Slashdot Mirror
Defending RIM Blackberry Against Productivity
Jasksk writes "Is Blackberry causing masses to lose productivity? This article on CoolTechZone.com clears the myth. The author writes, 'Ever since the patent litigation has settled between NTP and RIM, Blackberry has recaptured the headlines, but this time, it's because of the device itself. While numerous users, generally corporate executives, adore the device, the environment surrounding Blackberry isn't too positive. A number of recent reports and columns are portraying Blackberry (and similar solutions) as time wasting, productivity lowering behemoths that don't deserve to exist.'"
If your job is to never think one thought for more than 59 seconds, then yes, the blackberry is a productivity blessing.
-Grey
Silver Clipboard: Time Management Tips
I thought the Blackberry wasn't popular because it made you stay wired to your job even when you went out with your family and stuff.
The article basically says three things:
.. err .. no, sorry, there were no reasons stated. It just does coz it's ace or something.
1. People use their Blackberrys too much.
2. People don't need to be on call 24/7.
3. People who do use the Blackberrys alot and are on call all day are workoholics.
So there we have it. *Clearly* a Blackberry makes me a more productive worker because
I really hope the author never has cause to defend me on anything.
http://twitter.com/onion2k
And if you thought cell phones caused people to be rude, blackberrys surpass that effect greatly.
They should be totally banned in situations like meetings, or at a grocery.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
A few people in our organization have them and I find them (the devices) to be somewhat distracting. During meetings, I see coworkers constantly, not so covertly, glancing down to IM someone, read their mail, or mostly check stock quotes. However, I suppose this is mostly a cultural issue. Here in North America, that would be considered rude. When I'm in China, I notice that people don't think twice about stopping mid-sentence to take a call or read an incoming IM. When I asked a few people about the practice, they seemed genuinely puzzled by the question and said that it wasn't considered rude or out of the ordinary at all. So I guess the answer is "it depends on where you are." :-)
Blackberry (and similar solutions) as time wasting, productivity lowering behemoths
Shouldn't Slashdot disclose its interest in this story as a rival time wasting, productivity lowering behemoth?
I can tell you that these things are a pain in the ass. Not so much from a technology standpoint, but mainly from the users. I get calls all the time: "My blackberry didn't receive this email in 2.3 seconds, the system is down, FIX THIS NOW!!!"
There is a certain threshold that exists between productive and slave. Slavery, indentured or not, exists when you are inextricably bound to your employer, and have to respond immediately to his commands, on demand, 24/7. At least in my office, with most of the BB users, that line has been crossed.
From a technology standpoint, Blackberry Enterprise Server isn't really THAT bad, I just wish there would be more QA from RIM's developers. Hotfixes and service packs come out far too often, but at least they are trying.
First, this is one of the worst written articles I have ever seen. Maybe it was typed on a BlackBerry?
The article says that having a BlackBerry means being on call 24/7, which surely must result in a dip in productivity, and annoy your family and friends. The article concludes by saying that people addicted to their BlackBerry are in the advanced stages of workaholism, and that isn't the tools fault.
I am a BlackBerry user, and I can say, without hesitation, that is is a great tool, and depends completely on how you use it. I used to carry a RIM pager and a phone, and am very happy to now have one device. I love having my outlook calendar available easily. It has helped me avoid missing many meetings. Having the ability to read email is nice, as well as get buzzed for high priority issues. Finally, I like the fact that contacts sync with my desktop, and that I can dial a number on the phone that was sent in an email or meeting request.
One major problem is the default configuration for BlackBerries, which buzzes every time a message is received. This invites users to constantly read messages, and become addicted to instantly replying. I turned that feature off in the first two or three days I had mine, and have been much happier since.
Another issue is that reading lots of text on a small screen can be difficult. Sometimes I have problems getting through an email, only to see it later at my desk, and discover it is much easier to read. But this is a convenience versus readability thing.
In all, the BlackBerry is pretty neat tool. It can help people who use it sensibly, and it can cause workaholics to turn into monsters.
At my last job, people in our parent office were addicted to various forms of "multitasking" including reading their email during meetings, answering the blackberries, etc. The only problem was that they weren't multitasking, they were unitasking and not paying attention to the current situation, which meant that the meeting was useless. They seemed to be incapable for focusing on a single topic for more than a couple of minutes.
The funniest thing was when the uber-development boss, who was the worst offender, both in showing up late to meetings and not paying attention, decided that his particular meeting was critical and that laptops, blackberries, etc would be forbidden. Of course, then he pulled out his blackberry at the first meeting.
Well, Pushemail is not email in the traditional sense. Email was like mail. When you wanted to your mail you started your Pine, queried your pop3 server and got your mail (this changed a bit with imap and instant notification I must admit, but many non technical people still fire up their email app whenever they feel like it and don't use notification stuff on their desktop).
IM on the other hand is much different, because you get the message (if you have your IM turned on) the instant someone sends it. Like a telephone call.
Pushemail is the same. It is more like SMS than email. Many mobile devices also have email now in the traditional sense.
Even though PushEmail is different you still get emails that people send with the email state of urgency in mind. When I need something now I would use a telephone call or an SMS text message or IM. When I write longer messages with lower urgency I use email. I think many people use that the same way. That is why I certainly can see why pushemail could reduce productivity with people on the receiving end that just can't get their priorities straight (I think I would have a hard time keeping myself doing what I was doing when the Blackberry just went off, but I don't own one).
Maybe people should just turn off the push feature.
In my case, it saves me time in one way. My team run an application on it that allows us to work with helpdesk tickets with a "real-time" connection back to the office. If not for my Blackberry, I'd have to make a phone call and setup my laptop. Both of which take signicantly more time for most tasks.
