After seeing David Sasaski’s post, Managing the River of Media, I really wanted to dissect my own process of how I go about finding information. I also wanted to take advantage of this as a research excercise for how I will structure my fieldwork in China when I inquire youth and families on how they mediate information. I’m really glad that I did this because it gave me a better idea of what kind of questions to ask when I’m trying to create information maps with my interviewees.

It may appear from this post below that I only engage with the internet as a self-generated activity, but it’s not true. A lot of my information discovery comes from long in-person or over the phone/skype conversations about the internets and life with friends over whisky or beers, from conferences that I attend, or from media that I watch like anime or videos. I also process info in very social ways such as through IM convos or in-person chats - all of which I don’t detail in this post below.

What I describe below is really the result of my personal goal (or obsession) with finding a new “system” that would would support a sustainable information searching lifestyle for me. I am just emerging out of a 4 year self-imposed ban on information (news, rss readers, Google Reader, blogging, and etc). I was living a geographically chaotic lifestyle where I didn’t have a home base to return to in between all my travels. I moved 14 times in the last 4 years and as a result, I didn’t have a routine for really anything in my life much less a structure to create a sustainable information routine. In addition to my 14 address changes, I don’t even know how many flights I flew each month just to maintain my schedule of caretaking in Northern California, grad school life in Southern California, real life in NYC, research in Mexico, more research in China, and tons of conferences upon conferences.

Amid all of this, I stopped doing several things that really made me happy -I stopped dancing (modern), being part of a community, reading for fun, and journaling. I missed all of these things a lot. I was spending most of my time reading. Even though I was reading incessantly, I was only engaged with really dense academic materials. I gave in my 2nd year of grad school and got a subscription to OK! magazine when Perez Hilton just got downright too bitchy even for me! Really I was craving any way for my brain to shut down at night - I wanted the spectacle, not the analytical.

So this is the year of re-entry into the internets. I thought it would be interesting to document how I process information since I’ve been studying this very topic. Most recently I even started a research blog, Information Peripeteia, with Morgan Ames on the social construction of information! And in writing this up and after talking to Susan Baron, I was inspired to start a new blog,The Body Breathes. This is where I will document all my links on therapeutic healing, homeopathy, dance, and hereness.

So for my re-entry back into reality, I made a really important decision last spring, I decided that I couldn’t’ move around or travel as much - I was crazing some sense of stability and I started dreaming of spending just a few months in one city - even on one block. I wanted to be part of a community again. A physical place where I would know every face on my block and every business owner. I wanted people to know my name and invite me into their homes again. I knew that if I could have geographic stability, I could then address my emotional and physical self, and lastly my info processing self.

I say all this to make the point that I think creating a healthy routine of information processing is a critical part of maintaining emotional sanity and balance - especially for people who work in the internets. It just is. The poeple I know who are most balanced in the internets are ones who have really figured out a sustainable way to be on top of the latest news without compromising their relationships, health and soul.

Over the last three months, I have been trying to figure out a healthy routine in which I could engage with information. I used to get panicked just thinking of all the information that I couldn’t be on top of because of my family duties and then I would get mad at myself for not making more time to learn about x or y. I knew that this rationale was unhealthy and that I could not live like this.

I took this summer to take dance classes again, fulfill my goal of finding internal peace and learning how to live a more emotionally present and physically sustainable life. And amid all of this I tried to create a peaceful information river not a turbulent information deluge. So I’m really excited to reflect upon this! Thanks David for getting this process started!

i tried to map out how I process info across my 3 devices (picture at beginning of post). Here’s what I came up with

cloud: I rely on these cloud computing apps to maintain a seamless cross-device experience: built in notes app on ipad/iphone, instapaper, dropbox, google voice, tumblr, and google apps(documents, email).

cross-device apps: I am amazed at how I spend a lot of time on apps that are cross compatible between the ipad and iphone. The squares with blue borders in between the ipad and iphone are apps that I use on both devices.

thinking: I now do all of my brainstorming (popple, sketch journal), journaling (penultimate), and drawing (ps express, sketch book, omnisketch) on the ipad. I made the picture above on the ipad - I used popple to make the drawing, ps express to crop and rotate imaged saved from the internet in photos, and I used sketch book to draw on the popple image.

music and video: I listen to all music and watch videos on the ipad and iphone. I usually leave pandora on my cellphone and then open soundhound to find the music/lyrics. This is how i’ve been keeping up with my spanish.

