Living by the numbers – why yes, that's something I do and find quite fascinating. I love RescueTime and Google Analytics.
So it's no wonder I find Nothing's Time Tracker and Office Dashboard such an awesome idea.
Everyone continuously tracks the tasks they’re working on and thus generates his own stream of project Tracs, and there’s also a “team stream” running on a monitor in Twitter-like manner.
Project time tracking was now not only to be done as info to the project manager, but as statement of one’s own efforts. This new significance boosted meaning and quality of the Tracs. With that there is a much clearer picture of how different types of projects – and also for different sorts of clients – work.
The stream of Tracs is another knowledge tool that leads to many exchanges like “You’re having trouble with this? Maybe I can help.” or “Interesting stuff you do!“. Our latest “meta tool” therefore impacted positively on the internal communication culture: It was fun to add to the information stream with events and have an exchange in real-time. It repeatedly prevented task redundancies and helps tapping existing knowledge instead of creating it from scratch.
It functions similar to Twitter by keeping everyone in the loop.
Well, the new year already started more than 12 hours ago in this timezone, yet I thought I might wish my readers a awesome new year anyhow!
For me, 2011 will mark (hopefully) the end of my studies at the Zurich University of the Arts. The next half year will be spent mostly working on my bachelor thesis, that will require quite some self-discipline from my part. I'm currently in the process of cleaning up the last side projects, so I will have my head free to concentrate on my bachelor project. I guess you might except some progress reports to appear in the next half year at this place (of course, you could also check out my daily grumblings over at Twitter, but then again, I assume that most of you already hail from there anyway).
And after summer – well, to be honest, I have no idea what will happen then. Good things, I hope, but currently it is all shrouded in the mists of unknowing. I assume that with the progress of my bachelor thesis, my future will become clearer as well.
I guess I could be afraid with so many things unclear. But right now, I am not. I recently came to the conclusion that I have acquired quite an impressive skill set over the years, so I am convinced there will be a future out there, waiting for me to happen.
So, I am looking forward to a eventful and surprising new year – and I hope I can enjoy it with you, my dear friends and readers! It is great to know you are around.
Benjamin Burger has watched the episode titled Addicted to Games? of the BBC series Panorama, and is not exactly happy about it (as have been other people, as I could watch on Twitter):
Unfortunately the report was not satisfying at all. It was like looking for an intelligent crime story and ending up with CSI Miami. The whole show was just a show. [...] Panorama simplifies the Game-Scene to problem-kids and how they corrupting their family or social life.
Of course, the journalism is bad, the conclusions hackneyed – but it shows mostly one thing: games do make their way into (mainstream) culture, and just as with any new medium (like radio or TV or films or pop music, to name just a few), they are met with resistance and fear from the current generation that has not been socialised with that new medium. Even more so with games. After all,
[it's] a tremendous difference between watching games or playing them,
and that makes it even more scary.
No one denies that games can be addictive, and no one denies that games may be built upon such mechanics – but then again, even most board games use those mechanics, and no one complains.
The same goes with alcoholic beverages: obviously, it can be addictive; yet the times when politicians demanded a complete crackdown are long gone.
