My previous post “6 Tips for Using Google Wave on your First Project” was really about the initial experience a client and I had with Google Wave, and some the early lessons we learned. While I would rank both of us as web-savvy early adopters, suffice it to say my wish list for Google Wave features has been growing fairly rapidly.

While my client and I are still happily using Google Wave for project collaboration, I am seeing more rough gaps — albeit ones within my new technology tolerance as an early adopter — that I would like to see filled in future versions of the product.

Of course, as a technical writer, my Google Wave wish list is very document-centric:

• Table Support. Perhaps it is because I use tables a lot in my technical documentation, but I wish that Google Wave would support tables to the level that Google Docs does. Table support could be supplied natively or through a gadget or extension. The lack of table support in Google Wave is a real disadvantage for those of us who want to collaborate on moderately complex documents via Google Wave.
• Spell Checker. I’d like to see Google Wave include a spell checker in a future release either natively, as an extension, or as a gadget.
• Microsoft Word Compatibility or Integration. My first project with Google Wave started out with my client and I using it to pass Word documents back and forth. Then as our level of comments and opinions on the document and its content grew we tried to work on the drafts natively in Google Wave. My initial cut-and-paste experience from MS Word into Google Wave was not so favorable, because of how Google Wave treated the XML underlying the original Word document. While a better cut-and-paste experience that doesn’t mangle the copy would satisfy me for a bit, my more ambitious wish is a way to upload Word documents directly into the body of a new or existing Wave, so that I and other collaborators could edit and create new text in real-time with Google Wave’s editing tools.
• Document Version Control. While this wish is probably best fulfilled by a Google Wave extension, there needs to be a level of document version control where when if I attach a document to a Wave, it can store multiple versions of the same document, instead of me having to blow away the document each time before I attach a new version of it to my current Wave.
• Email and/or RSS Alerts. A web browser is the first thing I open after I login into my PC in the morning and it the last thing I close out of when I log off for the night. Still I would like to see Google Wave include some type of email and or RSS alerts so that when a Wave changes collaborators would be notified automatically. Email alerts would especially be handy for those times I am on a client site and may not have access to Google Wave because of security restrictions that the organization has in place.
• Access via the Google Mobile App. The Google Mobile App is popular on both the iPhone and BlackBerry. It would be good to see Google Wave access via the app at some point in the future. I am a big proponent of mobile access to collaboration applications. But mobile access to Google Wave — while well done on the Waveboard iPhone application — is much too limited at the current time for teams who need constant access to their collaboration platform in order to stay in sync with project information.

My wish list is drawn from my initial Google Wave experience. What’s on your Google Wave wish list?

As of today, Microsoft Office 2010 has officially left Technical Preview and is now in public beta, meaning that anybody can download it and take it for a spin. I was able to get an early look at the beta and want to relay some of the changes you can expect in this upcoming release. Microsoft is really stepping up its game with this release, and even though there are scattered reports of performance issues, I am not seeing them on my Vista test machine.

We covered the release of the Office 2010 Technical Preview and the Office Web Apps Technical Preview. This beta smooths out some rough edges in the Technical Preview releases and adds some new features:

Changes across all Office applications. Once upon a time in the pre-Internet dark days, Microsoft Office was just four applications, with little integration between them and no consideration of the role the web would play in document authoring, collaboration, and management. In fact, it wasn’t until Office 2003’s integration with SharePoint that Microsoft Office become a full-blown communications and collaboration tool. Now with Office 2010, Microsoft has opened up the suite even further for more sharing of content across applications and there is further integration with SkyDrive.

OneNote 2010. With every Microsoft Office release, I’ve noticed the Office development team pay special attention to one or two Office applications — OneNote has gotten a lot attention this time around. Besides joining the full Office suite (instead of being a separate purchase), there are many new improvements to the application (see my post about the OneNote 2010 Technical Preview for more detail).The biggest improvement is Microsoft offering up OneNote as a collaboration platform with its new coauthoring feature. With coauthoring, a project team can share and collaborate on OneNote pages and notebooks. As a longtime OneNote user, I can definitely see myself making use of the coauthoring and collaboration tools when I work on a team standardized on Office 2010.

PowerPoint 2010. PowerPoint 2010 enables you to edit video directly in the application, without the need for a third-party tool. While I am the last to call myself a “video person”, my limited testing of the feature showed it to be fine for video novices but those of you more video literate may find the feature to be a little lightweight. I was also happy to see the capability to put presentations online via SkyDrive or SharePoint 2010.

Outlook 2010. The Outlook beta offers improved conversation management tools, including the capability to ignore redundant email. A noteworthy addition to Outlook 2010 is the Outlook Social Connector (OSC), which appears to be a tool that ties into SharePoint 2010 and aggregates information on any user’s emails, phone conversations, and IM sessions with you, With OSC and its upcoming API development kit, Outlook could finally link directly into major social networks without the need for third-party add-ins (see my previous post entitled “Make Microsoft Outlook More Social”). While I wasn’t able to test out OSC fully, I do plan to keep it on my scope and test it further.

Word 2010. Outside of the suite-wide changes, Word 2010 is still pretty much the same feature-wise as it was in the technical preview.

Excel 2010. I like to leave the heavy spreadsheet work to my accounting-minded friends and colleagues but outside of the suite-wide changes, Excel 2010 is still pretty much the same feature  wise as it was in the technical preview.