News: I use Google FastFlip, NPR, NYTimes, and Google Reader.

pictures: All my picture taking happens on the iphone. I use flickr to store my photos and skitch to capture screen shots on my laptop.

IM’ing: Across all my 3 devices, I use IMing programs to stay in touch with friends and contacts. On my laptop I use adium, On my iphone and ipad I use IM+ Lite and skype. I then browse twitter and facebook on my ipad/iphone.

writing: I do most all of my writing on my laptop still. I write in Google Docs and when I have to do my footnote intense stuff I move over to Word. I hate word. I used to write in Omnioutliner but after a few crashes on my computer, I prefer that all my writing is on the cloud as much as possible

Texting: When I’m on my laptop, I try to text directly on my laptop using google voice. If i’m on my iphone or ipad, I try to text or write emails using Dragon Diction.

Notes: I really love the built in notes app on the iphone and ipad. I haven’t figured out how to sync my notes on my ipad with my gmail - I can do it on my iphone. Has anyone done this yet on their ipad? I am trying out infinotes on the ipad - so I’m not sure yet how to incorporate it into my process but I’m only a day in on the trial. I also just discovered the Soundnote app. I’m really excited for this app that allows you to take notes while recording a conversation or talk. I’m also now trying out simplenotes per David’s suggestion.

My process for sharing info:

When I find something that I like when I read it online or through my instapaper or Reeder on my ipad, there are 8 possible things that I will do with it (that is if I do something with it - lots of stuff I read just goes into the forget bin). I classify it into three categories of fast, slow, or process.

Fast - When I read something I automatically start thinking of all the friends that would have interest in the article. I use Shareaholic to either email it, share it on facebook, flash blog it to tumblr (instructions here) or twitter it. Then I try to Note in google Reader (with Shareaholic or the Note in google bookmarklet) which goes into Tricia Wang’s Scrapbook. I explained earlier how my scrapbook has now replaced my delicious. If I am online on my laptop and my adium is on and I come across a funny video, I will shoot a quick IM to each friend that is online. I use Google bookmarks to track personal links that I want to remain private. like good porn. just checking if you were still awake!

Slow - I want to process some info slowly on a couch or cafe slowly. I instapaper any articles that require more than 1 minute of my attention. I then put all academic articles of downloaded pdfs into iAnnotate. Here is a post where I document my entire academic article citation process with Mendeley and Dropbox.

Process - I sit on the stuff that I read for a long time and eventually some of it makes it into my blogs. Some stuff I process really quickly so I just flash blog it to my blogs on healthy living and arts, quotes, pho, arrow rings, or jump!. I have a blog post here that details how I flash blog. Then the serious posts make it into cultural bytes and digital urbanisms. Then I end up scrapbooking some of the stuff that I process. I have at least 30-40 drafts in each blog of writings that I want to finish. I feel perpetually behind.

All the exciting tech changes that I have made these past few months!

• I finally switched from my nokia n82 to an iphone. I resisted and resisted - I swore up and down that I needed to have the same type of phone that people use in places that I research. But I gave up my nokia martyerdom as I realized even people in China and Mexico were no longer feinging for a nokia phone. So I got a hand me down iphone 3 months ago. WHERE THE HELL WAS I in nokia phone world! The iphone changes your life! OMG OMG!

• Then I got an ipad over the last few months. I now read all my pdfs and books on it. This has been life changing. I have an incase covertible cover and my pogo pen fits inside the cover. I am not a fan of the incase design, but my ipad has never been dented each time it has fallen. It has super flexible positioning. I was going to get the cloak but it is way to heavy - but you can check outbaratunde’s demonstration video of his cloak love. I like to Dodo case for its beauty but without the multiple viewing positions and extra protection I can’t justify it.

