iPad & The Future of Everything
I have been trying to understand the potential of the iPad since Steve Jobs announced it to the mainstream media in January of 2010. At first, I thought it was a pretty lame device. But the more I began to unravel it’s tight integration with media, applications and corporate partners and the incredible intuitiveness and simplicity of the device, I began to understand what Apple had created and I had to buy one. Apple is leveraging their distribution models in a way that has the potential to revolutionize the way we relate to media and conduct business on so many levels.
Fortune posted an article on 5 iPad Competitors. All are compelling devices to purchase, but I made the following comment and observation below for the iPad.
The 5 iPad Competitors are all great and well-designed “devices” but the most obvious things these tablets are missing is access to iTunes, the App Store and iBooks. The iPad will be revolutionary in that it will offer a fully integrated media experience with direct access to millions of media assets available at a competitive price point.
The tight relationship Apple has created between it’s products, software, developers and media partners leaves these competitors playing catch-up or not being able to compete at all. Apple has already established a significant lead in software development for these mobile devices that no one can touch for at least another year or two.
If you factor in those distribution channels available to an Apple device, then it’s obvious why the iPad will succeed on so many levels.
Creative Brilliance
Drew Wilson of drewwilson.com continues to expand his portfolio of work into many areas by creating great designs, code, communities and artwork that blend together so they are seamless, intuitive and a sight to behold. In a previous article I wrote, I mentioned how Drew is easily one of the best designers in the interactive media space. Below is a list of what Drew Wilson has created. I’m not a coder by any means, but I have the fortitude to continually learn more and implement ideas when it’s needed to enhance the user-experience. I hope you will be inspired by these projects as well.
Drew Wilson Personal Projects:
Web Applications
Open Source
Corporation
Learning from others is a big help and I hope Drew Wilson’s passion for great work sparks interest in you as well. Check back often as I will be updating the list with background information for each. I’m anxious to see these projects grow in quality and size as Drew’s style of design, interface and code becomes more ubiquitous throughout the web (note: I’m linking to an Objective-J article until the Titan framework becomes available.)
The Hipster PDA & Wallet
A recent visitor to my website by the name of “JMTee” was interested in my continuing efforts to tame the email monster using “Things.” At the bottom of my article, JMTee asked how it was going. I replied that it’s been working slowly but surely. I decided to peruse JMTee’s website and I came across a great article on his version of the Hipster PDA that furthers the idea of “Less is More.” I love the concept of the 43 Folders Hipster PDA since it reminds me of when I owned a Moleskine® to handle my day-to-day tasks before the iPhone was released.
Whether it be reducing email, common tasks or even the size of your wallet, we all gain something by having peace of mind that life can be a little simpler.
Drew Wilson.com
Drew Wilson’s work was introduced to me last year by a fellow designer and now friend. Drew is probably, if not easily, one of the best designers in the interactive media space. He not only designs websites, but full-blown experiences that make your browser melt away into the background. Browse his website and you will see what I’m talking about. Whether he is building a CMS, Social Network or cutting-edge graphics and effects, there is always something new and exciting around the corner. Drew was recently added as an exclusive (mt) MediaTemple Partner.
Google Wave
I finally received my invitation to participate in the Google Wave Beta. I’ll be experimenting with it’s collaboration tools and posting updates to my website. In the meantime, if you have a Google Wave account, then you can check out some of the Waves I am participating in below.
Thanks to Lucas Caro for creating the Wavr WordPress Plugin so users can now embed Google Waves into posts.
I’ve decided for now to hold off on Google Wave. The program runs incredibly slow on my G5 PowerPC tower. I will have to do further testing on my macbook pro. So far, I’m not impressed with Google Wave. I have found too many redundancies in the UI to appreciate what I think it could truly offer. I may create a case study to examine the current beta version and how I might rework the design.