Have you tried out the Office 2010 Beta? Share your experience below.

The successive typhoons that recently came over the Philippines gave my roof and ceiling a complete beating. I thought I could ignore the rainwater dripping into every room in the house but, when I woke up one morning and found my head completely wet thanks to a new hole, I knew I couldn’t postpone the repairs any longer.

But working from home and having your home repaired can be a chaotic mix. It tends to destroy your routine, concentration and even the quality of your work. So what can we home office workers do to prevent that from happening?

Use noise canceling headphones or other protective gear. This is the most straightforward approach, particularly if noise is your biggest problem. In a previous post, WWD reader Mau recommended the earmuff hearing protectors typically found in shooting ranges. If the noise isn’t too loud, maybe ever a pair of earplugs is enough.

Play some music or other non-distracting background noise. I’ve also tried drowning out the noise with music, preferably something instrumental or with foreign language vocals so that I’m not distracted when I write. If you’re solving the noise issue this way, just stick to whatever kind of music allows you to work. Alternatively, you can play white noise or soothing nature sounds. (Here’s a good collection of nature sounds. The menu on the left also points to ambient sound downloads, including white noise.)

Watch out for more than just the noise. Apart from auditory distractions, there are a lot of other things you need to look out for to stay safe. It may depend on the types of repairs you’re having, but there’s usually a lot of dust particles flying around, especially if you’re working with wood. There may also be materials, tools and other equipment lying around your house during this time.

Change your location. The great thing about being a web worker is that we can take our work with us wherever we go. As much as possible, I would look for a room or area that won’t be repaired for that day. That room then becomes my temporary office.

But sometimes, this approach isn’t enough. If you can leave someone you trust to monitor the repairs, you can work outside your home. This is an important move if you need to be available via voice chatting or conference calls. Just make sure you can be easily contacted if you need to make certain decisions regarding the repairs.

Change your work hours. Another strategy that’s been successful for me is to change my working hours around the repair schedule. I take advantage of the handyman’s rest days by working more hours on those days. Also, during his workdays, I get up very early and start work before he does. Alternatively, you can work during the evenings.

Make the effort to do routine home maintenance tasks. It might also help to take preventive measures by performing home maintenance tasks regularly. This may help you spot most potential problems along the way rather than force you to deal with one big problem that requires several noisy days or weeks to fix.

Have you ever worked from home during extensive repairs? What did you to do make sure your work got done despite the distractions?

Image by mihow from sxc.hu

“Know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em, know when to walk away, and know when to run.” – Kenny Rogers, “The Gambler”

Our impulse is usually to try to do everything. Opportunities present themselves, and we think, “If I turn this away, I may not get another shot. What if there’s nothing else coming down the pike?”

Early on in our careers, especially, it’s tempting to want to take on every job, collaborate with every potential strategic alliance, and never turn down anyone for anything. Sometimes, though, the best option is in the not doing.

But, how do you know when is a good time to hold and when is a good time to fold? Here are a few clues.

1. It’s not your passion. I’ve talked with a lot of successful entrepreneurs, and one common trait among them is that they follow their passion. They know what lights them up and what wears them down, and they stay true to themselves and their mission at all times.
2. Your gut is telling you something. Intuition is often a big influencing factor for successful entrepreneurs and small business owners. If they feel a strong pull one way or another, they learn to trust that instinct, and it rarely leads them astray.
3. It’s not in the plan. Although passion and gut instinct weigh heavily on the decision-making of those who are successful, it’s still important to have a vision and a plan. Goals and intentions should be a driving force behind your daily actions, which will help you stay the course when distractions and obstacles get in your way.
4. It’s draining you. There are clients and tasks that simply don’t match well with your own personality, strengths, weaknesses and working style. Instead of trying to fit a square peg into a round hole, accept that (for whatever reason) you just aren’t the right fit for each other and move on.
5. You’re spinning your wheels. There are situations where no matter what you do, you just can’t make it work. For instance, you might have a client who never takes your advice, does things his own way, and then comes back to you to fix it after the fact. It can be frustrating and wastes your valuable time on someone who will probably never change.
6. You’re overextended. The more your business grows, the more selective you have to become with how you spend your time and energy. Although that should be the case from the very start, it’s not until things become increasingly demanding that you begin to feel the crunch and understand the importance of being so selective.
7. You’ve hit a plateau or are floundering. Most successful people know that failed attempts, ruts and slumps are part of the game, but they also know when to say enough. Doing more of the wrong thing isn’t going to make things right, so they learn to ask tough questions and get down to the truth of a situation, rather than have it continually wear away at their energy and progress.
8. You’re being undervalued. There are times when a client or a partner doesn’t acknowledge or appreciate the value you bring to the table, and when that’s the case, you simply have to get out of a toxic relationship. It’s not always easy, but is very necessary for your own success and peace of mind.

In business, there are times when you have to be willing to walk away or risk paying an even bigger price down the line — your success and ultimate satisfaction with your life and work. While it’s not the easiest thing to do, it’s just as important to turn away the wrong opportunities as it is to jump on the right ones.

What criteria do you use to weigh prospective opportunities and avoid taking on clients and work that isn’t well-suited for you, or that holds you back from success?