• I decided to spend more time in one place - the one place in the US where I feel most at peace, most loved, and most capable of giving in healthy ways - my NYC. Being in a non-suburban place made it fun to try out geo-location apps like FourSquare.

• I am on a device compartmentalization kick where I am trying to section off my activities to different devices.

• I tried to switch all my reading to the ipad and iphone.

• I now read all pdfs and books on my ipad using iAnnotate- that way I can mark it up and have it send notes to me! I’ve documented the process below.

• I have limited my computer use to the following activities: chatting with friends, deep researching, downloading files, device syncing and charging, picture organizing and flickr uploading, writing blog posts on Google docs, and composing longer emails.

• With the ipad I found this app called Penultimate- and I have started journaling again. This is so exciting! typing my thoughts out isn’t the same as taking a pen in your hand and writing it in a notebook. With penultimate I can feel as I am writing in a notebook and its forever digitized.

• I started using dragon dictation to dictate my personall tweets for private twitter account, text messages, and non-formal emails. I am really loving this cuz this means when I’m walking and I have a thought, I pull out my phone and dictate my message. Though when you are in a loud area this doesn’t work as well.

• I get to do what david calls info-snacking. I went from not being able to info-snack to having an open-access pantry of info-snacks within 3 months! Having the ipad and iphone allows me to info-snack more and info-digest less. I spend more quality time partitioning my info-seeking behavior. I get to light info-snacking throughout the day and then section off times when I need to do heavy info-digesting on my ipad or intense info-processing on my laptop.

• I gave up on my livescribe pen. A while back, I wrote a blog post about how it was the ethnographer’s dream tool. It isn’t. I don’t think so. It doesn’t work for the ethnographer. At least someone like who always forgets it or LOSES it! yes I lost it. I lost it and then my friend sent me another one, and I lost that one too in between moving. Or at times I will have the pen but I will forget the notebook. I now use the recording device on the ipad or iphone. Or if I’m in China or Mexico I just use a simple Olympus audio recording device.

• I created on RSS feeds for all my blogs, www.triciawang.soup.io. Several friends said that they would appreciate it if they didn’t have to subscribe to each of my blogs. So there you go.

• I funnel www.triciawang.soup.io into facebook so that people can keep up with me if they only go to facebook primarily.

• I created a private twitter account (@triciathewolf) - where I post much more personal updates about my life. I tweet about the news or stuff I am researching on my public twitter account (@triciawang).

• I take pictures on my iphone all the time now, process them on the iphone with Shakeitphoto or CrossProcess and then send it as a an email to Pikchur. Pikchur reposts it to my flickr, private twitter, and facebook.

• I do a lot of flash- blogging from my ipad using Reeder and instapaper (instructions here). I write up my personal and longer form blog posts on my laptop.

How I manage reading my RSS feeds

• I don’t open my google reader on my laptop because it gives me the freakout and then I end up hours later wondering what happened to the world. So now I only view my RSS reader on my ipad.

• I prefer to use Reeder for my ipad RSS reader as opposed to Google Reader or Feedler or New Nets Wire because I like Reeder’s presentation of RSS feeds and its sharing option. It could improve its design but I like that I can email the entire article, twitter it, instapaper, Note in google Reader (which then sends to my Google Reader Shared Items and then is imported into Tricia’ Scrapbook), or open it in safari. But if you have a better suggestion please let me know!

• I import my instapaper’s RSS feed directly into Google Reader, and then I read my instapaper links on my ipad through Reeder. I prefer reading my instapaper feed in Google Reader because then I have all of Reeder’s sharing options! If I want to blog it, I open the link up in Safari and post it tumblr with the bookmarket or I click on Shareaholic. You need to first add the tumblr bookmarket or Shareaholic on your laptop’s safari, sync your ipad, and then you will be able to post it on your ipad.

• I stopped using Delicious and started bookmarking things with Google’s Note in Readershare and Google Reader. This creates a more visually pleasing presentation of my bookmarks. Then I import the my Google Reader Shared RSS feed into a blog-friendly format with Soup.io. The result is Tricia’ Scrapbook with individual links to each shared item. I prefer soup.io over tumblr in this case because tumblr only imports the title of the shared item, while soup.io will import the title with a description and photo (if it is in the post).

