Google Wave First Impressions
So Friday was the Google Wave Developer Day in Sydney or #wavedaysyd.
What a great day! Thanks to @pamelafox for organising and for all the Google Wave team being there. It was like we had our own I/O Keynote in the room.
So I now have my Google Wave Sandbox account, and a new appreciation for developers, since trying my hand at downloading eclipse and setting up the basic wave demo was a complete failure (hopefully it had something to do with Win 7 or my eee pc and I can try it again on my desktop).
So, I was going to do the Part 2 of my Google Wave for Project Collaboration post after the WaveDay, but Wave is not quite ready yet to see exactly where it will be heading as a really solid piece of enterprise software, so I’m going to hold off on that one for now.
For now, I will just go through some of my first impressions of Google Wave. Overall it did live up to my expectations as a concept. It’s just in very early development stage at the moment, but you can see where it is possibly heading.
Look and feel
The main panel of waves is a bit crowded and it really needs a big screen to give it room to look good. You can hide the panels as you need to which helps for productivity.
Flakyness
Yes, it’s a bit flaky at the moment. It’s got a lovely feature called Dr. Wave that pops up when it’s about to die, and a cool error message if the wave itself is getting a bit flaky. If it’s going to be flaky it may as well have some fun doing so.
Seeing other people type
This was really cool – I didn’t think it would be. Seeing someone start to answer your question before you have even finished typing it, because they have go the gist of the message was really great. I think this will be one that takes just a little bit of time to get used to, but within a short time normal IM conversations will be very boring.
Missing things
There are a few missing things to the UI right now like folders, saved searches, draft editing mode, different views on the wave, spam etc, and the Mute function and archive functions are a bit hit and miss but you can see that it is coming at least.
Shift+Enter
You need to either click on Done or press shift+enter when you are done writing a blip… in a fast moving wave this can be a bit annoying. I would love a setting to have enter as done.
Deleting
It’s also annoying that you can’t easily delete a blip. If you start a blip in the wrong place you can’t just do Esc to undo it, you actually have to go to the menu and choose delete… it would be good to just be able to undo what you are typing (even though people may have already seen it as you type).
Reading Blips
In a fast moving wave, it is quite hard to follow where the updates are happening… I think some more work needs to happen on seeing the updates – like a keystroke (eg j, k like gmail and greader) to quickly go to the next unread blip. Plus the blips currently need to be clicked on or you need to click on the Read button to mark as read. A scroll past and mark as read feature like greader would be good.
Indenting
The indenting of the blips can get a bit unwieldy, but it wasn’t till the end of the day that we found out we could do shift+enter to create a new blip at the bottom of the wave… I think if we all knew that little gem of a tip, it would have been a lot easier.
Wave Etiquette
This one is going to take a while to get used to. Whether to reply, or to edit, and where to reply in the wave is all a bit confusing. It helps if someone states up front in the Wave header as to what they expect. It determines if the wave is a document type wave, a wiki type wave or an IM conversation type wave… and just as in email the same rules such as not using the same wave thread for other topics or not cc’ing in other people all need to be worked out by the wave participants.
@replies
There is no @reply feature to show you that someone has specifically replied to you. This could be just an etiquette thing (ie typing the @ symbol or similar) but it also needs a way to alert you that someone has replied to you.
User Names
It’s a bit of a pain at the moment that the system won’t autocomplete or recognise names from part of the name, so you have to type in the full name (eg jodiem@wavesandbox.com) when you are adding someone new (after that it is just drag and drop to communicate with them), and if you make a mistake, at the moment you can’t delete contacts.
Photo Management
This is where I was hoping for a lot and there is not a lot there – just yet… but I can see the possibilities and we may one day get to a level of photo management that I described in my previous post. At the moment you can’t select single or multiple photos and copy them into a new wave – you can only copy all of the photos in a blip to a new wave (you can then delete them but it’s tedious and if there are photos in multiple blips it doesn’t really work at all). There is a great slideshow viewer but again you can either see all photos in the wave or just one… not the ones you want. Drag and drop to upload did not work for me, but apparently I need a newer version of chrome to do it.
Bots and Gadgets
There were some really really fantastic bots and gadgets developed on Friday and I can’t wait for some of them to be essential bots that we have to have in every day use of Wave. There is a small limitation at the moment that makes it difficult for gadgets to be useful, in that they can’t interact with the wave – eg a Gadget can’t create or edit text on the wave, only a bot can. So my idea of a form filling gadget that displays XML data on the wave is well off into the future.
So overall Wave is the start of something very new, and something that I’m so exited to be using, even in it’s current, flaky state. And I’m off to play another game of Hangman with a bot made by @mrspeaker.
Google Wave for Project Collaboration – Part 1
Tomorrow, I’m going to the Google Wave Developer Day in Sydney (#wavedaysyd). I’m really looking forward to finding out what ideas developers have for Wave. I’m not a developer but I do have some ideas as to what I want it to do, hence this post. This post is Part 1 and I will follow up with a part 2 after the event.
I was completely blown away when I first saw the video of Google Wave, because I immediately thought how good it would be for project collaboration. My background is in construction so I am specifically referring to construction project collaboration, but due to the intricacies of construction project collaboration, the features can be used for any type of project.
Since my initial wave (pardon the pun) of enthusiasm, I have put up a post of some of the things that Google Wave must have before I think it can be really useful. See the post here.
If you need a refresher on Google Wave terminology you can see this article or this post.
Email vs Wave
One of the very interesting points about Wave is that it’s not like email – the wave does not go anywhere (unless it’s going off to a federated wave server… but we will talk about that later), it just sits in the same place it was created. The users log into the wave server to see the wave… all the participants on the wave log in and see the same wave. This is not anything new. In fact, it is how a number of construction collaboration products work already (Aconex, ProjectCentre and Keystone are three that I know work this way). This works really well because there is no way for the message to get lost in transit, so it builds trust in the system and the knowledge that if a person has been added to the message, it is a guarantee (almost, apart from some small limitations – eg you spelt the name wrong) that that person can see the message. So it is really good to see this feature come to our regular communications.
Meetings
The Wiki-like features of Wave will enable meetings to be planned and recorded quickly and easily, with the Agenda, scheduling, attendees and minutes all in the one wave. Imagine if the notes of the meeting were recorded as blips as they were happening in real life, the playback feature of the wave will be a great record of what happened in the meeting… Imagine several people in the meeting all writing blips as they pick up something of interest in the meeting. With a tablet PC this could even be a direct handwritten blip.
But what if we took that further – what about recording the audio or even video of the meeting and time syncing the notes with the recordings (Wave does not do this yet, but the possibilities are endless). The possibilities for embedding the live video (eg something like tokbox) of all the participants, whether physically in attendance, or virtually, would be amazing.
Quick Resolution
Not being disrespectful to construction folk, because they do a fantastic job, but the most technologically advanced that most construction people are is with the use of the mobile phone and email (just a year or so ago it would have been the mobile phone and a fax machine, so we have come a long way there already recently). So with Wave being so much like email it will be quick and easy to sort out problems before they get too big. It would be so easy if the Architect happens to be online at the time the Wave was started so the conversation could immediately turn into a real time chat and things are recorded as they happen.
Please see my previous post about security, privacy etc for concerns about the real time chat aspects of Wave.
Document Management
I think it’s a long-shot that Wave will replace specific document management software (eg Aconex, ProjectCentre or even Woobius for construction, or enterprise document management suites like Documentum, SharePoint and Trim) at enterprise level, but imagine the possibilities for small projects. Start a wave called Current Documents and attach all the current documents. Split the wave into document subject areas (eg Floor Plans, Elevations). Attach the current documents, add people to the wave. These people now have exactly the same view of the information that you do – “one version of the truth”. Split off particular documents into a new wave (eg drawings for the electrician or the plumber) and add the correct people to see only the documents that they need to see. When a document gets updated with the new version it is instantly updated to all the participants because they are all seeing that one and only copy of the wave.