Image from Flickr by Tiago Rïbeiro

There is never enough time in the day to keep up with the constant barrage of social media. Take Twitter, for example. Almost daily I have clients and colleagues ask me “Isn’t Twitter really a waste of time?” and “I hear Twitter is losing users faster than they’re gaining them, so why should I join?” The rest of us who are on Twitter — even those of us who have been using it for years — are still figuring out how to best fit Twitter into our overall communications toolkit.

So how do you keep from “wasting” time on Twitter? Here’s my advice on how to spend no more than 15 minutes a day on your Twitter account but still reap the rewards, particularly for your work. This is not a good tactic for everyone, but if you or someone you know is very resistant to Twitter and simply needs a manageable plan for tweeting, you can try this at work or home.

First, determine how you’ll most likely access Twitter and interact with others. If you’re old school (like me) and want a large, straightforward interface, use Twitter.com. If you don’t mind downloading, installing and configuring applications on your computer, go for a tool like Tweetdeck or Seesmic Desktop. If you’re always on the go and love typing on your mobile device, try something like Tweetie for the iPhone or TwitterBerry for the BlackBerry.

Now here’s how to spend your time efficiently and effectively on Twitter:

5 Minutes: Listen, Retweet
Start by “listening” on Twitter to get a sense of what people you’re following are talking about. Scroll down a page or two’s worth of tweets and skim until you see the ones that grab you. Then retweet them by copying their tweet being careful to give them credit. The tweet could be a compelling quote, a useful tip, or a link to a relevant blog post or article.

There are two “accepted” forms of retweeting, and they both seem to be used almost equally. You can put RT in front of the tweet you’ve copied and cite the originator of the tweet like this:

“RT @kellyecrane Great idea: PR consultants, let’s use the #soloprpro hashtag to share information! http://bit.ly/3wkIZu”

or you can credit them at the end of the tweet like this:

“PR consultants, let’s use the #soloprpro hashtag to share information! http://bit.ly/3wkIZu (via @kellyecrane)”

Personally, I much prefer the RT in front because of too many situations where people misread a retweet as a tweet from a person and confusion ensues. For example, one woman retweeted another who said her daughter was in the hospital and was suddenly barraged with messages ranging from “our prayers are with you” to “I didn’t know you had a daughter.”

Retweeting is a way of not only passing along valuable information but also giving kudos to the person tweeting — both great ways of building your following and strengthening Twitter relationships.

5 Minutes: Listen, Respond
Next, listen to see who is speaking about something of interest to you or something you can respond to authoritatively. You should also check who has mentioned you or addressed you in their tweets in your client or by searching for @yourtwittername.

If you find someone tweeting something to you directly, a response is usually expected so reply to them either publicly using @ and their Twitter name, or privately using a direct message (or DM) if you are “friends” with them (meaning you follow them and they follow you back). If you don’t personally know the Twitterer, but you are following them and want to respond to something they’ve said, you can still @ them. While it is perfectly acceptable to @ strangers, be thoughtful about how you address or respond to someone you don’t know.

Here’s an example of a tweet and a response.

“@alizasherman Most of the Seattle neighborhoods have a Twitter account for the neighborhood blog (e.g., @wallyhood for wallyhood.org)”

“@pathable Oh, totally cool. Seattle is so on it! @wallyhood for wallyhood.org? Thanks for the tip.”

5 Minutes: Promote, with Care
Let’s face it — many of us are using Twitter to promote who we are, what we’re doing, and even what we’re selling. There is nothing wrong with promotion on Twitter, but do it with context — think about how the information fits into your Twitter persona.

If you’re known as an SEO expert, you can promote your blog posts about search engine optimization. If you’re a finance expert, tweet regular personal finance tips with a link to articles you’ve written. If you’re a marketing expert, go ahead and tweet a link to your helpful marketing podcast each week. If your retail store is having a sale, that could be tweet-worthy to your followers.

Keep in mind that often the most effective self-promotion can happen when you promote others. As you promote your own articles, blog posts, products, etc., don’t hesitate to mention others that you’ve found worthy of promoting. By sharing the spotlight, you generate good will while still demonstrating your expertise.

After 15 minutes, walk away from the computer or shut down your Twitter application. Keeping your Twitter time under control doesn’t only mean having a plan. You have to exercise some self-discipline as well.

How do you keep your Twitter usage under control?

Even as a web worker, there are times when we need to sign paperwork. Maybe a new client is ready to sign a contract with you. Maybe an employer needs you to sign a form. No matter why you need to get your name down on a piece of paper, it can put a crimp in a web worker’s style. After all, who among us wants to have more hard copy around than is absolutely necessary? Luckily, more and more companies are accepting digitally signed documents — even the IRS will accept digital signatures on most forms. You can sign contracts, forms and other documents with just a click of your mouse.

Digital Signatures: The Facts

A digitally signed contract is just as legitimate as one signed by hand in most countries. There is plenty of precedent dating from the time when people were first signing and returning contracts by fax. If you ever need to, you can take someone to court to enforce a contract signed electronically. However, policies on accepting digital signatures can vary from company to company. Where one company will be perfectly comfortable accepting all your paperwork by email, another may want you to fax or mail in signed documents. We’re moving towards being able to do business without hard copies of our documents, but we’re not quite there.

The Strength of a Signature

There are several different ways that you can sign a document electronically. The big difference is in how the signature is verified:

• Your computer: Some software timestamps your signature and records the computer you used.
• Your IP address: Especially common with online services, your signature is recorded along with your IP address
• Public Key Infrastructure: Your signature is verified with a certificate issued by a trusted third party.