• I also import my Google Reader Shared RSS feed into Soup,io because the links in Google Reader Shared RSS feed are not presented with individual URLs. SO that’s why I import it into Soup.io. Tricia’ Scrapbook looks like I put a lot into work into it, but I really just click either my Note in Reader bookmarklet in my firefox or safari boolmark tool bar or I share it from my Reeder app on my ipad or I use Shareaholic . I have the Note in Reader bookmarklet installed on all the browsers on all my devices. Searching within Tricia’ Scrapbook or my shared items in my actual Google reader has been great - it searches just as well as Delicious and gives a better visual presentation of the search. I will still go into my delicious to search for what my friends are bookmarking.

My Wish List:

task management: I wish to find the dream task management tool - I’ve tried evernote but I couldnt’ totally get into it. Does anyone have any suggestions? I really do need one but just haven’t found something that keeps me coming back. Right now I use physical sticky notes whcih I am excited to do becasue geographic stability means that I have a WALL that I can see everyday. I also use google tasks and notes on the iphone.
I wish that I could find a better way to keep up with all the different ways my friends information and their lives.

keeping up with friends: All my friends share information in different ways and I’m struggling to remember it all. Some friends only post to facebook. Some post personal info onto their twitter accounts, which becomes hard to catch when their personal life updates are mixed into their tweets about the news or random stuff. Some friends blog.

keeping up with email: I can’t keep up with email. When is gmail going to make priority mail available to google app users? I need this!

Tumblr: I wish tumblr would improve it’s SEO. I wish I could cross-blog from flickr to tumblr.

ipad: I wish I could that I could have the option to only work on my ipad, especially when traveling. I wish that it had better file managment control and inter-app operability. I haven’t figured out yet how to download files on my ipad’s safari and then open it in goodreader or iAnnotate. You can save easily images to the built in photos app, but there is no built in app to handle downloaded files. It’s impossible to download files from my email and have any file control options like saving it to my dropbox or opening it in iAnnotate - right now I can only open it in goodreader. This is a really big problem that I would like resolved in the next OS update.

tracking: I wish that I could have a better system to track everything I’ve ever read - so now I’m on a trial of Together- thanks David!

language: I wish I had a better system to read articles in different languages and manage translation issues. I am still working on the best way to read articles in Mandarin and Spanish - I am not fluent in either language to read articles without having to look up words- I am not sure how I can do this on my ipad or iphone. I need an app that helps with this!
Instapaper: I wish instapaper would give as many options Reeder -I wish I could directly Note in Reader.
Reeder: I wish that Reeder gives better options for refreshing and looking at older articles. It also needs to offer the option to Share it to Tumblr.

How I disconnect:
well to begin with, like David I dont’ play video games. I have to try really hard not to download games that I like. I went through an ugly period of Katamari Damarcy addiction (The King of all Cosmos tickles me!). Now I have Katamari on my iphone and have not even played it yet - I’m kind afraid of what will happen if I even click on the app.

I don’t watch tv, movies, or documentaries -and this is something I would like to change. I miss becoming involved in a story. America’s Next Top Model is too boring and annoying for me to keep up with on Youtube. I got into Covert Affairs over the summer and now I think everyone is a spy. I can’t wait for Glee and Rupaul’s Drag Race to come back on.

I made a commitment to myself this summer that I would sleep more, eat when hungry, and dance. I did pretty well with those goals this summer, but I have a lot of room for improvement on the sleeping and eating front. I find that I am no longer able to function on no sleep or 4 hours - I actually need 8 hours to feel good - it’s taken a few years to accept this. I also need to eat every other hour to maintain my metabolism. And dancing making me so happy that I feel drunk, high, and cracked out in the best way possible. I try to keep my laptop on my desk and use my ipad on the couch so that I can relax my body and mainly my neck! I am spending more time with Elle the Dog and making a big effort to take the weekends off to relax, hang out with friends, and not feel guilty when I am having fun. I feel more at peace that I ever have with my new routines.

I’m kinda obessesed (no thanks to David Sasaski!) about writing about my information work flow. So here’s a post on how I manage academic workflow and how I flash-blog.