I’ve just been ordained
04
Nov
Migrating from SharePoint to Google Apps
08
May
Fynydd recently migrated from Microsoft SharePoint 2010 to Google Apps. It was a tough decision to move but ultimately we wanted the real-time collaboration features of Google Docs. And as we were really only using SharePoint for document management we could reduce some overhead costs by shutting down SharePoint and focusing entirely on Google Apps.
To complete the migration all we had to do was move over our files (about 30GB) but this wasn’t as simple as it should have been. Connecting to SharePoint with Windows WebDAV was unreliable; some files you could see from SharePoint weren’t visible and Windows would refuse to download some because they were “too big”. Connecting from OS X WebDAV also resulted in problems; it would occasionally just crash while copying files it thought had no name. The only bulletproof way we found to get all the files out of SharePoint was to use Transmit, an OS X file transfer app from Panic. It downloaded everything and did it very fast.
When it came to getting files into Google Docs we first tried a few apps like Memeo Connect and Gladinet that promised easier and simpler access to Google Docs, but both were buggy and unreliable. Luckily Google Docs just launched a new feature that lets you upload entire folders. It worked well and our migration was complete.
One feature of Google Docs that didn’t really become apparent until we had a lot of documents in it was search. Perhaps it should have been obvious since this is Google but the search feature is almost magical. You really can stop thinking about docs in terms of browsing through folders and just search for what you want. Despite the powerful and expensive search features available in SharePoint, they never worked this well or encouraged users to use them.
Google Apps can’t yet replace SharePoint for complex large-scale enterprise implementations. You can’t integrate it as well with other platforms or organize lists and metadata and taxonomies. Google Sites and Google Docs are not as tightly integrated as that functionality is in SharePoint. Google Docs and Spreadsheets aren’t as powerful as a Word or Excel document. But a small company like us doesn’t need that stuff. And as has been found time and time again, unlimited freedom is not always a good thing. Too many choices can paralyze us. Limitations and restrictions can actually boost creativity and productivity. Should you really spend hours perfecting the formatting of a Word document? Google’s leaner “get it done” approach may not always look as pretty but it represents a new generation of tools that are pushing the limits of the capabilities of a web service.
Of course almost every young product in history has been like this: lean on features but excelling in some new, unconventional way. More features are added as it matures until it becomes a complex, unmanageable behemoth waiting for the next big thing to replace it. That day may come for Google Apps but right now it’s the big thing and we’re taking full advantage of it.
Doing instead of to-doing things
23
Mar
A few years ago I started my search for the perfect to-do list app. There are a lot of great ones out there like Remember the Milk, Nozbe, TeuxDeux, and Toodledo. And of course I discovered GTD, David Allen’s legendary process for “Getting Things Done”. For a few days I thought GTD was the key to my salvation but like any self-improvement meme I eventually lost interest. I did for the most part stick with a to-do list in Toodledo but there were days or weeks where I forgot about it, coming back to find tasks that might not have been done but no longer seemed that important.
I was content with this until I read two articles by Peter Bregman on Harvard Business Review: A Better Way To Manage Your To-Do List and What To Do With Your To-Do List. Peter suggests that you use your calendar – not your to-do list – as the driving force behind what you do during the day. If you have something you need to do you should do it, schedule it, or forget about it.
It’s such a simple idea: you have something to do so put it on your calendar. Why doesn’t everyone do it? For me I think part of the hesitation was a reluctance to wake up and be told that I had to do something at a certain time. I wanted to be able to decide that for myself based on the circumstances of the day. But as I am the one scheduling it I am in fact making that decision, just a few days beforehand. My current-self, who is somewhat indecisive and procrastinating, helps my future-self be more productive.
In practice this approach has worked well. I wake up to find my past-self assistant has filled my day with many interesting things to do so I can spend more time doing them rather than thinking about what to do and in what order to do it. And when circumstance does dictate a change in plan, I can just drag and drop something to a future time or date.
Peter also suggested one more list: a Waiting list, to keep track of when you are expecting someone to return an email. I avoid keeping this “list” with help from a little GMail plug-in called Boomerang. I can send an email and have the original automatically pop back into my inbox if I don’t get a response in a certain time period. It does a lot more, but that one feature is great to make sure you follow up when the other party forgets to.
It’s worth noting that of the apps I mentioned, TeuxDeux most closely provides this kind of task management. Every task you add goes into a specific day. They’ll even automatically move into the next day if you don’t mark them as done. But I’m sticking with my Google Calendar for now because it lets me schedule a task at a specific time; it syncs across the web and all my devices; it lets me see my tasks alongside meetings and other scheduled events; everyone else in my company can see that I am busy and hopefully schedule meetings around my tasks.
So that’s my task management methodology for now: do it, schedule it, forget it, or Boomerang it.
Collaborating with cloud documents
09
Mar
My company recently prepared a large analysis and recommendations document of a client’s knowledge management practices. After many weeks of cross-country surveys, interviews, and research we started writing. We had a rough outline of the chapters and sections we thought we needed and assigned owners to each chapter. We initially decided that we’d work in individual Microsoft Word documents, managed by the chapter owners, and store them in SharePoint. But we quickly decided to abandon this in place of Google Docs (GDocs) so that we could collaborate live on certain sections.
