doodle

Do not confuse the word "doodle" with "google". Doodle is a new technology that I have discovered that has helped increase efficiency in my job when it comes to scheduling meetings with more than 2 individuals. Basically, I can tell Doodle my bosses' availability and send a URL to all parties where they are able to reveal their availability with the click of their mouse. It looks something like this.

Before technologies like Doodle, secretaries had to send emails to all parties and ask them to respond with their availability. Then they go through each response and try to find a time when all parties are available to schedule the meeting. With doodle, you can clearly see when all parties are available on one screen. It might sound complicated to set-up, but it really isn't. I reccomend you try it (just for fun) next time you and your friends want to get together.

Ingenious Invention

I work as an Administrative Assistant. Keeping the office organized is one of my top priorities and I am always looking for ways to improve productivity. One day my boss gave me a stack of about 200 business cards and asked me to find a way to organize them in a binder. So, I went to the supply catalog and ordered business card sheets that hold about 8 cards per side and can be inserted into a 3-hole binder. Because he travels all over the world, I sectioned the business cards by country. This system was working out good until he kept giving me more and more and more.... and more business cards to file. I have learned that my boss is amazing at networking. He asks for everyone's business card... even a manager at a tiny coffee shop he visited in Dubai. Because we had hundreds of cards, I ran into the challenge of making them easy to find... you can't keep re-alphabetizing them as you add more and more. I thought surely with the amazing technology out there, there has to be a better solution. I went online and searched and found the BEST invention ever - the business card scanner.

This cute little scanner sits on my desk and gets used frequently. You can scan business cards that are front and back, in foreign languages, and the software not only stores a photo image of the card, but it also converts the text into English and pulls the various fields (name, phone, email) into a contact directory. This directory information can be merged into my bosses' Microsoft Outlook address book for easy accessibility.... even from his I Phone. He no longer has to flip through pages and pages of business cards to find what he's looking for. We recycle the business cards which allows us to save office space and help the environment. Its ingenious! I totally recommend that you get one of these some day!

Twitter

I have been contemplating the importance of Twitter lately, since EVERYONE and their brother have jumped on the bandwagon. I have to admit that one aspect of Twitter that I love is that I can follow (aka stalk) celebrities from the convenience of my home. Besides using it to feed my celebrity obsession, I struggle understanding it's purpose. I saw this image in a friend's blog and found it humorous, but incredibly true.

I can't figure out if this Twitter thing is foreign to me because I am so out of touch with technology or if its just my personality. I feel like if I tweet my every move, thought, feeling, etc.... that my friends will stop calling me. After all, all they have to do is check Twitter to make sure I'm still alive and doing well. I also feel like I don't want the whole world to have access to my daily coming and goings. Its like people forget that there are stalkers out there just waiting for you to say "going to the mall" or "meeting friends at the Cactus" not to mention your picture is on there. Maybe its because I'm paranoid or watched too much Dateline Online Predator shows? I would also feel so guarded (as I do with Facebook) because you never know who is going to read your tweets. This would prevent me from projecting my real self, as everything has to be filtered in case my professors, co-workers, boss, ex-boyfriends, etc were to read it. (Many people have been fired by exposing too much on Twitter!) What fun is that?

I also have noticed that a lot of the obsessed users are pretty self-centered, hence the fact that they THINK everyone wants to know their every move. But do we? And if we do, does that mean our lives are boring? I get so tired of Facebook status' that are used to complain and vent frustrations when what people should do is just call their best friend or mom. Is technology going to start replacing supportive relationships?

For now, I think I will stick to my sporadic facebook status' until I am probably forced to use Twitter in this class. ;)

What do YOU think??

You spin my head round & round

I would like to start this blog by saying that I am probably the least technologically advanced person in the classroom. No, really. I graduated from high school in 2002 and ever since then I feel like I've been detached from the new and exciting forms of technology that my peers use and depend on. I mean, when I was in high school (I know, it really wasn't THAT long ago) hardly anyone had a cell phone. Nowadays children in elementary school have cell phones! And tomorrow I bet most toddlers will be walking around with I-phones. I didn't get my first cell phone until I was 18 and I really didn't feel like I NEEDED one, I just thought it would be convenient. I am still trying to understand what has changed in this world to make people feel like they NEED them and go crazy without them.

My lack of tech skills might surprise you because my family actually got the internet at home way before most of my friends' families (back in 1998). I was a Freshman in High School at the time. I was so far advanced in those days... I taught a lot of my friends how to set up their first email account and how to IM. I used to stay up late chatting with strangers in AOL chat rooms (before they knew how dangerous that was!). However, things changed when I graduated and got out on my own. I went to school for a few semesters and then traveled overseas... then returning to full-time work. Working full-time actually sheltered me from new and growing technologies. My co-workers were much older and could hardly figure out their outlook email account, let alone an MP3 player! Then, some more time passed and I got married (I should mention to someone who is clueless about technology! Just a couple of years ago, he tried to send an email and couldn't remember how to do it so he just typed the email address in the URL address box and pushed enter! I still tease him about this.) Not to mention, we have not had TV for 3 years now and have recently got the internet after not having it for 2 years. So after 4 years of working full-time, I have returned to full-time college at Purdue at the tender age of 25. Surprisingly, I experienced culture shock similarly to when I was traveling overseas because the times have changed and everyone is so reliant on technology. This is a totally different world than what I remember... even 7 years ago. I still use CD's (have no idea how to even start with an MP3 player nor do I want to!), still use my old Yahoo email address that I created in 1998, have just a normal phone with normal phone capabilities, still no TV, only connect through the internet on my desktop computer, and here I am trying to write a blog for the first time! It is exciting to me to finally "catch up" and know what's going on. However, I am a little frightened by it all. I still am convinced that I do not want to always be "connected."

Maybe its because for 4 weeks I lived in a remote village in Nicaragua without any connection to the outside world... and 11 hrs down the river to the nearest civilization. No TV, phone, internet, electricity, cars, or currency! Everyone grew their own food and voluntarily filled roles as teacher, judge, and doctor. We bathed in the river, drank water from the river, disposed of waste in the river... you get the idea. Anyways, I think that I learned how to live without much and how extremely satisfying that is.

I will discuss my reactions and explorations to technology in this blog. I want to discuss why technology is necessary and whether or not it really makes life more enjoyable.

So, stay tuned!