MacWorld SF 08

Video: Merlin's Time & Attention Talk

Merlin — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 11:39:27 -0500

Macworld '08: Merlin Mann / "Living with Data"

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This was the first edition of a talk that's already starting to evolve rather quickly. The slides are available at Slideshare, and you can yoink yourself an embeddable version right here:

Notes:

Last month, I premiered a new presentation at Macworld San Francisco 2008 called "Living with Data" (previously). Since this talk was part of the "Vision" track, I used the opportunity to start gathering some threads around the idea of time and attention that had been floating around my head for a while (I think you can see the genesis of some of this stuff in my IDEO visit).

The IDG folks were kind enough to post a movie of my slides + the audio. Unfortunately a lot of folks were having trouble getting to the page (it doesn't appear to have a permalink), so here's a Flash version you can watch from right here.

Thanks to Paul Kent and Kathy Moran at IDG for being such wonderful hosts. And very special thanks to Mike Monteiro (and his now-famous meeting tokens) for inspiring the talk in the first place.

”Video: Merlin's Time & Attention Talk” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on February 14, 2008. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

Macworld Expo '08: Merlin talks with the makers of 1Password

Merlin — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 19:28:57 -0500

Aha! Embeddable video for a third MacBreak interview at Macworld '08 has turned up -- this one's with Dave Teare at Agile Web Solutions, makers of 1Password.

As we discuss in the video, I'm really looking forward to seeing 1Password's secure password bookmarklet for iPhone.

MacBreak: Macworld 2008/Agile Web Solutions

And, as a bonus -- just so Dave can catch up with his some of his countrymen's peerless pop music -- here's videos of three of my favorite Canadian bands.

Flashing Lights / "Highschool"

Sloan / "The Good in Everyone"

Broken Social Scene - 7/4 (Shoreline)

”Macworld Expo '08: Merlin talks with the makers of 1Password” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on January 22, 2008. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

Macworld Expo '08: Merlin visits with Panic, Agile Web Solutions, and James from New Jersey

Merlin — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 12:52:25 -0500

Macworld Expo wouldn't be the same for me if I didn't have the chance to hit the floor and talk to the kids for MacBreak.

This year, I returned to Tiny Town to talk to my new internet boyfriends, Cabel and Steven, at Panic, Dave Teare from my beloved 1Password, as well as the charming James from New Jersey who says he doesn't want to punch Steve Jobs, no matter what.

MacBreak 121: Macworld 2008/Panic Software

Merlin Mann chats with Cabel and Steven from Panic Software.

MacBreak 123: Macworld 2008/Jersey guy

Merlin Mann chats with James from Jersey about flying, beverages, and theoretically punching Steve Jobs.

(I couldn't find embeddable video of my interview with Dave from 1Password, but you can download 'er directly)

”Macworld Expo '08: Merlin visits with Panic, Agile Web Solutions, and James from New Jersey” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on January 20, 2008. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

InformationWeek story on Merlin's Macworld '08 presentation

Merlin — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 18:27:31 -0500

How To Take Back Your Time And Attention -- Merlin Mann -- InformationWeek

Wow. Mitch Wagner did an ass-kickingly thorough job of summarizing my talk at Macworld about wrangling your time and attention. Really nice work, Mitch -- thanks, man.

"When the value of your times is set too low, or not at all, it leads to waste and abuse," Mann said.

This is a particular problem for knowledge workers. (How do you identify knowledge workers? "Look for someone with girlie smooth hands who can go to lunch whenever they want," Mann explained.) Knowledge workers have huge amounts of freedom in how they work, they aren't micromanaged, they just have goals to achieve. That freedom is dangerous. "You can find yourself at two in the morning staring at Wikipedia covered in pizza crusts," Mann said.

Up top is a snap of the slides from my talk, which I'll try to get up on Slideshare when I get a chance to tidy them up.

[Pimp: here's information on my speaking gigs and how to bring me in to speak with your organization]

update 2008-01-21 12:39:42: Okay, she's up. As ever, I'm not sure these'll make much sense without me standing there, yammering, but here's a clickable version of my slides:

| View

”InformationWeek story on Merlin's Macworld '08 presentation” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on January 18, 2008. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

.Mac: Future of a sleeping giant?

