I have written before on Evernote, the humble application that started as a Windows note-taker with a funky but lovely interface, then become a centralized service with free clients for Mac, Windows, browser, iPhone, Blackberry, and the list keeps growing.
As I reported before, Evernote started becoming ubiquitous on my machines (I happen to use several, on different OS’s, as part of my consulting job). Having an always auto-synchornized, always up-to-date record of ANYTHING I wrote or pictured or scribbled was enough to convert me. Add to that automatic scanning of all pictures and formidable character recognition, one of the best (nimble) interfaces I have seen, availability via browser, lightning-fast search, solid clipping and tagging functionality, (recent) sharing of notebooks with other users, and you can understand why an Evernote notebook is ALWAYS open on ANY computer I am using.
Slowly but surely, EverNote took over space and timethat had before been devoted to other applications:
- Bye bye stickies, notepads, etc., because an Evernote note is for ever (never needed to delete one), and ubiquitous, and available wherever I am because I always have with me one of the devices that can be used to take “notes”, even if it’s by snapping a picture;
- Bye bye outlining and hierarchical notepads; outlines and hierarchies quickly grow out of manageability, and as a result become beautifully engineered but heavy maintenance structures. To make it worse, reality (or my understanding of it) drastically changes with time, and when it does the hierarchy I built does not represent it any more. At that point, I either need to spend a lot of my time to fix the structure, or throw it away. A simple indented list from EverNote is usually a good device, not only because it is intuitive to use, but also because it contains its own “recommended scope”: If the list becomes unwieldy to manage, I am over-complicating things, time to simplify. And, of course, it’s also (to all practical purposes) eternal and ubiquitous, and searchable and…
- Bye bye word processors. This one is a little unfair, because I have been trying to get rid of those ridiculously over-functional pieces of bloatware for a long time. Not that I have a problem using them, on the contrary, I am quite good with them, and have used them to write content pieces much larger and sophisticated than they were designed for. I despise them because they are huge, create false dependencies with form and presentation, are used as lock-in by Microsoft, tend to hog my computer’s resources, and make me write very, very long sentences justifying why I hate them. In any case, Evernote strikes the right balance of formatting by sticking to what you can format in a basic Web editor, which is a good balance for me. I am happy to say that I have not used MS Word for creative purposes for over a year: I only use it when I am locked in by someone else (i.e., needing to collaborate on somebody else’s file). Even if I do oblige (particularly with customers), I make sure the other person understands that I consider her choice of format a major pain. I wish more people did the same…
- Bye bye OmniFlow, iGTD, tiddlywiki and the other GTD applications that I have used through the years: I started using Evernote plus a simple system of specialized tags (@TAG for contexts, +NAME for people, and *PROJECT for projects), made those tags sub-tags of higher-order ones (@CONTEXT, +PEOPLE and *PROJECTS), and used them as instant synthesizers. I ended up with a GTD system that is not only first-class (it supports all key ideas of the GTD system) but also requires MINIMUM BEHAVIOR CHANGES in order to use, much less than using any of the other implementations
- Bye bye creating a separate content collaboration space with each customer (Usually done in Drupal): a shared notebook keeps us always up to speed, and the rest is overhead. This is an area where I believe Evernote could become a killer social application for knowledge workers, and the recent addition of sharing may mean that the very smart people behind it are looking into that. There is so little to add to the current functionality that I really hope they do.
Increasing encroachment is also taking place in my blog writing (this posting, as many others in other blogs, are at least drafted in Evernote, sometimes completely written in it) and other social writing.
Am I saying that Evernote is all of those things in one? Absolutely not. I am saying that, IF you are a minimalist like me, and value computer-independence, tagging, web-level formatting, and usability, Evernote has all that it needs to replace the minimum set of features in all of those applications, and then some more (like taking a picture of a business card and having Evernote turning it into a searchable contact record, or a library of all web clippings that really matter to you, and more).
