Adventures in home working

In my previous post In Pursuit of personal and team productivity I talked about general problems.  In this post I talk briefly about my problems.  My company:

1. Uses Notes for email and some applications
2. Has an extensive Intranet for functional web sites, news, standards etc
3. Uses Plumbtree as its portal and to host communities, some are still hosted on Notes
4. Some of the projects I am working on use MS Project Server
5. Others use just MS Project
6. My company uses Lotus Sametime for IM
7. One of my project teams uses Microsoft Exchange IM
8. External contacts use MSN IM
9. Some of the projects use a Windows file server for project files
10. My function uses a Notes Database as its repository for Work In progress and approval
11. Some of the projects use WSS, for documents, risks, issues and changes
12. Some use spreadsheets
13. Some of the projects use an in house developed collaboration server
14. My customers use even more systems, some MS Team Services, others use Documentum

What do I use, in addition to all of the above:

1. I use my local disk for all my work in progress, archive, to read, to review, to watch etc
2. The family email is accessed using Outlook express
3. My personal email is accessed using Outlook, because I use Newsgator for RSS
4. I use Onenote for note taking and for my daily log
5. I use Radio for my blog
6. I use Office 2003 Pro most of the day

I have a range of different devices, which I talked about here.

I think this mess is pretty typical, but one thing I know – it certainly is not productive!

There is a conflict between people and the companies they work for, (well probably lots, but I’m only going to talk about one of them).  The bigger the enterprise a person works for the more focussed that company is likely to be in central server centric computing, central support, consolidation, BPM, single sources of information etc.  All very important for sure, but these companies will probably not even consider team productivity and almost certainly personal productivity as worthy of investment.  These companies are on a crusade to save money, real money, i.e. savings off the bottom line.  1 hours labour saving per month for a big company project would be amazing. 

Individuals on the other hand, especially information/knowledge workers will happily spend hours a month honing their personal environments to suite their needs, aggregating, storing, and restructuring the data that they are researching, or creating.  They often invest their own money on Home PC’s, PDA’s, Task management Software, List Management Software, PC search software, Laptop to server file synchronisation tools etc.  In the pursuit of personal productivity they probably spend more than 1 hour per week.

So how come individuals spends perhaps 4 times longer trying to make themselves more effective, than big companies are trying to save through server side business process reengineering projects, or major application upgrades.

In my view it comes down to three things:

1. The tools available to information workers are so poor that people live in a state of perpetual frustration, trying to find an environment that lets them aggregate, integrate, process and create information more effectively.
2. The people working on server side improvement projects assume people only work on their project, process or team.  When often people are working with such a wide range of different web sites, document management systems, team sites, portals, networked file systems, personal file systems and trying to access them through a range of different devices.
3. The benefits that people perceive they will see if they could only get the two issues above resolved are so amazing,  not just in raw productivity terms, but especially in quality and team coordination, that they feel very motivated to continue to strive for them.

Lots of peopole have tried to solve this problem.

1. Server side guys have taken the portal approach, which at best integrates a few processes, or a few fragments of information
2. The client side guys have created ever richer PIM’s, but made the mistake of assuming everyone will work only in their PIM
3. The device guys have given us an ever greater number of devices to fragment our information across

Some players have realised that the only way to solve this problem is at the platform and standards level, on both clients and servers:

1. You can see some evidence of this with groove which provides a rich set of platform services, and some real application functionality on top that addresses just this area.  But the platform is not popular enough to really transform the way people work outside a few enlightened environments, and of course the platform costs quite a bit of money, for bottom line centred enterprises to invest in it.
2. A slightly different approach is taken by the guys developing Chandler, which is an open source set of platform services, which will eventually be funded by layered application vendors building on top of the platform.  However its unlikely to become pervasive with such a small team behind it, although the vision looks great, if a bit limited in its scope, (given the size of the team though a small scope is essential if they are to ever deliver).
3. Everyone continues to invest in full text search and its longer term accuracy as more metadata becomes searchable as data migrates to XML format, but search is still such a blunt instrument.
4. Microsoft have a grand vision with Longhorn at the client end, with WinFS as the store utilising the Shell and Avalon presentation services.  Reaching out and integrating a vast array of server side environments exposed through Web Services, but its a long way off. Microsoft is certainly taking a platform centric approach, and of course will deliver a slew of compelling applications to exploit that platform.  They are also in a unique position with the release of Longhorn to invest in the marketing of a new way of working, and to present the commercial opportunity for thousands of ISVs to exploit that platform to tempt people to upgrade their applications.

