Kopanas

(In preparation for my presentation at this months CloudCamp. CloudCamp is a DemoCamp re-branded and run once a month internally at CloudRaker, my employeers. Same rules, same everything, we just get free pizza!)

I love web-based applications. I use web-based applications to manage my photo library, my professional and personal projects, my email and even my contacts to just name a few.

For the most part I have not found it to be inconvenient to input data into web-based application by pointing my browser to the site, logging in (if their is no remember my password function), click the appropriate button(s) or link(s) and enter my data into a web-based form.

Sometimes I can understand how this can be inconvenient or mess up your rhythm. Sometimes I am in the zone running through my emails and I just want to input something quickly or I am not in front of my computer and I need to enter data into one of my web-applications before I loose my thought. That’s when web-based application become tedious and get a bad rap.

But that does not need to be the case. Email is a hidden gem as a mechanism that can be designed to be used to input data into web-based applications we design. And the times we do consider it we tend to berry information about the technology and not bring it front and center for people to learn about it while using the app unless they are looking for the functionality.

What is the Jist Behind How Email As Input Works?

To be honest, I have not researched this enough to be the definitive guide on how to implement what are commonly called as “Drop Boxes”. A Drop Box in essence is a unique email address given to each user of a site that a user can send input to. The EMail server then parses the email address, the subject line and the body of the message to determine to whom the drop box belongs to and how the input for the email should be treated.

Examples will help explain my gobbly goop.

Examples of Web-Apps That I Feel Are Implementing Drop Boxes Really Well

Highrise

Highrise is 37signal’s vision of a CRM solution. A really good vision if I may say so myself. Highrise has an email drop box that you can easily forward emails you receive form a client and have them attached to the clients profile. If the email you forward to your highrise drop box does not have a profile then a profile is created for you.

To see how it works in detail visit: http://www.highrisehq.com/email

Backpack

Backpack is another product from 37signals. Backpack is way for you to manage your personal projects, to-do lists, notes, ideas and your schedule online.

Backpack supports email as an input more so then Highrise. You can forward emails like you do in Highrise to your drop box but you can also enter notes, to-dos and upload files that are then attached to your individual projects. (Each project has it’s own drop box)

As long as you enter a prefix for notes and todos or don’t put a subject at all for files and images (Note:, todo:, ) the rest is pretty straight forward.

To see how it works in detail visit: http://www.backpackit.com/email/

RememberTheMilk

RememberTheMilk is another web-based application that allows you to manage your to-do list. Remember The Milk’s drop box supports more sophisticated options but while supporting more options it can be argued that it makes the feature appear more complex. Personally, I think if the help page that explains how to use the drop box was layed out differently the drop box would enjoy the best of both worlds.

To see how it works in detail visit: http://www.rememberthemilk.com/help/answers/sending/emailinbox.rtm

Flickr

My baby flickr, I almost forgot this one, you are on vacation in Italy on a shared computer at an internet cafe and you want to send the latest pictures you took to your family and friends as well as quickly post them to on flickr and fill in the details when you get back from vacation. That is also really easy but a feature that has been hidden from me for years it seems.

To see how it works in detail visit: http://www.flickr.com/help/photos/

Any other sites that I am missing who do a good job at using email drop boxes that I should mention here?

I am an avid user of Twitter and drive everyone crazy at the office with my phone going off a couple times every hour with SMS messages I receive from people I follow on Twitter.

I never knew Twitter had an SMS interface that allowed you to start and stop following people as well as to start and stop receiving SMS messages for instance for those times when you are roaming and don’t want to incur roaming SMS charges. (Boy that hurt me last month).

Try it out. To follow my Twitter feed all you have to do is txt “FOLLOW KOPANAS” to 40404 if you are in the US or txt 21212 if you are in Canada. By in US or in Canada I mean have a phone from those countries. You can be anywhere really…

I guess I should preface this post by saying I am presently working as an Account Director at an interactive agency called CloudRaker. Come to think of it, CloudRaker is not just any interactive agency but probably the best interactive agency in Montreal. Yeah, I am biased, but it’s my party and I can do what I want to. (bonus points for those who can tell me where that saying comes from)

I have only been at CloudRaker for 7 months as of tomorrow but it seems like I have been their for so much longer. In a good way that is.

When I applied to CloudRaker I applied for an Information Architect position. Supposedly my CV screamed developer (which it does) so my CV was passed on to the Director of Technology who interviewed me for a Senior Developer position. During my first interview for a Senior Developer role one of the Presidents of Cloud asked me if I would consider a role as Senior Project Manager. It sounded fun so I said sure. Low and behold I was hired as a Senior Project Manager. Three months later though I was promoted to Account Director. My first 6 months at Cloud were so crazy I didn’t even really think about the direction my career was going. I was just going with the punches.

So to summarize. I applied for an Information Architect position at CloudRaker. I was interviewed for a Senior Developer position. I was hired as a Senior Project Manager. I was promoted to Account Director. I am presently an Account Director.

My first 6 months of work I would wake up at 5 AM and be excited to get to work. For the last 2 weeks I have been waking up at 8 AM and have not been so excited. That feeling really bothers me so I took a sick day and went for one of my famous 20+ kilometer walks with Yianni. Half way through my walk I finally asked myself the right question that led to my epiphany:

“If god-forbid CloudRaker closed their doors tomorrow or I lost my job, what would I apply for at another company?”

And every time I asked myself that question I answered that I would look for a job as an Experience Designer, Product Manager or Community Manager. Not once did I answer Account Director or Project Manager. That is all I had to know that it was time for a change.

It was decided, I need to re-brand myself and start moving in the direction of creating for myself my dream job. Talking to my boss was the first step, which I did on Friday, he was surprisingly really understanding considering my exquisite way with words. Re-branding my online presence is a component of the second part.

So here I am. This is the beginning of my journey to becoming the best experience designer/product manager/community manager I can become. A journey that hopefully will never end since the journey is always so much better then getting to the destination. Thanks for listening! :-)

UPDATE: I am moving towards becoming an experience designer but it does not mean I am going to be dropping everything tomorrow. I am an Account Director right now and will continue to be one for the next 6-12 months and I will be doing my job with the same passion I have been doing it for the last 3 months. So peeps at work… no stressing out… please :-).

I remember a while back seeing a video composed of daily pictures a guy took of himself for one year using his iSight camera. I loved the idea so much that I setup an iCal reminder to take daily pictures of myself just over 90 days ago and have been taking daily pictures ever since.

Below is the first 90 days of me taking a daily picture of myself.

Here is the 2fps (frames per second) 45 second clip:

Here is the 6fps 15 second clip for those who have very little patience and a very strong stomach (or just took gravel):

How did I create a video from pictures?

It was easier then I thought it would be. iPhoto didn’t quite cut because it would add a transition effect in between pictures so I exported the first 90 photos from iPhoto into their own folder. I then opened up Quicktime Pro and went to File -> Image Sequence. Selected the first image from the folder. I was then prompted to specify the amount of images to be dispalyed per second and voila. The video clip was created. _(Note: when exporting from iPhoto for the name of the files select “use album name” if you want the images to be saved in sequential order)

What’s up next?

Since I pretty much started the “Body For Life” training and diet regimen after 90 days of taking pics I want the next 90 days to show me my weight loss progression. This should be interesting.

It’s time for some personal re-branding.  Stay tuned…