In my virtual world I have found the challenges of sharing and collaborating on projects with clients and colleagues to be one of the big ones. For everyone on the team to work effectively everyone needs to have access to the documents we are all working on together. I find when everyone can work on the documents at any time and still leave them in a place where they are accessible to the rest of the team there is less time wasted with emailing, faxing, calling back and forth and waiting for answers.  Once a sharing platform is chosen for the project every member of the team knows they can go there to find the latest copy of all of the documents that pertain to that project. Lots of sharing and collaborating platforms have places to post messages for all team members to see and as well, a method for private messages that I only want a specific person to see.

There are many different programs available on the internet. Most of them have a free component that does not include all the bells and whistles that the versions that you pay for have but are still very powerful programs that can do most anything that I need to do for the size of projects that I need to share. Doing a comparison of the different plans a program offers makes it easy to decide what specific features you think you want to use for your project and then deciding how much you want to pay over the basic free plan.

There is no end to the usefulness of a program that you can work together with others in. I like to be able to share files and images, to create groups within projects and to speak with other group members in real time chat rooms. Some programs have white board features where all members of the group can be brainstorming their ideas all at once and adding them to the white board themselves with no need for a moderator to do all of the writing. I find it is useful to have a feature where group members can take ownership of individual tasks within a project and they can set milestones so the project keeps moving forward and on time so the deadline that has been set can be met. With some programs tasks, milestones and meetings can be synced with Outlook or Google Calendar so no one forgets and everything pops up at their finger tips. What could be more convenient than that?!

When I am considering which sharing and collaborating platform I am going to use on a project I like to choose one that has an application for my Blackberry. I like to have that mobile component so I can access documents and projects where ever I am. Some days in my life I just never know where I will be or what I will be doing so I like to be able to use any down time to stay in touch with my clients and colleagues and to access any documents I might need to refer to.  You just never know when I may be hit with a brilliant thought or idea I just have to share right away with other team members before it eludes me! It’s been known to happen!

I have found that sharing/collaborating platforms can make my virtual life a lot easier and hassle free, I hope you find that they will do the same for you. Happy sharing!

WordPress is so intuitive, it’s simple to use yet, very robust.  Did you know that you could use WordPress to create a full, functioning website?  Yes, you can, there are some awesome premium themes that you can use to create a very cool looking site that has all the functions and features of a HTML website (without having to figure out all that code).   In fact, I will be very shortly creating a website using WordPress for the launch of my new book which is due to hit the masses in June.  I can’t wait to show it to you when it’s complete.  

When I made the decision to create my site with WordPress I was pleasantly surprised with all of the resources available. I found some great tutorials and sites that offer premium themes (at a minimal cost), provide great customization ability and simply look amazing.   Again the key word here is simplicity.  With a simple upload of a theme and a few tweaks here and there, you could easily have a website in half the time (even ¼ of the time) it would take you to create an HTML site.  Trust me, you’ll be amazed.

So, if you are in the market for a new site, I want to encourage you to have a look at WordPress.  Here are a few resources to get you started:

WordPress “How to’s”

http://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Lessons

Premium Themes

http://www.ithemes.com

http://www.themeforest.com

Enjoy!!!

Remember that nifty new digital camera I wrote about in my blog post Memory Keeper.  Well unfortunately I no longer have a medium to use for memory keeping.  I have to say I have the worst luck when it comes to digital cameras.  It doesn’t matter whether I spend $200.00 or $500.00 the outcome always seems to be the same…broken!

I use the term “worst luck”, I’m not sure if luck really has anything to do with this.   I mean what exactly is “luck” in the first place?  According to the dictionary luck is: the force that seems to operate for good or ill in a person’s life, as in shaping circumstances, events, or opportunities.

Hmmm….I’m not entirely sure I like the sound of that, “a force”…what force? 

So does this mean, that “a force” chose me to have really, really bad luck with digital cameras? 

In other words, I just happened to be walking down the street one day and “the luck force” passed me by and said “Hey, I’m gonna make sure that this chick always has really bad luck with digital cameras.”  So he did his little “luck force” spell or voodoo thing on me and there I was, cursed forever with bad luck with digital cameras?

If this was the case then why digital cameras, why couldn’t it be something like…pencils, yah pencils.  So every time I used a pencil it would break.  It would be far less costly and I could stock up real easily on pencils…but digital cameras…come on!  I mean it couldn’t be me could it? I couldn’t possibly manage to break all 5 cameras due to user error or poor judgement when purchasing or handling it incorrectly. How difficult is it, you point and shoot.

