Don't send that Email!

Some months back I posted about the Technology Services company Atos Origin's plan to eliminate the use of internal email as a tool for communication for its $10B plus organization. Well yesterday additional news about the 'Email Elimination' plan were released, a good summary of the news can be found on this piece from Yahoo!News.Email Jail

From the Yahoo! piece on Atos', (really Atos CEO Thierry Breton's), take on how Email is throttling internal productivity, the ability to find information, and to actually be effective at its main purpose - communicating.

Breton,  the French finance minister from 2005 to 2007, told the Wall Street Journal he has not sent an email in the three years since he became chairman and CEO of Atos in November 2008.

“We are producing data on a massive scale that is fast polluting our working environments and also encroaching into our personal lives,” he said in a statement when first announcing the policy in Feburary. “At [Atos] we are taking action now to reverse this trend, just as organizations took measures to reduce environmental pollution after the industrial revolution.”

The company says by 2013, more than half of all new digital content will be the result of updates to, and editing of existing information. Middle managers spend more than 25 percent of their time searching for information, according to the company.

While the details of the plan have not seemed to change much since I first posted about this in February of this year, what is notable is that nine months later Breton and Atos still seem as committed to the 'no internal email' policy as ever.

And as I asked readers back in February, I will ask again today, (a question that might be particularly pointed for USA readers still digging out from email jail after a long holiday):

Could you actually work without (internal) email?

Could a company of any scale and size at all successfully manage information, workflow, communication, and so on without sending ANY internal email?

How many of you are thinking it might be nice to work for Atos right about now?

Notes From the Road #3 - Technology Can Make Us Stupid

Note: This is the latest installment in an occasional series of quick dispatches from the trail - things I pick up from airports, hotels, cabs, meetings - anywhere really, in hopes that at least some of the observations will be interesting and even worthwhile. And also, since being out on the road for work usually throws off the schedule and gives me less time to worry about the little blog here, these Notes from the Road pieces have a internal timer set at 15 minutes. Whatever ideas, no matter how half-baked or thinly developed, get the 'Publish' treatment at the 15-minute mark.  Remember the good old days?

Ready, set, go. Fifteen minutes starts now.

Late last night, (so late it was technically this morning), I picked up another one in a long chain of non-descript rental cars from the San Francisco airport. The kind of small, uninspiring, utterly forgettable kinds of cars that seem to survive solely on fleet sales to the Hertzes and Avises of the world. So what?Not a big deal really. With these kinds of weekly business rentals what companies and travelers are mostly interested is reliable, safe transport at the lowest cost possible. And my typical ChevroFordNisOyota boxes generally fit that description.

As I loaded up the blue/gray/white, (actually I sort of don't remember what color it is), and headed for the exit all I was really thinking about was finding the hotel and crashing after what had been an extremely long day of last day of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend travel. When I pulled up to the rental car exit to show the attendant my driver's license and answer 'No' to the endless series of upsell questions, ('Do you want to take out insurance in case you and the rental car are kidnapped  and shipped to the Crimea?'), I suddenly and surprisingly froze, as I was unable to find the button or switch that would lower the driver's side window so I could hand over my paperwork.

Where the heck was the button? Why can't I find the button? I am sitting here like a idiot that can't sort out how the rental car works. The guy behind me just started honking. What the hell?

Then it hit me, (finally, although it probably only took a few seconds, it seemed like a lot more), the car had manual windows. And the window handle was kind of small, and positioned pretty low on the inside of the door. That, the unfamiliar car, the darkness in the rental car garage, the late hour, and an extremely tired Steve conspired to render me unable to operate one of the most basic and primitive user interfaces ever invented - a little handle that simply needs to be turned a few times to lower the window.

I can't remember the last time I was in a car that did not have automatic windows, power locks, intermittent wipers - really all of the once amazing technological advances that have made driving easier, more fun, and more sophisticated. But becoming accustomed to all these things, I think, has made many of us kind of technologically dependant, and has reduced our ability and even our curiosity about the tools and technology we have come to expect that will take care of us to some extent.

Modern technology is truly amazing, wondrous, insert your favorite adjective here. But relying on it too much, and never having to operate in more primitive environments, can also allow the technology to own us in a way.

And one day, when the machines rise up against us...

Shopping: The Nation's Newest Contact Sport

If you braved the jungles of America's malls and big box stores over the just concluded Thanksgiving holiday weekend you probably don't need to hear any more tales of camp outs outside Best Buy stores to snag discounted TVs, turkey and stuffing fueled midnight mad dashes through the aisles of Walmart, and assorted reports of shopping-related mischief and mayhem.What's 'Cyber Monday?'

After reading some of the most recent stories of 'competitive' shoppers pepper spraying their rivals to score an X-box game, a frenzied fight over $2 waffle makers, or Walmart store security also playing the pepper spray card to get some unruly bargain hunters under control, you'd be completely thinking rationally and probably wisely if you decided not to venture out into the retail jungles this weekend. Aside - what the heck is it with pepper spray lately? We've gone from pepper spray being something no one's ever heard of just a few weeks back, to it being the 'go-to' item of choice for crowd control and the most trendy subdue your adversaries substance.

