With All Understanding

Reading this was like looking backwards and through a mirror at the same time. Is it a true statement that we all live the same lives, with a different vantage point on how we understand our roles? I’m coming into mine, never too late, but definitely seeing things a lot clearer.

Article: ESPN: Outside the Lines – The Burden of Being Myron Rolle

The Misuse of Email for Notification Comms

Let me say this nicely: I dislike email.

There, having said that, let me explain. I live on my mobile. Email is probably the most inept technology to use on a mobile (of less than 5in in screen size). Email portends that you want to sit and compose – there’s a time for that. Email portends a degree of formality – context is wrapped around that.

Yet email is used for the most inane things. For example, I get emails from a client that have more text in the signature than in the email body – what kind of sense does that make? Better to use SMS or IM right?

I’m a member of several social networks and forums, do I really need email notification for events, or is RSS better? I would think so, since I could use RSS against a widget on my mobile to see what I want to see about the notification event.

Yes, there is SMS, IM, Wave, Twitter, etc. all as means of comm – but you know what, we use email for everything. And frankly speaking, I disagree with it being used as such. There are better things to use email for – like writing long letters that could also be blog posts.

Ironically, I’ve tried to convert tons of folks towards thinking about the communication tech they use, but with little success. Most default to email and don’t even know why – admitting that its not the most efficient means of communication.

Maybe I’m barking up the wrong tree here. Because as I see mobile/web communications as going, email seems to be a vestige of communication that’s like an answering machine. Yes, we all like to know someone thought enough of us to leave us a message, but why not just send me an SMS/MMS instead and let me reply back with IM? Is that just more efficient?

Ding! Another email comes in (from ideas.symbian). This can be managed so much easier if we used the right tech.

Of the Day’s Journey

Its still early in the day, and yet I feel to some extent that I’ve been walking on this present for sometime. I’ve probably done a bit too much in respect to thinking backwards, but smiles make that happen sometimes.

Of those things mobile and web, two subjects have caught my eye: comparisons of the iPhone and Windows Phone 7 Series’ user interfaces (more UX than UI though), and an interesting post at ReadWrite/Web about racism in IT.

I’ll have to come back and link to these later, but about the latter I’ll only comment: minorities aren’t underrepresented in IT if the compairson of opportunities to develop IT-centric skills are taken into account. Minorities in the US don’t get the same skills and social backings in all regions in order to be presented as the best kinds of canidates. That’s where the compairson for racism in IT should start and end. Beyond that, its more or less making a floppy issue into more than what’s needed… and this is speaking as a minority who would not want to see more minorities as much as he would like to see more technically competent folks across the board in all areas of society – not just IT.

Yea, maybe I should get back to the UI discussion, its easier to hide behind interfaces than people-faces.