Announcing the DWW Slack Community

Ryan Purvis  0:00  
Hello, and welcome to the digital workspace works podcast. I'm Ryan Purvis, your host supported by producer Heather Bicknell. In this series, you'll hear stories and opinions from experts in their field story from the frontlines, the problems they face and how they solve them. The years they're focused on from technology, people and processes to the approaches they took that will help you to get to the script for the digital workspace inner workings.

I'm currently forcing myself to read Dune.

Heather Bicknell  0:34  
I just read Dune.

Ryan Purvis  0:36  
Oh, yeah, yeah. And how you find it.

Heather Bicknell  0:39  
I liked it, of course, is the new movie coming out. So um, okay. Yeah, no, yeah, there's it has some. It has a few famous actors Timothy Charlemagne is

Ryan Purvis  0:56  
Paul. Okay, yeah.

Heather Bicknell  0:59  
And then The Duke is played by a What's his name? Oscar Isaac, that guy from Star Wars than the more recent Star Wars. What's his name in that series?

Ryan Purvis  1:09  
I'm already losing it but the series of the movies in the movies correspond with Zechariah quinto. This is the good old Google.

Heather Bicknell  1:20  
Yeah, I know. Like, I should do that, but it's been a while since I've seen any Star Wars. So he's Whoa,

Ryan Purvis  1:28  
whoa, whoa. Are you thinking of Star Wars or Star Trek? Yeah, sorry, my sister's as a nurse. Okay.

Heather Bicknell  1:39  
But yeah, I mean, it looks it looks decent. So that Well, I haven't released a trailer yet. But anyway, I knew you know, that I'd probably be seen that movie. So I wanted I always like to try to read the book first. So

Ryan Purvis  1:54  
Well, I didn't even know that makes the movie game. But that's great. Because, like Jason momoa has done Can I know actually Perfect. Yeah. And then skarsgard as veteran Let me help How can I can also imagine that perfectly so? Yeah, that's pretty good so far.

Heather Bicknell  2:10  
Have you seen the David Lynch movie? The older dude movie?

Ryan Purvis  2:15  
I remember trying to watch it as a kid or as a kid younger. Yeah, last about five minutes.

Heather Bicknell  2:21  
It's I wouldn't I wouldn't recommend this. You can feel free to skip that one.

Ryan Purvis  2:27  
Well, I'll be I'll be honestly wouldn't wouldn't call me to read it was Well, two things. One, it kind of got a few phone calls with some people recommend reading it. I'm going to verse for the last person if I remember correctly. And then I used to play the game a lot. I always I say to myself, I've been playing the game so good, but it was good at the time. I must read this book at some point. So it came up Kevin, and as a recap recently, I've just finished a book let me let me try. It has not been beneficial sort of part of where Paul and his mom in the desert today by now is going to start the next piece so yeah, that's okay. I try I try to watch it on amazon prime is a series called Dune Dune which is a bit later on so I just don't watch an accident makes no sense to me.

Heather Bicknell  3:22  
Yeah, I think it really picks up in the like maybe third section but it definitely things things start moving and accelerating and

Ryan Purvis  3:32  
yeah, fog is just the language used by fellow language really weird huh? and accounting warnings off right now but it was just like falter Uh huh. For helicopter or whatever they tried but it just feels really sorry and they wonder what's the apostrophe supposed to? What do you what do you not saying that this thing you know the doctor or whatever it is? Maybe Tyrion like curry read a sentence that makes sense.

Heather Bicknell  4:01  
Yeah, there's definitely a lot of terminology and political allegiances. And all that to figure out in the BNA. Hmm. So yeah, we have some exciting news today we've been announced the launch of our new digital workspace work slack community. And you want to tell people how they can join that, Ryan? And what's it all for?

