This is the first in a (most likely very short) series of articles about lack of efficiency at various locations I frequent. The purpose is not to put them down but to apply those same ideas to our own businesses and lives. It’s far easier to be a critic then to put this into practice, but well, one’s got to start somewhere.

My doctor has a solo family medicine practice with 2 or 3 assistants that serve various roles. I’ve always enjoyed his company and the kindness of his staff, and have been going there since maybe 2000. But the practice hasn’t utilized much technology, and I believe it’s to the detriment of both the patients and the staff. Here I’m going to look into how that relates both to their productivity and customer service. (I don’t think productivity should ever be an end in itself–it should facilitate more customers, higher revenue customers, better customer experience–something more than just working quickly.)

These are the issues I intend to comment on and explain how they could improve their practice or efficiency. While the lacking may be obvious, hopefully my solutions will be interesting.

1. They “kind of” have email, but not really
2. They don’t use or accept faxes
3. They have a voicemail greeting but don’t allow one to record a message
4. They can mail referrals if I provide a self-addressed, stamped envelope (circa 1995), otherwise I have to pick them up

At first glance you’re probably thinking one of two things: they’re extremely backward or they have very successfully limited their inputs. Their reasoning is probably a combination of convenience, lack of technical comfort, and resistance to change when “the system works.” But here’s where they’re missing out: Continue reading…

It’s almost a new year and it’s time to remember why we work. To find a little balance. To live.

Now that it’s June, we’ll sleep out in the garden
And if it rains, we’ll just sink into the mud
Where it is quiet and much cooler than the house is
And there’s no clocks or phones to wake us up
Because I have learned that nothing is as pressing
As the one who’s pressing would like you to believe.
(Bright Eyes, Nevaeh)

It’s not June. And even though people seem to think St. Michael’s is in the Carribbean, it really is just Maryland. But tomorrow marks my annual escape to the Eastern Shore–warm weather or not–and this time I’ve exchanged my laptop for a girlfriend.

It is kind of insane how much of a role technology has played in 2007, but I have to remember sometimes that it’s just an efficient facilitator for connections, work, and entertainment. I’m so thankful for those connections, for that business, and for the aforementioned girlfriend (more than entertainment ;-).

But once again technology is just a means, and work is just a means; we don’t need to read Tim Ferriss to figure that out. Continue reading…

I’m really glad that the tech-savvy internet community did some self-policing this past month when it harped on the Facebook Beacon privacy issue. But I must sadly agree that most Facebook users have no idea about the severity of this. It bothers me to no end that they would take advantage of their users. A conversation this morning reminded me of what their more typical user is like, and how Facebook is abusing them:

Me:

Not sure if you’re aware of your privacy settings. You have Beacon enabled…

Here’s how to turn it off. Go to the link below and check the box:
http://www.facebook.com/privacy.php?view=unconfirmed_actions

And her response: Continue reading…

Marc Orchant passed away today after a massive cardiac infarction.

Online it’s easy to feel anonymous and unimportant when there are so many already established experts, when everyone seems connected with the connected, and where some people seem superhuman in all they’ve accomplished. Marc Orchant may have been a connected and star technologist, who I look up to for the quality and earnestness of his writing, but he was also one of those rare people who didn’t make you feel anonymous. In an era where the one line email is the best you’d expect from an “A-lister,” Marc would respond with paragraphs of personal, careful thoughts to every email. He epitomized the productive person with values in the right place–he never seemed to make sacrifices. He was a great friend and his priorities were always straight.

If you ever had the pleasure to listen to his podcasts, you learned about his family, which he frequently discussed. I was always amazed at how he made time for them in between his tours of travel, writing, speaking, consulting, and gadget-testing. Everything he took interest in, he took a PASSION to. Or at least that’s how he made you feel. Just such a balanced and brilliant person.

I’m still getting my head past this. I’ll miss our calls and emails and his ever steady stream of writing. If I accomplish half of what Marc has by the time I’m his age, then my family will be proud. There’s no question that he’s left a legacy. And that he’ll live on as a role model for so many of us.

The only thing less productive than reading an email three separate times and not responding is misreading the message and responding right away. Some people come off either illiterate or disrespectful with their correspondence. Worse yet, I think it’s because they’re attempting to be productive and responsive–but both of those aims are best achieved when doing something right the first time–which both saves you time and is more professional. Working faster is not the only goal.

I ran into an old acquaintance at a business function who suggested getting together. In each email correspondence he missed something I said earlier in the message thread, forcing me to repeat myself and him to respond to many more emails. The worst part: though we both restated the date numerous times in the message, he showed up on the wrong day. When I notified him on the day-of our meeting (which was a week later) he had to cancel because he never realized that he was at fault all along and at that point didn’t have the date available. It was both a laughable taste of his own medicine and doubly frustrating for me.

This is not the first time something like this has occurred (I have so many more stories, and I’m sure you do, too). So here’s my advice, with a smattering of both productivity tips and etiquette: Continue reading…

Today was spotted with conversations from friends who want to save the world but just don’t know how. They’ve followed the path–good schools, grades, and jobs–but haven’t felt they could make a difference. My advice for them: new media.

