Both Sides Now

Both Sides Now

March 10, 2009 Peter Campbell
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Green Computing, NPTech, Technology, Web

Say you sign up for some great Web 2.0 service that allows you to bookmark web sites, annotate them, categorize them and share them. And, over a period of two or three years, you amass about 1500 links on the site with great details, cross-referencing -- about a thesis paper's worth of work. Then, one day, you log on to find the web site unavailable. News trickles out that they had a server crash. Finally, a painfully honest blog post by the site's founder makes clear that the server crashed, the data was lost, and there were no backups. So much for your thesis, huh? Is the lesson, then, that the cloud is no place to store your work?

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Regime Change

Regime Change

January 30, 2009 Peter Campbell
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Technology

I’ve been pretty fascinated by the news reports about how the Obama staff reacted to the technology in place at the White House. If you haven’t been tracking this, you can read the full story, but the short story is this: the Mac/Blackberry/Facebook-savvy Obama staffers were shocked to find ancient systems and technology in use at the White House – Windows XP, MS Office 2003, traditional phone lines, and web filtering in place – in other words, the same stuff my org uses. I found myself both sympathetic and skeptical regarding their plight

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The Death of Email (is being prematurely reported)

The Death of Email (is being prematurely reported)

January 23, 2009 Peter Campbell
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Social Media, Technology

Friends of mine who are active on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter are fond of proclaiming that email is dead. And, certainly, those of us who are active on these networks send less email to each other than we used to. I'm much more likely to direct message, tweet, or write on someone's wall if I have a quick question, comment or information referral for someone, the latter two if it's a question or info that I might benefit from having other people in my online community see.

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Help for the Helpers

Help for the Helpers

January 20, 2009 Peter Campbell
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NPTech, Recommended Posts, Technology

If you're in a job that involves supporting technology in any fashion, from web designer to CIO, then the odds are that you do help desk. Formally or not, people come to you with the questions, the "how do I attach a file to my email?", the "what can I do? My screen is frozen", the "I saved my document but I don't know where". Rank doesn't spare you; openly admitting that you can do anything well with computers is equivalent to lifetime membership in the tech support club.

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The Myth of KISS

The Myth of KISS

January 13, 2009 Peter Campbell
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Social Media, Technology

Keep It Simple, Someone*! If there ever was a common man's rallying plea relative to technology, this is the one. How many people do you know who got an iPod for XMas, only to learn that, before they could use it, they would have to learn how to rip their CD collection to disk? And upgrade the hard drive, or buy additional storage? All of which is a piece of cake, when compared to setting up a wireless network or removing persistent spyware. The most frequent request that I get from the people I support as an IT Director? "I just want it to turn on and work!". I can relate. Which is why I'm here to tell you that keeping it simple can be a questionable goal, at best.

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Filling the Communication Gaps

Filling the Communication Gaps

January 2, 2009 Peter Campbell
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Social Media, Technology

We've come a long way since the Pony Express. It's hard to imagine living in a time when your options for communication were limited to face-to-face, sllooowww mail, and, perhaps, carrier pigeon. Today, we have the opposite problem: there are so many mediums to choose from that a key communication skill is to gleam the method that the person you want to reach prefers.

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Greening Your Gadgets

Greening Your Gadgets

December 26, 2008 Peter Campbell
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Green Computing, Mobile, Technology

This was originally published on the Earthjustice Blog in December of 2008. It’s a conundrum: how can you reduce your.

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The Lean, Green, Virtualized Machine

The Lean, Green, Virtualized Machine

December 4, 2008 Peter Campbell
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Green Computing, NPTech, Recommended Posts, Technology

I normally try to avoid being preachy, but this is too good a bandwagon to stay off of. If you make decisions about technology, at your organization, as a board member, or in your home, then you should decide to green your IT. This is socially beneficial action that you can take with all sorts of side benefits, such as cost savings and further efficiencies. And it's not so much of a new project to take on as it is a set of guidelines and practices to apply to your current plan. Even if my day job wasn't at an organization dedicated to defending our planet, I'd still be writing this post, I'm certain.

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Biting The Hand – Conclusion

Biting The Hand – Conclusion

October 17, 2008 Peter Campbell
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Technology

This article was originally published on the Idealware Blog in October of 2008. This is the final post in a.

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Biting the Hand Part 2

Biting the Hand Part 2

October 10, 2008 Peter Campbell
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Technology

This article was originally posted on the Idealware Blog in October of 2008. This is part two of a three.

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