The Steve Rubel Stream

Insights on emerging technologies and trends.
Steve Rubel
Steve Rubel (bio) is SVP, Director of Insights for Edelman Digital, a division of Edelman - the world's largest independent PR firm.

He is charged with helping clients identify emerging technologies and trends that can be applied in marketing communications programs. Rubel also explores these topics on his site, a monthly Forbes.com column and in a bi-weekly AdAge column. He can be found on Twitter and Facebook as well.

Steve can be reached via email at steverubel@gmail.com.

Note: Everything posted on this site is Steve's personal opinion. It does not represent the views of Edelman or its clients.

               

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A Week in the Clouds Without a Notebook

On average I travel for business about seven to 15 days a month. Sometimes it can get a bit nuts, but I love it - I never get bored. This is one of those weeks. I will literally be in the clouds all week both virtually and physically.

I am starting my journey today in Toronto. Tomorrow I am speaking at the MIXX conference and will also participate in staff, client, industry and press meetings. Wednesday I head to Atlanta for the day for another private event and then right back up to Montreal that night. Thursday I am speaking at MIXX in Montreal. I head home for one night and then do a round-trip from NY to DC on Friday for, yes, another speaking gig. (Map above. I like maps!)

Despite the travel, however, I still need to be productive. I need to stay in touch with my colleagues and clients and also do some writing. Also, I want to stay in touch with you here on my lifestream and on social networks. Mobile technology is my friend here.

I have a couple of different laptops that I take on trips. All of them are light. But you see, I am on a quest. I want ditch my laptop on every trip and only carry a smartphone and my Iamakey for the rest. Right now I have an iPhone 3GS but I may add a Blackberry to complement it. My key files and even some portable apps are encrypted on the USB key.

The reason is simple: all of these devices are pocketable. A laptop isn't. I don't want to carry a laptop because it's mental baggage. I don't want to be thinking about where it is. Smartphones and USB keys are like appendages. I always know where they are. Plus, I know that one day soon we won't need to carry laptops on business trips because these phones - which are really pocket computers - will be able to do it all, including hook up to hotel TVs. I am trying to experience this future now.

I have gone sans laptop on business trips before but this one at three nights is the longest one yet - although I am home for one night in between trips. I have tweaked my setup so that the apps and services I use on my smartphone are identical to what I use on my Mac at home and - to a large degree - my desktop PC at work. I like the simplicity and consistency of it all.

Here's what I using... (workflow below)

  • Writing and To Do List - WriteRoom (which now has TextExpander support to speed up typing)
  • Contacts and Calendar - Address Book and iCal, which connect with our Exchange Server 
  • Notes - WriteRoom for temporary storage, Evernote for archiving (more on this in a subsequent post on lifelogging)
  • Files - Documents to Go, and if necessary, my IamaKey and Box.net/Sharepoint
  • Mindmapping - Mindjet and Mindnode
  • RSS - NetNewsWire, which syncs to Google Reader
  • Twitter - Tweetie
  • Plus, of course, Posterous and Instapaper for sharing and reading
The only thing I can't do with this setup is create or edit a PowerPoint deck, although I can view them. This is one reason I am considering getting a Blackberry too - you can edit PPT. I don't anticipate I will need to on this trip. However, I will need to write, but I can actually do so on my phone quite comfortably. If some people can write books on cell phones, then I can certainly crank out shorter stuff too.

You probably think I am nuts, but I hate carrying laptops. I have done so for years. I will keep you posted on my progress. Sometimes I am on the road seven or nine days at a time. I don't think I can ditch a laptop on these trips, but this journey might convince me otherwise. Wish me luck.
Filed under  apps   blackberry   cloud computing   gadgets   iphone   mobile   Producitivity   travel  
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Posted 5 months ago

Conversation of the Day: Facebook is the New Address Book

When it comes to personal information like email, calendars, to- do's and notes, I have super systems that keep all the data up-to-date by leveraging the cloud and keeping local copies on my computers and my iPhone. Evernote, for example, is one great tool that I use to stay in sync. 

Contact information, on the other hand, has always been a pain. 

The basic tools like the address book that comes with your computer are outdated. People move around too much these days. Enter social networking. The problem is keeping your information in sync everywhere.

The new version of Facebook for the iPhone, however, at least for me is finally a workable solution because it has an integrated dialer. Part of the reason it works is because I limit my Facebook friends only to those whom I have met or corresponded.

Like Robert Scoble, I wish that people would add their phone numbers to their Facebook accounts so that this becomes the ultimate solution. It sounds like soon Facebook will keep your contact information in sync, which will make this all easier. However, all of this depends on if people keep their contact info current - which isn't a  given because of privacy concerns.

For more, see Robert Scoble's thread on Friendfeed, which I have added below. What's your view?

Filed under  Facebook   iPhone   mobile   Producitivity   social networking  
15 Comments
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Posted 6 months ago

Workstreaming in 140 Characters with Backpack

Nowadays, status update boxes are everywhere: LinkedIn, Twitter, Friendfeed, Yammer, AIM, GTalk, Facebook and more. The stream is becoming a de facto way that we communicate with others. However, thinking in 140 characters is also changing how I work. I am now using status updates to workstream. 