I’m not going to lie–I’d long stereotyped marketing, communications, and public relations as necessary evils, at best. They’re rarely attention-grabbing, not usually great writing, and brand awareness is about as far as most of them get. But my opinion has somewhat changed in the last few years, especially since I heard Seth Godin speak (and enjoyed Purple Cow). Godin’s creative approach to marketing made it fun for me…and the internet is what made it much more accessible and effective.

I’d always seen the internet as a place to find your voice and to be heard. I’d always seen web design and web development as the tools to get online and make an impact. However, understanding and applying the connectivity of the internet–its inherent community–is what can really make a change. If someone wants to make a difference, they ought to learn how to use the web to spread their message. Continue reading…

I keep updating my tools, profiles, and sites. Why do it–is it worth it? Is it helping my life or my business? What’s next?

Today I’ve decided to begin moving all my photos to Flickr (well, it’ll be some time). We’re launching a web application in the next few months. SET’s website redesign (with almost all new content) will be completed by year end.

In January of 2006 I moved to WordPress (from Blogger, and before that just HTML) for dancingwithwords.com, redid the layout, and launched technotheory.com (also WordPress). I also sorted through about five thousand photos from My Image Gallery and kept about a thousand, which were then migrated to Coppermine.

I can spare you from the discussion of how I made it to My Image Gallery from Dreamweaver’s photo pages and of my failed conversion to Greymatter and/or B2′s blogging software. And of course the moves from Friendster to Facebook, the trials and tribulations of MySpace, and the simultaneous development of relationships on LinkedIn.

This stuff takes a lot of time. Why do I do it?

My online participation is primarily for three reasons: self-expression, maintenance of relationships, and business. When I put up a website in ’95 and a blog in ’00, it was for self-expression (and having a technology project seemed like the thing to do). Over time it became a way of keeping in touch. In just the last year I’ve started to see business come out of it.

But is it really worth it?

Continue reading…

Your technology is brilliant. You do exactly what I’ve longed for, and so gracefully. But your DRM and subscription model are more limiting than iTunes and more ill conceived than the Zune. Oh Amazon Kindle, why must you tantalize me so?

My book clubs and Amazon Prime addiction lead me to buying altogether too many books to find a place on the shelf. I hate having to decide which reading I can comfortably carry on the Metro or a plane. My laptop is too bulky for a lot of activities. And I’ve long complained that I’ve needed a higher resolution electronic screen than my laptop’s for reading.

But you want to charge me money for my RSS? For my Washington Post access? To read a PDF? Why can’t I just ‘sync up’ like I do with all the rest of my electronics? I’d rather pay for EVDO access than get taxed to download blogs.

I’m spellbound by the ability to download books in mere seconds, to full-text search (say, the names of characters), to mark up pages and highlight. It was a caring touch to add free Wikipedia access. And the display, while perhaps not the most attractive of consumer electronics, seems easy on the eyes, light, and functional.

I’m going to wait on the Kindle experiencefor now.

I’m curious to see how people get around some of the Kindle’s difficulties synchronizing. A tool that could seamlessly export RSS feeds from into organized HTML file tree would alleviate many of the fees and take some of the sting out of the process. Or better yet, maybe hackers will find a way around the EVDO limitations and open it up for better browsing or content synchronization–after all, it’s a practical piece of hardware that could benefit from some software tweaking.

I’m curious how this will play out in the coming months. Perhaps I’ll jump on the bandwagon in due time, but in the mean time I’ll just enjoy watching Amazon get a little bad press on their DRM for a change… They’ve done such a good job for a long time, and they continue to here, but this time the price and terms are just a bit frustrating.

Well, there’s finally some coverage. DC Startup Weekend and the web 2.0 startups were mentioned in Monday’s paper (The Washington Post)!

• DC Startup Weekend
• Web 2.0 Startups in the DC area
• Photos from Startup Weekend (hey, I made it into two!)

Thank you to Kendra Marr and Zachary Goldfarb for taking the time to talk to so many of us and offer a small glimpse into a community that’s thriving and energetic.

My only hope was that they might make it easier for people to latch onto some of the groups and join in–so here’s a quick mention of a places to look if you happen to be coming here from the Post:

• DC’s tech discussion forum–The DC Technology Network
• The main list of DC area events going on this week–DC Tech Events Weekly
• Some geeky stuff for non-profit people–NetSquared
• The group that gets and deserves credit for having the biggest events and starting the longest ago (well, at least so far as the new groups)–Refresh DC

My guess is that there’ll be some more technology press soon, given the New New Internet Conference on Thursday in Reston. But either way, hat’s off to so many fantastic organizers for really bringing vibrancy and stability to a community that was just dying to get started.

DC Startup Weekend is almost over, but our launch is just underway. Over seventy passionate and talented people have come to one place to build a web application and a business over the course of fifty-four hours. That web application, which we had never even discussed or planned to work on prior, became HolaNeighbor.

Update, my photos are now up on Flickr.

We voted on an idea. We composed a business plan, architected a user experience, designed a beautiful website, developed a very-involved web application…and put it all together. Many of us didn’t know anyone, but after a little bit of a rocky start, the chemistry, cohesion, and excitement of our product launch paralleled that of any other. Maybe we rushed a little, but that was par for the course.

I’ve always felt the best way to meet people is in a setting where you can really offer your best, so they can learn what you bring to the table while contributing to something meaningful. Startup Weekend accomplished that, and accelerated the process of building some great relationships.If you’re curious about HolaNeighbor, Continue reading…