Thing 13 - Productive… on the Internet?
In this latest Thing, I explored a number of productivity tools… specifically, services that could keep me on task and organized.
Starting off, I actually already use a start page via iGoogle. In the past, I have used certain productivity gadgets, such as post-its and to-dos. However, my long-term adoption of these did not take, and they were eventually placed by local weather and a college football ranking gadget from ESPN.
The most impressive of all the tools I saw had to be Scrybe. I loved the way it expanded out your month-view calendar days to a visual of when you were free/busy. Also, since it is a web-based calendar, I liked that it maintained an offline copy of itself on your computer for disconnected use. Other features about it were very intuitive and overall it felt really good. It is definitely a product I would recommend it… but probably not use it.
Why not, if I liked it so much? Part of the failed adoption of iGoogle notes and tasks was that it was separate from my corporate system that already does a lot of these things. I am big on not duplicating services in my life. And although the Scrybe product totally kills the Oracle Calendar service I use at Penn State, I must maintain the Oracle Calendar for work… which is where the bulk of my schedule complexity is anyway. (My off-work hours are pretty easy: Play with boys until bedtime, then homework until I collapse.)
The same goes for BackpackIt, which was a very cool concept and tool but would have to be maintained separately from my work services. If I ran my own small business or was in charge of IT at a smaller organization than, say, Penn State University, I think that these services, as well as host of services offered by Zoho would be an innovative and cost-efficient approach to business and collaboration.
On a parting note, I will mention at least one BIG (and corporate) productivity tool that we at University of Oklahoma are all familiar with to one degree or another… Microsoft Exchange. Microsoft now offers a hosted version from them, for a price of course. But I mention it as a Web 2.0 tool because the web interface and backend technology make Exchange available to just about anyone with a browser and allow you to share and delegate information with anyone in your organization. Also, integrating with the service is now a built-in feature with a host of devices and systems, including BlackBerry, Palm, the iPhone/iPod Touch, and even Mac OS X! I am not the biggest Microsoft fan, but I love Exchange. If you haven’t done so yet, explore all the capabilities of your OU Exchange mailbox. (I’m especially excited about the upcoming 2010 upgrade!!!)
