Notable + Quotable: Boosting office productivity and minding our social networking behavior
by Celine Roque
ROWE, ROWE, ROWE your company — Part 1
In his personal blog, Daniel Pink interviews Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson, authors of the book Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It: “In a Results-Only Work Environment, or ROWE, each person in an office environment is free to do whatever they want, whenever they want, as long as the work gets done.”
Six Degrees of Separation Is Now Three
With the help of technology, the world is becoming truly a global village, says Don Reisinger in discussing a new study out from mobile operator O2: “According to the study, the average person is now connected by just three degrees within a shared ‘interest’ or social group instead of six. In fact, it found that people are usually a part of three main networks: family, friendship, and work.”
Social Networks: The Case for a “Pause” Button
Citing some questionable behaviors, Merlin Mann of 43Folders calls for a reassessment of our social networking conduct: “If you need to appear on an Internet list to know whether you’re someone’s friend, you may have problems a computer can’t solve.”
Reboot Your Workflow This Fall
LifeHacker’s Gina Trapani shares a few ideas on streamlining the way you do work. “If your workflow fell into disarray during the lazy days of summer, it’s time to get ahold of yourself, clean up your computer and files, and start installing those shortcuts into your workday you keep meaning to look into.”
20 Tech Habits to Improve Your Life
It’s the little things that make a huge difference, says Trapani explains in this article for PC World: “A few new habits can make the difference between staying on task, finding what you need, and getting things done–or having a tech meltdown.”
Social networking - how we do it at work but what about Facebook and Friendfeed?
Urs Gattiker of ComMetrics ponders the differences in workplace behavior online versus face-to-face: “If a task is so difficult that additional information is required, then interacting with others to get advice and input is actually aiding completion. If the interaction is a social activity, however, it is clearly detracting from completion time. With Facebook, it means frittering away time on the internet, instead of visiting your friends in person and spending time with them.”
Twitter: Far more than “what I had for lunch today”
David Chartier defends Twitter against its detractors: “As consumers, businesses, and even government bodies begin to experiment with Twitter and push its boundaries far beyond its unassuming “what are you doing?” tag line, it becomes clear that the service is here to stay.”
Social Media Behavior 101 Soon a Required Course
Steven Hodson of Mashable calls for discretion among today’s youth when dealing with the Internet: “Sure, the whole idea about Web 2.0 and Social Media is about openness and transparency. The only problem with that is, some people have no problem crossing a line of propriety. We’ve all heard the warning about how nothing is ever deleted from the Web and how what you post to the Web could come back to haunt you.”
Social Networks Are Not Yet Universal
eMarketer’s study reveals that there’s a long way to go in terms of social networking awareness: “More than one-half of adults surveyed in 17 countries do not know what social networking is, according to Synovate. The company said it asked over 13,000 consumers in Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, South Africa, Taiwan, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the US if they were familiar with social networking.”
SaaS Trial - Lessons Learned
Jason Rothbart of ReadWriteWeb gives some advice to Software-as-a-Service vendors: “A growing part of the software sales process involves offering trials or try-before-you-buy programs. Buyers love it, but it puts pressure on the vendors to deliver during this important process.”