There’s a trade-off between the options: It’s harder to verify the first two options than PKI, but it can be difficult for an individual to get the required certificate for PKI. There are some online applications that use their own certificates in order to verify your signature, such as RightSignature. In comparison, Adobe Acrobat Professional allows you to create a digital signature that is verified based on the computer used. It can also use a certificate, but if you do not provide it with one, Adobe Acrobat will rely on your computer for verification.

Choosing a Signature Solution

Assuming that your employer or client doesn’t have an online application or a software package that they’d prefer you to use for your digital signatures, you’ll have to decide which option works best for you. It’s hard to find an option that is free as well as trustworthy. As long as you’re willing to spend a little bit of money, though, you can manage your contracts inexpensively. Personally, since I already have Adobe Acrobat on my computer, I rely on it, although I do not have a certificate to use with the software. While this is considered to be a less secure system than PKI, I haven’t had any problems with any document I’ve signed (even my 1099s). The downside is that Adobe Acrobat does not manage the entire signature process in the way that many online applications can — some will even send out emails reminding people to sign contracts.

What app do you use for digital signatures?

Image by Flickr user jk5854

As the amount of data we all use and store grows, information management is becoming an increasingly important topic. It’s often ignored until something happens, like losing a software serial number or other vital piece of information in what was once thought to be an organized email inbox or My Documents folder.

I recently reviewed Yojimbo 2.0, an excellent information organizer for the Mac that can help keep track of bits of information you might like to use later. But what if you use Windows? One option is iKnow from PpcSoft. It’s a productivity tool that targets information management and productivity. It uses notes that connect automatically to other notes within the application — sort of like your own personal World Wide Web, but residing in the safety and security of your local hard drive. I decided to take the trial version of the Standard Edition of iKnow for a spin.

Inside iKnow Standard Edition

iKnow includes a menu bar that follows Office 2007 menu standards. However, when you open features, the dialog boxes while consistent don’t quite follow the Office 2007 standard.

Create Notes. Creating notes in iKnow is a simple process. By default, iKnow creates notes with current date and time as the title.. I liked the capability of being able to create note templates, as even though the notes in iKnow Standard Edition are in text format, templates can help with formatting and consistency.

Search Notes. The Search Notes feature is also easy to use. However, it’s important to point out that during my testing, I didn’t create the huge number of notes that you’d be likely to generate during use, so I haven’t really put the search feature in this application through its paces.

Link Notes. PpcSoft touts the hyperlinking of notes as one of the application’s strengths. Linking to another note in iKnow is as simple as typing in the full name of the note and hitting return.

User Support. One disappointment I have with iKnow Standard Edition is the lack of online help and/or user documentation. While the application has a Help menu, there is only a sullen attempt at a “Getting Started” multimedia presentation that slogs along with all the grace of a poorly-done PowerPoint slide show, without any significant technical content. Additionally, the “Ask for Help” option is unavailable in my trial version. There are many low cost options today available for online help and user support, and for the application not to provide even a simple help page accessible from the application is a definite strike against it. There is some help content on the web site, but I found no links to it from the application. Some of the dialog boxes also have a help button but the help text is a bit on the light side.

iKnow Availability

iKnow is compatible with Windows XP SP2+, Windows Vista and Windows 7 and available for download from www.ppcsoft.com. It comes in three different versions:

• iKnow Professional Edition ($249.00)
• iKnow Standard Edition ($79.00)
• iKnow Lite (free for personal, non-commercial use)

Final Thoughts

The design of iKnow Standard Edition  is intuitive. However, the application could benefit from losing the multimedia “enhancements” because they hamper application performance in what is otherwise a very usable application. If you are a Windows user seeking a better solution to manage the bits and bytes of important text information you accumulate on your hard drive, I suggest checking out the trial version of iKnow Standard for yourself, because despite some rough edges the application shows signs of promise. Another nice touch is that the “30-day trial” is for thirty days of trying out the product, not thirty calendar days from registering the trial software.

What application(s) are you using to manage information overload on your Windows PC? Have you tried out iKnow Standard Edition?

When I sit down at my computer each morning, I always have plenty of emails asking me to work on short-term projects: a connection that has to be made today, a round of revisions that needs to be made immediately, a phone call that really ought to have happened last night, etc. Because of how immediate all of these requests are, it’s easy to get lost in them and let my long-term projects fall by the wayside.

Even with a schedule meant to let me proceed with a project at a comfortable pace, more immediate concerns can make it much harder to finish a project on time. And if the project is one that you don’t have a client or employer expecting you to finish, sticking to a schedule is just that much harder.

It’s OK to Say No

I think email has doubled the amount of work people ask me to do. When clients had to pick up the phone to ask me to handle some small detail, I think they were a little more reluctant to try to find me and add to my work load. But sending an email is just a matter of a moment and doesn’t require a whole lot of worry on the part of a client or a manager.

With all these little requests piling up in my inbox, it quickly becomes impossible to find time to work on a project not immediately due. But just because those small requests are in my inbox doesn’t mean that I have to take care of them. When possible, I hand them off to someone who is better able to take care of them. I’ve even been known to tell a client that I can’t handle a particular task. It’s important to minimize the number of little items that make it out of your inbox and onto your task list.

