My Info Strategy...

A sample by Neil Cox, 10/2007

For use in "New Media for Urban Change" course.

My primary information function here in the Indianapolis area is to "Accelerate Driven Christians in the Racing Capital of the World".  Connect them to each other, and connect them to best-in-class information for reaching our city for Christ.  Everything below tends to expedite that objective.

Here's how I (hope to) "Pay Attention" amid the Information Deluge...

• Maintain ONE primary 'profile' page (including a one-line 'STATUS')... Keep it current daily.

  [A profile page is where & how OTHERS see/learn-about YOU personally and your activities.  Mine currently is on Facebook.  [I have other personal pages out on the net, but little by little, they're increasingly pointing to my Facebook Profile page.  My 'permissions' there are OPEN... All you need is a Facebook ID to hit that page.]

   

• Equip my (Firefox) brower with important buttons...

  which help do everything below.  And since I can only crowd so many buttons onto my browser's 'Links-bar', it becomes one way to focus on the most important things I do each day.  My buttons, for instance, are... Facebook, Reader, Gmail, IndyStar, IndyChristian, Bible, Tool-kit, C4UI, Class, CityReaching, Blogger, and a few misc buttons.

• Maintain ONE 'personal dashboard'... online.

  [A dashboard is just the reverse of your profile page.... It's about how YOU see the world from your perspective.  It's a long way from optimized right now, but imagine your car's panel of instruments, gauges, and special messages that you need, to know how best to drive your car (life).  My dashboard is geared to see the world through my set of Christ-honoring relationships, and important related items... news they've tagged or blogged about... events they're heralding... new friends in our network, etc.  Currently my 'dashboard' is at what Facebook calls my 'home-page'.  I hate that ambiguous term given to it -- I hope Facebook will change that descriptor before long.  On a moment to moment basis, my dashboard at Facebook shows the latest news feeds coming from my 'friends'.  Thus if we choose our friends wisely, we can effectively learn things from them each day.

  Face-Notifications... Note:  From my Facebook dashboard, I can easily see any 'notifications' re messages left (publically) on my 'wall' -- from my friends, and collaboratively (since publically)... so they're the highest priority to me.

  FACE-MAIL... Note:  From my Facebook dashboard, I can easily see any of my Facemail messages.  They're similar to email -- mentioned below -- but remember these are from my friends who effectively are 'on the team together'... so they're (nearly the) highest priority to me.

  Is Facebook Optimal?   No.  It's a great start, and I've got confidence that Facebook will  continue improving.  In the meantime, I'm developing my own thoughts about what a 'model dashboard' would look like and how it would function.  I'm using a private wiki-page for now.  Stay tuned.

• Maintain ONE primary Calendar (Timeline)...

  And here's the funny part... To date, I've found no more efficient & effective mechanism than Franklin Planner.  Right.  Paper.  Book-sized.  People have shown throughout recent history that they're willing to readily carry something book-sized.  It's no bother.  And compared to my laptop that I frequently carry, it's extremely handy.  In one second I can look at February and tell you when I'm able to meet with you.  I have my important task-list available in one more second.  And I have free-space to think/draw/write... all while looking at my wife's photo... and carrying various biz-cards.  I can jot my business mileage, keep receipts handy, and readily thumb-through a month's worth of activity in a minute or two.  And here's a bonus... People currently still try to give me a lot of 'paper'.  So generally I'm going to be carrying something anyway, even if not my idea.  So now I can throw their stuff in the back of my FP... until I get to the nearest trashcan, or take it home to digitize.  Btw, taking FP's seminar on how to maximize your efficiency & effectiveness was one of the most valuable seminars I've ever taken.

• Maintain ONE primary RSS-Reader... [Subsequently replaced with Twitter (incl list-feeds), the human rss-reader.]

  Within this one singular page, I can read all the RSS-feeds (news/events/blogs/videos/podcasts) from places I personally have 'subscribed-to'.  Currently my RSS Reader is GoogleReader... which is included with Gmail.  [And in one click, I can 'share' items with the general public as practical.]  Within my Reader, I have a "Vital Daily" folder... and then everything else.  I try to make sure to get through the Vital Daily folder... daily.  Everything else is subject to my available time.

• Maintain ONE 'tagging' account...

  Anything worth reading extensively is worth 'keeping'.  In appx 30 seconds, I can tag significant articles, websites, research, photos, people, audio files, or videos I want to keep track of.  Not really just 'favorites'... but you can think of it that way.  Currently my tagging account is at del.icio.us/indychristian.  Everything I tag, others can see/search if they desire to.  And I can easily 'share' tagged-items with other innovative types there.

• Use ONE phone... my cell phone...

  And the number is easily found on my Facebook Profile-page.   And I maintain a ton of other contact#'s in my cell phone.  I am not yet particularly into 'mobile' computing -- I don't tend to have the need at the moment.  But I believe that will be one area of significant growth in the future... so I'm open to it in the future.... when Bryan gives me his hand-me-down iPhone.  LOL.

• Maintain ONE primary email account **sigh**....

  I have a million email accounts I think, but I only mention one of them to people -- coach@goal-partners.com.  All my various email addresses all forward a copy of all emails to one (real) email-box... at Gmail.  Anyone can push email at me... and I'll answer it if I can.  But email these days is not as high-priority as messages from among 'the team'... who nowadays are on Facebook with me.  Email is passe.  I hope to de-prioritize it over time... much like I've done with snail-mail.

• Publish daily, publically... at IndyChristian.com.

  We're now 8 years old (started prior to Y2K... remember that?).  No log-in is needed.  It's a blog format... and a number of Bible-believing leaders are equipped to also post there.  Anyone can read it... whether they agree or disagree.  It serves to help connect & communicate to people necessary news, events, ideas, links.... and sometimes just fun things... in order to prosper our linkage and ability to work together as The Church at Indianapolis.  We are intentionally diverse as we attempt to bridge great divides... especially between urban and suburban.

• Update  CityReaching.org  Wiki  knowledge-base... As I lead the effort to build the "Center For Urban Innovation", I frequently update CityReaching.org -- the wiki knowledge-base... one way of expediting the cityreaching movement throughout the U.S.  And there's a related Facebook 'group' for CityReaching.  And as you know, our "New Media for Urban Change" course is constantly under development there (here).  The lead-instructor, Bryan Hudson, maintains the official site... UrbanNewMedia.org .

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• P.S... Misc... Yes I have a million other websites I use in different ways to proliferate linkage, share information, make friends, etc.  But the above items constitute my primary Info Strategy.

• Under Consideration...   [See my blog post re Twitter.]

And importantly, my 'social graph'... ie, my info strategy includes choosing my (info) FRIENDS wisely...

• [Note:  My model is arranged geographically, believing those are the folks we can serve/impact the most.]
• Wife & family... (household)
• My neighborhood(s)... especially the 'Church' who's most invested & serving here.  And our 'sister neighborhood' in the inner-city.  [Remember, James describes those who the world regards as 'poor', as truly RICH in FAITH !   I need that diverse multicultural connection to grow optimally in faith.  And I take with me my time and my 'network' as the primary resources I can contribute there.]
• The city... especially those most anxious to network & collaborate to accelerate the Great Commission.  And the ones who are e-capable obviously get prioritized among them -- they have major upside potential for Kingdom impact long-term.
• Other cityreachers around the country... again notably the e-capable ones... bloggers, Facebookers, etc.

The end.