So what’s my take on the future, cautiously optimistic:

1. I think Microsoft has learnt some lessons in the past and will do a great job of delivering the Longhorn platform and some great applications that leverage that platform
2. I think Microsoft is the only company who has a vision of the future that takes an integrated and balanced view of client side and server side computing
3. I think Microsoft is VERY strongly motivated to re-invent client side computing, which has hardly evolved for nearly a decade
4. I think the Linux community needs to seriously look at what Microsoft is doing to the platform, and build standard services of the type provided by WinFS especially if its not to get left behind still trying to complete with XP when Microsoft has completely moved the goal posts.
5. I think Longhorn lives or dies by how good it is at aggregating and integrating a mix of client and server side information.  Which means that it needs to be the premier client for aggregation using for example RSS as it evolves.  All Microsoft’s applications need to start exposing their capabilities in a standard way, again RSS and Windows Sharepoint Services comes to mind.  If WSS provided an RSS interface to subscriptions, lists, document libraries etc, and had come offline support it would be transformed.

Ray Ozzie, of Notes and Groove fame provides some good commentary in this area as well and Adam Bosworth’s Weblog discusses some of the server to client interactions as well.

A releated area is support, almost everyone prefers to receive certain types of support from their friends and their peers, who they know to have particular expertise or who understand their needs and environment.  In a survey I did about 5 years ago over 90% of people preferred to receive support from their local “super user” rather than call the help desk.  However in the central/standards dominated corporate IT environment this support model is not encouraged, which means that it is not facilitated and made efficient.  It still happens of course, (a 90% preference is too strong), it is just not done very well.  This is a real shame because peer support tools like Microsoft’s remote assistance, discussion groups, expert groups etc can be very effective.  Again a few years ago I setup a support forum for my corporate, that provided both peer support and support directly from the developers and architects responsible for the environment.  In many ways it was much like some internet forums today and like blogs, in that it put the developers and users in direct contact.  The affects were amazing in the goodwill generated within the user community and the improvement in quality that the developers were able to achieve with this direct linkage to their users.  I will blog more on this whole area soon.

Finally I would love some of these Longhorn Evangelists to start talking about the future for Knowledge workers, and not just about how Longhorn and Indigo will affect vertical business processes.  However maybe that would mean revealing some commercial in secret stuff about the next version of the Office System and Longhorn Server.

I have 2 pocket PC’s, a Blackberry and a Tablet, all of them play music but I also have a Creative Nomad 20G.  How did I get in this mess.

Well it started with one of the original IPAQ’s which a few years ago I thought was a marval.  I carried it everywhere and loaded it with loads of useless software and tried to squeeze a CD’s worth of muisic onto it.  After about 3 months I hardly ever used it because the battery life was too short and the synchronisation too much of a chore.  My 11 year old daughter has it now, and after a month of enthusiasm hardly ever uses it either.

Then I got the Nomad, I copied all my CD’s onto it and hardly made a dent in its 20GB, I converted all of the Tech-ED conference DVDs into WMA files so I could listen to them in the gym and out walking.  It got used a lot for a few months, and still gets used perhaps once or twice a week.  But if I lost it tomorrow it would not have much of an impact on my life, in fact I probably wouldn’t even notice.

Then I got my first Blackberry, a dual band mono model with integrated phone, (headset only).  I loved it, in my view almost perfect form and function for its purpose, Wireless Email and Calendar.  I never did get tasks to synchronise with Notes properly.  In fact after about a week the only time it ever went into its crade was to charge its batteries.  I never synch it with my PC all synch was wireless.  However the gadgeter in me wanted more so I got a colour 7210, triband model, with a bit more memory and a real phone.  Its great, has fantastic battery life and the colour makes it look a bit livelier.  its true that its adictive though.  I use it every day, even though I work at home because it allows me to appear to be working when I am in a cafe or walking, or sitting on the beach.  The fact that I never need to synch it, that its always on, always up to date, incredibly slick to use means I am never without it.

