So I was reading about new developments on the browser front, Firefox 4 is under heavy development, Opera 10.63 is out, I just found ExtensionFM which is a Chrome extension that builds a library of links to every free MP3 that you run across-in essence building a nice little instant MP3 library. We also now have syncing in Chrome and Firefox.
Now I know that #e20 and #mlearncon both just finished up (BTW, I think I just want to start referring to confernces by their Twitter hashtags, deal with it) and watching those associated tweet streams, I was really impressed by what I saw coming out of both conferences. Again though I'm struck by how we sometimes seem to running to the next thing without really looking at what we currently have and what can done with it or even if we need to keep it. I know, this is a weird dynamic for me, I'm usually the kid who comes running in yelling 'this is cool..look at this' and then someone asks (they always ask) 'how will it help us?' and I say 'I don't know...but its COOL.' So I'm taking a bit of a step back here but not really. I think we already have several things in our environments, things that we use every day, that if we used them smarter, thought about them more, we could actually make some pretty serious productivity gains. First up is the browser.
The browser. Possibly the most ubiquitous piece of technology any of us online use. I may be dating myself here but I used to be really familiar with that screenshot over there. Ah, Mosaic. Back in the days of WinSock, Telnet and PINE, Mosaic was my browser of choice (more accurately, the only browser I could get). You know, put in a URL and the go get coffee. That's also back in the day when the most important stuff we did on computers we did using stand-alone, installed apps. Now I would really like someone to name me a mission-critical piece of software I have to use as an installed application whose functionality is not replicated or surpassed by some Web-based client or service. My point (and a super-obvious one) is that not only does the browser now offer us an unprecedented level of functionality...between the services/sites we can get to all the way but they offer us an unprecedented level of customization and the various extensions and widgets provide entirely new layers of capabilities. So how much are we studying this incredibly extensible, customizable, powerful environment? Where are the comparisons across browsers of the various configurations/extensions/widgets/add-ons that could be created to support learning, performance support and collaboration? (Firefox Add-Ons, Chrome Extensions, Opera Widgets) This is not a rant against IE either but where is the questioning about why in so many instances, IE is just the default browser? (Mush like someone somewhere started the myth that the classroom is the gold standard for training/education...that's a whole other post though) Are we really satisfied with IT just handing us something that we'll use every day and not knowing if its the best we can get? I personally have IE, FF, Chrome and Opera installed and am constantly checking out new features...shouldn't we continue to look at this technology with a critical eye? What the heck...let's take a crack at email.
"Reply All"? What idiot thought of that? I think more damage has been done to corporate productivity by
that little button then by all the games of Tetris combined (Check out how Zappos handles it). If we're not in the browser, we're probably in Outlook. So alright, how many of use have had ANY training at all regarding email? Yeah, I know that the COO of Facebook has said that email is going away and I think this may be the ultimate instance of closing the barn door after the horse has run out (run out, found a new place to live, settled down, and grown old frankly) but I think this is symptomatic of a deeper issue. We use and abuse this particular technology with absolute abandon. We've even created "email bankruptcy"...does that seem healthy? But its this tool we have that because it seems simple, we all think we know what to do with it and how to best use it like that knowledge comes to us genetically or something. So how do we know if we are using this tool to the best of our ability? To the best of its capabilities? How do we even know if we need to be using email at all? Are we searching for alternatives? If we implement social media tools w/in the enterprise, are we doing the necessary change management to get people off the email addiction? What the heck...let's take one last swing...hey! PowerPoint c'mere...
The story of this slide from the Afghan War has already become legendary. That however is soooo the tip of the iceberg. How much time has gone down this particular rabbit hole? Why do exceptional presentations standout so clearly? I think its because we've seen so many bad ones. Thank goodness for conferences like TED that have been raising the bar on presentations to a level that we can all aspire to. Thanks to to books like Slide:ology and Presentation Zen and Edward Tufte who have been helping us make visual sense of information. I'd just like to ask, how many of our organizations offer training in constructing visual stories, storytelling in general or how to think about presenting information in a compelling, understandable manner? What productivity gains could we get if we invested in some training from some folks like VizThink? We even have multiple tools for converting PowerPoint into training, thus extending the potential for good or ill.
So the browser, email and PowerPoint. How much time do you think those tools take up in our daily work lives? How much thought have we, as organizations, put into the optimal use of these items?I think there are gains to be made and innovation to be had and solutions to be found. Maybe we need to develop some more 'field independent' thinking...maybe we just might need to look more closely.
So true. Remember when the only site to start from was Tim's, at CERN?
Mark, what do you think it would take to get folks to focus on what's important?
Where's the 80/20 rule when we need it?
jay
Posted by: twitter.com/jaycross | June 24, 2010 at 01:33 AM