Ryan Purvis  4:27  
Yeah, sure. So we've got the link in the show notes. We put this together to make this more interactive, and as I said, an umbrella when we did this, I mean, it is a little bit off the cuff sort of we had a chat and we just sort of released it to the wild. The idea is, is one, it makes it more interactive for everybody. We didn't want this to be a one way sort of community move we just talk every week and and those that listen to us here have hear from us, we actually wanted to be bi directional. So this is an opportunity to do that. We've also set up some channels with different topics that we think are relevant. So we obviously will we look at a given time and things like web, so windows virtual desktops that Marshall provides probably any other providers that come unified comms, which is quite a big thing inside the digital workspace, especially now that we're all working from home. Things like remote working, feature work, etc. So it's been quite good. I mean, in the weeks that we've had it open, we've already got 1213 members. And that crew sort of doubled every day for the first bar, that's a double value increased quite nicely every day with two or three people today. And yes, as I say, it's a good place to come and chat, as we will share most of our stuff, I mean, stuff that doesn't actually make it to the podcast. I think that's that's also important. I think at some point, we'll probably close it down and make it a restricted group. So I think getting now while it's open, you know, I sort of think 100 people would be ideal, but we'll see would go. Yeah, that's it. I think I think come join us. You know, if anyone's one place to give us feedback that's a little bit easier than email. I think emails getting lost in the minutia. So at least in this channel, we can we can see it, we can flag it. You know, we can use it as a way to steer this podcast and direction people wanted to go.

Heather Bicknell  6:20  
Yeah, no, it's exciting stuff. And I know, you know, Ryan, you, you've already been sharing some cool articles there. There's been some discussion going and we even have a few interesting channels like one for a potential book club or other sort of ways to interact and not not just chat. So there's a new thing say that people can check out.

Ryan Purvis  6:41  
I think the book club is a really good one because that's something that that, you know, I read a lot and I'm sure you probably do too, but you know, finding something to read and also reading something valise having to read a book on someone else's read and just get the most Why would I want to read this book? Would it be an issue valuable to say I'm sorry, I'm waiting for someone else to post this Oh, five foot two books in a no and also just replied so. Okay, so we'll see how that goes. And also aggregated some RSS feeds that we think are interesting. So it's a nice place to sort of see it in the channel and while interacting you can share your views and go to comments. Well, yeah.

Heather Bicknell  7:22  
Cool stuff. So yeah, people can again just check that out in the Episode Notes and click on the link and meet us there. So Ryan, I haven't haven't asked about you about this yet, but I but I'm seeing so I'm seeing your new desk workstation setup. How are you liking it so far? The standing desk,

Ryan Purvis  7:44  
um, it's been it actually has been on my list to catch up with the other so it's been good. I'm having a little challenge, which I guess it's kind of ironic. I can't get my desk lower. Oh, so it's got this enough and I'm flowing. I wouldn't take a video of it. Now a lot of support call. But some days, it'll go all the way down, like three memory settings, I could have, like, you know, seated, sort of coffee table, chat level, which is what I'm doing now. And then I'm going to oneness that that's even higher, which is almost like just just a chat, second sort of system, my mom's a bit higher. And what happens is it could kind of get stuck at one of those two levels. And then every time you try go down, it thinks it's gonna hit something so it comes up. So you never really, all the time so often when because if you're staying in your brain when you want to do something that's really thought intensive. If you want to sit down and do it, it's obviously to take cognitive load off your, your brain while you're thinking. And that's where it gets frustrating because like, I want to run a document, I want to run some code or something, are you going to get stuck into it? And I'm like, Okay, let's lower the disc and the disc goes. Now I'm going back up again. Sorry. So that's, that's a little bit irritating, but I'll see if that's just maybe opportunity. cables hanging off the end because I haven't done the cabling properly yet probably it but other than that I'm really enjoying it because I've put 224 inch widescreen monitors up instead of having a laptop screen and I put a light on for the camera I move the camera position from the laptop camera or on top of the monitor to actually be a little bit more central. So I'm quite enjoying that and a lot more space on my desk and I think I took a picture and I'm probably one of the channels so I can always share that as well. But I think it's the way forward you know quite enjoying standing I've noticed my back pain has gone down to almost zero it's more now from when I began to my son as opposed to sitting all day. Yeah, so I would definitely recommend if anyone's thinking about it.

