Project Management

Project Management 2.0

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New technologies, concepts, and Web 2.0 tools are popping up everywhere. How can you use them to help your project team collaborate, communicate - or just give your project an extra boost? [Contact Dave]

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Going Postal

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Situation: You Want a Better Way to Send Out Snail Mail...

Postful is a new service that allows you to send actual letters through email.  For just under a buck you can send a single page document to someone's physical mailbox.  Why would you do this?  Well the pitch goes something like this:
- For recipients who do not have email, it's easier than putting together a letter.
- For those who need to track all correspondence, this application lets you track everything from your computer.
Posted on: April 07, 2007 11:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Leave me Alone...

Categories: Time Killers

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Situation: You HATE Social Networks...

isolatrI think half of my offline friends feel this way.  Enjoy Isolator.
Posted on: April 07, 2007 10:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Messaging for the Highly Scheduled PM

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Situation: You Schedule Time to Return Messages OR Want Mobile Team Alerts

Everyone has their own way of dealing with the tremendous volume of messages we receive every day.  Many succumb to a demand-driven lifestyle, constantly checking voicemail, email, etc. - and responding as soon as they come in.  Others like to shut out the noise and focus on the task in front of them until a particular time of day that they allocate to returning messages.  Got Voice is a free service for those in that last group.  The service grabs voice messages off of your cell phone and drops them into your email (you actually play back the voice recording).  That way you can go through everything at once.

Perhaps a more useful feature of the service allows you to create voice mail groups.  This means you can send a voice mail to your entire team without their phones ever ringing.  Like a text message (SMS), but easier on both ends.  You get rid of the awkward typing thing and take a step out of the process by sending to the group vs. checking off each person on the list.  Think about any situation where you would normally send an email out, but need EVERYONE to get it right away vs. when they read their email.  It could really come in handy in certain situations. 

Posted on: April 07, 2007 04:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Instant Cartography

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Situation: Your Distributed Team Needs Location-Specific Guidance

Go to Google Maps HomeGoogle Maps has a new function called "MyMaps" that allows you to quickly create your own maps (your own simple mashup) with links to deeper information. 

If your project is distributed, you could enter your team directory info into here and give everyone a better understanding of:
- where people are relative to work/client sites
- how to get to team-mate's locations when flying in to an airport

Here's a quick example of a map, Gantthead lunch spots,  that I put together in a few minutes.   Here are instructions for creating one yourself.

If you want to add country-specific information to your map locations, check Portals of the World for some pretty deep info approved by the Library of Congress

Posted on: April 07, 2007 09:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Teambuilding Without Training Wheels

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Situation: You're Hard Up For Team Building Options

There are sites out there that offer teambuilding exercises you can do in the office, which I guess is ok if your group is the "go along with it" type.  However, most need something a little different and off-site.  Which brings us to this goofy idea for a teambuilding exercise.  The conference bike has been around for a while now.   I thought I'd throw it out here, just because its unusual.  Wikipedia defines teambuilding in a rather complex way, which I think is what happens once people start consulting in a particular area.  To me, if everyone just gets along a little better afterwards, then we've had a good outing.

Other Options
I tend to think weird=memorable.  I'm still working on getting everyone to do the group Trapeze Lessons.  We've done Dave and Busters, Ice Skating, etc. - but I just can't bring myself to do the ropes course thing.  Our crew is a little more outspoken , dynamic, and opinionated than most.  So we just try to get together and have a good time once in a while. 


Posted on: April 06, 2007 10:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
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