But then I was given a shiny new Pocket PC, from HP.  It’s tiny, has a fab display, bluetooth, 64MB, SD and CF cards.  it syncs with my Tablet just great.  But its not got a phone,  I still have to take an action to synch it and it’s just not as slick as the Blackberry.  However I do still use it, but more as a complement to my Blackberry, one I can do without but is nice to have.

Finally I have my tablet, my only truely indispenable gadget.  Its a perfect complement to the Blackberry though neither depends on the other they both keep in synch via a corporate Notes server wirelessly.  One is there for real work, the other for instant on communication.

I have another phone, a Nokia 6210i in addition to my Blackberry because Blackberrys don’t have a car kit and using them as a phone does eat into that fantastic battery life. 

I had my first visit from an occupational therapist today.  I have been referred to her to assess the type of work I do and how that can best be adjusted to make it easier for me to cope.  She arrived 2 hours late and stayed for 4 hours.  The visit itself tired me out but it was very useful.  She helped me to see my condition in terms of its affect on my work, and the affect my work has on the condition.  The process she went through was enlightening, and should be useful.  Not suprisingly she has not worked with anyone with AOSD before but she says that the symptoms and affect on work are simillar to those that people suffering from chronic fatigue go through.

She wants me to start an 8 week controlled trial, where I will work from home on well bounded tasks and keep lots of records.  For the first 4 weeks she wants me to increase from 20 hours a week to 37.5, my normal hours in gradual steps.

All in all 4 hours well spent.

Tablet PC related Software I still use. 

I have played around with pretty much all of the software, but not much of it has survived the several rebuilds I have done for various purposes, eg HD upgrades, beta tests etc.  This is what’s left.

• Zinio
• Top desk
• MyIE2
• Ultramon
• Onenote
• Virtual CD Control tool
• Mind manager
• Office 2003
• Journal

So why did these survive:

Zinio survives because in my enthusiasm I went and subscribed to a couple of magazines.  My feeling is that its not quite there.  Its a bit slow, the TC1100 screen size is a bit too small, and the 1024*768 resolution a bit too low.  In addition it does not maximise correctly, if you have your task bar at the top of the screen as I do. 

Top Desk is a real find.  Its a bit of freeware, that sits in your tray and when you click it it shows you all of the shortcuts on your desktop.  if you are anything like me you have far to many applications to fit on the Start menu, so this provides much more room.  If you are ultra-tidy it also lets you hide everything from your desktop, which makes you look very organised.  Its particular good in my view because on a low resolution screen I have no room for all of the additional toolbars that I used to display when I had a laptop with a 1400*1050 screen.

MyIE2 survives because of the tabs.  It allows me launch say 20 different IE windows as I am browing through my blog entries, and then just click through them later.  Its also great when I am doing research.  I find the tabs so much better on the tablet than trying to navigate so many windows in the taskbar or a taskbar group.

Ultramon is essential if you use your tablet with two displays

I started being really organised with OneNote, with a very complex folder hierarchy.  I am just not that organised.  Now I just have a daily log and a few research areas.  I find it has lots of limitatoins that have been discussed already.  But used simply and regularly I have found it very useful.  I would not have paid for OneNote but I get it free.

Virtual CD Control tool.  Well I don’t have a CD drive when I am mobile, but I can use this tool to mount an ISO image whenever I need one.  Another good freeware find.

I already had Mind Manager,  I tried the tablet PC version, and thought it was great, but the upgrade costs were just too high.

Office 2003.  I use it extensively for reviewing and don’t have too many problems, except that inking at the edge of the screen is a bit hit and miss when using comments.  I have just started looking at the Image printer and Image viewer, the ink support in the viewer seems really good at first glance.

Journal, because its installed by default.  I do find it useful though for marking up stuff that I printed to it.

of course I use loads of other SW, but this is the main stuff thats Tablet related

I have so many gadgets!. 

I realised as I was thinking about things to blog about that I have a lot of gadgets.  Some of them are useful and some are toys.  Often I find I am wildly enthusiastic about one of them for a few weeks, telling everyone they need one too and then it sits in a corner for months without being touched.  So I thought I might help others not to make the same mistake and also pick out some real gems, for me at least.

