2009 and all that

So let's see if I do any better with regular posts to my blog this year than I did last year. (The road to hell is paved .... etc)

So to start 2009, a post which rambles across a few topics but ultimately is about the power of the Web for sharing of Knowledge.

I have been affected by the cold winds blowing in the retail sector. Empire Direct has gone into administration taking some of my money with it. I paid by credit card, so I can reclaim from the credit card company. In fairness to them, they've been very good in handling it so far. Provided you get to talk to a person. And there's the rub. You know how it goes... "For another menu option, press 1; to listen to dreadful music, press 2; to talk to a person, you're SOL (an acronym I picked up from some American colleagues the polite form of which is 'Sadly Outta Luck'). Well I did eventually get through to a human, and they were very helpful.
Then yesterday, while browsing some blog posts (like you do) that came up in my RSS aggregator I came across one which mentioned a website called get2human.com. The beauty of this site is that it tells you the number to call and the appropriate key presses to reach a human for a range of organisations. And, of course, anyone can submit entries to the database. Very useful knowledge shared, I think. I'll add it to my list of useful websites right next to saynoto0870.com and fixmystreet.com

The documentation tool I was looking for ?

On my very first blog post I wrote "I found myself in a bit of a quandary about as to the best way to document [the roundtable]".

Well I don't think it's the final answer but I have to admit to be grudgingly impressed with Microsoft's OneNote. Having seen many blog posts talking about it, I finally downloaded a trial version to play with. Microsoft gives you 60 days after which you have to pay. Well I've got about 50 days left, but I'm already thinking I might just have to bite the bullet and contribute to Redmond's profit line.

So what is it that has impressed me ?

Basically, it's the ability to mix and match text, pictures, screen clippings; drag them around and position them in a non-linear way and create what looks quite a bit like a web page with very little hassle. And then you can output in various formats.
I've just used it to do a write-up of KIN's latest roundtable / masterclass and was able to incorporate pictures taken at the event with screen clippings of bits of presentations and annotate with bits of text in a nice free-form way.
I've tried generating a .mht web page which looks pretty but is way too big and consequently takes too long to load. (I'm probably doing something wrong here). I also generated a .pdf file which comes out very well (a couple of glitches, but not too bad at all).

KIN members can see the results of my efforts here.

I will continue to experiment and let you know how I get on. In the meantime, are there any other 'Onenote' users out there that would like to share their experiences. Also, are there any alternatives I should be considering ? Here is a post comparing Evernote and Onenote.

Moving to the Cloud ?

One of my earliest blog bosts was Thinking out of the Inbox - More Collaboration through less e-mail which referred to Luis Suarez's experiment in giving up email.

Partly inspired by that, partly by a series of posts by Aliza Sherman:

Official Google Docs Blog: Aliza's chronicles: climbing out of document hell
Official Google Docs Blog: Aliza's chronicles, part 2: surviving the computer shuffle
Official Google Docs Blog: Aliza's chronicles, part 3: collaboration and the long haul
Official Google Docs Blog: Aliza's chronicles, part 4: collaboration, quick and easy
Official Google Docs Blog: Aliza's chronicles, part 5: the personal stuff

I have decided as an experiment to see whether it is possible to migrate my KM work to 'The Cloud' and just how much it is possible to do with online tools.

I am already a user of Google Mail and Google Calendar so I am going to see just how much of my word-processing, spreadsheet and presentation work can be done using (mostly) Google Apps. I say 'mostly' because I will also plan to try out other tools such as Sliderocket.

I'll let you know how I get on !

OK, Show's over

Well the run of The Taming of the Shrew has come to an end and I'm starting to catch up on my emails and Web reading.
Found this latest 'Charlie' gem which I thought I would share

When Jo meets Charlie

view presentation (tags: enterprise 2.0 web km)

Off Topic

Nothing to do with KIN or KM, but if anyone has noticed me being a bit slow with email replies lately, it's partly because I have been rehearsing for The Taming of the Shrew in which I am playing the role of Gremio, suitor to Kate's sister Bianca.

"Progress Theatre presents their yearly outdoor Shakespeare production between Monday, 14 July and Saturday 26 July (excluding Sunday). For 2008, the play is The Taming of the Shrew, Shakespeare's riotous comedy of the sexes. Breaking with traditional presentations, the show will be set in the Wild West with saloon brawls complementing the exquisite verse."

For more details (and to book tickets!)
http://www.abbeyruins.com/shakespeare.html

We've just had our first dress rehearsal and we think we have a terrific show. See you there ?