Thing 13: Online Productivity Tools

So many tools, so little time!

I experimented with the start pages for use at home. (We already have a customized start page at the library that has the tools we use here.) Of the three, I liked the iGoogle best because it isn’t as cluttered-looking as PageFlakes and Google Mail doesn’t have the annoying animated ads that Yahoo Mail does. I tried the Remember the Milk and the Google Calendar, but I don’t spend enough of my life online to make these more useful that the paper calendar I keep now.

The Backpack suite of applications strikes me as reflective of the change that is taking place between generations. The current youngest generation that grew up with much of their social life online and who went to schools where all projects were done in groups will thrive on it. Their elders who were raised to work independently and who view the computer as more of a tool than a lifestyle will not be so quick to jump aboard. I was personally bowled over by the thought of keeping a journal page of whatever I was working on at the moment. You've got to be kidding, right?

On a frustrating note, I tried to make a countdown timer for the RNC in St. Paul in September, but Blogger wouldn’t accept the html code. Hope this isn’t an omen for the convention. I work just up the hill from the Xcel Center.