practicehacker

Another day another buzzword. Today it’s the real-time web - one in a series of recent developments making the web more useful. Now the web

• travels with our handheld devices (mobile web)
• alerts us when something happens (web of things)
• keeps us informed as things happen (real-time web)

Much high-quality writing about this comes from Read/Write/Web, host of the Real-Time Web Summit going on right now. Here are some of the companies they’ve featured thus far:

• identica.ca: open-source twitter client like status.net (formerly laconi.ca)
• superfeedr.com: real-time parsing of RSS feeds
• waze: crowd-sourced traffic tips and directions
• zensify: social network topics via weighted tags
• allvoices: distills input from citizen journalists
• pachube: the www connected to your house, etc. (my addition to the list)

While the legal applications for these developments are virtually limitless, even day-to-day applications are intriguing.  At last my refrigerator can call, IM, or e-mail with a reminder to go grocery shopping; or it may just transmit a pre-programmed list to the store based on the fridge’s lastest contents (adjusted for plans to have the neighbors over). Events that I upload from my phone to my calendar are communicated to the refigerator which can remind me to buy party supplies, etc. The list goes on and on.

Now if you don’t mind I’m going to tell my house to raise the room temperature in time for my arrival this evening.

Who knew? It turns out that free tools online can help you achieve your personal, financial, and practice goals. Below you’ll find the 10-step plan to do it.

1.  Get the big-picture of what you want do to using software like mindjet.

2. Develop task lists via Remember the Milk, Google Tasks, etc.

3.  Use services like Bing and Hunch that give suggestions.

4.  Record your progress via Springpad and like services.

5.  Use tools like Diigo, Zotero, and Laterloop, to save work.

6. Searchpad can help integrate the results of your research.

7. Calendar and organize using services like Ning and Meetup.

8. Build or participate in communities of goal-oriented people.

9. Review content-sharing sites like WordPress, YouTube, etc.

10. Refine, reconfigure, repeat.

Sites to Checkout

Geezeo tracks personal finances in a community of like-minded people. The site just launched a Facebook application.

Mint: the more famous and earlier financial website recently purchased by Intuit, the makers of Quicken. Imagine the possibilities.

Goalmigo is an online community that helps you set, track and find supporters to reach your goals.

112 Apps that help you Get Things Done (GTD) is a great list, but of course who has time when you’re getting things done?

From 5 Steps to Getting Unstuck and Pursuing Your Goals

Social IRM Engagement Chart

Social IRM (noun) (so-shal eye-ar-em):  the discipline of managing relationships between influencers (ie: bloggers) and brands (ie: LexisNexis, Westlaw, etc.)

by offering real value with the goal of exciting, maintaining, and harnessing positive word of mouth. Used mostly by marketers and forward-thinking professionals.

get on with it already

Has Google’s marketing department been co-opted by Lucas Studios?  I’ve been angling to try Google Wave, the much-touted “next generation” communication platform, for a year. Thus far nothing. This is the longest I’ve waited for a promised payoff since the first Star Wars prequel. And we all remember how that turned out … so make with the Wave already.