Merlin — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 15:52:04 -0500

TUAW Interviews Merlin Mann

My tall, new friend Scott McNulty interviewed me yesterday for TUAW's Macworld coverage -- unintentionally providing me a fine bully pulpit from which to perpetuate my baseless theories and half-baked forecasts about how Apple might eat the lunches of about three different industries over the next couple years.

If they can pull it off, if they can fix .Mac, and if they have the vision to re-imagine themselves as the company who makes your entire digital world safe, fun, ubiquitous, and flawlessly integrated.

Anyhow, on with the motley, but stay tuned after the jump for value-added hand-waving.

So, exactly what the hell nonsense am I talking about here?

[Admission: This is a super-fast first draft of an admittedly far-fetched idea that's still taking shape, but I really wanted to get it out of my head while it's still fresh-ish]

As the record shows, I'm practically useless as a technology forecaster, but I can't help feeling that Apple is slow-broasting some really interesting changes over the next year or two, centering around the currently enfeebled .Mac service (cough, cough, cough).

In a nutshell, based on products and services -- both released and announced -- as well as opportunities presented in the marketplace, I wouldn't be surprised to see any or all of the following changes from Apple (roughly in order).

Basic .Mac services will not only become free, but they may be required in order to take full advantage of future functionalities.
For the majority of .Mac power users who want more of whatever the offerings are at a given time, modest to crazy-expensive upgrades will be available.
.Mac will expand in several directions over time, to include:
- Order of magnitude more storage on pay accounts
- Automated backups (via something like Mozy)
- "in-the-cloud" hosting of all your Mac stuff, including "~/Library/" contents; music, photos, and videos; plus every document you ever make.
The Preference syncing in .Mac now will be taken to the next level, to a point where a tweaked window view here is also reflected there (ala Migration Assistant?)
In sum, .Mac will become your secure Home directory. Or, more properly, it becomes the master copy from which all your hardware, hard drives, and flash media will in some fashion be synced.

But, why?

Well, in essence, your Mac Pro, your MacBook Air, your iPhone, your iPods nano and shuffle, and your Apple TV would all become agents for using the stuff you've stored on .Mac. Heavy (invisible, background) use of rsync-like diffs-syncing (ala Time Capsule?) will ensure that all your devices have the stuff they need, and in the appropriate size and format; e.g., 720p version of Weekend at Bernie's 2 goes to the TV; more modest size goes to the iPhone, etc. The value and attraction to consumers strikes me as obvious; on the same day, your electronic world becomes ubiquitous, backed-up, and very easy to maintain or access from anyplace.

If this is anywhere near do-able, Apple would be taking the concepts behind Spotlight, Time Machine, iTunes, and Smart Folders to their logical conclusion, creating an environment where Apple sits at the center of all your electronic needs, contextually syncing and serving what you need, when you need it, in a totally seamless fashion.

In conjunction, I'll bet we're going to see an explosion in alliances with companies like Google (for online apps), plus a heavy push for companies like Amazon and Disney to build iPhone apps that will leverage access to both the cloud and your increasingly PayPal-like .Mac account. ("Buy the song I just heard on this Disneyland ride, deliver four sets of Mickey Mouse ears to our hotel room, plus show me the best vegan snack within 5 minutes' walk of where I'm standing").

Think about it: a new lightweight laptop with a small hard drive; an iPhone that's getting dangerously close to becoming a remote for your home and life; an Apple TV that doesn't even require a computer; an iPod Touch that (rather mysteriously) now needs your credit card info and a login to get new apps onto the device. Then, fold in a couple big spoonfuls of the company's clearly increasing interest in becoming the people who sell or rent you the entertainment media that goes on all the machines you bought from them. I dunno.

I suppose it's my (still congealing) contention that right now, Apple deliberately keeps .Mac a dim-witted, sleeping giant. It's so unsexy, broken, and behind-the-times right now as to seem like a product out of a less forward-thinking company.

But what happens when that giant wakes up, stretches, and then starts standing in the middle of every single product Apple (and its partners) have to sell? It's so mind-boggling to consider the implications, especially given that it stands as one of the few persuasive explanations for why such a smart company would stay so quiet for so long about allowing a premium pay service go to seed this badly.

I think something is up. Big time.

But, what do you think?

Am I high? Will Apple make .Mac the center of their consumer offering? Or will it just continue to frustrate its paying customers until Google replicates all its services for free? What did you see in the tea leaves after the keynote?

”.Mac: Future of a sleeping giant?” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on January 18, 2008. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"