Schedule Big Projects First

I’ve been writing e-books on top of my normal work load lately. At first, I had the hardest time just finding a few hours to work on them. I had them on my task list, but they kept getting bumped in favor of closer deadlines — and client work with a more definite payout. Day after day, one of my e-books would be first on my desk, until I glanced through my email and saw some fires that I just had to put out first.

While there’s no easy solution to all those little problems, I found a surprisingly simple way to get my bigger projects done:I worked on them for an hour or two before I opened my email in the morning. Sure, I still had plenty of requests waiting for me when I did get around to my email — but they weren’t distracting me during the time I had allotted to my longer projects. And, amazingly enough, the world didn’t end because I wasn’t able to get to quite every little problem that someone had notified me about.

How do you avoid distractions to focus on your long-term projects?

Image by Flickr user Chris Campbell

One of the great features of social networking is how easy it is to share information with large groups of people. In this post, I’m going to share some ways that you can create bundles or collections of useful stuff that you can share with others, which can save you and your organization a great deal of time and effort. It can also be a lots of fun to discover some interesting and informative collections that others have taken the time to build for you.

RSS Feed Bundles

Google has unveiled a slick way to create what they call “bundles” of RSS feeds. These are actually just collections of related RSS feeds that you pick. For example, here’s a bundle that I created in a couple of minutes which aggregates all of the sites from the GigaOM Network:

In order to create a bundle, you just have to login to your Google Reader account, click “Browse for stuff” and then click the “Create a bundle” button. You then simply drag and drop the RSS feeds you want to include in this bundle, give it a name and description, and save it. After that you can share the bundle many different ways. You can email it, share the bundle’s URL on a social network or create a “bundle clip,” which is like a widget you can embed on your web site. Here’s an example of this bundle as it would appear as a bundle clip:

Create RSS Feeds of Site Collections with Delicious

The social bookmarking service Delicious offers a quick and easy way to share a collections of web sites, similar to the Google bundle method, except that this collection can contain links that are not RSS feeds. This means you can collect any type of web site in your Delicious collection and share them with individuals or groups (or even make them public for all the world to see.) The cool part about this is the fact that Delicious automatically creates an RSS feed for each and every tag that you create. This means people can subscribe to your tag, and automatically see new bookmarks that you add to that tag whenever you add to the collection. This is a powerful collaboration tool and something that could prove useful for clients and projects. Here’s an example of a new tag for a collection I created called GigaOm_Network, using the actual URLs for each site. I also included Om Malik’s Twitter account.

Firefox Collections of Add-ons
If you’re a Firefox user, then you know how useful add-ons can be in enhancing your browsing experience. Well, you can now share your favorite Firefox add-ons thanks to the Firefox Collector which allows you to create any kind of collection you want.

There are a great range of Firefox Add-on collections in the Editor’s picks. You’ll see a wide variety of collections ranging from the best add-ons for web developers to the best ones for travelers. There’s also a WebWorkerDaily collection available. If you can’t find a collection on something you want, then simply create one yourself. Just add the Firefox Collector add-on and browse the Firefox Add-ons library to find the items you want to assemble and share in your collection.

Share Groups of Firefox Tabs

Simon recently covered the Firefox add-on ClusterTabs, which includes a screencast that demonstrates how easy it is to create a group of tabs that you can share with others.

Create Document Collections With Thinkfree Portfolios

ThinkFree is an online office suite of products, similar to Google Docs. ThinkFree offers a unique feature called Portfolio, which allows you to create bundles with different types of documents. For example, you can create and share a Portfolio for a client or project that involves Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations and even PDF files. If this sounds familiar, then you probably remember Microsoft Binder, which did the same thing on the desktop.

Share Collections of Twitter Users
TweepML is a new site that lets you create collections of Twitter users that you can share with others. People can select to pick and choose who to follow on Twitter from your list, or they can elect to follow them all with the click of one button. This is an excellent solution for organizations that want to share a list of all their Twitter users. Here’s an example:

We all create and share lists of our favorite things online these days thanks to services like Last.fm (music), Flickr (photos), YouTube (videos), etc.  It thus seems like a natural progression to use the same collective mindset and technology to share other things such as documents, software and bookmarks. The list of items we can share as collections is limitless.

What tools do you use to create collections of useful things to share online?

Photo credit: stock.xchng user Onatos

Some employers don’t place a lot of credence on traditional resumes: even a completely truthful resume may not provide a clear impression of a prospective employee’s abilities and skills. WorkScore, which launches today, is a system that allows you to gather documentation and confirmation of your skills from your co-workers, allowing you to offer a potential employer a “social resume.”

The basic idea behind WorkScore is that anyone with a company email address can review their workplace and colleagues. Furthermore, they can do it anonymously, leaving a little more freedom to be truthful about what they think. When reviewing a colleague on WorkScore, a person can document skills, write “thank you” notes and point to specific confirmations on the part of that colleague. Assessments are confidential, meaning that the subject of the assessment does not actually see it, although the information does contribute to an overall “WorkScore.”

While your first reaction to the idea of anonymous assessment may be concern, the subject of any review is able to choose whose assessments count. If you receive an assessment from someone who may not be perfectly objective about your abilities, you can instruct WorkScore to ignore that information.