I have dusted off using Backpack as a tool for managing my life. It's improved a lot since I last used it a few years ago. One of their recent additions is the Backpack Journal, which I love. I can update it throughout the day to capture a running log of what I worked on, when. Right now this is just for my own use but Backpack works great in teams as well. Above is a screenshot from my Journal this am. I also update it from my iPhone using an app called Satchel and on the desktop use text expansion software to enter items more quickly. I use codes and phrases to track my time which I refer to when I enter my time reports.

Several of my colleagues are workstreaming with Yammer. This is something I need to explore more, since it's certainly easy to do. Are any of you workstreaming - and if so, how - in private or public forums?
Filed under  Backpack   Collaboration   iphone   iPhone Apps   mobile   Producitivity   streams   tips   workplace   Workstreaming  
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Posted 8 months ago

More Location Based Services Coming to the Desktop

Google today said they are bringing location awareness to Google Maps on the desktop. I tested it today in Google Chrome here in Illinois and it worked really well, as you can see from the image.

So, where does this go from here? When you think about the metadata, lots of possibilities beyond this little feature...
  • Commerce - click a product on a site to find this item in a store near me where I am right now
  • Social - Loopt, Foursquare, etc. begin to work equally well from the desktop
  • News - citizen journalist reports from computer webcams can now more easily add metadata
  • Productivity - web-apps get location data automatically embedded; great for sales forces
  • Advertising - think of Google ads served based on your location that are hyperlocal
The upshot is that this is part of a bigger trend. Mobile isn't just about phones. It's about mobility. It's a state of being that covers an array of devices (netbooks, phones, Kindles, GPS systems) that tap into location based services that sync across. 

Location Based Services are one of the most exciting areas to watch right now.
Filed under  advertising   google   journalism   local   location based services   maps   mobile   Producitivity   Social Networking  
8 Comments
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Posted 8 months ago

The Big To-Do Over To Do's

Years ago, life was simple. You created a to-do list - on paper. You checked boxes. And that was that. Somewhere along the way, as technology unleashed more inputs into our lives, the simple to-do list became glorified. The rising demands on our attention spawned an entire cottage industry of stand-alone to-do apps!

Remember the old song Sixty 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover? It seems like there's even more ways to manage and track your tasks on a PC, Mac, mobile device or in the cloud. Here's one list. And here's another. And the market keeps expanding too, a sign of our times,

I have tried many of these - in some cases multiple times: Backpack, Toodledo, Google Docs, Things, Omnifocus, GMail Tasks, Remember the Milk, Evernote and more.

My needs are relatively simple: I want to follow the general principles outlined by David Allen in GTD and have all my lists be: a) searchable, b) cross-platform, c) mobile and d) private.

I haven't been able to find one that sticks. But now I think I have finally landed on an outstanding combo: Taskpaper, pictured above. This is a Mac app but it also has an nearly identical Windows cousin called ToDoPaper. Both are super. A web service powered by Google Appspot is coming soon to Taskpaper.com as is an iPhone app.

What's great about Taskpaper and ToDoPaper is that underneath they are just plain text files. This means I can read/edit my lists anywhere, mark them up in any editor and have the changes sync back everywhere via DropBox. 

Let's see if this one sticks but so far, I am loving this combo. What do you use?
Filed under  apps   attention   Producitivity  
62 Comments
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Posted 8 months ago

How I am Declaring My Independence from Technology Today

For those of you in the US, Happy Independence Day! There are lots of ways to celebrate this amazing holiday. In New York, the Statue of Liberty crown is finally re-opening. Every town, it seems, has a parade. Here's another idea...

I am celebrating July 4 by declaring my Independence from some of the technology that clutters my "psychic RAM," as David Allen terms it in Getting Things Done. Last year there was a National Marked All as Read Day. July 4 is my own reminder to do the same.

I am simplifying my technology in five ways...
  • First, I am eliminating any bookmarks, software/webware that I haven't used in the last seven days. This is an idea I picked up from my friend Jeff Sandquist at Microsoft.
  • Second, I am down to two devices for everything - a laptop and a cell phone. Period, end of story. This means my Kindle is going on eBay (eBay is one of our clients).
  • Third, all my critical data seamlessly syncs between these two devices. If a service doesn't allow me to sync stuff via the cloud and access it both online and off, it's toast. Evernote and Google (Google Reader, Gmail IMAP, CalDAV) are lifesavers here. My business data already syncs wonderfully via Exchange. 
  • Fourth, I dumped tons of of stuff: RSS feeds and virtually every email newsletter, with two exceptions - Marketing Charts and the Social Media Smartbrief
  • Fifth, I am setting up lists on Friendfeed to help me find signals in the noise and so that I can do the same here for you, my audience
Anyone have any other tips? Share them in the comments. I am always listening.

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Filed under  attention   Friendfeed   gadgets   Producitivity   RSS  
38 Comments
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Posted 8 months ago
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