Of course, SharePoint, specialist Document Management systems and even a Confluence Wiki could all handle document management simply and easily, but Wave is free (as far as we know right now, but there will probably be a premium version, like GAFYD) and is as simple as email. Now I don’t know if all of this can actually be done right now, but I hope to find out soon.
Forms
Forms are a vital part of Construction Project Management. The hark back from the good old days when nothing happened on a construction site without it being written on a form in triplicate and distributed to the relevant parties. It kept a level of control on the project and all parties knew where they stood contractually. But it was S-L-O-W. Email has obliterated the comforting level of control that we used to have, with decisions now being made on the fly, which has made it faster, but we have lost most of the control and often find ourselves catching up with the “official” paperwork months down the track. The overhead is enormous. ProjectCentre, (and I think Keystone) try to overcome this by having e-forms as the basis for their communications (Aconex just uses email templates). So it would be great if there was a way that the Wave could be a bit more structured with templates, form fields, controls and a concept like a “submit” button. To give a simple way to submit and transmit more structured data that may be required in some cases.
Now if this was then XML based and could have a bot that updates a corporate database once submitted, then that would be even better!
Photo Management
The amount of time wasted on construction projects with photo management is incredible, and a simpler way to share, track and manage photos is critical. Of course, on construction projects photos are critical and a picture tells 1000 words. Photos are used to solve disputes, record defects, record progress, record delays – anything (As the whole philosophy of a modern construction project is based around the concept of “Cover Your Arse”, the invention if the digital camera has been a revolution in construction).
Photo management as easy as snap, upload, drag onto the wave, tag and share is a long way from folder upon folder of untagged and undated photos on the corporate file share. Of course, flickr and just about any other web based photo album app makes it easy to upload photos and the wonderful EyeFi card makes getting the pics off the camera simple, so Wave does not have an advantage there. But I think the sharing of the images is what is going to make the difference.
So there are 30 pictures of some defects in a room. 15 are for the plumber, 10 for the plasterer and 5 for the electrician – and 2 are good enough to send to the client as progress shots. Just drag the 30 photos on to the wave and tag them. Highlight the 15 shots for the plumber and add him to the wave for those shots. Do the same for the electrician and the plasterer. Then grab the two images for the client and publish them to the project progress blog. Simple! And a full discussion can be had with the electrician back and forth until the issues are resolved – all captured and recorded.
Now lets take that one step further and have the images sent directly from the mobile phone on site onto the wave – geotagged with their location. I’m sure that is going to be possible soon enough.
Mapping and Photos
This may not be specifically Wave related but it is just something I have been thinking of for a while now. We are so used to geotagged photos now that immediately appear on the map as soon as we upload to flickr. At Remix last week (the video for the keynote is not up yet but here is the link to the videos site in case it appears), Incite Keystone showed a prototype of a photo being taken on a mobile phone and then appearing on a map (not sure exactly what technology it was, something Microsoft – Bing Maps, DeepZoom, DeepEarth – not quite sure… and I’m not entirely convinced the whole thing happened automatically as it could have been a bit of smoke and mirrors, with the image having being pre-placed on the map for the sake of the demo, but I love the concept, regardless).
So what if we could take it one step further and rather than the map, have the photos placed on the location on the floor plan (or how ’bout inside the 3D model – but hey, one step at a time…). Now I know that GPS is not accurate enough to do this to the few hundred millimetre accuracy that it would have to be, so I would be happy to be able to drag a marker for the photo onto the correct location on the floor plan – just as you would placing a marker on o a google map. I think this would be really useful – anything to make photos of construction projects easier to manage would be.
Federated Wave Servers
Now this is taking things to the Nth degree but it is still important. A lot of companies will be reluctant to use Wave at the moment because they don’t want Google “owning” their data. Thankfully many construction companies are “getting over” this limitation and using multi-tenanted databases with SAAS vendors like Aconex and ProjectCentre. However, there are still a number of industries that can not even think of having their data even off site, let alone in a database in a row next to someone else’s (Lawyers being a good example). So let them have their own Wave Server hosted on-premise, and all these issues go away. (I still think this is quite a long way away, however).
Another reason for a company to build their own Wave Server is for the volume and size of the documents… if they are big documents (eg large photos, or video) that need to be downloaded often, then it will be best to have the Wave Server in house.
Other Articles and Ideas
- http://www.extranetevolution.com/extranet_evolution/2009/05/google-wave.html – As Paul Wilkinson mentions on this topic, once we can get Wave integrating with existing collaboration systems out there, we will start to see the full benefit of online collaboration systems. I can’t even begin to imagine what some of these integrations will be, but the possibilities are endless.
- http://www.ddmcd.com/wave.html – I like this article as it talks about Soft Collaboration (eg Wave) vs Hard Collaboration (eg Aconex), and it also talks about the financial aspects of the project – after all it’s what the whole project is about – money. I will need to cover off money in another post… but the forms idea will work for the money side of things anyway.
- http://www.thechangebusiness.co.uk/TCB/Blog/Entries/2009/5/31_Google_waves_for_construction.html – This article starts to talk about the design process – Wow, that brings in things like BIM and the whole design process – again lots to think about.
- What about the social aspects for construction – Social Networking in any form has not ventured into Construction – you won’t even find many construction people on LinkedIn… will this change and evolve?
- Facilities management – Everything you can do to manage a project during construction you can use to manage the building during it’s occupancy phase, so Wave will have a definite place there… but what about the possibilities of bots hardwired to the building talking to Wave and to each other… now that’s getting exiting…
I’m going to leave it there before my ideas start getting even more absurd, and I will be really interested to see if I come back from my first hands-on look at Wave tomorrow either way more exited or a bit more disillusioned.
Confluence and SharePoint Wikis
This is the contents of a talk that I gave at the May 2009 meeting of SBTUG. It was a session on comparing the features of the wonderful enterprise wiki product Confluence by Atlassian and the wiki features of SharePoint.
The session content was delivered to the user group using the confluence online trial sandbox where you can try most aspects of confluence online before you buy.
This talk will not go into the following
- Other Wiki’s other than SharePoint and Confluence – See WikiMatrix for a complete comparison of all Wiki Software http://www.wikimatrix.org/index.php.
- The whole debate over the use of Wiki’s and whether you can trust the content on Wiki’s – this is for a corporate usage where there is unlikely to be anonymous comments allowed.
- WikiPatterns – although you should look at this site if you are interested in Wiki’s at all - http://www.wikipatterns.com/display/wikipatterns/Wikipatterns.
What is a Wiki
According to wikipedia, a wiki is:
A wiki is a website that uses wiki software, allowing the easy creation and editing of any number of interlinked (often databased) Web pages, using a simplified markup language. Wikis are often used to create collaborative websites and to power community websites … originally described it as “the simplest online database that could possibly work.”
SharePoint and Wiki Features
Wiki Features
- No external Editor, no uploading documents, edit button on the page
- Wiki pages are constantly a work in progress - http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WorkInProgress (but Confluence has some add-ins for Page Status)
- Revision Comparison
- Recently Edited Pages
- Links can go anywhere (not a structured hierarchy)
- Comments and Discussions
- Document Management
- Integration with MS Office
No Matter how structured and organised your content is and how good your search is in SharePoint, a Wiki still makes the information much more discoverable as it’s not hidden away in documents, it’s just a few clicks away at all times.
But Structured Publishing pages on SharePoint could just about do the same thing.