Your WorkScore provides a clear picture of your skills when you’ve received a little information from your colleagues. You’ll have an overall numerical score that draws on how your co-workers have ranked you in different skills. You can also add any major contributions you’ve made to your employer — a viewer will be able to see whether or not your co-workers have confirmed your contributions.

WorkScore goes beyond just reviewing colleagues, however. You can also review the company you work for, and look through potential companies during your search for a job. All reviews of workplaces are anonymous — although you can’t add a review without an email address from that company — and they’re public. WorkScore focuses on providing information about the values of a particular company, as well as finding a good fit for yourself. You can also review a company as a client, business partner, supplier or other professional who doesn’t actually work for the company.

For web workers, the ability to add confirmation of your skills may be particularly useful. It offers an opportunity to not only tell a prospective employer that you’ve already worked as a telecommuter or independently, but to have your colleagues — perhaps a manager or team lead as well — describe how well you do when you work remotely, and can provide a shortcut to proving that you can work independently in a way that a traditional resume can’t.

It is necessary to get your co-workers on board with using WorkScore to document accomplishments and skills: a social resume just isn’t that useful if other people aren’t involved. Depending on your workplace, getting your colleagues and management on board with using WorkScore to rank each other could be a tough sell. Overall, however, the information that WorkScore could be just what employers need to better judge potential employees.

What do you think of the “social resume” concept?

When was the last time you stepped outside your working comfort zone? Amber’s recent post about business success mentioned having to “do things we’re uncomfortable doing, like … ‘putting ourselves out there.’” Her post reminded us how often we deny ourselves certain possibilities simply because we’re uncomfortable with giving something new a try.

It’s not just about building a business, though. Going beyond your comfort zone in any work setting can be intimidating, but I think it can be especially difficult if you work remotely. We’re all sitting happily in our nice remote-work bubbles, insulated from The Office (or The Client), peak-hour gridlock, water cooler babble and the vagaries of the weather. We’re able to do whatever we want, whenever we want — within reason.

Working remotely can become a very comfortable experience very quickly. So what happens when you’re needed for a three-day on-site work conference? Do you curse your CEO and start making a list of all the home comforts you’ll take with you, or are you cool as a cucumber? And what if (horror of horrors) you’re asked to do a presentation at the conference?

From Little Things…

We all have our comfort zones — boundaries that we’re hesitant to cross. Often, these boundaries are subconscious, but they can have a huge impact on the way we operate. Amber mentioned one in her post: she decided before she’d even called a contact that they would be too busy to be interested in her new venture. But there are other equally insidious ways in which our working comfort zones can limit us every day:

• You need to arrange a meeting with a team member in your timezone. You’re more of “an email person” than “a phone person” so you send them an email rather than just picking up the phone and calling them.
• You need to prepare a presentation, and a colleague has offered her help. You haven’t worked with her before, and when you call her, she’s away from her desk. As you hang up without leaving a message, you decide that maybe it’s just easier to go it alone.
• A friend recommends a handy piece of free software that might help you track your time — a task you’ve always had trouble with. You tell him you’ll take a look at it, knowing all the while that you won’t — you can’t be bothered trying to get your head around a new invoicing process right now.
• An associate invites you to a freshly-launched regular industry meet-up. The last time you went to a “networking event” was about three years ago, and it was really boring, so you decline on the spot.

You can probably find a justification for each one of these scenarios; I know I can. But in each case, you’re declining an opportunity to interact, to experiment, or to try something new. And each of those opportunities could lead to other things: greater work satisfaction, stronger working relationships and friendships, new life experiences, and so on.

Comfort or Confidence?

Often we decline opportunities because, at heart, we’re not confident about how we’ll respond to them. But although we feel most confident within our comfort zone, it’s when we stop being so comfortable that we can actually build confidence. And the more frequently we go beyond our boundaries, the easier it becomes not just in one area — such as work — but in other areas of life as well.

Sometimes, the boundaries are so subtle and ingrained that we might not even be aware of them. They do have a few telltale signs, though. Imagine yourself in any of the above situations. If you feel, even subtly, a sense of:

• unease
• boredom or disinterest
• frustration or exasperation
• a desire to escape the situation

…you may have discovered the edge of your comfort zone. Once you know how the prospect of stepping out of your comfort zone makes you feel, you’ll be able to identify those situations quickly and easily — and do something about them.

The good news is that you don’t need to jump out of a plane or swim with sharks to start expanding those boundaries. The simple act of actually trialling that new piece of software your friend recommended, or — yes — calling your colleague rather than emailing, can start to erode your boundaries and boost your sense of capability.

This can be especially helpful for those times when you feel isolated, or more responsive than proactive in your work. Something as simple as initiating a meeting about a problem you’ve perceived with your project, or committing yourself to actually speak with each team member on a regular basis, can make a valuable difference. It may well help you reestablish your sense of involvement and contribution, and it’s sure to build your confidence, too.

Perhaps, like a friend of mine, you’ll find you enjoy the challenge — and its benefits — so much that you’ll make a plan to do at least one thing that’s outside of your working comfort zone every week.

How about it? What could you try to expand your working comfort zone this week?

(photo courtesy of Neja)

I’m on a keyboard productivity kick at the moment. Having been through the time-saving keyboard shortcuts in Google Tasks yesterday, I thought I’d take a look at the ones that I use in Gmail. I’m only going to cover the shortcuts that I use every day. It’s actually possible to do nearly everything in Gmail without touching the mouse, though you’d need to remember a very long list of shortcuts to do so, and personally I find it hard to remember shortcuts for tasks I do less frequently.

