, and how current are the job titles on-file?

I'm sure you can predict the embarrassment that might arise if your office forgets to "search for nothing" just prior to a mass communication, eh?

EVEN EGYPTIAN GODS HAVE KNOW-HOW FOR WEB 2.0?

Alan Moore wrote Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and thought-provoking short stories for DC comics. Have a look at him in the middle of a other cartoon characters in the Simpsons, below:



Quote from a fellow named MYSTICO in Moore's Terra Obscura:
"They were drowning in data, but almost bereft of knowledge....and of wisdom they knew nothing."
This definitely describes the plethora of web-based opportunities available in "the cloud" of information available nowadays.

The data that was previously stored in hard drives is now "in the cloud," which poses a different set of security challenges; improving security of web-based software is the cost - the benefit of having data available anywhere / anytime.

Alluding to the above quote, the data stream ("knowledge") flowing to your browser is only as safe as the standard features ("wisdom") implemented by the vendor.



What are some of the features that might be important? Think about the following:

SECURE: It's brilliant that many of the free vendors are including HTTPS options for their software applications - Gmail is one popular example. Though it may slow-down the performance of retrieving the data, security is crucial for some people's information, which might include CRM data, financial details, and communication logs.
Let's follow Gmail's example and at least have the option available, eh?

SHARE: The application ought to be open and usable by other applications, through a current API / online standard format. It's messy out there with all of the different options running around, so making data available to standard online tools is essential.
For instance,
integration with iCal/Outlook calendars,
strong searchability,
and comma-delimited import/exportability is nice, isn't it?

STABILITY: Free is great, but what happens if the vendor gets subsumed by another vendor, or simply closes business forever? If you examine the Legal Agreement that most people click-past, most free vendors simply state that "if we close our doors, your data is toast, and we aren't responsible"...!
Pay for an web-based system that is redundantly backed-up every day for 30-60 days, with the back-up significantly away from its operating servers, and an iron-clad 99.9999% (six nines) guarantee of "up time."

UNHAPPY AT WORK? TECHNOLOGY CAN HELP!

Who would argue with the idea that technology makes life better?

People are walking around with their favorite tunes in their ears, thanks to devices like Apple ipods, Windows-based smart phones, and shareable Microsoft Zunes - they're in happier moods!

More writing to each other is being done, with email replacing the effort, cost, and delay of traditional mail. Way to go hotmail!

More food is being prepared faster so that we can get on with our lives thanks to high efficiency microwave ovens. Mmm good!

Despite all of this, people to people interactions...meetings with "eyes on eyeballs"...still resonate with people. I feel this can be compared to how our brains remember things...

I remember full stories, exciting events, and rich experiences, not the specific reams of text that I skimmed.

Don't get this confused (like I did when I was younger): I was a big collector of all things technical - this was expensive because technology improves so quickly, time consuming because I got into the intricate details of how things worked, and kept me away from real people!

Technology is a mechanism for making life better, so that we can keep in touch with the music, people, and events that we love, yes?