Confluence and SharePoint Comparisons
Confluence
For
- Has many many features for corporate Wiki useage
- Many installation options (eg Database could be MySQL, Oracle or SQL Server)
- Is the most extensible Wiki platform through the Macro’s and Add-ins
- Atlassian have won multiple awards
- Confluence is now the defacto standard for corporate wiki’s
- It can integrate with SharePoint
- Has excellent Word and Excel editing capabilities
Against
- Built on Java – many MSFT only businesses may be scared off by that
- Smaller company – people may think, will they be around in a few years time
- Has to be integrated with Active Directory to be useful for business – this can be difficult
- Output to PDF limited and very hard to customise
- Not there just yet with Office 2007 support (although it is coming)
Other
- Does not use CamelCase linking notation (like other wiki’s), uses Free Linking (Square Brackets) instead – seehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki#Linking_and_creating_pages
- Atlassian’s own Comparison Page but it is very old (2005) http://confluence.atlassian.com/display/DISC/Comparison+Matrix
SharePoint
For
- Is already part of SharePoint – nothing extra to maintain or install
- Features of SharePoint that can be used with the Wiki (from http://woodywindy.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!773832677F575173!653.entry
- Setting Alerts to be notified of changes *
- Setting the permissions of the library, or even individual pages *
- Adding metadata fields – for example, subject tags, or even links to supporting documents
- RSS feeds *
- Requiring approval and document check-out for changes
- Creating different views of the information
- Friendly URL’s *
- Add Web Parts to your Wiki Page
The items above with a * are available in Confluence also
Against
- It’s not really a Wiki
- Only uses SharePoint’s basic editor
- Uploading images is a really big pain
- A list of things that SharePoint can’t do from http://www.henricodolfing.com/2009/05/sharepoint-as-enterprise-wiki.html
- There is no support for standard Wiki markup language.
- The content editing capabilities of the default SharePoint Web Editor are limited.
- There is no taxonomy solution, i.e. content tagging and hierarchical categories.
- There is no content rating
- There is no support for subscription RSS feeds.
- No support for comments on Wiki pages. You can add discussion boards, but those are something different than what you would expect from a Wiki.
- The capability for generating reports on the Wiki activity are rather limited.
- There are no Wiki content templates (but this you could easily solve by creating a few page templates yourself).
- There is no easy way to attach files to Wiki pages. You have to do this by adding the content to a document library, and then include the link in your Wiki page.
- There is no support for things like Wanted pages, Orphaned pages, Most/Least Popular Pages, and Recent Visitors.
Other
Here are some links to articles about the SharePoint Wiki feature
- http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc162514.aspx
- http://www.wikisym.org/ws2008/index.php/How_good_is_MS_Sharepoint_as_a_wiki%3F
- A Demo http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointtechnology/HA102348881033.aspx
- http://woodywindy.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!773832677F575173!653.entry
- http://blog.seibert-media.net/2009/02/arbeitstechniken/ms-sharepoint-as-a-wiki-few-functions-less-compatibility/
- http://blogs.atlassian.com/news/2009/03/comparing_sharepoint_to_confluence_wiki.html
- http://www.henricodolfing.com/2009/05/sharepoint-as-enterprise-wiki.htm
- http://www.wssdemo.com/Wiki/default.aspx
To Wysiwyg or not to Wysiwyg
There are a lot of for’s and against for wysiwyg editing of wiki’s. See http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WysiwygWikiUsefulArguments
- Wiki syntax is much simpler than HTML - like a simple conversion layer between rich text and html
- One of the main advantages of a wiki is its lightweight structure Confluence has a few basic formats, if you can’t say what you need to say with a few heading styles and bold and italic, it’s probably too complex.
- Wiki syntax is simple, straightforward and intuitive - once you get used to working with it, it is much quicker to create documents
- Keyboard shortcuts make editing quicker - http://confluence.atlassian.com/display/DOC/Keyboard+Shortcuts
However
- Large Tables are a real pain - http://confluence.atlassian.com/display/DOC/Working+with+Tables
A Quote from http://woodywindy.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!773832677F575173!653.entry
One of the complaints often leveled against SharePoint’s wiki is its lack of support for “wiki markup” beyond intra-site page links. While this is true as far as it goes, it doesn’t consider what that markup is designed to do – compensate for the plain-text editing features of most wiki systems. For example, to make italic text in many wiki systems, you enclose the text in ”double apostrophes”. Yet while there are some conventions, there is no true “wiki markup” standard.
SharePoint Demos
(the demos for Confluence were done in real time during the talk).
Screen Cast Demo 1 http://screencast.com/t/oau54Mt3ONs
- Navigation
- Breadcrumbs
- Wiki Pages
- Orphaned Pages
Screen Cast Demo 2 http://screencast.com/t/MtM5ZPUC
- Create Link to new Page
- Insert a Table
- Format some fonts – yes you can easily make it very ugly
- Go to history
- Restore an old version
Screen Cast Demo 3 http://screencast.com/t/hMljFNIe0
- Insert a picture into a SharePoint Wiki – showing ow difficult it is to just add a simple picture into a SharePoint wiki.
Extending the Wiki
Confluence
- Plug ins http://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence/plugins/
- Intranet / Extranet
- Full Website see http://www.customware.net
- Wiki Wednesday http://www.customware.net/repository/display/WikiWednesday/Wiki+Wednesday
- See Confluence Pricing http://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence/pricing.jsp
SharePoint
- CKS:EWE http://cks.codeplex.com/Wiki/View.aspx?title=Enhanced%20Wiki%20Edition
- Free
- Not Supported
- in Beta 2 now
- Beta 3 planned
- Development seems to have slowed
- SharePoint Wiki Plus http://www.kwizcom.com/ProductPage.asp?ProductID=524&ProductSubNodeID=525
- > $2.5k per server http://www.kwizcom.com/ContentPage.asp?PageId=663
The Bottom Line
My thoughts
- Use the Wiki Feature on SharePoint but maybe don’t call it a Wiki, or you might put people off Wiki’s for ever.
- The SharePoint Dev Wiki is on Confluence http://www.sharepointdevwiki.com
- SharePoint is great for structured, corporate information that are policies and procedures that do not need to be edited regularly. If you are a SharePoint house, then use the Publishing Pages and document libraries for the structured information and allow Wiki’s in smaller team sites where a few people are editing them and they are small and single subject based.
- Comparing Confluence Enterprise Wiki to SharePoint Wiki is really not fair. SharePoint is not an Enterprise Wiki, and has never tried to be.
- However, comparing a corporate Intranet built on SharePoint vs one built on Confluence may be a better comparison, but that is a topic for another session.
- In a future session we will look into the Confluence SharePoint Connector to see if it really does enable a company to have the best of both worlds.
Thoughts from others
From WikiSym 2008
- The wiki is the place for fast collaborations.
- Sharepoint is the place to go for final documents (authoritative).
From http://www.henricodolfing.com/2009/05/sharepoint-as-enterprise-wiki.html
By definition, SharePoint is something completely different than an enterprise Wiki. If all you want is a Wiki, you don’t have to spend your time on implementing SharePoint. There are better solutions out there. But a Wiki is very rarely the only thing that a company wants, and if SharePoint does the most things you as a company wants, then it is very easy to add some 3rd party Wiki functionality and that way satisfying your need for an enterprise Wiki as well.
From http://blogs.atlassian.com/news/2009/03/comparing_sharepoint_to_confluence_wiki.html
Document-centric collaboration systems like SharePoint certainly have a place in the universe. Atlassian has always maintained that SharePoint is an excellent tool for storing and managing online Office documents. That’s why we partnered with Microsoft to build the SharePoint Connector. Martin’s post forces us to think about the differences between the wiki way of collaborating and the SharePoint way of collaborating. Those differences run deeper than a few superficial features like browser support and wiki markup. At it’s core, Sharepoint strives to be something different than an enterprise wiki.
Google Wave Must-Haves
Whilst watching the fantastic Google Wave Video, here is a few thoughts I jotted down about things that Google Wave is going to need soon enough-ish to make it really really rock (not that it doesn’t really rock right now!).
- multiple google instances – at the moment you can’t log into multiple gmail accounts in the one browser – Wave seems like it will work really well if you have ALL your accounts in one place.
- multiple emails for one person – similar to above – how to deal with your multiple identities, especially since Wave will be used more in the workplace now too… I like the new service called MyHandle.com which allows all your emails to come to the same email address yourname@myhandle.com and you then divert them to the correct email account.
