Published by Ted January 3rd, 2008
“Plastics” was the word to remember in the movie “The Graduate.” The “Internet” was the word of the 90’s. The word for today’s businesses may be “shared.”
We need to share our workspaces. Companies share their data. People spend countless hours sharing their labor on open-source projects. The biggest sharing of all comes with the peer-to-peer sharing networks where digital files are spread around the world at breakneck speeds.
More importantly, it is becoming easier and easier to share the work process within your office. Several companies have begun offering online collaboration tools that allow people around the world or in the same office to collaborate on documents securely and seamlessly.
Microsoft Office Live
Microsoft is the biggest player in this game. They’ve recently released Office Live, an extension to Office 2007. Office Live allows you to work natively in your Office programs on your personal desktop or via their online product. Documents can be shared, updated, and distributed via a central online repository.
Tech Crunch’s Michael Arrington gave this new platform a glowing review:
Among the additional applications was an office document collaboration tool. You can share an office document real time with others, allowing them to view and edit it.
Office Live will be a huge productivity tool
Office Live has hooks for many third-party applications, such as payroll, accounts, and more. It also features an updated web site platform that allows small companies to quickly build a free web site.
Other online tools
Microsoft may be the biggest player but they are far from alone. The list of companies that offer free to inexpensive online collaboration and productivity support is growing daily.
Contact Bayside Networks in San Diego (Phone: (858) 654-4080 ) to set up Office Live in your company. Bayside Networks provides training and network support to enhance your company’s productivity.
Posted in BaysideNetworks, Getting Things Done, New Technology |
Published by Ted July 27th, 2007
Post-it® notes have become a panacea to office organization. Besides bulldog clips and pens with flowing ink, post-its are highly coveted by anyone with a desk, monitor, and a surplus of quick ideas, to do lists, and hard to remember snippets.
Eventually, these little pieces of paper become a big mountain in the trash heap. Fortunately, there are electronic replacements that are free and can actually improve your company’s communications.
Stickies, a free program, allows you to create virtual sticky notes on your computer’s desktop. They can sit there like a silent reminder to do something or combined with Outlook or your PDA, they can be set with an alarm to remind you of tasks, and much more.
Other Virtual Options
- Yahoo! Widgets are desktop applications that range from the silly to the super helpful. The PostIt Widget offers the same functionality as Stickies with more integration into your Yahoo! contacts, messenger, and mail.
- Backpack, by 37 Signals, is an online collaborative tool that lets you create lists, share documents, and work together in teams. It’s flexibility makes it a useful tool for groups or individuals. Backpack is free for basic usage and premium memberships offer extended features.
- 37 signals also provides other online collaborative products: Campfire (Real-time group chat), Highrise (Track leads, clients, vendors, simple CRM), Ta-Da (to-do lists)and Basecamp (Project management and collaboration). All of these offer free, basic levels and more advanced features for a small subscription fee.
- Tech Crunch has an analysis of the best virtual Post-it® replacement sites: Do More: Online To Do Lists Compared. Remember the Milk, one of the featured services, has become popular with mobile phone users.
Posted in Getting Things Done |
Published by Ted July 6th, 2007
There are many ways to save electricity, money, and lessen your impact on the environment. Here are some quick suggestions you can try today.
- When choosing a computer, buy a laptop instead of a desktop. Set the power management setting for maximum battery life.
- If you use a desktop computer, set it to turn off the monitor and spin down the hard drives after 5-10 minutes
- Use Hibernate instead of sleep mode
- Avoid devices that use “always on” or “standby mode” or unplug these devices when not in use.
- Purchase the smart strip. This power strip turns off peripherals when the computer is turned off.
- Replace your old CRT monitor with an LCD flat screen
For more information on green computing, visit LifeHacker.com and Yahoo! Green.
Posted in Getting Things Done |
Published by Ted July 5th, 2007
The world is attention to the environment this week as Live Earth concerts touch every continent. Many companies are “going green” in an effort to save power, money, and reduce the effect of pollution. Fortunately, there are many ways you can easily make an impact. We’ll touch on some of these methods over the next few weeks.
Unplug your unused power transformers
You can save a significant amount of electricity by simply unplugging your unused laptop, camera, phone, iPod, … chargers. Those boxy transformers require a trickle of electricity, even when they are not connected to a device. It has been estimated that homes and some businesses could save up to 5% of their electricity by simply unplugging these components when they are not in use.
This is also an issue for Televisions, VCR’s, and other appliances that sit in stand by mode for quicker starting. You can save electricity by placing them on a power strip and turning off the strip when you are not using them.
Resources
Posted in Getting Things Done |
