I am amazed at the number of people who do NOT take notes in meeting. This bravado comes from one or all of (a) a fantastic memory (b) nothing that they find interesting - they know this before they come in to the meeting since they come without a notebook (c) they assume that the other person is doing the writing so why bother.
I think about this sometimes because I rarely find people wanting to take notes. Some in fact come for meetings with me and ask for a paper when they want to remember something! I am the exact opposite - I tend to write almost everything as we talk, because it helps me recollect the meeting, and then reflect on it later to better understand what I could have done better. This writing has served me well - it makes me think harder.
What I do need to improve on is my execution, and follow-ups post-meetings. Taking notes during the meeting is only the starting point.
On a related note, I try to make sure I have 2 pens and paper (either my paper notebook or a small diary) always with me. Ideas don't warn in advance before coming. It is for us to catch them.
Writes InfoWorld about the next battleground in ERP as the enterprise software companies seek out new markets: "The ERP mid-market -- once the exclusive domain of a handful of companies with limited functionality -- quickly is becoming crowded with big-name players such as Microsoft, Oracle, PeopleSoft, and SAP revving new enterprise software applications to meet mid-market demand for integrated front- and back-office systems."
NetLedger has been one of the active ASPs in this segment:
NetLedger, which makes the Oracle Small Business Suite, last week announced a new online suite that combines ERP and CRM for companies with less than 500 employees.The new NetSuite adds advanced accounting, warehousing, and CRM to Version 8 of the small business suite.
"The large businesses have been able to afford to integrate the systems," said Zach Nelson, president of NetLedger. "The best-of-breed application for this market is an integrated system."
NetLedger has done a significant amount of listening to the needs of the mid-market, said Louis Columbus, an analyst with AMR Research.
"Evidence of their commitment to listen and respond to the market includes the inclusion of workflow support for sell-side and CRM applications, enhancements to order management, and strengthening of their integration approach," he said. "NetLedger has risen to the challenge of integration with strong XML expertise on their hosted platform."
We want to look at SMEs in emerging markets with our Emergic Enterprise. It is a market which others are not looking at right now. In fact, they'll need radically different cost stuctures to reach out to this segment - our target is USD 5 per person per month for the entire set of apps they need. We are hoping to be ready by 2Q 2003.
Open Source to the rescue ...
There is an Open Source ERP+CRM software package available for SMEs for quite sometime now. Click here for details. 
Jason Kottke has an interesting idea:
Unlike the BBC and Salon, many media companies are not providing public RSS feeds of their headlines. For the news-hungry armed with RSS readers, this is not so good. I suspect the reasons are many but largely financial: "when we make our content available via this channel, where's the money coming from?"There are a number of potential solutions, but one of the easiest (which I have yet to see) would be embedding text ads into RSS feeds.
Perhaps this is something we could look at in BlogStreet somewhere. In fact, RSS has a lot more potential that is being exploited right now. For example, I'd love an RSS feed from all my neighbourhood shops on what's new with them (sales, specials, etc.) - this can be a great value add as part of the Linux desktop in emerging markets.
From News.com: "Utility computing describes a system that lets companies pay for IT services as needed, much as GATX is doing. Rather than buying their own servers (or additional machines) and hiring the maintenance staff associated with them, a company simply purchases server time or processing power from another company, which also takes care of upkeep and other such concerns. Services companies expect to charge customers the same way an electric company does: When usage spikes, so does the bill. "
The nonsense of 'knowledge management' is the title of a paper by T.D. Wilson. It "examines critically the origins and basis of 'knowledge management', its components and its development as a field of consultancy practice. Problems in the distinction between 'knowledge' and 'information' are explored, as well as Polanyi's concept of 'tacit knowing'. The concept is examined in the journal literature, the Web sites of consultancy companies, and in the presentation of business schools. The conclusion is reached that 'knowledge management' is an umbrella term for a variety of organizational activities, none of which are concerned with the management of knowledge. Those activities that are not concerned with the management of information are concerned with the management of work practices, in the expectation that changes in such areas as communication practice will enable information sharing."
SCO Evangelist John Terpstra talks about the SME market needs on the server side: "File and Print serving, Web and FTP proxy, Firewalling, VPN technology, Electronic Mail (in Volution Messaging Server), and back-end SQL serving data for Microsoft Access and Microsoft Excel applications. We're also providing copies of OpenOffice for Windows and Linux, Mozilla for Windows and Linux, VNC for remote management, Ethereal (network diagnostic tools such as Ethereal."
He makes an interesting point which we need to address: "It may be inflamatory of me to say so, but some of these tools run better on Windows than they do on Linux. And when people see these Open Source tools running on Windows and compare them with the tools that are available on Windows, they see a natural superiority in terms of functionality."
Tech Talk: You talked of using older PCs as desktops. But what about the software? Won’t the software run very slow on these old / low-powered computers?
Deviant Entrepreneur: This is where the server-centric computing architecture comes in. Today’s new high-powered desktops are actually more than good enough to become servers. By doing all the processing on the servers and using the clients primarily for taking user input and displaying the graphical screens, it now becomes possible to create a scalable enterprise architecture. Adding new users just means adding new, low-cost thin clients. Moore’s Law ensures that we will get double the server processing power for the same investment in 18 months.
