Cait's Digital Workspaces

On The Job

I currently work in the editorial/product development department of a Thomson Reuters company called Boskage Commerce Publications. This workspace is where I get to spend about 40 hours a week. (In case you're wondering, yes, that is one of those weird balance ball chair things. I like to pretend that it's not quite as bad as sitting on a regular chair and is therefore going to save me from dying of a heart attack at age 50 as a result of spending too much time sitting.)

To be honest, I originally thought having three monitors was excessive. At this point, I'd feel more than a little lost without them. The much larger working area affords the ability to have all, or at least most, windows needed for a project open and visible at the same time. This, in turn, greatly increases productivity by cutting out the time lost by shifting between windows or trying to divide a monitor into smaller portions. There's rarely a project where all three monitors aren't in constant use.

The majority of my time is spent working in bcpLearning, so one of my monitors almost always looks like the image to the left. The textual elements of a course can be edited in real time through our WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) software, which you can see at the bottom of this image. On the left side of the image is an HTML Source Editor that can be opened through WYSIWYG. I often prefer this tool because it gives more control over formatting, defining links/images, et cetera. However, WYSIWYG allows for quick fixes and provides immediate visual feedback on how my changes will affect a page before I submit them. Changes to a course's structure can also be made in real time, but they have to be made using a function called the "Editor Tree." It feels a little bit like a storage area, so we often call it bcpLearning's "back room."

Other than working in bcpLearning, a typical day includes:

• Microsoft Office: mostly Outlook for email and scheduling and Excel spreadsheets for tracking editorial changes, but also composing/editing in Word.
• Adobe Acrobat X Pro: manipulating pdf files for use on bcplearning as well as in print publications.
• FileZilla: FTP-ing files/images for hosting on boskage.com/bcplearning.com.
• Marketo: developing and sending promotional emails/newsletters.
• Google Docs: collaborating on projects with coworkers.
• Thomson Reuters Messenger: contacting coworkers within our office or long distance.
• PhP Live Support: quickly resolving questions/issues for customers through live chat.

I know I'm skipping over some things, but that's at least a brief overview.

On The Go/At Home

My other digital workspaces include my MacBook, my iPhone, my Kindle, and my husband's desktop.

MacBook: This serves as my main digital workspace outside of work. It allows me to check email, keep connected on Facebook, do most of my writing, take notes using the notebook function in Microsoft Word, and complete all the habitual online visitations that are a part of my everyday activities. It's also an excellent study tool when I need to get out of the apartment and go to the library or the local Starbucks to remove some of the distractions created by being at home.

iPhone: This is a workspace that is vital to my daily activities, but also creates the most potential for disaster because it is small and easy to lose. I can definitely identify with Bill's example of a phone's contact list as an affordance with potential for negative consequences. For me, the affordance that really has the most potential to go wrong is the calendar function. The iPhone saves all my appointments and reminds me of them. However, because they're stored in my phone, I don't feel the need to remember them. It's works well....until I forget my phone and manage to forget an appointment or double book myself.

Apart from serving as phone, personal assistant, navigator, etc., the iPhone is also my "on-the-fly" writing companion. I love using the "Notes" app to jot down an idea the moment it pops into my head. I've also been able to use the "Voice Memos" app as an excellent free writing tool. If I'm feeling stuck with a particular piece, its much easier to hit record and just let myself ramble until I run out of words. Later I can transcribe the recording and then start the process of picking out the good ideas from the rambling. This also works when ideas come up while driving and you have no way to write them down. I originally started this practice working on songs, but it works equally well for writing.

Kindle: I've had the Kindle for a couple months and, up until this point, I've enjoyed it as a pleasure reading device, but not much beyond that. I'm excited that this class has given me the opportunity to use it for the first time as an actual digital workspace. While reading Because Digital Writing Matters, I've enjoyed the ability to highlight and create notes in the text that I can then transfer to my computer. I also appreciate the Kindle's "dictionary-ability." I've always been told that whenever you come across an unfamiliar word while

reading, you should look it up. Even with that good advice, I've often just tried to figure out these words in context, rather than pause to look it up in a dictionary and actually learn the word. The Kindle's built-in dictionary function allows me to hover over any word that I'm unsure of and receive an instant definition, removing my ability to be lazy about this simple task.

My husband's desktop: I'm finding this workspace more and more useful for coursework. It provides physical desk space on which I can highlight/take notes on printouts of articles for class. The larger screen provides more visual space to work with images, multiple windows, et cetera than the MacBook. The desktop also affords the only physical connection with my printer when the wireless printing decides to go haywire. It's only problems are that it often comes with a cat who feels compelled to sleep in front of the monitor and a husband who worries that I'm going to hurt his "baby" (he built it for himself as a graduation gift).

Overall, while these workspaces create some overlap in functionality, they all add their own individual affordances that make each of them useful and integral to my work.