- authority – is this person who they say they are – a continual issue for all social networks, and since this will be a business app too, it is very important
- spam – hopefully this will utilise the great gmail spam filters so hopefully it won’t be a problme
- anonymity – will you be able to blip anonymously?
- draft mode – they mentioned this quickly – the ability to control when the blip is visible.
- stop forwarding of waves – like the digital rights management built into outlook – control who can forward waves
- groups – I’m sure it would, similar to gmail groups – a quick way to send Waves to everyone in the company.
- google contacts needs to be sorted – Gmail contacts is really not ready for prime time yet – especially importing contacts.
- will it replace email? – Will I forgoe my gmail and use Wave exclusively? this is yet to be seen.
- notifications of content updates and ignoring all future notifications – Confluence has this feature, sometimes you just don’t want to know anything else about that topic.
- event and calendaring – this was sadly lacking from the demo – I’m sure it will be included but.
- not allow playback or remove bits from playback – some things may not want to be played back.
- real time markup of video – how cool would that be?
- making waves public – probably quite possible as calendar items are public – but maybe restrictions on who in the Wave can make it public
- Spell check for other than US – but hopefully, since it is built in Aus, they have thought of this.
- People who can keep one topic to one Wave – now since most people can’t keep one email to one topic, this one is going to be hard. But this is where branching off a Wave will be useful.
Do you have any other must haves for Wave?
Google Wave Video Contents
I watched the google wave video again tonight for the second time. Wow I love this product, platform and protocol!
Since the YouTube video won’t allow annotations, I wanted to pick out the best bits so I could easily find them again, so I decided to create my own contents with time markers… so here is the contents and the approximate time markers, and some of my thoughts… I will do another blog post or two about things I love about Wave soon.
Wave video contents:
08:00 basic wave editing with spellchecker and offline message delivery
09:38 inline reply
10:34 synchronous real time communication
11:50 private messages and adding people
13:20 playback the wave
14:46 private reply restrict access to a subset of the wave
15:22 adding photos to the wave and instant viewing of thumnails – never again issues with uploading photos (requires google gears)
18:36 start of api’s
19:05 bloggy bot adding wave content to the blog
20:45 blog comments
23:17 orkut integration so what? replace orkut with facebook then it’s cool
23:26 wave on mobile devices
26:48 editing a wave including editing other peoples waves “discussion and content creation in one tool” including markup of edits “we never said lets start a document”
31:40 a document view and playback include versioning and submit to the server and merge changes and source control integation – full document production – look out SharePoint!
35:33 synchronous editing with labels to see who is typing where – COOL!
37:20 right to left editing in the same wave as left to right editing and international text
40:19 organising waves – folders and saved searches and tags shared by all participants in the wave
40:55 Wiki Waves – COOL! – watch out confluence (although it will be a while before it matches confluence enterprise features)
41:49 Search – cool! – “the wave dance”
43:21 start of extensions
43:58 spelling – spelly – COOL! natural language recognition of words, automatic correction “icland is an icland”
43:39 Links – linky
47:08 Searchy google search inside wave – bye bye evernote!
48:00 You Tube – demo failed
48:50 open social apps inside wave
49:25 movie times
50:44 yes no maybe gadget
51:35 sudoku and chess including playback of gadgets – quite cool
52:40 google maps integration – real time zooming of google maps in both waves – COOL
52:29 real time markup of google maps – imagine the possibilities for real time markup of pdf documents or video or pictures
54:04 the YouTube example working
55:02 start of server side robots
55:19 new poll – Polly the Polster – forms inside a wave – fill them out collaboratively – options for answers, synchronous updates of graphs
57:25 installing a wave
58:05 Twitter – a Twave! including Stephanie showing her twitter password! (tab between fields not implemented yet). Proxy contacts on a different system. Includes twitter search – they were real time searching on google wave during the presentation. Use twitter searches like twitter alerts (probably similar to google alerts)
1:01:40 Buggy – real time integration between wave and the code.google.com issue tracker – COOL – Imagine real time integration with Jira or TFS
1:05:20 start of protocols
1:05:50 federation – any organisation can build thier own wave system. Open port for federation. Linking to other accounts on other wave servers.
1:08:13 Initech’s wave server – command line based – cool!
1:09:20 private replies across servers. Copies of the wave on both Initech’s and Google’s servers. Replies within the same server never leaves that server.
1:10:20 technical explanation of federation and open sourcing of the protocol
1:11:56 synchronous language translation Rosy the bot – the COOLEST!
1:14:05 applause and summary
1:17:36 URL’s for product, platform and protocol
A Shared Calendar of Microsoft User Groups
I am a regular attendee at a number of Microsoft User groups and it is very hard to keep track of them, so I wanted to add them all to my calendar (google calendar). So I decided to create a Shared Calendar with all the user groups in there that anyone can update and maintain.
To keep with the Microsoft theme, I created the calendar in Microsoft Live Calendar (it works quite good now, almost as good as Google Calendar), and then opened the calendar as a .ics calendar within my Google Calendar.
So here is the link to the Shared Calendar http://cid-01b2dfebb16c3be5.calendar.live.com/calendar/Windows+User+Groups+in+Aus/index.html
I’ve created it so any user group in Aus can add to it, but I’ve only added the Sydney ones for now.
Each calendar item is recurring monthly event and has the URL to the user group and the twitter name of the user group in the description, and the name of the organiser. Some meetings are not recurring exactly on the month, but you can check the URL for specific details of specific meetings. I don’t mind if other non MS user groups want to add stuff to this calendar either.
This calendar is meant to be quite a static calendar for the recurring events – basically just a quick overview of what’s on which night, with a link to the specific website for that user group.
For other general tech events there is the Australian Tech Events calendar here http://www.startup-australia.org/events. If you are organising a specific Tech event, the details should be on this Tech Events calendar.
If you want to be added as a contributor / editor to this calendar please just contact me and I will add you to the calendar.
Free Online Training Resources for Microsoft Products
Now that I have some time on my hands I need to take advantage of some of the free online training that is available for Microsoft Products.
Next week, there is some great online training for Microsoft CRM. See the details on Catherine Eibner’s blog here. There is also some excellent free face to face Microsoft CRM training in early May in Sydney. See the details on Chris Auld’s blog here.
Then there is the fantastic series of free online courses from Microsoft called Ramp Up. The courses include the following topics:
- SharePoint for Developers – Part 1
- SharePoint for Developers – Part 2
- Visual Studio 2008
- For the VS 2002/2003 Developer: Learn VS 2005
- For the VB 6.0 Developer: Learn VB 2005
- For the Java Developer: Learn .NET
- Developer Basics
There is also a lot of Microsoft Software that you can try for free – details are here. This is from a great post by David Lean about lots of free stuff you can get from Microsoft.
For SharePoint specifically, SharePoint Designer 2007 is now available as a free download, plus there are some training video’s available also here. And if you want to try out SharePoint there is a pre-configured SharePoint VHD available for download here.
I’m sure this is not a comprehensive list, but it’s the ones that I’m going to start with now.
Diary Note
So, as I tend to keep this blog as a bit of a diary of major events in my life, amongst the other occasional rants. This post is about my work situation.
So I had a great new job for the past two months as a SharePoint consultant at CustomWare (www.customware.net). I love CustomWare as a company and I loved working with SharePoint and I learned so much. Yesterday I lost that job… I was an easy target for cost cutting, being an expensive resource and still being on probation (so no payout).
So back to the job hunt… this time made so much more difficult as the media is talking about the ‘R’ word now (and we know it’s inevitable). But I have been here before and I’m sure I will be here again at some time in my life, so I know what I have to do – Network, Network, Network.
I just want to put a shout out to Michael Specht’s great new Job Hunting networking site that just recently went live – www.jobseekr.com.au. I am sure I will be getting a lot of benefit from this site over the coming weeks.
So now time to update my LinkedIn and my Web Resume…
Ada Lovelace Day Post
This is a great idea from Suw Charman-Anderson to blog about women in IT that inspire us on Ada Lovelace Day. See http://findingada.com/ and http://www.pledgebank.com/AdaLovelaceDay for more information.