In fact, with today being designated as 'Cyber Monday', the most active and profitable online shopping day of the year, with many online and traditional retailers offering steep merchandise discounts and free or low cost product shipping, eschewing in person and 'real life' shopping in favor of the online approach is becoming more and more popular. I'll bet lots of folks figured they'd hit up a few of these Cyber Monday deals from the office today. In between status meetings, planning sessions, and catching up on email that may have come in from the rest of the world that unlike the USA was not on holiday for a few days, scoring an online deal here or there at work doesn't seem like to much of an issue for most workers and organizations.

Except of course when employees doing a little Cyber Monday bargain hunting is looked at like the potential time waster that is worker access to social networking sites from the office. According to a recent survey conducted Robert Half Technology, and reported on by the Los Angeles Times, "60% of more than 1,400 chief information officers interviewed said their companies block access to online shopping sites -- up from 48% last year.  And an additional 23% of CIOs said that although their companies do allow access to shopping sites, they monitor employees for excessive use."

That is a drag for folks at those companies that figured they'd be able to save a little bit of time, (and possibly a shot pf pepper spray in the grill), by scoring a few items online while at the office. I won't argue that companies are not within their rights to block online shopping sites from being accessed via their locations and networks. After all, it really is not part of anyone's job description to be shopping online when they are supposed to be working. 

But what online shopping does do for people is give them back a little bit of their time. Time saved driving all over town, fighting off crazed 'competitive' shoppers, going to one place only finding they have to try another in search of what they're looking for. For whatever cost and risk avoidance benefits online shopping provides, this time savings is perhaps the most valuable one of all.

Organizations, at least the ones that are actively blocking this online shopping activity, would do well to at least consider this value and benefits to their staffs. Sure, the work has to be done, and excessive goofing off or abuse of the system has to be kept in check, but loosening the reins, even if it was only a temporary measure, might go a long way into improving morale around the shop this holiday season.

The last few years have been tough on organizations and employees alike, a small and simple gesture that gives people one the most scarce and precious gifts - time, is likely to be one that is not forgotten, and one that pays off in the long run. And no one has to get pepper sprayed.

Happy Thanksgiving To All - Especially to Robot Toys

To all my US friends and readers - have a fantastic Thanksgiving Holiday and long weekend. 

This year I am especially thankful for all the great friends I had the chance to see and spend time with, and for all the new friends and colleagues I have met along the way as well.

And I am also thankful for the recent increased interest in this blog, which I attribute almost completely to people landing here after searching on Google for the words 'robot' or 'robots'. Go figure.

So with that, I will leave you with one of the coolest and most moving little robot videos you will ever see, a short piece called 'Address is Approximate' by The Theory. It's for everyone that has journeyed today to be with family and friends, and even for those of us who couldn't make the physical journey, but are still thinking about the people that mean the most to us. Note - Email and RSS subscribers may need to click through to see the video.

Enjoy!

Address Is Approximate from The Theory on Vimeo.

Have a fantastic Thanksgiving!

Go Gamecocks!

Big Kid Digital Merit Badges

There was an interesting piece in the New York Times a few days ago titled 'For Job Hunters, Digital Merit Badges', a look at a recently announced MacArthur Foundation sponsored competition for the creation of a system of 'digital merit and achievement' badges, not at all unlike the kinds of badges that have been typically awared over the years to Boy and Girl Scouts for accomplishing tasks, demonstrating skills, or achieving mastery on specific subjects. Merit Badges for Big Kids

Some addtional details on the MacArthur Foundation contest and the goals and expected benefits of the new system of Digital Badges:

(the competition) for leading organizations, learning and assessment specialists, designers and technologists to create and test badges and badge systems. The competition will explore ways digital badges can be used to help people learn; demonstrate their skills and knowledge; unlock job, educational and civic opportunities; and open new pipelines to talent.

The idea being that job seekers, well really everyone, could 'earn' and post these digital merit badges on their personal websites, their social network profile pages, and I suppose even as images on traditional resumes.

The Mozilla organization is participating in these efforts by creating the technical infrastructure to make the awarding, and more importantly the verification and portability of these digital merit badges possible. According the the Times piece, 'The badges can be verified in several ways. For instance, a badge can include a verification link that makes it possible to check with the issuer about authenticity and status, should the badge have an expiration date.' 

More color on this from the MacArthur Foundation announcement:

(the) Open Badge Infrastructure—a decentralized online platform that will house digital badges and can be used across operating platforms and by any organization or user. This approach will help to make digital badges a coherent, portable and meaningful way to demonstrate capabilities. It will also encourage the creation of "digital backpacks" of badges that people will carry to showcase the skills, knowledge and competencies they have gained.

It sounds like a fantastic idea that will be incredibly difficult to pull off. But the idea that workers should be recognized for the unique set of skills and capabilities that they possess, most earned over time and on the job as opposed to in formal education and training settings is certainly compelling. Additionally, one of the sub-projects that the MacArthur competition addresses is specific to a set of badges and recognitions for military veterans, aimed to help them translate their skill sets to better match civilian employment opportunities. And any efforts that can potentially help veterans transition to civilian work should be explored and supported.

What do you think - could a set of standards for the creation and awarding of a more universal set of skill and achievement badges that could operate across the web actually be an effective way to help workers and job seekers better communicate their qualifications?

Note - for readers in the USA, have a Fantastic Thanksgiving tomorrow and enjoy the long holiday weekend!