consumerization at home

i’m working from home today and the kids have started school just yet.  this afternoon it occurred to me that every single member of our family was working on a computer.  most of us are using a laptop, but occasionally someone is using a tablet or slate.  three of us have smart phones and there are at least four devices that are that size in our house.  this is a prime example of the consumerization of it that i’ll be writing about this fall.

eva’s working

my wife eva has been working from home for over 13 years.  she has a dedicated office space (that she let’s me share with her) and for the record this was an unrehearsed picture of her workstyle.  she has a laptop running windows 7, but works on some really large excel files.  ever since getting a wide screen monitor for work (along with the laptop) her productivity has gone through the roof (not having to shrink the screen to get everything on it, or having to navigate multiple windows on a 15” laptop)

sam’s working

for my 13 year old sam this has been the summer of youtube and facebook.  he still has a 15” emachine that serves as he regular laptop, but will probably be graduating into something for school projects this fall.

audrey’s working

audrey is still at the borrowing a device stage.  she primarily uses webkinz, but is getting pretty good at typing.  the device i hand her doesn’t matter to her – it’s all about what she wants to do (usually webkinz, but netflix has been a close second recently).  on the xbox, tivo, slate, laptop, phone or desktop, she can now watch netflix from any of them.  she prefers a keyboard and trackpad because that’s what she’s used to.

pick a smartphone – any smartphone

here are a few of the smartphone devices we have in the house.  i can make calls from them.  i can check email on any of them.  i can check my calendar on them.  my contacts follow me from device to device.   this is what consumerization has meant for most of our customers for the last few years (bring your own phone).

dan’s working on a slate

i’ve got two of the convertible devices (tablets) which let me use multi touch but also have a real keyboard when needed/wanted, but when i’m working from home a lot of time i try to experience what others i talk to see and that’s a true slate.  here i’ve got my slate working on email, instant messaging and browsing websites.

whether it’s messaging, work, videos, internet browsing or a combination of these, the windows 7 slate lets me do everything from just one device.  the onscreen keyboard looks different because i am using the dvorak keyboard (as my daughter and others are finding out when they pick up one of dad’s devices).  windows allows for one user’s settings to be separated from anothers, so my daughter can type on a “regular” keyboard while dad continues to use the dvorak layout.

the particular slate i’m using this afternoon even comes with a keyboard and has an eraser mouse or i can pair a bluetooth keyboard and mouse – the combinations are endless.

in my next post, i’ll take a look at a number of the workspaces i have discovered and the best device and/or accessories to go with that space or location.