Before you get started with keyboard shortcuts in Gmail, you need to make sure that you’ve enabled them. Go to your “Settings” page (available through the link top-right), hit the button next to “Keyboard shortcuts on” and then click “Save Changes.”

Once shortcuts are enabled, you’ll see a little cursor to the left of the current message in your inbox.

• c: Compose new message.
• k: Moves the cursor to a newer conversation.
  
• j: Moves the cursor to an older conversation.
• n: Moves the cursor to the next message in conversation view.
• p: Moves the cursor to the previous message in conversation view.
• x: Selects the current conversation (ready for archiving, marking as spam, etc.).
• e: Archives selected conversations.
• !: Marks current conversation as spam.
• Enter: Opens the current conversation.
• r: Reply.
• a: Reply all.
  
• g then i: Goes to the Inbox (easy to remember as “Go Inbox”).
• g then a: Goes to “All mail.”
• g then k: Opens Tasks and switches the focus to it (unfortunately not g then t — that opens Sent Mail!)
  

These are just a small subset of all the keyboard shortcuts available, but they really help speed my Gmail usage. If you want to totally get to grips with all of Gmail’s available keyboard shortcuts, Twitter CEO Evan Williams put together this nice printable cheatsheet.

Do you use keyboard shortcuts in Gmail?

Sharein, the link sharing service, has responded to bookmarking web app Delicious’ new link sharing features by unleashing a raft of new functionality. Interestingly enough, much of this new functionality involves bookmarking, which is Delicious’ bread and butter. I guess you could say that is fair play, since link sharing is Sharein’s primary reason for being.

In any event, all of this competition is ultimately good for all of us folks that just want to get things done faster and more efficiently. This new focus on saving links — not just sharing them — is a major shift for Sharein, meaning that you can now store these resources as you conduct research online for clients or projects. Let’s take a look at the new features.

New Dashboard

As soon as you login to Sharein you’ll see the new features on the dashboard. There is now a “My Bookmarks” tab. Previously, you had to click on “My Shares” then drill down to “Bookmarks”. Now, you can go straight there. There’s also “Import Bookmarks,” which allows you to pull in your collection of links from Delicious or your local browser.

The Dashboard also provides access to your public profile which displays all of the links that you’ve shared. It also displays graphs and charts of all your shares, thus revealing how popular your shared links have been.

Shorten, Save & Share

Sharein is a good tool for doing research online because you can save any web page that you’re viewing with two quick clicks. First, you have to install the bookmarklet to your browser’s toolbar. Alternatively, there’s a plugin for Firefox that adds a button to the top row of your screen. Once you click the bookmarklet or plugin button, you will see Sharein’s popup window.

Note all of the options available to you. The first tab is for posting the link to Twitter (it’s automatically shortened in order to save valuable character space).

The next option is for Facebook which allows you to share the link on your Facebook account.

The third option is handily allows you to share links via email. It does an excellent job remembering all of the people that you’ve sent links to before. Again, this can come in handy while doing research for a project with a team of team or a client. You can enter the email addresses manually or you can import all of your contacts from other services such as Gmail, Yahoo Mail, etc.

Finally, the fourth option is the much improved “Bookmarks” tab. Here’s where you can save links to your new collection of bookmarks online in the cloud. This means you’ll be able to access all of your links from any computer, much like you can with Delicious and other online bookmarking services. It has also added a new feature for suggesting tags based on the content of the link you’re saving.

Also improved within the bookmarking area is the ability to do more with each bookmark. You can now edit the tags on each bookmark manually or by using the suggested tags feature, and you edit, share and delete your bookmarks.

The New Sharein vs. the New Delicious

I have to be honest here and say that both services have pros and cons. For example, I think Sharein does a much better job than Delicious when it comes to sharing links, thanks to its address book importing and connections to other networks such as Twitter and Facebook. Delicious, on the other hand, is still the king of social bookmarking. Delicious is striving to add more social sharing features in an effort to be more like Sharein, which in turn is now aiming to be more Delicious-like with its new bookmarking features. In the end, we all benefit from services that allow us to do more with less clicks.

Do you prefer Delicious or Sharein for bookmarking and link sharing?

Whether you use Twitter for personal or professional reasons, after a while you’ll notice that your inbox is overflowing with direct messages (DMs). Ultimately, you’ll realize that you will never have the time or the patience to sit there and manually delete all of them. What do you do then?

Well, enter the wonderful time-saving free tool known as DM Deleter which automates the process of trashing your direct messages with just a couple of clicks. This tool was produced by the gifted Damon Cortesi (@Dacort), the same developer behind the Twitter statistics and analysis tool, TweetStats.

Here’s how to delete your direct messages (all of them, or just selected ones):

• Go the DM Deleter page.
• Drag the DM Whacker bookmarklet to your browser’s toolbar.
• Go to your Twitter Direct Messages page.
• Click the DM Whacker bookmarklet on your toolbar. (Your Twitter page will change.)
• Now select which direct messages to delete. Choose all DM’s you’ve sent and received, or just those to and from selected individuals.
• Click the “Delete” button, and let the whacking begin. DM Deleter managed to wipe out all of my viewable 800 direct messages in under 10 minutes, which was quite impressive. This 800 limit is imposed by Twitter itself, so you can never delete more than that total.
  