After a week of working the chapters in individual documents it was time to start dealing with the report as a whole. So we took the documents and pasted them into a single Microsoft Word document. We then tried to convert this back to a GDoc but ran into a number of limitations in Google’s conversion functions, not the least of which was it’s 1MB size limitation which are documented exceeded by a factor of four. We trimmed it to under 1MB by removing all the images but GDocs still refused to import it; there was some formatting or structure in the document that it just didn’t like. We never isolated what precisely was wrong but our solution was to save the document as HTML. We were then able to import it relatively cleanly into GDocs, although we had to manually re-insert all the images. This was more work than it sounds like since you can’t just paste images into a GDoc; you have to upload and insert a file or insert a URL to a hosted image.
At this point we now had an 80+ page document in GDocs. It was a bit slow to load up when you first opened it; the first few pages would appear but the rest of the document would be missing for about 40-60 seconds. After this it was relatively speedy as long as you were using Chrome, had a relatively fast computer and some decent Internet bandwidth.
We worked in this manner for a few days, finalizing the document. After that it was time to hand the document off to an editor and because GDocs has very little in the way of editing tools we converted the document back into Word format. After some heroic editing we realize we still needed to focus more on the content. We briefly tried individually working on copies of the Word document and merging them back into the master, but this quickly become a merging nightmare as some of us were working on the same areas at the same time. So we broke up the document into multiple Word docs and imported them into individual GDocs where we continued collaborating.
After one final round of writing we imported those individual documents back into the master Word document by loading each GDocs document into Word (via OffiSync) and then copying and pasting each into the master Word document. A final round of editing was done and then the document was imported into Adobe InDesign for page layout. After this point a limited amount of review and editing was done by sharing and marking up PDFs.
So what did we learn about Google Docs?
Use Chrome. It’s faster and many experimental and useful features only work in it.
Training is vital. Remember, most people have been using Microsoft Word for years. They need to be shown what GDocs can and can’t do.
Break up large documents. There is no hard and fast page limit; it depends on the complexity of your document. But 20-30 pages is probably a good size to work with.
Avoid moving a document back and forth a lot between Word and the GDoc format. The conversions are almost never perfect. But letting Google convert a Word document to GDoc is almost always better than copying and pasting from Word.
Exporting a document from Word into HTML is a good way to get stubborn documents into GDocs format. Make sure to set encoding to Unicode to avoid getting a lot of garbled characters. You’ll have to manually upload and insert your images but the export will automatically save all your images as individual files.
Get some good desktop screen capture tools. It will help alleviate some of the annoyance of not being able to simply copy and paste images into your document. OS X can do this out-of-the-box with the Command-Shift-4 hotkey. Windows users, as well as Mac users who want more flexibility, can try something like SnagIt.
Opportunities
There’s a great opportunity here. We’re just beginning to see the true potential of “cloud documents”. The web-based tools for manipulating these documents are going to continue to mature. But we need more. We need open standards for interacting with cloud documents. Any word processor should be able to open a document from whatever cloud or platform it’s stored in and let you edit it collaboratively and live with other users. We need to let users pick and choose what cloud and what tool they want and not be bound to either.
It’ll take some time to get to this ideal state of plug and play. In the mean time I see Microsoft providing this functionality inside their own platforms. Then maybe embracing Google a bit and letting you do it with GDocs.
PS – I composed this in Microsoft Word for Mac 2011.
Seven months later…
27
Feb
Perhaps I can be forgiven for taking over seven months to get back to this blog in light of the fact that I and my business partners have been busy getting our new company, Fynydd, off the ground. But I know I wouldn’t have to look hard to find people that blogged through much more. It’s been a busy and exciting seven months at Fynydd, across the United States and around the world. As Warren Buffet recently wrote in Berkshire’s annual shareholder letter, America’s best days lie ahead. As does everyone’s.
So what will I be blogging about in the days to come? First let me step back and explain a bit about Fynydd and my role there.
Fynydd is an information technology consulting company. We provide IT strategy, build applications, build web sites and mobile apps, and anything else along those lines to help our clients improve their organization. Our tag line is socially conscious high tech for two reasons. A lot of our strategies revolve around social media and collaboration: connecting people to each other and information. We also have a strong social mission; we truly want to make the world a great place for our employees, clients, communities, and everyone we can meet.
I started at Fynydd in 2010 as its Chief Technology Officer. Shortly after Forbes wrote about how the United States needs a Chief Innovation officer in January 2011 I took a new role as Fynydd’s Chief Innovation Officer. I’ll be responsible for many things including:
- Fostering an innovative culture
- Accelerating innovation
- Leveraging open innovation
- Improving teamwork and collaboration
- Establishing a systematic innovation process
So when it comes to this blog I’ll be talking a lot about innovation as it fits in to my role at Fynydd. I’ll also throw in a lot of other little things that interest me. Some posts will be technical, some business oriented, some practical, some off topic, and some will be big hairy audacious goals. It will be fun.
Hello world!
11
Jul
So begins my first blog. I’ll probably procrastinate by spending hours, days, or weeks tweaking things. But please stay tuned.