TT: What kind of software will this solution support?
DE: As the New York Times would put if it were in the technology business: “All the software that’s fit to run.” One of the big transformations that the Internet has wrought over the past few years is the shift from client-server software to web-centric software. In this case, all that’s needed is the web browser. Web Services technologies likeXML and SOAP are only hastening this trend. This makes software independent of the client platform.
For most users, even today, the key applications are email, web browser, the office suite (comprising a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation package), PDF reader and an instant messaging client. Support this on the Windows platform needs MS-Windows and MS-Office, which can cost upwards of USD 500 per desktop. The solution lies in using Linux as the base, KDE or Gnome as the graphical desktop, and open source applications like Evolution (for mail), Mozilla (as the web browser), GAIM (as the unified IM client) and OpenOffice. Taken together, these applications are very much compatible with the Windows world. For example, OpenOffice can read and write most MS-Office files. The total cost of these applications: zero.
In addition, by centralising the software on the server, upgrades become trivial – no need to go to each client and make changes. All the desktops can be managed from the server. Using Linux as the base pretty much eliminates the risk of viruses, which is today a big hazard for most users.
TT: What if users wanted to run Windows applications? After all, most enterprises have a legacy of applications which have been developed and these are likely to be on the Windows platform.
DE: Good question! The first option to consider is Wine, which is an open-source Windows emulator. There are also priced solutions like Crossover from CodeWeavers and Win4Lin from NeTraverse which enable running Windows applications on Linux. Crossover does Windows emulation, while Win4Lin runs Windows (95 and 98) on Linux, on which other applications can be run. They cost between USD 60-125 per user. While this may sound like a lot, one must consider the savings on hardware and the advantages of centralised manageability.
Here’s a practical approach: it is likely that there will be many users who only need the base set of applications (email, browser, Office) – for them, the open source applications are more than good enough. There will always be some power users who will need to run Windows-specific applications. They can continue to run Windows, but use OpenOffice and Mozilla (thus easing a switch from Windows to Linux at a later stage). Thin mix-and-match, rather than wholesale replacement.
In addition, for the new users, one can consider an open-source solution with thin clients, thus reducing dramatically the cost of providing computing to new users. At a conservative estimate, the hardware-software savings with an open-source-based thin client can be 75% or more as compared to a Microsoft Windows-Office fat desktop.
Tomorrow: Early Adopters
There could be one more reason - a general feeling that an eye contact with the person talking in the meeting is necessary, more than just a mark of respect, its a gesture indicating that we are listening to him with interest and attention. This results in a hesitation to jot down in the active session.
Posted by ReenaAlso, very few people can write (in detail) and interact in the meeting simultaneously. You have the knack, we've seen it, but not all are blessed with it.
At the same time, your reasoning for making notes is equally justified. Recording important meetings onto an electronic medium can help a great deal. This way, everyone can just concentrate on the meeting with an assurance that no one will miss out any point (also, its useful for people who could not, for some reason, attend the meeting). If required, we can always get a transcript done post meeting.
I remember rajesh while some meetings, and tend to agree what he says here, to me when he was scrubbing the points i felt very good ( saving my skin on taking minutes !! kidding..) as the amount of focus it brings to the table and for most when it comes to the summerizing in the end it helps a lot... have leant this skill from him and started carring a diary ( aspiral binging book) for each point or thought as it passed scibble at left page, then when at ease write down to the right hand side of the book.. emphasizing a lot on contents amd bullet points..
Posted by Rajesh DangiOh! wait ... wait ... I have a theory too!
Maybe people have no conscious control over this. Maybe, they are so used to learning from books. Even in colleges, almost no one takes notes as they have it in the back of their minds that they can always find the same thing in the books, so who wants to attend lectures and listen to the prof? Maybe people have forgotten that they can learn from other "people" as well.
Although I tend to write down only the important points and NOT the "minutes", I believe note taking is very important. All other reasons for not taking notes are just "excuses"!
Posted by Clinton GoveasOops. This one was for me, wasn't it? :D I've tried making notes during meetings, seminars, and lectures, but it never worked for me. I'd rather concentrate on what's being said, try to keep with the flow of the speaker, and then follow up post-session by reading printed material.
Posted by Mahesh ShantaramIt's an odd experience but I'd like to share it here.I worked as a journalist for 14 years and naturally had to keep extensive notes -- and verbatim quotes with dates, time and place -- about every meeting I had with just about anyone. It's something you have to teach yourself to do. And it doesn't take much to start doing it.
At the end of the first 10-odd years of working, I had something like 600 spiral bound books with notes, each with the months and the year in which they were used clearly marked on the cover.
The large stack of notes finally helped me write a book (published by HarperCollins in 1996)...an outcome of manic note-taking that I could never have forecast!
The whole idea of taking notes has been reinforced by the fact that some of my bosses in the past have always taken extensive notes in meetings. Often, I've found that facts, research, ideas, concepts and words that I had mentioned in the meetings were being used by my boss later in presentations, letters and meetings. Nothing can be more rewarding than that!
Posted by ArunA good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.
Posted by Robbin MaxA solved puzzle is just a picture.
Posted by Lall PaulNever let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what's right.
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