So I’m going to write about three women, working in the area of IT / Social Media who inspire me big time. The three are grouped together because I actually met all three of them within 2 months back in October / November 2007 and in that year and a bit they have enriched my life so significantly.
Catherine Eibner – A wonderful inspiration to me, Catherine has the bright, bubbly personality of a natural evangelist but is also very technical and loves to write code occasionally. She has also taught me lots of technical stuff and is a very patient teacher. Catherine’s SSIS blog has actually been a great resource for tips and tricks for me in my work recently.
Kate Carruthers – Kate just knows everyone and everything – she is the most connected person I know, and that is handy sometimes 
. Kate is the master at connecting people with other people and people with the right systems and technologies that they need to know about in today’s business world.
Kate has actually written a great blog post about Ada Lovelace today.
Laurel Papworth – Laurel is all about the strategy – what strategies businesses need to adopt to make it in this new world of Social Media. Laurel is also the one I call upon when I need a personal Social Media strategy, and she is always willing to help.
It’s also Laurel’s Birthday today, so Happy Birthday Pixie!
It is interesting that these three wonderful women were also mentioned in another blog post (and comments) a while back when Catherine was working in her own business. All three of them were working in thier own successful businesses – something that I admire so much because I know how hard it is, and how it is something that I know that I can’t do.
I am so very proud to be friends with these fantastic women.
Wow what a year
This part “Christmas Message”, part Summary of the year and part thank you to all the fantastic wonderful people I have met and hung out with this year.
But, wow, what an up and down year this has been… I feel in some ways that this Christmas is a deja vu of last Christmas (ie being unemployed), but there has been so much that has happened this year that things are quite different this Christmas. So here’s a bit of a rundown of the year.
Job(s)
Well, I’ve had 2 jobs this year – a Consultant at Hands-on Systems, which I loved, but left after 3 months as I was headhunted by ProjectCentre for my perfect job, combining my IT and Construction Skills. That job lasted just over 3 months, and I loved it, and thought I was doing a great job and getting the product ready for release and then I was “retrenched” – I won’t go on about it, but I’m still very angry and upset about that one.
So back to the horrible world of job hunting and recruiters – I can’t say how much I hate job hunting! I have such specialised skills that recruiters won’t even look at my resume because it just does not “tick all the boxes”. I have found some great recruiters that really do their job well, but some of them are so bad I just have to hang up. The problem is that my Ideal job that is combining IT and Construction just does not exist as construction companies don’t think that they need to spend money on IT. However, if I can get in there and start working, they see how valuable my contribution is. For me the biggest hurdle is getting to the interview stage. I tend to do much better once I’m in front of a potential employer.
With the impact of the GFC, I’m concentrating my job hunting efforts in IT rather than Construction as I think that IT may weather the financial storm better, but I won’t rule out construction – I won’t rule out any job doing anything as long as it pays the mortgage.
I have been doing some great work on contract for the few months I’ve been out of work, and I’ve enjoyed doing it, but I can not earn enough to live… right now I’m just earning enough to keep a few bills paid and living very frugally. Also, I hate contracting. I hate not knowing where the next few hours work is coming from. I hate working alone (although I do have a small team for my current work which is good). So I do really need to find a full time job that pays well, so I can feel settled and secure once again.
In January I have some more contracting opportunities and I will be back to the job hunting again, and will try some other tactics rather than dealing with recruiters too much. So here’s hoping that 2009 will be the year I get a good job where I earn enough, I am valued as an employee and I love going to work. And I wish that for everyone else too!
Wellbeing
Another up and down year this year… I’ve had a persistent nagging bronchial infection for a lot of the year which has not been great and it curtailed playing Underwater Hockey for much of the year. Luckily there was a good stint of a few months mid year where I felt great and well, and that coincided with my Trip… so that worked well.
I’ve still been doing Feldenkrais all year, have been doing it now for at least 15 years and still get so much out of it. It’s rare for me to miss a Saturday class and I love going and love catching up with all the people in the class for coffee after.
I’ve also been doing my Nordic walking most weeks. We now have only a very small group of regular walkers and it’s difficult to keep the group running but I enjoy it so much I will keep it going.
But overall, this year has been the worst health I’ve had for many years and I really hope 2009 will be much much better.
Travel
Well this is the year that I finally did it… finally got to London, Europe and Dubai. I now feel like a real member of the human race having at least seen London and Paris, and Dubai was amazing.
Despite the GFC and the dollar crashing a few weeks before I left, I had a great time and loved the whole trip. I won’t go into a lot of detail here as I’ve written a few blog posts about it already and you can a selection of my photos on Flickr.
The highlights of my trip were Bilbao, the Be2Camp in London, Wales with Emily, Paris and Dubai.
I would love to travel again now… so hopefully an opportunity will arise some time in 2009!
Social
This is the aspect of my life that has been the best year ever! I have met such wonderful new friends this year and have been to so many great events that it has just been so great. This is mainly due to Twitter and the Sydney Tech Community which is thriving. Some of the excellent events this year have been
- New Years Eve (thanks @ceibner)
- Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum (thanks to @trib for the ticket)
- Earth Hour Girls night out
- Regular STUB events (thanks @happener, @funkycoda and @alegrya for organising), including many Picnics too
- Girl Geek Dinners (@damana you rock!)
- Various catch up’s with @trib and @mspecht when they have been in Sydney
- Interesting South No. 2
- CodeCamp Oz (we missed @ceibner but I had a great time with the boys)
- Demos Happen Here Comp (thanks to @rog24 and @coatsy)
- PubCamp (thanks to @jedwhite and @mediamum)
- TechEd Week, Women in Technology event (even though I did not attend TechEd)
- Web 2.o University, Web Directions Week and AussieTUB (even though I did not attend Web Directions itself)
- GirlTUB x 2 (excellent evenings out with the twitter girls)
- Sydney Open Coffee (thanks @kimheras for an excellent idea)
- SBTUG (Sydney Business and Technnology User Group, thanks to @craigbailey & @aussienick)
- BarCamp x 2 (one which I helped organised and the other thanks to the org team esp @funkycoda)
- NSW KM Forum (thanks to @cheiftech for including me on the panel at the last minute)
- WebBlast (thanks @russmaxdesign and @happener)
- Very regular catch up’s with twitter peeps – Nano STUB’s Micro STUB’s, Mini STUB’s
I’m sure there are others that I have not mentioned, but wow, that is some list!
And the excellent non-tech events
- Family Wedding in Tumut in September
- Various trips up to the Gold Coast / Brisbane
And a very special mention to the people and events during my trip
- GGD in London
- Be2camp in London (thanks to @eepaul, @pbroviak and @martinbrown)
- Green Drinks in London (excellent evening)
- Dinners out with people in Barcelona during World Architecture Festival
- Wonderful Family and Friends catch-ups
Next year is shaping up for another big one with
- New Years Eve again (thanks to @ceibner again)
- CupCake Camp in Feb
- More STUB’s
- Another BarCamp or 2
- The remotest possibility of a Be2Camp in Sydney some time
- Definitely more GirlTUB’s and GGD’s
- We definitely need another Wild Wicked Wanton Women of the Web 2.0 event (looking at you @silkcharm)
- I really hope to get to more conferences in 2009
- I need to start to get to Social Coffee on Friday mornings (thanks to @servantofchaos that organises this)
- ooh and my Family trip in May to celebrate my Mum and Dad’s 50th Wedding Aniversary, and a family Wedding in March
And I just have to make special mention to the biggest group of wonderful people on twitter this year that I have had the pleasure to hang with
The girls: @ceibner, @kcarruthers, @silkcharm, @pixel8ted, @alegrya, @misswired, @mediamum, @damana, @headwellred, @christydena, @bronwen, @allidc, @zuzu, @aussieAna, @dekrazee1
The the guys: @trib, @funkycoda, @dizzystuff, @lstoll, @aussienick, @cadbloke, @angusscown, @nickhac, @stillgherian @apostrophepong, @snarkyplatypus, @mpesce, @nathanaelb, @rog42, @coatsy, @ryancross, @fush, @flungabunga, @seancarmody, @marclehmann, @sethyates, @jedwhite, @maniacd, @jamesbreeze, @mspecht, @aDB, @warlach, @coliwilso, @liako, @eskimo_sparky, @gregdwyer
The UK Peeps: @martinbrown, @eepaul, @melstarrs, @jodiecarnegie, @amcewen (and of course @pbroviak virtually)
And all the Perth / Melb / Canberra peeps that were around for AussieTUB and I’ve probably left many people off the list, but thanks to you all!
