Posts Tagged ‘otherinbox’
Using Technology to Bring More Control into Your Life
In some ways, we are more connected than ever: Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, YouTube…these tools give us unprecedented opportunity to connect with and attract the attention of people who in the past seemed much farther removed: celebrities, politicians, corporate executives.
I’m also beginning to realize that technology provides plenty of tools to keep others at arm’s length if we so choose. First came Otherinbox. This allows me to receive emails, or not, while still keeping my email address private. Many benefits are exchanged for the implicit permission to be marketed to via email. Now I can reap those benefits by providing an Otherinbox address, all the while still controlling whether or not I actually receive those marketing emails, and when. Otherinbox has given me much more control over my email inbox…all the advantages of a “junk box” with none of the inconveniences.
Recently, I signed up for a Google Voice account. It’s new and different and so understandably, I still have some reservations about it. However, I’m realizing that Google Voice can be to my phone number what Otherinbox is to my email. It gives me the control to take calls, block calls, let them roll into my voicemail, and even listen in while the message is being recorded. I can also make calls with my Google Voice number, or give it out when I’m asked, thus protecting my “real” phone number, and preventing corporations and marketers from reaching me directly if I don’t want them to.
I had been thinking lately that privacy was dead. Maybe it’s just getting a new beginning.
What I Learned as a SXSWi Newbie
o I’m still trying to come down after attending my first South by Southwest Interactive Conference. I learned a few things about the conference in general and I learned a TON from the sessions I attended.
The first thing I learned is that the conference is, in fact, attended primarily by “techies.” (If you’d like to know what led me, a mostly non-techie, to attend, read this post first). These people are definitely the hard-core technology fans and early adopters. So it seems to me that paying attention to what’s going on here can give me a glimpse into the future. And following that logic, the future is:
- Macs & iPhones
But aside from that, there are sort of three parts to SXSWi: the education, the connections, and the partying. I couldn’t do all three. In fact I found it kind of exhausting to do just one. I was there for the learning. I packed my days full of sessions, and I went home every night feeling simultaneously completely exhausted and completely motivated. I learned so much to apply to my business that I wanted to get started on all of it right away…but first I wanted a nap. 
In the last couple of years I had jumped on the Apple bandwagon so at least I was caught up there. I fit right in when I took notes on my MacBook and whipped out my iPhone to check my calendar for the next session. But one thing I couldn’t NOT do was Tweet. Luckily I had been toying with the idea for a couple of weeks so I was ready to jump in at SXSW. It was really interesting how Twitter was being used to take questions at panels, to alter people’s schedules when they heard what was going on in real time, to follow other panels that you weren’t at, and to meet up with your friends (to see what I learned about Twitter specifically, read this post.)
Some new services debuted and they look really great. Here are the ones that look the most exciting to me:
- Otherinbox (I’ve actually been using this for months since they launched in beta and I’m LOVING it. The cure for email overload!)
- PeoplePond: Search Engine Optimization for People
- Animoto: Automatically produce your own professional-quality videos
- Digital Chalk: Rapidly deliver multi-media courses online
I also attended some really great sessions and learned a lot from some very smart people. Many of these are available for podcast so I suggest you check them out. My top 3:
- Change Your World in 50 Minutes: How to Make Breakthroughs Happen (Here’s a great blog post about the session, and I suggest you check out Kathy Sierra’s blog. Her talk was fantastic.) I also enjoyed the opening remarks from Tony Hseih of Zappos.com and the presentation Social Engineering: How to Scam Your Way into Anything (podcast).
I’ll be watching my email for news that tickets for SXSW 2010 have gone on-sale. Hope to see you there!