Using a Wiki for Workflow

searchSMB has an interesting article on using Wiki's for tasks that used to be done using basic workflow.

Wiki's are becoming far more common place and organisations are starting to accept them for corporate applications. An example given is the instance of a group meeting where notes are taken which are then sent around everyone in the meeting for approval/correction. With 4-5 people this might take a few days with normal sequential workflow. Put it in a wiki and everyone can update it when they want with an automatic history of what has changed.

Off course this could be done using a smarter workflow process in Lotus Notes. Using our workflow engine you would just set this up as parallel workflow rather than sequential. Off course there are complications to deal with such as replication conflicts but there are ways to manage this (another topic). I guess the point is though that a Wiki can be used for this purpose without the complexity of extensive workflow.

The one thing that seems to worry a lot of our clients regarding Wiki's is that anyone can modify anything. The point here of course is that there is a detailed history of changes automatically generated. Hence there is full visibility of what has been done by whom. 

Two Heads are better than one, Three is even better!!

Steve Richards posted about his setup with 3 monitors.  3 x 19 Inch monitors that is. Here I am working on my one screen makes me very jealous. I have been thinking about spending some time and money on my home office setup and this is probably a part of that.....at least 2 screens anyway. I can understand the productivity gains. For me when I am coding it would be great to have the development tool on one screen and then run the applicaiton on the other screen. Or have the tech doco (MSDN, Domino Designer Help etc) open on the second screen while I code.

The idea of having the distractions on one screen, ie Instant Messaging, is also attractive. I often do web demos and the problem them is always that when I share part of my screen or an application I don't have enough screen real estate to then make notes as well as I go. Two screens would fix this.

Microsoft Research also have an interesting article on using more than 1 screen.

I wonder if there is a point where more screens is too many. Would 4 just get out of hand? 

My Machine

Every now and then I think most IT types decide it is time to rebuild their PC's/Laptops. I find that this comes for me about every 18 months or so. When I first do it I am always very disciplined as to what goes where, organising it all, etc. Then over time I end up installing, uninstalling, reinstalling, various different products for testing and evaluation. I might need a certain version of a certain product etc or I might just want to evaluate something new. I try and make sure I use VMWare Workstation for stuff that I am just playing with so that I can just dump it later without it effecting my primary install. However sometimes I get slack and just install software to play with it. Over time my nice tidy setup becomes cluttered and messy, and eventually I come to the point of saying bugger it, I will rebuild.

Well that time is getting close for me again. I always start by documenting what I have installed. This time I thought why not bang out a MindMap listing all of the key bits of software. I am sure I have missed a couple of minor things as I always do. Those little things that you only think of on the off chance you need them. The map pretty much shows my setup though.



The other thing I always forget is to copy my bookmarks!! Always need to get these off the backup. 

Ivory Fields Spa Retreat East Coast Tasmania

Back at work from Easter. We spent the weekend at a wonderful place on the East Coast of Tasmania, the Ivory Fields Spa Retreat. This place is simply a little piece of paradise. The web site just doesn't do it justice. Every little detail was just great. The accomodation was this great chalet looking over a herb farm surrounded by bushland. It was far more than your standard B&B. Great friendly service where nothing was too much trouble. We spent lots of time just relaxing, went for a few walks along the east coast beaches, a few spa's, and went on the Fairy Penguin tour at Bicheno (cute little buggers). All round an great way to spend easter.

So if you happen to be in Tasmania and head up the East Coast this is the place to stay. 

Lotus Notes Integration with MindManager

Just noted on Bruce Elgort's blog that MindManager 6 SP1 now has doclink integration with Lotus Notes. By all accounts Eric Mack is responsible for this effort. We have been talking about this for a while. When we saw the MindManager had integration with SalesForce.com a few months back, we considered doing a similar thing for our Lotus Notes CRM BusinessWorks. The idea would be to use MindManager to diagramatically show all of those relationship links/grey links between various people and organisations. Now that this doclink integration is available we might just have to bring this up the priority list as I think it adds a lot of value.