  (Note: It’s important to mention that this tool will actually delete direct messages from all the inboxes of the folks you sent DMs to as well. So be careful if you decide to delete all DMs. There’s no way to undelete them at this time.)
  

Back Up Your DMs (and Tweets)

Prior to deleting all of your DMs, you might want to back them up. Here are some tools that will back up your direct messages, as well as some that back up your public tweets. Keep in mind that Twitter only displays 3,200 tweets for each user (about 160 pages) so that will be the most tweets you can ever back up.

• TweeTake is the only service that I’ve seen that can export/backup direct messages. Keep in mind that you can only backup 800 direct messages because of  Twitter’s limits.
• Twistory backs up your tweets in an iCal format.
• Tweetbackup lets you schedule daily backups.
• ListofTweets only exports your most recent tweets, so it’s not a good tool for exhaustive backups
• Twitter Tools lets bloggers export their tweets to their blog.

Do you back up your tweets and DMs?

Last month, I made the switch to Google Quick Search Box from Quicksilver on my Mac. While Quicksilver improved my efficiency and cut the time I spent searching for files, Google Quick Search Box has upped the ante even further by adding in the ability to speedily access all my Google services through the same interface. I’m very impressed with it.

Google Quick Search Box is available as a free download for OS X. On the surface, it seems fairly simple. Just like with Quicksilver, you hit a keyboard shortcut and up pops a box where you can run a search. You can access applications and files from there, too. But Google Quick Search Box also has some additional capabilities:

• Find contacts within your address book
• Complete calculations
• Open your bookmarks in new browser tabs
• Look up dictionary definitions
• Launch songs in iTunes
• Launch files saved in your Google Docs account
• Perform a Google search

That’s not an exhaustive list, and you can even add features, like the ability to send messages to Twitter.

You can also perform a variety of actions on any file you find through Google Quick Search Box. With a couple of clicks, you can access information about the file, move it to the trash, and even open files in larger type. There are also a number of application-specific actions you can take, like ranking a song in iTunes or composing a new email to a contact.

It may seem like the wide variety of tasks that Google Quick Search Box can handle could be overwhelming when you sit down and use it, but it’s very adaptable. As you use it, it learns which files you’re most likely to launch, speeding up the process.

If you’ve used Google Desktop in the past, you’ll be familiar with the concept behind the Quick Search Box — but there are some important differences between Google Desktop and the standalone launcher: the ability to perform actions on your search results and access to calculations and definitions are unique to Google Quick Search Box. The Quick Search Box can also be extended with plugins, and the code is available on Google Code if you want to make changes of your own. Google Desktop does offer one advantage over the Quick Search Box: the ability to search cached and deleted files.

Google Quick Search Box makes it possible for you to significantly speed up your work. Even if you operate more in the cloud than on your desktop, you can access the applications and files you need to work on quickly. The features of Google’s launch application set it far ahead of applications I’ve used in the past.

What are your favorite ways to use Google Quick Search Box?

As a web worker, I’m always looking for interesting ways to market my products and services. I was impressed by a recent Twitter promotion here in Seattle. It was simple, effective, and cost almost nothing.

Sound Transit, the agency that is building Seattle’s new light-rail system, is gearing up for the opening of the first line in a few days. It’s getting a lot of press coverage, but the marketing efforts are being supplemented with a special Twitter promotion.

Last Thursday, a hint was posted on the Sound Transit Twitter account:

I’m going have something pretty cool to announce this Monday! You’re gonna like it. Light Rail Fans Please Retweet!

Of course, people did retweet, and the news was picked up by the Seattle Transit Blog, which posted the rumor that there was going to be a ticket giveaway for the inaugural journey:

Ribbon cutting should be at Mount Baker Station at 10 am, and the inaugural ride should start there, for those who have tickets. Rumor has it that a giveaway might be what’s going on @ST_TravelLight on twitter. That’s also who you want to follow for opening day news.

Sure enough, on Monday, Sound Transit twittered:

Get a Link Inaugural Ride Ticket! Be @ Union Station (401 S Jackson St) Tomorrow 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. The 1st 100 people there will get tickets.

I was at Sound Transit headquarters in Union Station at the appointed hour. In the lobby was a line of about 25 people, with more trickling in. I got my ticket and left, but as the morning wore on, Sound Transit updated the Twitter account with the number of tickets remaining; they were all gone within a couple of hours.

This really was a brilliant promotion — simple, easy to implement, and cheap. Total resources needed: someone updating the Twitter feed, a couple of people handing out tickets at a table in the lobby, and some signs reading “Twitter Promotion” on the door. The tickets and accompanying informational materials had already been printed.

Yes, Sound Transit could have used other media (or even its own web site!) to get the word out. But by using Twitter, Sound Transit knew exactly how many people would get the notices (743), and so had a good idea of how many tickets were needed. So the line was manageable, and crowd control was not an issue. Beyond that, Sound Transit also knew that its Twitter followers are train and transit geeks. It couldn’t have asked for a better-targeted audience: one that’s very likely to say positive things about the new light-rail system.

I know that I will recommend similar promotions to my clients, and to some of the community organizations with which I work, in the future. And I’ll see you on the train on Saturday!

Have you used Twitter and other social media for small, informal promotions? How well have they worked for you?