Wow, I really hope 2009 is even more social, I meet even more people and the Sydney Tech community has many many more great events!
The Failure of Architecture?
I recently visited the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. I went to Bilbao only to see the Guggenheim and it ended up that the Guggenheim was not the highlight of Bilbao. Bilbao itself was the highlight and I would highly recommend anyone to go to Bilbao. The Guggenheim is spectacular to look at (see some of my photo’s of the exterior of the building, I took quite a few others also), but it is spectacular as a sculpture, not as a building. In my opinion, the Guggenheim fails as a building.
The Guggenheim
Whilst wandering around inside the Guggenheim, I had the overwhelming urge to write some of these feelings down about how this building affected me, and how disillusioned I was with Architecture as a whole after being inside this building. So this post is not specifically about the Guggenheim but about my feelings about Architecture in general.
However, some of the things I spotted at the Guggenheim were:
- Construction markings still on the glass after 10 years
- Glass that has never been cleaned and cracked glass
- Gaffa tape as a waterproofing feature plugging the joins between the glass and steel
- Construction joints that are ugly and not finished well
- Exposed wiring or conduits from new retrofitted camera’s, lighting etc
- Dust, grime, cobwebs, weathering of surfaces
- Patchy maintenance – eg can see where the walls have been painted over
That is a very short list of all the things that I spotted. The Guggenheim does not allow photos to be taken inside, which is a complete joke, and I was not interested in any of the artwork in there, just the building itself, so I could not take any pictures of the things I spotted, so I just had to write down how seeing all this affected me.
Architecture
Is it the Architect’s job to design a building that is spectacular to look at and gives the Architect great kudos, or is it the Architect’s job to design a building that functions well as a building throughout the full life of the building? And why can’t both of those objectives be achieved? I’m talking about all Architecture, from a simple office fitout (which I’ve had a lot of experience with), to a residential home, to the current architectural masterpieces such as the Burj Dubai or the BMW-Welt Centre, or any of the buildings in this year’s World Architecture Festival.
Things that are often not thought through enough when designing and constructing buildings are:
- Structure
- How to keep the building clean and well maintained
- Structure, joints, construction details – how will things look like when they are put together
- How the building will age and weather
- Dust, grime, cobwebs etc – where will it form and how to clean it
- Safety and Access – where are the anchor points for safety and access (eg Roof harnesses), so they do not just look like an afterthought
- Waterproofing – where are the joints or materials likely to fail, and can they be repaired or replaced (this is a tough one, I know)
- Inside
- Storage – there is never enough – think of what you want and double it
- Surfaces – painted gyprock walls in most commerical applications does not work – I know it’s cheap over the life of the building is it really going to be cost effective, and do we have any real alternatives?
- Furniture and equipment – what furniture and equipment is required, will it fit, can you get it into the building, will it allow for future changes
- Pictures and Signage – how are pictures, signage, whiteboards etc going to be attached to the walls, can they be changed later
- Technology
- Future proofing – eg installing new wiring for the latest technology
- Location and quantity of power outlets and other services
- Fire Services – so they don’t just looked like they are tacked on as an afterthought
- Usage
- Movement and crowd control – how are people going to be moving through the building, where are the bottlenecks, what damage will they do to surfaces
- Sun – how will the people in the building be affected by the sun – does there need to be more or controlled shading
- Ventilation and location of AC outlets – either it’s too hot or too cold – how can we get the balance right
- Spare Parts – will parts be available to replace, and will they be the same as the existing, or is this part something unique that has been created for this building
And this list does not address some of the big issues such as sustainability of both the construction and the building, and the lifecycle of the building – ie what happens to the building at the end of it’s life.
So who’s responsibility is it to think of all these things, is it the Architect’s job to think all this through? Is it the Owner’s responsibilty to insist upon these things, and if they don’t well then let’s not bring them up? Is it the Builder’s job to work out all the little details? is it the building manager’s responsibility through the life of the building just to manage how the building works? If a building can’t be cleaned properly is that the Architect’s fault for not designing it to be cleaned, or the building operator’s fault for not figuring out a way to get it cleaned?
Does the Architect’s job finish after the building is designed? Does the Builder’s job finish after Handover? Or should the Architect and Builder be on hand to manage the transition of the building through it’s first few years of life and teething problems? Who’s job is it to teach the building occupiers how to live in the building (eg learn to put a jumper on if you are cold, rather than turning the themostat up).
I know this does not work in practice, due to the economics of the situtation. The Architect has probably burned all his fee up front on the design, and can’t afford to keep a close enough eye on it during construciton. For the Builder, time is money so the quicker he’s off site, the more profit he makes, and the Building owner wants to keep costs down and can’t afford to fix problems created by either the design or construction. And commercial considerations always mean that the building needs to be opened, operating and making money before it is fully complete, but it is easy then just to forget about the finer details of completion.
So there is no quick fix to this issue, but is there some way we can improve things? How can we get all parties working together to a common purpose? Do we have to have such grand “statement” architecture or should we put more of the cost of the building into making it sustainable through the life of the building? I have no answers, just questions.
Sidebar – Defects
On the subject of handover, buildings are handed over to the owner at Pracitcal Competion, which means that the building is fit for purpose, barring a few minor defects. These days most Builders and Owners will insist upon Defect Free Construction, which is the builing is handed over complete, finished and ready to move in, with no defects. But some people’s ideas of Defect Free construction are vastly different than mine.
The old concept of the Architect specifying a quality finish and having the Architect or superintendant to approve that finish in situ before work can continue has gone. If the concrete surface is stained, or marked or has nails sticking out of it, or has construction markings on it, then it could be completely satisfactory, but in my “old school” opinion it is defective and must be cleaned and repaired before completion.
I was in a newly completed train station the other day and was quite taken aback by the state that it was in when it was seemingly “complete” with no construction signs or construction personnel anywhere to be seen. Yes it was functioning but it was no where near complete.
Again, I don’t have any answers about this, just a general feeling of dissolusionment about the direction the Construction Industry is taking in not taking pride in getting things finished properly. I don’t know, maybe I am being too critical. Maybe it’s just me that sees these things, and since no one else sees them or seems to care, it’s ok? Just puting it out there.
Looking for a new Mobile Device
I’m after a new Mobile Device and a new Mobile plan… notice I didn’t say I’m after a new Mobile Phone, because I actually don’t make that many phone calls. I currently have a Nokia 6110 purchased in October 2007. I usually find that I either want or need a new device after 1 year. This time I need one as the 6110 is showing it’s age and not behaving well.
The most things I use a mobile device for, in order of use, are:
- Clock and Alarm Clock – I don’t wear a watch
- Calendar – to sync with my Google Calendar
- Contacts – Including Syncing to my O-Sync account
- SMS
- Gmail whilst out and about
- Voicemail
- Phone
- Calculator
- Maps
- General Internet
- To Do List
- Notes
- Music
- Photos / Video
- MMS
- Voice Recording (only because you can’t attach them to reminders)
- Video calling
- Games
- Reading office documents
- Internet downloads
- WiFi
- Better Camera
- Larger Screen
- Less slippery, glossy buttons
- Unlimited Internet usage
- Push Gmail
- The size and feel of the device
- The touch screen (but I’m still not convinced I could go for a full touch screen like the iPhone, Omnia, or Blackberry Storm)
- The Alarm – who’s stupid idea was it to have an alarm that beeps 3 times then turns off! My God! How is that ever going to wake anyone up! Thankfully I downloaded G-Alarm which does the job.