Heather Bicknell  9:52  
Now, is it the IKEA one that you want with or

Ryan Purvis  9:55  
no I bought a flexi Flexi spot The reason why I didn't go to IKEA and end because when I looked at them again, they didn't come in the app was the only difference. I don't really think I needed a nap controlled standing desk. And also price wise I got this one for about 100 bucks cheaper. And I wait for slot the smaller one, I could have got bigger 140 centimeters and go sort of 161 40 is actually fun. And that was the other thing it was a bit bigger than I actually thought I needed, which was actually worked out. So yeah, this is actually not bad. It took me a good hour and a half to build it. And I'd understand what why his instructions have to be so like, have you seen this but these instructions get nowadays you have to build something are so condensed that they give you like a one pager when you can, you know, spend the extra money in use two pages here on your instructions, because I've really struggled to get the sensor in until I actually realized that the insert The way I was interpreting the instruction, there was a piece missing where you actually had had to flip it upside down and put it in. But the way the drawings done because they haven't dotted the lines, so you don't see that it's actually upside down. You see it as on top, and it's very bad, just bad drawing. For my industrial arts teacher who was very adamant about dotted lines and solid lines and that kind of stuff, he would have guessed he had a few things to say. So yeah, once it was both be very happy. If he recommended some, as I say the two screens up was great. I was very tempted to go one big screen shows kind of the fashion now you saw this big curved screen. Yeah. But I'm tempted at the state at the moment, both horizontal but I'm thinking of choosing one vertical energy use one for reading stuff and one for for main work. So that's going to give us two weeks and then I'm gonna manipulate it and see where it goes.

Heather Bicknell  11:58  
But it's exciting to be On that refreshed office journey, I can't wait to join you on it as soon as I start evaluating new desk options and stuff like that, but yeah, one of the I guess having the two screens is nice because if you have I know Ben Ben Murphy has a huge monitor. And screen sharing is always super wonky because of that, and then you have to you know, you have to worry about resolutions for that kind of thing. So

Ryan Purvis  12:28  
that's and that's exactly the debates I had before I got well so these are these are you know, my my work once that changed While they were there was someone else's screen and not going to use I'm using it and was the main driver get this big fancy screen or it's trying to screen and see how it goes and if it really works and all that kind of extreme, but actually I quite like having left hand side is no typically stuff I'm working on right inside of my laptop to do things that I need while I'm doing that. So from referencing the document or referencing something I'm looking at, or whatever it is, I kind of go left to right and have zones for for attention, which would go well. The other thing I've been doing since I've been doing this is I've been tracking my time. So what am I spending my time on what project? What work Am I doing, etc? That'd be very interesting. Because, you know, one of the things that I found that that she got the same as because you weren't commuting, you're working longer hours. Definitely, yeah. And not necessarily doing the right work at the right time. If they make any sense. I've worked on that as be quite cool, especially with managing the household. Because Chris and beets are heavily pregnant, you know, basically a single parent plus single worker, to just making sure that I do do my sort of six to eight hours a day as opposed to completely missing stuff and you have to do 12 hours a day to do two hours, but at least I'm aware of that. Where I'm spending my time on which days and which days were better for different things. So. So it's been interesting as well.

Heather Bicknell  14:07  
Are you just jotting that down? Or do you have an app or something that you're using now.

Ryan Purvis  14:11  
It's called toggle, and quite popular. I use it for two reasons. One of the reason I initiate reviews is because it could track a calendar, and then you can pick it up. But that doesn't seem to come to work at the moment, somebody might be not apt to do that. But the other reason is, obviously, you've got a mobile app as well. So sometimes I forget to turn the timer off. And I can turn it off when I go downstairs from the app. It also keeps track of a few idle that tells you I don't want to keep that time and all that kind of stuff. So I think that's quite good. Very nice, lovely interface. I don't think I'm paying for yet. I think you pay for it if you have a team to do for a single user. And yeah, it's quite quite nice and if I do like working on something today in four different times of the day, I just keep the same task in and a resource of time on that task. But it's a new task, though, but then the aggregates are quite nicely. So I spent six hours working on an activity. But I've worked on an hour here an hour there, 15 minutes there, five minutes there. And let's balance this area together, which I quite like so good to embrace.

