What to Do with 2010’s Ideas for 2011 – Gems, Silt, Clouds, and Mañana

What to Do with 2010’s Ideas for 2011 – Gems, Silt, Clouds, and Mañana

by | Dec 29, 2010 | Innovation Shifts

What can we do with all of our great, unwashed and un-rinsed ideas from 2010 as we head into 2011?

Is it a question of ignoring the silt of our lives? Or finding new ways to sift and regroup them at our beck and call?

I recently bought a DVD set from Judy Carter, which gave me some great ideas for 2011. She recently sent an e-newsletter item out about when and how to chase around new ideas.  The December 2010 rumblings by Yahoo about closing or selling Delicious.com pushed me into shopping for new solution for this same question:

What should we do with all our ideas throughout the year?

I used to be queen of lists. I hate all my lists – I would write ideas for new projects and creative work down, yet would either consider them “done” or never find them again.
logo v5Cloud Tools: So far, I'm trialing both Evernote and Diigo in my search for the perfect cloud computing solution with all of my devices -- cell phone, laptop, desktop (for video editing and research), iPad, and computers while at other people's offices. I like the concept of cloud solutions with my own folksonomy of tagging. I can save and tag ideas from the web or emails, then actually FIND them again later by topic on ANY computer in the “cloud.” I can send them to the cloud from my phone, iPad, or whatever, with tags – so I can actually nurture them and find them when you want them. Each solution has its own quick buttons and macro key clicks to do this quickly, so I'm building new habits.
They don't help, however, with the 6” stack of idea notes that I’ve assembled and left unnurtured in 2010…
Do I read them all? Highlight? Scan and injest into the cloud?
Big Stuff: I do have another solution for my BIG projects, like books, research, video shows, and classes. For these bigger projects, I’m somewhat addicted to Microsoft’s OneNote on my main computer. I just print to OneNote2010 what I’m working on and have a gigantic archive of searchable items that I can ‘folderize’ and visualize. In any of these tools, I can tag or label things the way MY funky brain works and feed the beast when I’m looking for something cool later. These often are big squishy messes of ideas and details to wrestle with, so I benefit from a big, squishy tool.

Mañan a: What can we do with the "other" stuff? I am blessed with something that Julie Schulman and I coined a decade ago -- mañana lists. We would create a mañana list of all the things we knew needed to be done that we agreed could always be done tomorrow.  I love to use the tag “mañana.” That’s for the interesting things for “if I have time later.” It’s the “no guilt tag.”

I welcome other suggestions.  Productivity software is one of the big growth areas in this time of tsunamis of information.  Lots of services will help you filter what comes in from the outside.  This challenge is what to do with the gems and silt from the inside...and how to think about re-gifting and sorting them with others.
Have a great 2011 with your new adventures. And may all your ideas be bountiful AND taggable.
Collection of Digital Goodies This Week: Visualization, Productivity Alternatives, Download or Buy?

Collection of Digital Goodies This Week: Visualization, Productivity Alternatives, Download or Buy?

by | Dec 18, 2010 | Innovation Shifts

I've been playing the some data driven visualization tools, Delicious replacements, and Dan Gillmor's new downloadable book this week.

Playing with Visuals: Two data-driven visualization tools caught my attention:
Google Ngram of technology, media, and machines
Google Ngram of technology, media, and machines

I have been playing with things like searching for the word "technology" and comparing it to the history noted in Kevin Kelly's What Technology Wants book, where he notes how recent technology is as a social phrase.  Intriguing!

  • Who's in School: I spent some time tinkering with the selectable visualization tool on demographics of U.S. undergraduates from The Chronicle of Higher Education: http://chronicle.com/article/Who-Are-the-Undergraduates-/123916/. This reminds me of many aspects of U.S. education, including that most college students are white and in 2 year programs.  I also was fascinated by the comments, which included how obvious some of this was to some people (and not others).
    • Rumors and Alternatives: I also spent some time yesterday finding alternatives to Delicious, a social bookmarking tool.  The rumor of the demise of Delicious, which has been part of my own life since 2006.  Various articles and shout outs from competitors have arisen quickly.  I have been trying Licorize, Evernote, YourVersion, and Diigo as imports of my data.  I have exported all of my bookmarks for future alternatives that may surface.
     
    Download or buy?: Dan Gillmor's new book, Mediactive, is now available online and for purchase. I did the download, I sheepishly comment, and will be reading it this coming week.