Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Jott This Blog

I haven't had so much time lately to blog, as this project I'm working on has been quite grueling.

I find my best time for thinking up excellent blog entries is late at night when I'm lying in bed. That is, of course, if I'm even awake after the kids have finally fallen asleep.

Now I'm trying to maximize my time on the drive to work. Today, especially, my ideas are fresh from a restless night last night.

So thanks to Michelle Martin for turning me on to Jott.

jott_screen_3I am calling this blog entry in on my cellphone as I drive. When I arrive at work, it will be in my inbox. I'll simply have to cut and paste it into my blog tool, reformat it, and do some heavy editing. And then, presto magic, I have a new blog post.

It's taken a little getting used to.

Things I'm learning:

  • I have to talk much more slowly. Otherwise Jott doesn't get what I'm saying.
  • Jargon can be hard for Jott to translate. But it does a pretty good job and inserts [...] when it's not sure just what you mumbled.
  • You can only jott in 30 second chunks. I have way more to say than that. The answer is to immediately jott yourself again (and you don't have to redial the number, the lovely Jott Attendant asks you who you want to Jott when a previous jott is finished).

I arrived at work this morning to find 9 Jotts in my inbox -- fodder for a few blog posts at least.

(There's much more that you can do with Jott -- send Jotts to friends, send yourself reminders or txt msgs, create to do lists. I'm just scratching the surface here.)

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yikes, so now I have to worry about people dictating blog posts into their cell phones as they drive???

Good thing I work from home 75% of the time. I'll let you blogging-while-driving maniacs battle it out on the roadways without my involvement. :)

Cammy Bean said...

I know, it's a bit ridiculous. But we all have headsets, right?

At least I'm not txting while driving...

Practice safe blogging while driving!

Anonymous said...

Cammy--this is so awesome! I'm blogging you the regular way right now!

Anonymous said...

I picked up the same tip from Michele, and while I haven't used Jott to blog, it's a terrific way to "write" a note to yourself without endangering too many other drives.

Chris, your worries are justified -- even with a headset, talking on the phone takes up a lot of mental bandwidth. And, frankly, most of us aren't that great as drivers, anyway.

Tracy Parish said...

What a great tool? Thanks for sharing. I'm going to have to give it a try. I'm most excited to see an application like this available for the US and Canada. I'm sad when we get forgotten about many of the neat new tools out there (ie: iphone, sob).

John David Roberts said...

Smooth! I had heard of Jott, but not this application. I have used my mp3 player to record and develop ideas during long drives. Turns out that saying them aloud is the most important part of the process, though. Jott removes the embarrassment of listening to yourself.

One similar service that can cut out the editing if you're feeling very coherent and broadcast ready: Utterz. You can mash up audio, video, text from your phone and blast it straight to your blog (i.e., Blogger and Wordpress).

Do I use it to natter from the car? What do you take me for?

Cammy Bean said...

I'm definitely not so coherent that I would blog straight from the car...that editing step is critical for me.

And I'm not sure if Jott is the right tool for long drives when you want to really sort through and develop ideas. That 30 second limit could get annoying.

Tracy...I'm glad this tool can be of use to you in Canada! Let us know how it works for you.

And back to Chris...let me just say that I've actually only done this a couple of times and I've tried to keep my wild hand gestures to a minimum...safety first..."without endangering too many other drivers" as Dave says.

John H. Curry said...

Interesting idea. I do use JOTT, but usually more for reminding myself of things I have to do. I like this idea though of blogging via JOTT. I wonder what other tools there are that might function the same way.

Anonymous said...

Wow! Your post leaves me in the dust. I didn't know such technology existed. I commute long distances and use the time to read / listen to audio books. My mind is filled with ideas. Jott sounds like a great way to capture those ideas, especially if they can later appear in text form where I can edit and restructure.
Thanks for sharing.

Anonymous said...

Reading all the comments, and knowing about Jott's 30-second limit, I'm musing about ways to harness the potential.

I'm given to longer posts (and longer comments), so perhaps this is one way to channel thoughts into a particular form. It's like one definition of a sestina:

If you drape thirty-nine iron chains around your arms and shoulders and then do a dance, the whole point of the dance will be to seem light and effortless. (Robert Francis)

So: can I mull over some idea and express what I think in 30 seconds -- coherently?

Cammy Bean said...

@ Bill...delighted to have turned you on to a new tool. Let us know how you use it!

@ Dave...I like where you're going with this. Think "speed blogging" or perhaps, the pecha kucha of blogging.

Anonymous said...

Hi Cammy, looks a great tool. Frustrating it is not available here in the UK. Will see if we can use Skype to access.

Cammy Bean said...

Steve...let us know if you have any success using it with Skype. Although that kind of limits flexibility that the cell phone offers. Richard Nantel (Brandon Hall) recently posted about his experience with another voice recognition tool Dragon Naturally Speaking that might give you more power if you're working from your desk rather than a phone. Unfortunately, it's not a free product...

Anonymous said...

Cammy,
Long time no talk! I came across your blog via a serpentine path while doing some research this morning. I read your Jott entry, and within 10 minutes I was Jotting away. This app rocks--thanks for the tip!