Digital Roam

Wacom-sockem wobots

When I run visual thinking workshops for twenty people or so, the only technology in the room is a whiteboard and a couple erasable markers. Getting rid of all the computers makes a bunch of good things happen:

1. We focus on the ideas, not the technology
2. Death by PowerPoint isn't even an option
3. Stories told and pictures drawn live are like magic

But when talking to a room of one hundred people or more, the whiteboard no longer works. The people in the back can't see it, and it can't be projected easily. I tried lots of different things: a video camera, bigger whiteboards, standard projected PPT (yuck -- see above).

Then the folks at Wacom Technologies suggested one of their interactive projection tablets, specifically the DTF-720. They were even nice enough to give me a *really* good price so I could test one out. Having used input tablets in the past, I wasn't convinced: the remoteness of input to display, the drawing delay, the clunky lines -- I hated them.

Then I got the big box delivered and tested out the display to an audience of sixty people down at eBay. It worked! I was able to draw directly on top of a simple PPT (in many cases I just put blank pages in the deck and drew on those). Presto: instant projected whiteboard.

Yes, I had more technology to carry, set-up, and test, but it was a breakthrough. If you need the modern day equivalent of an overhead projector, try the Wacom DTF-720.

It's a (book) jungle out there

I'll be testing out my theories of visual thinking with the Northern California Booksellers Association this Saturday, Oct. 6 at 1:30. At their annual trade show, I've been invited to share a few problem-solving pictures. The topic: "Thriving in the Amazon: Visual thoughts about life as an independent bookstore in the age of the Web."

Not that I know anything about running a bookstore, independent or Amazonian. The good news is that Hut Landon does (he's president of the NCIBA). Hut was nice enough to walk me through the challenges faced by independent bookstores, especially regarding their sometimes testy relationship with Amazon.

Thanks to Hut, I've got enough data now to draw a few conclusions. We'll see soon enough what the booksellers think.

Problems? What problems? My new site.

My new book "teaser" site launched this morning at www.thebackofthenapkin.com. I like to think that it pretty well summarizes my book in about 22 seconds.

This will stay up until the end of the year, and then -- thanks to Jason and Trent at the amazing Oh!Media in Regina, Saskatchewan -- we'll start launching a series of animated "solving problems with pictures" tutorials. Please stay tuned.

Who needs a whiteboard...

... when you can sketch across an entire room.

Thanks Field Music -- beautiful.