Techophilia and Social Progress

We’ve been using Drupal for two years now, and it has become the main CMS for our development work. Which is why it is interesting to read this article http://www.xconomy.com/2007/12/20/a-big-drop-in-the-bucket-for-drupal/  Basically, the company Acquia aims to be to Drupal what Redhat is to Linux, which to me is a professionalization of the Drupal product. I think this is a pretty great idea. Drupal is great, but lacks such fundamentals as a well written user manual, or more careful upgrade instructions. Plus, some modules are not quite complete, so maybe this will be a way for some of them to be addressed as well.

I wrote this up to share this with folks as it struck me as I’m interested how other people do this.

For the main aspect, I use MS Outlook 2003 tied into a TREO 700p. All of my contacts, calendar and notes are synch’d. I just use the email on the my TREO to check when I’m out of the office (which is pretty often).

I just love TREO and use it a lot nowadays, from taking notes in meetings, checking email, and getting maps from Google. I text msg with my employees for scheduling updates. I take photos of whiteboards, flipcharts with the phone and share them in email. It’s so easy to check my schedule now compared to pen and paper.

One thing I find is a lifesaver is Simulscribe.com. It answers both my cell and office phone, and transcribes the audio into text and emails me. I haven’t had to listen to voicemail in a year!

I also use Groove and Basecamp on my laptop. Both are file sharing programs. Groove, made by Microsoft, is an application from Office 2007. I use it for internal processes with staff, keeping files sync’d, graphics share, proposals, forms and documents. Groove also costs too much and was a pain for my clients without admin access to their computers. (Also, it’s not available to clients on Mac.) I use Basecamp, which is a web app, to communicate with my clients as it’s so easy they can figure it out without training. It is a nice way for me to also keep track of the documents I’ve shared with them and they know when I’ve completed things.

I use X1 as an desktop search engine, mostly for email and documents. I used to use Google Desktop, but I got nervous about the comprehensive way it indexes. X1 gave me more precise control, although it’s also that I am pretty used to the interface. I scan all the biz cards I get from clients, suppliers, etc into Outlook.

Other things I use to keep organized – I use Successfactors to manage HR and Salesforce to manage my sales funnel. Both are good, but take a lot of time to regularly maintain. My staff have not really embraced the use of Successfactors. Salesforce I used more before a recent change that made it awkward to upload new contacts. I use flickr for my photos, but that is mostly personal.

One new web app I’ve tried is Soonr, as I can look at files that are on my computer from my cell phone. But I am never that far away from my laptop and can usually wait. Plus I have a laptop which means that often it is with me, and sp unavailable to be accessed via a cell. So while neat, it hasn’t been much use yet.

I do wish there was a better way to have a single device. A better camera and MP3 player into my phone. iPhone might be the one, but I do use Palm apps for other things, like reading books while I travel.

Anyway, reading this, maybe now I think I’m not all that common! But I’m pretty happy with my level of organization, thanks to all of these online services and software!