- The phone just turning off in the middle of about 1/3rd of my calls.
- When holding the phone up to my ear my face opens up multiple apps whilst being on the phone – yes you can disable the touch screen whilst being on a call, but then you can’t use the speakerphone at all – WTF! who’s brilliant idea was that?
- The connection manager – the first day I had the Treo it connected to the internet and stayed connected for 2.5hrs before I realised. That is $30 pff my plan, and it only downloaded 2kb in that time! It also connected on it’s own at least 3 other times, even though I had turned off all auto connections. And it’s just too much of a pain to go into the connection manager to turn off the internet connection.
- The keyboard – keys are too small and too slippery. I did try the other WinMo input methods but they are very slow. I tried using it with fingernails and thumb pad and either way didn’t work too well. The keys are too slipery for fingernails and too small for thumbs.
- Wifi – as soon as the screen goes into sleep mode the Wifi turns off – again WTF! – can have an active Wifi connection without using it for a max of 1min!
Ok the hate list is getting too long and the love list is a bit light on. But when I got my old 6110 back again after using the Treo, it just felt right, and was easy to use, and did all the things I wanted it to do. So I guess I shall have to stick with a Nokia. I think my bad experience with the treo has turned me off WinMo devices for now.
I had a quick play with the blackberry bold and even though the keyboard was really nice to use, the trackball would drive me crazy. After just a few minutes of using it, I could feel that my wrist was not happy at all – damned RSI that flares up occasionally.
So I think the device of choice will be the Nokia N85. It has all the standard Nokia features that I love, most of the new things I want in a device and it’s around the same size as my Nokia 6110 (just a bit thinner). I was lucky to be able to test one out for a few minutes in Dubai. The main issues with the N85 are the following:
- Very plasticy keys – worse than the 6110 – the N95 8GB has very good keys
- OLED screen is aparently not good in bright sunlight
- Some reported issues on the forums about call drop outs etc
The N85 is available in stores now, but unfortunately not with Vodafone yet. It’s in the Vodafone catalogue as “Coming Soon” but they can’t tell me when “Soon” is. Hopefully it will be before Xmas but it does not look likely at this stage.
However, I can’t talk mobile devices without mentioning the Jeebus phone and why I don’t want one. It’s mainly to do with the touch screen input, I just don’t like touch screens as the only input method. I *may* think about it for the next device when it has all the features that it’s currently missing, but the new Nokia N97 has been announced this week and depending on the reviews of that in the wild, it will be something to think about as the next device. And knowing how long Nokia devices take to get to us her in Australia, in store, it will be another 12 months anyway. So I think the N85 will be a good phone to have for the next 12 months.
All my old phones get recycled. The 6110 is going to my neice who wants a navigator phone, and will probably want a new phone within a few months. My previous 2 phones went to my mum. It’s good to be able to re-use them like this.
So Vodafone, please, get your act together and get the N85 in store this week! Please!
more shameless self promotion
Wow, this is really cool… I’ve just been included in a list of the top 40 Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 guru’s in Australia!!! Here is the list… http://www.squidoo.com/venturous2. I’m honoured to even be considered as part of that group!
Amazing inspirational women in IT
My wonderful friend Catherine Eibner has just written a lovely blog post listing some of the women in IT in Aus that she finds inspirational. I am honoured to be on that list. I met Catherine just one year ago, around the same time as meeting Laurel, Kate, Ali and Linda, and during the year have met Damana, Bronwen Clune and Pia (I have not had the pleasure of meeting Bronwen Zande yet). I too second Catherine’s sentiments about the wonderful women on that list. These women have been part of a huge change in my life in the past year, and they will be there with me into the new year as I find that new role that is the right one for me. But it’s interesting that this last year has been full of changes for most of us on this list, and it has been a privilege to share the past year with you all.
Thanks Catherine! You Rock!
Update: Now Damana has posted a really wonderful post too… I love Girl Geek Dinners and they are always inspiring and fun. And great to see we get two in December! In fact they are so good, I went to one in London on the first night I was there… (was a bit jetlaged, but it was still great).
Thanks Damana!
world architecture festival
Recently I attended the World Architecture Festival in Barcelona. This was the first event of it’s kind, a combination between an architecture awards and an architectural themed conference. Now I’m not an architect, so why was I there. Firstly it was in Barcelona, and I’ve been wanting to travel to Barcelona for years to look at the architecture, especially Gaudi’s stuff, and Secondly I have a huge interest in Architecture and found a few years ago that just about every bit of travel I have done has been around Architecture, so why not combine the two – going to the Architecture conference in Barcelona combined a few things that I was interested in. (I recently did a Pecha Kucha presentation about my interest in Architecture and Travel which you can find here).
Slidesharing
Just a blog post to document some presentations I gave recently at Be2camp in London. The first one was on Enterprise 2.0 – it’s about the People, not the Technology - this is based on my previous blog post and it’s also a presentation I did at the BarCamp Sydney 3. Similarly to the presentation at BarCamp, this one was rushed and not presented well, but unfortunately this one has Video too 
The second one was much more fun – it was a Pecha Kucha session at Be2camp and it was about what bought me to being in London – about My Architecture Inspired Travels. Again there is video for this one too. Pecha Kucha sessions are meant to be 20 slides of 20 seconds duration, my slide deck was close to 40 slides and I hope I got it done near to the 6mins 40 seconds.
I had prepared a third presentation – a case study about the use of RFID tags on a construction site, but that can wait for another day.
I need to do a blog post about how fantastic Be2Camp was as an event, but that will be a bit later.
My Travel Tips
This is a very long post, it’s mainly just info for me to remember next time I travel
Positives
- Overall i did well, I was worried about going in the first place, as I really don’t like getting places, but I actually enjoyed it all for the most part (except maybe the 14hr flight home and the week of Jetlag).
- I could navigate around quite well, and follow signage most times… you get to understand the words for entry and exit in foreign languages quite quickly.
Maps
- Get a small plastic coated fold out map, and a marker pen that writes on it. The hotel paper maps just don’t last.
- Google Maps is great, but it’s also great to have something to mark up and plan your assault on the city (especially in Paris where some Museums are closed Monday and some are closed Tuesday).
Museums
- Get there early – like 45mins before opening, so you are first in.
- Don’t go with someone who has different ideas than you, or make a deal to look at things at your own pace – I go through museums very very quickly because I’m a visual person and one 10sec look is as good as staring at the thing for a few mins. I would go nuts if I could not get in and out of some of these places quickly.
- The most important tip – get prepaid entry tickets where possible that allow you to skip the queue. I waited over an hour and a half in the queue for the Picasso exhibition in Paris and did not get anywhere in the queue because the museum filled up with all the special people first. So I left the queue and didn’t see the exhibition.
- Being slightly claustrophobic meant that if I had to miss out on something, I just would… eg the Eiffel Tower, when it had the sign up saying overcrowding was possible at the top and the queue was a mile long, I decided then and there that it was not worth it – there are many other tall things in Paris to climb (the hundreds of stairs at the Arc De Triomph for example).
- Watch out for the Gypsy beggars around the Musem’s in Paris – I got targeted by them 3 times. Twice was someone picking up a Gold ring whilst walking towards me, then asking me if it was my ring. I don’t know what the scam was but I just knew it was not right, and when it happened exactly the same way the second time I knew there was something to it.
Metros
- London, Paris and Barcelona’s were great. Easy to navigate and get around, but boy some of the connections at the bigger stations went for miles and miles.
- Whilst I was mainly on the District and Circle lines in London that are not very much underground, some of the tube stations feel like they are miles underground, which is not good for my level of claustrophobia. I tried to find a 3d map of the London tube system but, probably for good reasons, it is banned for security purposes.
- I had to get used to the crush… I worked out that if at least 1 or 2 people got off then I could fit… and if I just did not want to squeeze in, there is always the next one.