Open Atrium – Open Source Intranet
I have been searching for a suitable collaboration tool for many months, if not years now. Things by Cultured Code has been my day to day workhorse as a GTD for completing tasks, but online collaboration with team members is fundamental in managing deadlines, projects, documents, files and calendars.
37 Signals‘ Basecamp has set the bar over the years as the most popular and admired collaboration tool available. Along with Highrise, Campfire and Backpack, they have created one of the most appealing suite of online tools available for project management. However, cost and the fact that you can’t self-host the software has been an issue for many in deciding whether or not it is worth it.
Well, today I think I have finally found one of the best options available. It’s still in the early stages, but Open Atrium is an open-source alternative that combines many of the same features as Basecamp and more. It was created by the incredibly gifted and professional team at DevelopmentSeed.org, who evidently have been around a long time developing open-source software for Drupal and promoting projects for a variety of global causes. As always, there is a bit of a learning curve when installing and running open-source alternatives, but in the end I think Open Atrium is worth the effort.
Jakatta – The Other World
A new and emerging source of artistic freedom in the “commercialized market” of music videos has been gaining popularity online. Once regarded mostly as a source of “comic relief” in popular media, sites like YouTube and Vimeo are emerging as an artistic outlet and distribution channel for musicians and video artists across the globe.
The lack of videos for many songs and the fans who love them has turned photo galleries, screensavers and personal video into reflections of what the music means to them. An example of this can be seen in this video that I found online. I love the song and was hoping for a beautiful video to go along with it. What I found is someone who loved the song as well and used their photo gallery to express it. It’s not much, but with more powerful video editing tools available to people in the future who have little experience in this medium, we will begin to see a video for every song ever written.
“YOU” is the Brand New You
As a follow up to this article I published on August 25, I found it interesting that so many companies are now repositioning themselves with the focus of “You” as a branding strategy. I began to understand the power of blogs, social networking, etc. this past summer as a more effective way of giving people and potential employers a more rounded idea of who we are aside from the typical resumé and interview.
From Yahoo!, HTC and now CNN, 2010 is sure to see the “You” brand elevated to the next level. Millions are now unemployed and searching for a way to distinguish themselves in this over-saturated market. Read my insight on this new self-marketing opportunity and what CNN wrote recently.
“YOU” is the Brand New You – Originally published August 29, 2009.
Jessica Dickler of CNNMoney.com recently wrote an interesting article on the growing trend of people using social networks, blogs and other community-based tools to help them build a positive online reputation. By describing and promoting your interests, experience and expertise, you are taking that extra step beyond the resume and showing employers another dimension of yourself.
Elizabeth Ragone co-founded a clothing store in Wisconsin. After the recession hit, the business began to wither and eventually Ragone decided to leave the company to find employment. Rather than focus on the traditional means of browsing the classifieds, making a phone call or sending a resume, Ragone used social networks, her own personal blog and a post of her resume and experience to “establish a personal brand.” Later, Ragone was given a tip that a company was hiring. After an interview with the company and a mention that she had her own blog with knowledge of the industry, she was hired the next month.
In many ways the idea of a Brand is beginning to turn inside out. In the corporate realm, businesses continue to spend millions of dollars in advertising and strategy, but no longer see a significant ROI in print, television, radio or internet. In many ways, this is due to the economy, but we as people are emerging as the more powerful facilitator of brand loyalty and trust. The fact that an individual can be interconnected with hundreds or thousands of people through social media, blogs and networks, then share their unique opinions, experiences and background with others is a very powerful tool.
As more and more people begin to build and solidify online reputations, others will flock to them as a way to establish relevancy, purpose and quality. The “YOU” brand is quickly emerging as a richer and more fulfilling reflection of who we are, what we like, how we express ourselves and ultimately why we do it. Let’s just hope that others find “YOU” interesting.