Okay so I highly doubt that I’ve been cursed….but it does make me think about how much luck plays a role in our life…good and bad.    I’ve been blessed with much good luck in my life, so I guess I shouldn’t complain about the bad luck with the digital cameras.  If there is such a thing as a “luck force” then I guess I should actually be thanking him or her, I mean it could be alot worse.  I would hate to be having bad luck with much more significant items such as an 18 wheeler.  That would really suck!

Michelle’s note:  Even though I have bad luck with digital cameras, I’ve never opted for the extended warranty…so I guess that makes me bad luck and stupid. LOL!

It did give me something to think about though.  My daughter will never know a time when there wasn’t email or the internet or Blackberry’s or all the other technology that is at our disposal.  I guess it’s the same in terms of me never knowing a time when we didn’t have Television or a telephone.   The technology has just shifted that’s all.

When she’s 10, what other technologies will be available that right now I couldn’t even think were possible.  It’s actually quite mind blowing when you think about it. 

The other day I was watching a movie, it must have been set in the late eighties, early nineties and one of the characters pulled out this cell phone that looked like it must have weighed about 10 lbs and sure as heck wouldn’t have fit in his pocket, let alone even a purse or back pack.  I of course laughed my butt off!  It definitely brought back some memories.  When I first saw a cell phone like that, I thought it was the coolest thing around. Of course, at that time, it was way out my price league and I only knew a handful of people who had one.   But the thought of being able to talk on the phone from your car or in the mall, was just like being in a Sci Fi movie.  

Now look at us, we have cell phones that literally fit in the palm of our hand, allowing individuals of any budget the ability to own one.   Not only is it just a phone, but it retrieves emails, surfs the web and of course you can play mp3′s on it.  Now how cool is that? Something 15 years ago I never would have imagined.   I mean seriously, CD’s were pretty awesome, now we have mp3′s AND mp3 players that do pretty much everything other than brush our teeth at night.

So, then I got thinking, WOW…what is it going to be like when my daughter has a child, when I become a Grandmother (not something I really want to think about right now). What will the next generation cell phone be like?  What will email be like? Hopefully they’ll build in a little guy that replies, forwards and clean out your inbox with a click of the button.  Now that would be pretty cool to have!

It’s pretty interesting to think about, although, I’m not sure I want to be around to hear “But Grandma, your cell phone’s way too big…look at mine, only to notice a little speck on her hand.  

Ah, where time will take us is….something to think about.

I bought my Blackberry Pearl 8120 in November and since then I can say my nickname for it has been my “Crackberry”.   It’s an addiction (well to me it is), organizing both family and work schedules, contacts and playing even the odd game while waiting in the Tim Horton’s drive-thru line has become a lifestyle. Keeping up with E-mail that I can reply to instantly while away from my computer, Shhhhhh don’t tell Michelle (she thinks I live at my desk).

I wanted to personalize my Blackberry and discovered www.crackberry.com where there are many others who share in my addiction not just for the Pearl, but all Blackberrys on both US and Canadian carriers.  The forums offer both free and licensed software, themes, tips and tricks to keep your addiction going.  Step-by-step guides to personalizing or even – GASP – recovering a dead Blackberry.

Another feature I LOVE is syncing it with Outlook 2007 for my calendar/tasks/address book. That way I stay ultra organized when I am booking appoints from the dentist to a meeting. Mind you, you’re not limited to just Outlook; there are a ton of other programs that you can use to keep yourself organized. Everything stays up to date, plus having Bluetooth enabled, it auto-syncs when I enter the house.

Another plus of having a Blackberry and a data plan is to do those “fun” things like upload a picture onto Facebook or even update your status on Twitter, login to your favourite website or catch that last minute bid on eBay. If equipped, GPS would get you to those hard to find places. As well it has a great battery life and always has a strong signal when calling out and maintaining conversations. Using the “QWERTY” keyboard, it has never been easier to fire off a text message or even a word document (another plus when using a Blackberry).

In conclusion, using the Blackberry to its full potential has increased productively in both the home and office. I would highly recommend this, for everyone who likes to stay organised but sometimes has a hard time keeping up with the post-it notes piling up on their desk.

Written by: Karen Greenhalgh