- In London it was best to get into the middle of the seats area next to the pole – it is way from the doors.
- Barcelona and Paris on some route’s have connecting carriages that open up the whole train – this is great as they are much less claustrophobic.
- Beggars and buskers on trains are a real pain.
- I need to learn how to say “turn your iPod down” in every language.
Beer
- Beer in London is great – the Ale’s rather than the Lager’s. Contrary to popular belief they are served cold and they are not gassy and very tasty.
- Beer in Spain is great – it’s cheap, and cold, and even cheaper than a soft drink or water in a lot of cases… sometimes not a great idea to have a few beers over lunch and then go out touristing.
- Beer in Paris is expensive and not worth it… occasionally wine may be cheaper but not very nice, and mostly all drinks, including sparkling mineral water are very expensive.
Coffee
- I think I probably had about 2 good coffees on the whole trip. In London they try to pass off filtered coffee as americano / long black and even when they use a proper coffee machine it’s still very weak.
- So I switched to double espresso’s from then and still struggled… a few in Barcelona were thick as mud and tasted just as bad, and in Paris they were a half decent long black in a tiny cup, but still on the weak side for a long black.
- Switching to espresso in Spain was much easier as it’s easier ordering an “espresso doble” than an Americano.
- Trying to pass of Nespresso coffee (the ones made with the pod’s) as real coffee at the conference was really bad – but funnily enough the American’s loved it.
- Back home and even the long black’s are quite strong… we have good coffee here, but I’m sure I did not find the good places whilst away.
Flights
- Next time I go, I’m going to have someone waiting at the airport with my name on the card. I have proved to myself that I can do it – I can do the transfers myself and get there myself – I worked each route out down to the last step, and when Google Street View is available in more countries it will actually be much much easier. In Paris, for example, I actually got to my hotel without having a map – there was a local area map at the metro station and I found the last few streets from there. It’s just a pain to get through metro stations with luggage.
- 7 Flights in 25 days (6 International), and I had 1 piece of lost luggage for 24hrs and one 2 hr delay – so that’s really not too bad, I think.
Luggage
- Having good luggage really made a difference… It was light – even at 16.9kg full it was easy to carry and manoeuvre, and It was easy to pack.
- The wheels are good – and they don’t make that horrible clickly noise on the cobble stones – it just wheeled effortlessly behind me most times.
- Thank goodness I had basic change of clothes and all necessary toiletries (including shampoo, conditioner, toothbrush, toothpaste and cleanser in the little bottles in the clear plastic sealed bag) in my hand luggage as it came in very handy when my bag took the scenic route to Paris and I did not have for 24hrs (but that wasn’t all the airline’s fault… they were quite good… the bag had arrived at the hotel early in the morning but they did not tell me about it).
Packing
- I had a great system for packing up at each hotel – clear the bed and make piles – handbag; pockets; backpack; toiletries; bag.
- I had a large mesh back for dirty washing, which worked great for taking to the laundromat or serviced laundry also, plus separating the dirty from clean in the bag.
- I packed toiletries first, then shoes, and other hard stuff, then squeezed in the clothes around them
- My bag had a separate compartment for underwear and small things, so they did not get lost floating around in the main part of the bag, this worked really well.
- I was very successful in only buying tiny souvenirs that did not weigh much at all 15.9kg going out and 16.9kg coming back.
Hotels
- I picked well with the hotels… one was recommended to me, the rest I picked myself.
- I always went for the newest or refurbished one so at least the bathrooms would be good.
- I researched trip advisor extensively.
- It pays to query something, as at the Umi hotel in London, I queried the recent upgrade of the hotel as they had some bad trip advisor comments, and they gave me a fridge in the room and a nice bottle of Australian wine on arrival – excellent service!
- Get one with wifi included free – the Praktik in Barcelona was great! the London and Paris hotels had paid services which is a real pain fiddling with user names and passwords each time you want to log on… i’m sure they really don’t make that much money on the internet so they should just give it away for free!!! and these expensive hotels that charge 30 euro per day for internet access are a joke!!!!!
Hotel Details (I will do trip advisor ratings and upload some video later)
- London – Umi Hotel – great for 50 pound a night but unless they really keep up with the maintenance it could get bad quickly. Great service and good breakfast included.
- Bilbao – Miro Hotel – lovely hotel and right near to the Guggenheim – this one was the most expensive when I booked but when the dollar crashed it ended up being the same price, as I had paid for this one when the dollar was high.
- Barcelona – Praktik Hotel – excellent Hotel, very small rooms, no services, but great price and great location – and free Wifi or Computer.
- Paris – Hotel Jeanne D’Arc – older style but still clean and reasonable. Good service generally, OK breakfast, reasonably priced WiFi, but excellent, excellent location.
Chatting to people
- Whilst I would love to travel with someone else for a lot of the time, travelling alone makes me much more outgoing than I normally am – I force myself to chat to people, and especially when everyone around is talking Spanish or Vrench it is great to have a chat to the nearest English speaking person, and I met some great people that way.
- On the first tour of the architecture festival, after the tour, I went up to three of the guys that were on the tour alone and invited them to come and get some dinner with me (after a disastrous lunch, and feeling very hungry, I suggested to them that it’s a better idea to stuff up the meal ordering as a group than as a solo person). Two of they guys said yes, and we went and had a meal… yes, we didn’t make a great choice with our meal, but we had great conversations and met up again a few times over the course of the conference to share a meal or coffee and became great conference buddies.
- Serendipity also plays a part – in Bilbao I had a lovely afternoon tagging along with an English couple and then ran into them in the street twice again that night. In Barcelona I ran right into my turkish dinner buddy in the middle of the busy main street, far away from both our hotels.
- There was also a lovely German couple, an American older lady who was well travelled and travelling alone, and a lovely German lady also that I chatted to on my travels, just to mention a few.
- Also catching up with friends and family was excellent – it was as the years apart had vanished as soon as I started chatting to them.
Events
- The conference was great for interaction and it’s a great thing to do to have something to do where you know you will have something in common with the people there – an instant talking point.
- Aussies will always find other Aussies and i met so many at the conference – you can spot an Aussie accent a mile off in a sea of yanks and poms.
- The Be2Camp, Green Drinks and the Girl Geek dinners in London were great – excellent conversations with like minded people – and many business cards exchanged – i have a lot of email catching up and linked in connections to foster now that I am home.
Itinerary
- Going from <10 deg in Paris to >35 deg in Dubai in less than 24hrs is not a good idea – I was so chilled to the bone in Paris that with the temperature changes and the long flights I inevitably came down with a cold.
- I need to allow myself time for rest… in just over 3 weeks I had 2 half days of rest… the other days have been go go go the whole time…
- I have tried to do more things at night but after going going going the whole day i just want to crash in the evening, early… unfortunately CNN does not make for good wind down and relax television, so thank goodness for the internet and catching up with twitter, and for having a good book, which I bought when I had a 2hr delay at Gatwick.
- There is no way in hell you would get me to Europe in the Summer. I went late October / Early November and there was still way too many tourists for my liking (especially in Paris)… I will happily cope with the cold to avoid the tourists!
Communciations
- The eeepc was a godsend – just being able to have the computer available any time was great… and it’s so easy to carry around – not lugging a big laptop around
- Getting the sim card in London was great, especially paying 5 pound for unlimited internet access on the phone.
- Even if you have to pay to use the internet on the mobile phone it is great, especially for things like google maps when you are lost (and with the phone’s built in GPS it works really well).
- Twitter – I really would not have coped without twitter – being able to keep in contact with everyone back at home and see that life was happening just the same every day was great, and being able to update my travels onto twitter was great also… I think therefore I twitter is an apt saying… it’s not real and it didn’t happen, unless it’s on twitter.
Well most of this post was typed on the eeepc whilst waiting for my Paris / Dubai flight… I think there are a lot of good tips for me to remember for next time, especially having a particular purpose for the trip, meeting up with friends, and giving myself time to rest.
