Channel Management

From Eugene Eric Kim
The printable version is no longer supported and may have rendering errors. Please update your browser bookmarks and please use the default browser print function instead.

This is an initial attempt to think about and manage my personal Collab:Channel Overload.

Underlying philosophy:

First-pass taxonomy:

  • Where to file
  • Where to check
  • Where to publish (being social)
  • Priorities
    • Priority
    • Periodic
    • Ambient. Okay to miss stuff (e.g. Twitter).

Evaluation criteria:

  • Number of channels
    • Incoming
    • Outgoing. (Am I contributing to Collab:Channel Overload?)
    • Per priority. Okay to have lots of ambient channels.
  • Overlap in channels. If I can file and publish in one fell swoop, that's a good thing.
    • Personal / Work boundaries?
  • Access? More credentials needed, more work.

Action Plan

Migrate private wiki to Evernote. Personal inventory items can be replaced by photographs... assuming Evernote ever fixes its "No snapshot found to upload" bug.

  • Eliminate one channel, and streamline workflow for personal inventory and account management.

Digital Channels

Consumption

  • Email
  • Feedly
  • Social Media: Twitter / Facebook / Google Plus / Flickr / Instagram / YouTube
  • Google Currents (Tablet-only)
  • Kindle
  • Pocket

I have apps for all of the different platforms I use, including mobile, but I prefer my tablet for consuming articles.

I use Pocket across all of these tools to save interesting articles to read later, then I consume these articles via my tablet (and occasionally my cell phone). I use some combination of YouTube's Watch Later functionality and Pocket for videos. I could probably combine these.

For more persistent or directed filing, I use Evernote.

Email

  • eekim.com
    • gmail.com (forwarded)
    • burdenslanding.org (forwarded)
    • hcs.harvard.edu (forwarded)
    • ddj.com (forwarded)
  • blueoxen.com
    • blueoxen.org
    • blueoxen.net
  • groupaya.net

Will eventually forward both blueoxen and groupaya. May start using burdenslanding.org as my personal email account.

Wikis

I follow all of my low-traffic, MediaWiki wikis via RSS (Google Reader).

  • Personal
    • eekim.com
    • burdenslanding.org
  • Groupaya Way

Filing

Notes, interesting articles, etc.

  • Wikis (see above)
  • tumblr
  • Slideshare favorites
  • Evernote
  • File system
  • Batchbook, Google contacts for business cards.

Photos

  • Adobe Lightroom. Still need to import legacy files.
  • eekim Flickr for public.
  • blueoxen Flickr for Blue Oxen public.
  • Picasa for Groupaya public.
  • Evernote for whiteboard photos.
  • Haven't found good private, work-related photo sharing. MediaWiki uploads. Perhaps Picasa for Google Apps?

Password Management

Currently using LastPass, but considering move to Dashlane for superior UI / better mobile support. Experimented with Dashlane for a few weeks, but ran into several issues with stability. Also, UI tries to do too much for you.

Paper Management

  • Many notebooks. Been using Moleskines consistently for the past five years.
  • Fujitsu ScanSnap S510 for scanning
  • Paper file cabinet
  • Shoeboxes for mail, receipts, biz cards.
    • Investigating Shoeboxed.com for receipt / business card scanning.
  • Snail mail

Workflows

Blog Post

When I publish a blog post, I also tweet it / post to Google Plus. My tweets are automatically published to Facebook.

Comments are on blog, Twitter (which can be integrated with blog), Facebook (which in theory could be integrated into blog, but probably shouldn't), and private email.

"Liking" on the Web

I like something on the web. I want to show that I like it. In some cases, I want to file it away.

  • Browser tab. Sometimes for like, sometimes for to read. Sometimes DMZ my tabs by saving them as browser bookmarks. Pocket has helped my tab management quite a bit.
  • If there's a native favorite/like feature, click on that. Sometimes those are trackable, sometimes they're not.
  • Possibly comment.
  • Possibly (re)tweet/dent/share on Facebook (which happens mostly automatically).
  • Possibly Tumblr. Tweets are automatically archived on delicious.
  • Possibly integrate into wiki / Evernote / filesystem.
  • Possibly blog.