So these are some of the Gadgets I will talk about soon:

1. My two IPAQ Pocket PC’s
2. My Blackberry
3. My Tablet PC
4. My KVM switch
5. My Amstrad Emailer
6. My HP OfficeJet d125i
7. My Wireless network
8. My Creative Nomad Jukebox
9. My Minolta Dimage Z1 camera
10. My Nokia 6310i phone

and just in cae you think I am too rich for my own good, lots of these were provided by work, or by friendly suppliers

One of the things that has really helped me with AOSD s keeping my own records.  Its a very difficult thing to diagnose, so the doctors need all of the help they can get.

First lets consider the major symptoms:

1. A rash.  Take photo’s, normally the rash doesn’t itch and its clearer after a hot bath.
2. A spiking temperature.  Keep a log of your temperature, if you have Still’s it will alternate between well above normal and a little below, at least once a day and sometimes twice.  I found that this pattern was not too evident when I was in in hospital because they gave me asprin all through the day which masked the effect.  In my case its only when I left hospital and stopped the asprin that all became clear.
3. It involves joints and muscules and it moves around.  Keep a pain chart, I had a daily chart that recorded which joints and muscles hurt and how much.  I colour coded it and produced graphs.  When my doctor looked at the pain chart and the temperature chart he said “Ah Ha AOSD”.  In my case the chart is a wild pattern, with different muscles and joints showing up in different colours most days.  However I can see that when I am getting close to a flare, its my fingers that are the early warning!
4. It maybe induced by Stress,  Keep a stress chart,  I did this as soon as I went back to work.  When I comparsed the stress and pain chart they were almost the same.  When I showed it to HR at work it was much easier to have a discussion about working from home and changing the type of work I do.

So in summary I have no majic cure for AOSD, but if you want a better deal from your doctors and from your employer, I think it pasy to keep your own records!

Approximately 4 years ago I was working in London, and had a sore throat and was noticing some annoying muscle stiffness and pain, I boarded the train to return to Preston and on arrival found I could no longer stand.  By the next morning I was unable to get out of bed due to extreme muscle and joint pain.  The condition was not diagnosed at this time and no treatments were effective, although home care was possible.  After about 6 weeks I was able to return to work.  Very minor reoccurrence of symptoms were noticed occasionally, but they had no affect on my lifecycle or ability to work. 

After about 18 months I had another flare-up, resulting in approximately 4 weeks off work, again with home care being given.  I returned to work however this time I did notice some muscle pain every week or so, however this was never correlated with stress or workload, and had no affect on my lifecycle or ability to work. 

Last year I had a major flare-up, causing almost complete disability, i.e. unable to move unaided, feed myself etc.  I was admitted to hospital for care and whilst there had extensive tests for 2 weeks, no diagnosis was made but my condition stabilised sufficiently to allow me to return home.  Within days the condition flared again and I was re-admitted to hospital for further care.  During this period as a result of records I had kept of his pattern of pain and temperature the diagnosis of Still’s was made with confidence.

A treatment plan was created and within a week I was able to leave hospital and 4 weeks later was able to return to work.

Following my return to work around April last year I have never been free of pain.  I kept daily records of pain and stress levels.  Even whilst continuing to take regular Steroids to suppress the symptoms I had one flare, and since coming off steroids two flares, the last one in January requiring re-establishment of the treatment and two weeks off work.

I approached my company about changing to a less stressful job and working from home, they have agreed in principle, so I am at home right now and decided to start this log.

The link takes you to the AOSD web site.  Its a rare disease thats a bit like Arthritis, I started with it about 4 years ago and its been getting worse since then.  Here’s a little bit of background:

AOSD is an inflammatory condition that attacks internal organs, joints and other parts of the body. It can appear and disappear suddenly. In very severe cases, AOSD becomes chronic and extremely debilitating, causing terrible pain and stiffness. After many years, the disease cripples vital organs such as the heart and lungs.

Thats the bad news, I will tell you a bit about my experiences with AOSD soon, and then things will get a lot more positive!

I started this weblog, because I have AOSD.  Most people won’t know what it is because less than 1 in 100,000 people have it.  But its important because its this disease thats resulted in me working from home, using a Tablet PC and changing my life in many ways.  So I thought I would write about the experience, for other people who like me may be going through a life change, or suffering, working from home, or in fact using a Tablet.  Finally as I am involved quite heavily in the IT industry I might have the odd useful observation about that as well.