I was at a meeting last week in a corporate building that has just recently been finished. Outside of each conference and meeting room is a small touch panel display that was displaying a calendar for the day.

I did a quick search for the manufacturer and found more options that are available from AMX.

After seeing the calendars, and thinking about some current challenges in my own family, here’s some functionality I’d like to see, and these kinds of panels in each room could really make it a reality. There’s also some entertainment features to take advantage of as well.

• each kid’s room has a panel that I could list events on their calendar. Easily put things like sports practices, upcoming tests, doctor’s appointments, birthday parties, etc.
• each kid’s bedroom panel could display a list of “To Do” items. Similar to Outlook calendar tasks, these could be set to automatically occur and repeat as needed.
• each bedroom panel could serve as a message center for members of the household. The messages could consist of a view of their email Inbox, voice-mail messages, and even private messages among family members.
• in conjunction with a home media server, the ability to access and play music into any room independently of the other rooms, including the ability to play the same music throughout the entire house

All of this type of information management can probably already be done, but what I think is missing is the management of the information in the first place. I should be able to add and manage tasks for each person (and their associated panel) as needed from any Internet connection. Each device could be wired into a home network or connected wirelessly for existing construction homes.

I’d love to be able to send a message to greet my kids when they get home from school, remind them not to forget to take out the kitty litter and clean their rooms. It would also be nice to be reminded of their upcoming math test when I get home and know I’ll be spending some time with them on their homework.

Post from: EveryJoe

A Few Thoughts on Family Information Tech

Microsoft has teamed with with The Smith Family Learning for Life Program to help raise money for education of Australia’s children.

Microsoft will donate $1 for ever time the video is shown, so all you need to do is watch the video yourself and sit back and enjoy the notion that you just gave some money to a worthy charity and it didn’t cost you a penny.

The video reminds you of some of the great features of Microsoft Office 2007, but for me personally they’re not the features I’d use the most. However, the video also seems to be focused for an audience of kids and families so they’re probably more of the features they would end up using.

Post from: EveryJoe

Watch This Microsoft Office Video and Be Generous For FREE