How can you go wrong? Release registry and disk space, gain complete and constant (and searchable, and semantically taggable, and actionable, and web-publish-able) access to everything you write, avoid bloatware, and release meaningless time devoted to unneeded form to be used instead for creating…
Why am I writing then “a note is a note is … my brain”? Because “note taking” is a narrowly constructed phrase that deceives you about Evernote. “Note taking” is something you do while boring professors, bosses, clients and collaborators talk in the background, something you do as a quick solution until you get to a “real writing device and metaphor”, something you do it in whatever paper you have on hand (or my favorite 3×5 cards) but you know you’ll have to re-process, it’s always a means to a presumably higher goal. That’s deceiving.
When you know that every note you take will be always available, that it will integrate into your life in front of the computer, the phone, the PDA, the laptop with ZERO effort on your part, that you won’t have to remember it because tags and search will bring it to you, a note is not only a note and a task and a project and a document and a blog post and … A note is what happens when you write. Period. Any simplifictions you need to do to leverage them is justified and well worth it!
Because for me writing, speaking and thinking are inextricably linked, my note repository is starting to look like my mind’s mirror (Except the reflection remembers much better than the real one). I always tell people to whom I show Evernote that if the computer had been invented before steel, the first typewriter would have looked exactly like Evernote.
It’s actually ironic that a few applications before captured my imagination as potentially being capable to contain all my activities (Are you old enough to remember MORE on the Mac?). Many of them started as a “PIM”, other as outliners, others as databases, and then started layering layer upon layer of functionality on those “standards”. And now, here comes Evernote and makes me realize that a core of very well thought functionality, Web 2.0 and a truly minimalist approach were the right ingredients.
The buzz is slowly rising, in preparation for the October SharePoint 2010 conference, and the E2.0 conference somehow amplifies it. I can’t avoid but feeling a little alienated, to say the least, by what I perceive as a gap between reality and FUD.
A quick scan of enterprise feeds is enough to convince us that any company in the Web 2.0 space is about to shut down because of SharePoint’s presumably unstoppable momentum. And yet:
- Half of SharePoint users use it just as a file manager, not surprising, considering that that is the only part of SharePoint that users get for “free” with Windows Server;
- For SharePoint, social enterprise seems to be all about having wikis, blogs and a MySite page for each user (which can be expected to be the focus of SharePoint 2010), whereas most social enterprise leaders like Jive are already moving into what Kathleen Reidy of the 451 group calls “use cases, not tools” which in other words means real solutions for innovation, brand management, customer relationships, and more, as opposed to the possibilities opened by tool kits;
- Talk to any SharePoint implementation partner, and you find that by far most of the money spent in SharePoint projects is going into basic content management functionality, from extending search to be able to manage run amok SharePoint 2003 silos to getting workflow to work, and not into all the things that supposedly make SharePoint so “dangerous for E2.0 vendors”;
- The fact that most crucial business workflows are already managed by incumbent CMS’s like Documentum and IBM FileNet (and woven into it very strong content dependencies) is not frequently discussed, which is dangerous, because the most attractive bells and whistles in SharePoint only shine when SharePoint has omnipotent control of all content.
I suspect that such a gap between reality and KoolAid sweetness will take a few years to settle (Microsoft is putting s lot of fans into creating the dust storm). When that dust settles, I suspect the landscape will look like this:
- A content management layer where SharePoint will coexist tightly with other multiple Content Management silos;
- A basic team collaboration set of services, perhaps complemented with equally basic expertise location and small scale social snippets (and yes, very squarish and SilverLight-ribbon-heavy MySites);
- A thin coat of partner paint, delivering supplementary web parts (the same ones that Microsoft will deliver as “good enough” web parts in the next release) and trying to stay away from the proverbial elephant;
- A thriving layer of social, enterprise 2.0, solution oriented innovators that use all of the above as a source of content to feed interactions, activities, semantic knowledge, innovation management, brand management and many other Enterprise 2.0 functions;
I am sure there will be companies that implement the whole thing using Microsoft’s stack (who doesn’t like to be featured in every Microsoft brochure and presentation, after all?) but the business transformation that Enterprise 2.0 requires will not be built like that: business just can’t wait for Microsoft…
At Gilbane’s Conference on Content Management, last week, there was a keynote slot reserved for Microsoft, a Platinum Sponsor of the event, titled “The Web platform of the future”. Tricia Bush, a SharePoint Group Product Manager, was the speaker. I expected to get the usual forward-looking, optimistic “we do everything web, content and social better with SharePoint” message that has the norm for Microsoft’s SharePoint message. Instead, I came to hear how SharePoint was presented as the product for mediocrity and low expectations, the FUD product of choice for anybody who has been hiding in a basement for the last ten years, and the way for IT groups to regain a level of omnipotent control that they have spent ten years losing (and justifyably so).