Heather Bicknell  15:22  
Yeah, that sounds nice. I'll have to try it out. Because I am a very, I use a lot of lists. And, and like, you know, and jotting down sometimes even, you know, items that I've done because I juggle a lot of projects. So that's just like necessary to keep it all straight. But having an app do some of that work for me would would probably be helpful. This is I mean, it's task level or project level. That's not task level, but you can take things so say for example, I've had a lot of issues with Windows 10 this week again,

Ryan Purvis  15:49  
my mouse for some reason, just disconnects. So I've been logging how much time am I spending diagnosing this problem? But then I had other issues. I've basically got what I call it diagnostics. And then I've been tagged to say mouse. keyboard, there was a issue with the screens of the day. So now I'm starting to see a pattern about how much time am I wasting cuz I'm trying to justify my Hey, do I move completely off windows? Now that I'm thinking, if it gets to a certain point, I haven't reached what the number is. If I'm going to invest it, say two days of troubleshooting a month, then I'd rather spend two days a month learning Linux. Yeah. stuff out. Because I would just take this as luck, right? Maybe everyone else has a better experience.

Heather Bicknell  16:44  
I like that you've built in your own sort of productivity, tracking your own your own personal and user experience tracker.

Ryan Purvis  16:52  
Well, yeah, you know, when you when you've got unlimited time, like I do, you can I don't have it. You know, I'm I'm supposed to be in On that technology persons icon is going off someone else can fix problems me. But when you're burning two days a week, and you don't have to as a week, or two days a month it's very frustrating. And you know, if I look at my iPad experience, I don't have problems on it. Everything works except for the Microsoft stuff. Keeps you're saying losing all my email accounts on Walmart, which I don't know why that is. So it's Yeah, it's tricky. But I'm feeling like this move to likes is going to be happening probably early next year.

Heather Bicknell  17:35  
That'll be an interesting journey in and of itself.

Ryan Purvis  17:39  
But I am tempted to go back to fully Apple though because I was like that for for about a year. Don't use I went back to Windows was was I had to write some code, which I can now probably once I build the web environment, I already don't need to carry this talk anymore. But we lose Topic so so that's what I'm running over actually gives us web web thing ago. I was painted last week and didn't get there but um, but thankfully I didn't because I just launched the Quickstart stuff. Yeah. Which would have made me very frustrated if I started and then click something was launched. I should have stopped waiting for that. Yeah. So we'll see. We'll see. That's that's my thinking at the moment.

Heather Bicknell  18:26  
Yeah, won't be exciting to see where you go there. I know. Do you have Do you need to hop soon?

Ryan Purvis  18:32  
I do need to go Yeah. Pretty we finished up one last thought of your

Heather Bicknell  18:37  
Yeah, I guess I just I also wanted to remind everyone again about the the slack community and to join through the link and, you know, check it out and catch up with us there and it's gonna be a good time. Yeah,

Ryan Purvis  18:50  
I think we probably need to update our end of episode. Trends. To Yeah, well, but actually, that probably needed to redo at some point anyway. Then we're redoing our logo, so that will change things as well. Cool stuff. Leave it there. Thank you for listening today's episode. Hey, the big nose producer, editor. Thank you, Heather for your hard work on this episode. Please subscribe to the series and rate us on iTunes or the Google Play Store. Follow us on Twitter at the DW w podcast. The show notes and transcripts will be available on the website www digital workspace that works. Please also visit our website www dot digital workspace that works and subscribe to our newsletter. And lastly, if you found this episode useful, please share with your friends or colleagues.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai