Digital Common Sense

More than once I’ve reinforced here, and to myself, that the single most important watchword I use in daily work is SIMPLIFY. That always strikes my non-techie friends as peculiar. They see technologly as an extreme complicator of daily life. Sadly, that’s the case for far too many people.

Part of my drive for simplification comes from my roots as a road warrior. I want to be fully self sufficient while carrying as little as is practical. Why burden ourselves like pack animals when we don’t have to.

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Two quotes I read recently brought this back to the forefront of my thinking.

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To that end, I’m embarking on another experiment. I’m minimizing my use of the computer to only when absolutely necessary. Email, blogging here, video (other than SightSpeed calls), photos taken and posted, writing (except when Powerpoint or Visio is absolutely necessary), in short everything that can be accomplished reasonably without a computer will be done in other ways for the next month.

Ricky Cadden recently undertook this same experiment and is finding out just how challenging it is. Looking at his blog page, I can’t help but hope that he didn’t lose control of the project, but I’m sure the formatting is a temporary problem as he fights with how to post to his blog from the handheld devices. I’m in a different space, because I’ve done this many times on business trips.

That’s right, whether it’s my Treo, a Nokia N800, some Nokia N-series phone or my Nikon, I’m going to try moving all that work off my laptop to smaller, simpler devices. Portable keyboard (IrDA and Bluetooth provide input capability. Memory cards from the Nikon to other devices provide photo upload capability.

I’ve got two more MiniSD cards and a ThinkOutside Stowaway bluetooth keyboard on the way.

Also, just as an aside on photo management, I’ve done a bit of fiddling and can easily post via Lifeblog from the Nokia N-series to Flickr, Flickr plus my Digital Common Sense blog, directly to the Digital Common sense blog, and VOX. I haven’t tested all of those with video just yet, and haven’t taken time yet to figure out how to Lifeblog direct to blip.tv, Google Video or YouTube. I don’t much bother with YouTube, but nice to have options. For now, I’ll WiFi send video through the browser interface on one or more of the devices listed. I’ll be fiddling with all of these just a bit more…real soon now. And if not the Lifeblog interface, the email approach from the phone works well.

I don’t yet have a Nokia N95, but I do now have the N800 to add to the mix.You can assume that the N93, N80i, N800 and Treo700W are my technology core, possibly coupled with the Palm LifeDrive as a photo storage and manipulation tool.  I’ve done road trips with nothing more on many occasions. I’ve formed the opinion that I only really need the PC for a few reasons:

• Visio
• Powerpoint
• Photo management
• Podcasting
• Video (SightSpeed)

To be honest, I can almost work around Powerpoint with my Treo, but it’s a real pain. Word and Excel are both quite easily done on the Treo or Palm LifeDrive. And I’ll probably buy the full Quick Office suite to carry that functionality to the Nokias during the course of this experiment. With the arrival of the N800, even video calling, while not SightSpeed quality, is quite achievable any time I’m in WiFi range.

I’m undertaking this because I want to prove or disprove to myself whether an Internet hyperconnected individual (who isn’t a developer writing code) really even needs a computer. I suspect a fairly strong no is the answer, but I want more definitive proof. And I want to travel lighter.

I’ll document my trials and findings here and share them for anyone who’s interested in where the discussion leads. I’ll continue using the PC for my job, because that only make sense. For now, I’m constraining this experiment to my personal email, personal work, this blog and what I post on VOX. After this, another round may follow with the Realtime Unified Communications Community. A fair amount of what I do there already comes from the handheld array.

I’m planning to start this experiment next weekend, when I head to Minneapolis on business. I won’t be taking my personal laptop along. I’m going to follow that old backpackers credo (I am an old backpacker) of treading lightly. And while I’m adding tools to simplify, because simplification really is complex, this afternoon I picked up a new Quantary photojournalist’s backpack with just enough room to carry my laptop. It’s a different approach, traveling more like I photojournalist and less like a geek with a backbreaking bag full of gear. Pictures to follow once I get it organized.

Stay tuned.

Technorati Tags: mobility, treading lightly, simplify, mobile technologies

Filed by Ken at 6:04 pm under Meandering, Mobility & Handheld, Technology