The presentation got me thinking further… Let’s face it, with all its fanfare and massive adoption, SharePoint is still used mostly as a very basic content manager. The reasons behind this massive adoption, and the corresponding adoption pattern, have already been discussed to death, with my favorite interpretation being that Microsoft just leveled a Content Management space that could not bear the weight of heavy, slow but entrenched “enterprise players”, who brought very little innovation or standardization to a mature market, while keeping outrageous licensing margins. Add to that unrealistic market players behavior the reality of corporate IT groups starved for real web talent (easy to generalize to talent in general) and fearing that power will slip out of their hands as the cloud and SaaS makes most of their services equally irrelevant and unsustainable, and a the “bottom-feeding” picture starts to emerge.
The presentation in question was interesting because of some of its key messages, articulated in very clear terms, such as:
- 52% of developers involved with your corporate web sites are millennials (said in the same tone as you would say “terrorists”, or “idiots”). “Do YOU want those guys to ‘control YOUR brand’ and ‘manage YOUR content?” If George Carlin had been in the conference he would probably at that point refloat the idea of massive asilum states where to send all the violent criminals, with the milennials added to the hilarious list;
- “After all, the role of your web sites is not to entertain, it’s just to INFORM your visitors”. Thanks, we can now forget everything we learnt in the years after 1998 and go back to being young and stupid.
At a time when Web 2.0 and wonderful technologies such as Flash, Air, AJAX, social business, innovation hubs, user-centric workspaces, and much, much more, are making the web into the creative fertile ground of a small, but quickly growing garden, with engaging and absorbing delivery strategies combining and evolving, always testing the future, here come the bottom-feeders (?). SharePoint the platform of the future? It surely is being touted as a thing of the past…
It may be a consistent strategy (few people expect Microsoft to innovate these days), but it’s a real pity. Come October 19, at the SharePoint Conference, when Microsoft unleashes yet another bag of glass beads, other valuable categories will probably be fed to the bottom:
- Social – “After all, all you need to be social is to have wikis and blogs that don’t totally suck, unified tagging and a zillion web parts that you can pepper through your pages. Right? If it looks like a Facebook, it doesn’t matter what it smells like: it’s a Facebook!”
- Usability – “Yes, we have a universal delivery client called Flash, and AJAX, and AIR, and soon Waves, and yes, those millennials use them to create things that are fun and engaging, but you know, you need to think, and compete with young talent without the privileges of holding the IT keys in order to develop them! Let’s introduce another bloated and unneeded technology, Silverlight, so that now we can have obnoxious ribbons all over the place, not only in Office bloatware, but now YOU can develop them as well! After a while, you won’t even notice that you see everything as a list! Let’s make every site look like a PowerPoint presentation!”