Things App
Originally published on August 4, 2009
I finally decided to take the plunge and settled on a GTD app for my Mac and iPhone. For those who don’t know, a GTD app is for Getting Things Done. The premise being that you sort your to-do items, tasks and lists into meaningful categories that allow you to “focus” on what is important. “That way, the mind is freed from the job of remembering everything that needs to be done, and can concentrate on actually performing those tasks.”
My problem wasn’t that I couldn’t get things done, but I couldn’t sort efficiently through the maze of e-mails, links, documents, etc. that I am bombarded with as a graphic designer every day. I ended up testing all sorts of GTD apps for the next 6-9 months to assist in my workflow and all of them ended up lacking something.
I new that if I was going to commit to a GTD app, then it had to be really good. I wanted something that had simplicity, an intuitive interface, the ability to integrate mail, calendars, documents, and would finally help me get more done with less confusion. I tried Process, Daylite, iGTD and OmniFocus but they were either too complex, expensive or lacked intuitive approaches to managing my day.
After struggling with Apple’s lame iCal and Mail integration in prioritizing my workflow, I decided it was time to implement a new productivity workflow in my life. Enough was enough. I ended up going with Things from Cultured Code. So far I am really impressed with this little application for managing my daily, weekly and monthly tasks. The interface is elegant and intuitive and it’s incredibly simple to add new to-dos on the fly, attach e-mail, notes, due dates, documents and directories then prioritize everything in a snap. I end up focusing on the tasks at hand and less on who sent me what and when and where something is located. It’s a brilliant piece of work and will require a little shift in the way you think, but overall I’m very happy.
I’ll be reporting back over the next several weeks to give my results on how effective Things has done in improving my day-to-day projects and tasks workflow. Maybe I will end up losing some weight in the process too!
September 22, 2009
Well… I have been using the Things app for a couple of months now and I wanted to report back and give some feedback.
I started using Things and taking it seriously back in August. I began by reading the documentation and watching the video provided by the Cultured Code team. I cannot stress how important it is to read instructions before you begin. If you already do this, then you have been raised well. ; ) After using Things for a couple of weeks I found that it indeed helped me to focus on the tasks at hand for each day, however I slowly noticed that other projects began to creep in from e-mail.
My goal in using Things was to get away from e-mail running my life. E-mail slowly began pouring in from all sorts of areas and the mountain of tasks began to overwhelm me. I realized that e-mail gives us a false sense of control. We think we are on top of client requests, projects and communication goals because it provides us with a request or a response without having to ask for it. The problem with this is that many of these requests are not important or they dilute real communication. E-mail becomes a priority simply because it has the magical ability to appear on our desks. No one is their to deliver the message or tell you why. It’s simply there for you to figure out. As a result, we are stuck scratching our heads and wondering what priority we should give this message.
After a few weeks of using Things, e-mail again became a mainstay of managing projects. I simply had to respond to every e-mail someone sent me. Everything was a priority and everything was due yesterday. It was the only way I could make it through a project and get it completed. A few weeks later, however, I realized how much e-mail was making my life more complicated. I had to get this monkey off my back and get back to Things. I decided to reexamine my workflow by reading Chris Brogan’s article on reducing email. His article titled “How I Tamed my Inbox” summarizes what he has done to simplify his life. The article is interesting in that you learn how to make some fundamental shifts in how you approach communication and project management. By learning to prioritize and sort tasks by category instead of lists, you are able to sift through what is truly important for today and shelve unimportant tasks for another day. Some tools required are a calendar application and project management software (in his case he also uses Things).
I will report back again in a few weeks on what I have done to simplify my workflow by relying less on e-mail and more on project management. E-mail will always be an important tool of communication, but I’m not convinced that it’s the best way any more.
Compfight
Justin Parks has posted a great article on how bloggers can easily find imagery for their posts and easily apply attribution and credit to owners of the artwork. It’s a great way to find quality imagery for your website and keep the creators happy. The website aptly named Compfight, offers users a way to locate images on Flickr and sort via Creative Common filters. Share and share alike, but give credit where due. It’s the nice thing for them and you!