I also like the over-the-air sync'ing of contacts. I care nothing about the rest of the Blackberry specific features, and my particular handheld sucks as a phone. My company is deploying a new model which is suppose to be more phone-friendly. I hope so.
Later,
-Slashdot Junky
.
Landfill Mining Co.
Managing the (Un)natural Resources of Tomorrow
And here I thought the problem with them is that when people read your email, all they can seem to respond with is:
Hmmm
-----------------
Sent from my Blackberry Wireless Handheld
Like we couldn't tell that it was sent from a device on which it is a pain to type! BTW, it was really hard to post this because good old Slashdot couldn't manage to use the "Humor" filter and kept inflicting me with the "lameness" one because of too many junk characters... If only the people sending those inane notes on their Blackberries would encounter that same "lameness" filter!
Research in motion uses outdate technology, that is tide at the hip to their servers with a pin. I.e. when their servers go down so dose the blackberry e-mail, the fact the devices dose not have a master rest is also a problem. Trio 650 dose not have this problem nor do most of the smart phones and other wireless PDA on the market. This is not to mention the fact RIM see no need to add an external flash drives on their device. The biggest claim to fame is their track wheel. Witch is a lot more functional then a pen for email. The fact they were first to market with a solid interface is the only reason they have the lead they do. If they do not innovate they will die, and in that regard there is little hope of that. I actively encourage IT departments to look away from BB as a solution if they can avoid it. Only because of installed base dose it makes senses to invest in this ball and chain.
Here's my view: People with blackberries get connected in such a way that they become part of the network, part of the enterprise hive mind. I can't believe that for any company, information is so critical that it needs 24/7 user awareness. I think this is becoming a management problem. Companies must be able to manage their human resources so they don't have to rely on just a few crackberry people to run the whole operation. You'll also find Blackberries--and other mobile devices and applications--cause people to concentrate less on issues. By being always available, the risk is to lose the ability to find time to focus hard on problems. You are swamped with a never ending flow of emails, to which you respond by quick-fix, short answers, not always effective.
You are kidding me, right? You don't want me to call my wife while I'm grocery shopping. This is different from me chatting with her in the grocery store? Perhaps you think talking in public is rude and that we should all silently keep to ourselves, heads down, like convicts.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Well, maybe college Freshman English. No justification, all opinion.
"We reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals." --The American President (20.1.2009)
The Blackberry has become the latest in a long line of technology devices that some use to prop up a threatened sense of self worth. First, we had the pager. Then, when every plumber's brother had a pager, we moved to big, huge, analog cell phones. Then smaller digital cell phones. Now we have Blackberries and SmartPhones with push email. Almost all the time when I recieve an email with the "Sent from my Blackberry...." it is in response to something quite inane, and easily could (and probably should) have waited until they were back at the office. But merely sending it fairly screams, "See, look at me! I'm so important that I can RSVP to the office party from my Blackberry!!" Taking the Blackberry out at a meeting is sort of the newest method of corporate dominance display. See, I'm dominant over you, so I can check my Blackberry in this meeting, which I (being the alpha geek) decreed to be blackberry free. Given the difficulties and limited appeal of push email, I don't think these will become as democratized as pagers (does anybody still use those anymore?) and cell phones have become. There will, however, become another item which will supplant the Blackberry as the corporate dominance display.
The article is silly and lacks any depth of understanding of the real
issues.
In the 80's you had to be near a landline phone and only a small
handful of people in academics and the research community used email.
In the 90's if you worked in IT and spent a non-trivial amount of time
on the road or on-call, you had to carry a pocket pager *and* a cell
phone. It wasn't until the late 90's that email became ubiquitous,
and even then it was still limited to 9-5 in the office environment.
In the "00" decade, many different initiatives came along to merge all
that stuff into one thing, so that it's no longer about the device or
the communications medium, it's about just being in communication
period. The Blackberry is simply the most successful example of that.
The real "killer app" aspect of the BB is that you can take all your
possible methods of being interrupted, route them through a single
device, and then turn that device off when you no longer wish to be
interrupted. It gives you the power. What you do with that power is
entirely your choice.
The other killer app is the ability to merge your email and cell phone
address lists and have them update instantly and on-the-fly thru the
wireless network. This is just the fulfillment of "computer-telephony
integration" that we have been promised for the past 20 years. BB was
the first one to make it into a real product that people could benefit
from.
Saying that a new technology invites rude or disruptive behavior is
nothing new. There were many people who thought electric lighting was
evil because decent people should not be working after the sun went
down. That problem won't be going away, unfortunately.
I continue to avoid Blackberry and Good devices because they do not properly deal with multipart MIME email. The email RFCs provide for email clients with varying levels of capability, but current mobile email devices (especially the Blackberry) ignore the RFCs and dumb down everything to plain text.
I completely get it that the vendors of these devices are trying to keep bandwidth usage to a minimum, and so only allow their client devices to push plain text bits over the wire; however, that is not a good reason to strip everything back to plain text. In my work environment, we mark up email text and rely upon the receiver using an email client that hasn't been completely neutered.
When Blackberries were first introduced, our wireless networks did not have the capacity to push a large volume of rich text email; however, with 3G networks now actively being rolled out there is no longer any business rationale for imposing this limitation.
On a related note: this is yet another example Microsoft continuing to demonstrate their incompetence. In their pursuit of Blackberry's market share, they should have brought full-featured portable email to market. Instead they only just managed---in Mobile Office 5---to produce a client that marginally outperforms the Blackberry client. Bill Gates needs to stop hiring co-op students and hire real developers who can produce full featuerd software.