- Web Branding – “Just make sure you use your logo, which now YOU WILL BE ABLE TO CHANGE YOURSELF on your web sites, and just keep informing the hell out of your visitors. That’s all that branding is, after all…”
I know, the tone is too acidic… But the worry is sincere: Microsoft IS the bull in the china shop; I didn’t care much about seeing the bloated Content Management players be the china that Microsoft threw around, but I really believe that social business and Web 2.0 technologies are a garden, not a stale china shop. I’d hate to see the bull poop all over it…
I really have no idea, I just heard the rumor. But for some reason, the driver for the MiFi is already built into OS X since 10.4 (As just read from the MiFi manual). Connect the dots:
- The MiFi is the killer enabler for netbooks-like computers;
- The netbooks have miniaturized to the point where they are becoming to use a keyboard and/or a good screen at the same time
- The Windows tablet is horrible, but an Apple one, with an iPod / iPhone interface would be awesome
- The iBlet (like the name?) is the drooling dream of anybody using iPods, iPhones, Macs, and quite a few Win-zealots
If it happens before September, send me a cookie. If it’s called iBlet, send me an email and I will send YOU the cookie.
I have to admit it… I have a major problem with discipline. This statement comes just in case you haven’t yet noticed the huge gaps in time that separate some of my postings in this blog.
The fact is, I need to enable sudden, serendipitous posting, or this blog won’t get anywhere. Because I have twenty things to write about each day, but I just don’t stay put too long behind a desk (and when I do, I have a zillion work obligations to wrap-up). In Airports, traveling in the car (my wife drives most of the time), in coffee stores… that’s were I need to have access to the blog (Otherwise, I will just write a note in a piece of paper and NEVER write it on the computer).
The phone? Nope, too small, too hard to type. The computer? Yes, sometimes, if I have access and am comfortable (as right now, traveling north along the California coast, my wife driving and Satie’s music cranking). The Nokia N810 tablet? MOST certainly, all I need is access (the N810 and the wireless portable keyboard fit in a large pocket – and at 265 pounds of weight, believe me, my pockets are already huge). So, all I need is access. Not any more: I got a MiFi today.
In a nutshell:
- The size of three credit cards glued together back-to-back
- A wireless hot spot that goes with you wherever you go (like now, on the 405 in Ventura, many miles away from any place where I have ever connected from, in the car, at 80 mph)
- Up to five computers or PDA’s at a time can connect to it by just sharing a password
- Speed? I would say 5 or 6 times faster than an iPod connecting via 3G.
- Cost? Verizon service, barebones $40/Month, beefed-up $60/Month, no more than 5 GB a month, 5 cents the extra MB
Nuf’ said. This thing is awesome. Without even thinking, I was looking just for ubiquitous connection for my laptop, and in the process I made an iPod killer from my old Nokia N810 (bigger screen, more memory and processor, better –and free– apps). The only thing missing (THE PHONE!) is now in thanks to the MiFi connection and Skype or any other VoIP running on top of it 
Haven’t tried it yet, so let me go off and try it. See you in my next post!
August 23rd, 2008
3:48 pm
design
I have no idea how it is that I never heard of the Falkirk Wheel… it looks to me like the sheer ingenuity, scale and novelty of this engineering beauty should by now have converted it into an icon of these, so highly mediated, times. I found about it in a total serendipitous manner, a snapshot of a Mac product in versiontracker…
I was immediately drawn to the design questions that the endeavor must have created… Just think about it, connecting two channels that run at 115 feet difference in height, how would you do it? What if somebody told you you can’t spend more than 1.5KW of electricity to operate it? Read the rest of this entry »
If you feed this blog’s URL into http://wordle.net, you get a word map (where size indicates frequency of words in the page, not tags) that looks just like this:
Word map for this URL
Social networks can (and will) be leveraged to enable powerful transformations… but first they will be used for the most inane, mindless, junk. Read the rest of this entry »
This has to be one of the finest anecdotes I have heard in a long time. Perhaps everybody knows it, but nonetheless it’s excellent. Read the rest of this entry »
All buzzwords outlive their usefulness, and go from mandatory conversational drop-in to snobbish drop-out tag. That almost magical polarity change happens usually shortly after the buzzword in question is mercilessly extended beyond their original scope, until it’s left hanging ‘out there’, with little or no connection to the original meaning. Is that happening with the ‘2.0′ thingy? Read the rest of this entry »