Research & Collaboration Tools

for Students, Staff & Faculty:

Creating a Modern Memex

Rich McCue​, Systems Administrator

University of Victoria Libraries
http://richmccue.com​ ​rmccue@uvic.ca

Published: June 2012

Updated: October 2015

Download in other formats​ (PDF, epub, mobi)

Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License​.

Executive Summary

The increasing volume of digital information which has become part of the researcher’s work is
making the task of capturing that information, organizing it and eventually collaborating with others
more difficult. Electronic information in multiple formats sitting in multiple silos of data presents
another challenge to researchers who often have difficulty finding a specific piece of information in a
timely fashion.

The two major benefits that come from effectively using digital capture, search and collaboration tools,
are first, an increase in the speed and second, improved quality of the research being performed. Less
time is spent looking for information that has already been identified or created, so that more time can
be spent in analyzing and associating disparate pieces of information. Modern electronic research tools,
like ​Zotero​ and ​Evernote​, make the collection of research data, and collaboration between colleagues
possible, which that in the past would have been difficult, expensive, or even impossible. They also
save large amounts of time citing and creating bibliographies. Free voice and group video
conferencing services, like ​Google Hangouts​ and ​Skype​, can facilitate real time collaboration at a
fraction of the cost in time and money of flying members of a research team to a central location.
Online collaboration tools like ​Google Docs​ and ​Microsoft OneDrive​ can greatly facilitate group
document creation and editing, in real time if needed.

Once researchers have the appropriate software to manage their data and to help them collaborate, they
need to make sure that they also have the appropriate hardware and infrastructure to take full advantage
of the benefits the new software will give them. Access to an un-congested high speed internet
connection is a must for video and voice conferencing, as well as for real time document editing. An
average desktop computer with two monitors (or one very large monitor), instead of the traditional
single monitor, will give researchers a ​10% + boost in productivity​. Mobile devices, including laptops,
tablets and smartphones can be of great value in allowing researchers to conduct their research and
collaborate with colleagues wherever and whenever they desire. With more and more research
materials being created and remaining digital, the backup of research data is becoming increasingly
important. Fortunately, easy to use online backup services are making it simple to automatically backup
all of a researcher’s data.

Whether they realize it or not, most researchers are struggling with the mountains of digital data that
they are accumulating during their studies and careers. If shown the tools available to them to find,
capture and collaborate, many, if not most, will be able to use these tools to increase their productivity
and effectively manage and collaborate with their data.

Page 2 of 35
Table of Contents
Executive Summary
Table of Contents
1.0 Modern Research Challenges
1.1 Proliferation of Data Formats and Silos
1.2 Capturing Electronic Data
1.3 Collaborating in a Digital World
1.4 Organizing Citation & Bibliographic Information
2.0 A Manhattan Project Sized Problem
3.0 Capturing, Storing and Retrieving Digital Documents
3.1 Capture Anything, Access Anywhere and Find Things Fast
3.2 Zotero the Social Citation Manager
3.3 What To Do With The Leftover Paper?
3.4 Copyright and Cloud Security Considerations
4.0 Finding What You Want When You Want
4.1 Manila File Folders
4.2 Desktop Search
5.0 Research Collaboration in the 21st Century
5.1 Voice, Video and Desktop Conferencing
5.2 Real Time Collaborative Document Editing
5.2 File Sharing and Document Version Control
6.0 The Right Hardware for Researchers
6.1 A Second Monitor for Increased Productivity
6.2 Mobile Devices & Software
7.0 Backing Up Your Digital Life
8.0 Conclusions
Bibliography
Appendix A Table of Software & Hardware Discussed

Page 3 of 35
1.0 Modern Research Challenges
The digital age presents a double edged sword to students and researchers. On the one hand students
now have almost instantaneous access to huge amounts of information and data that past generations
could only dream of. On the other hand, researchers now have to sift and sort through those mountains
of information and use their judgment to determine what is credible and useful. Then the researcher
must store that information in a easy-to-find manner, then find it again when writing a report or paper.

1.1 Proliferation of Data Formats and Silos

The first challenge is electronic information in multiple formats sitting in multiple silos of data.1 While
this is not in itself a problem, it does make finding a specific piece of information much more difficult
than it would be if all the data was in the same format, sitting in a single data repository. The reason for
the different formats and different silos of data goes back to the desire to have the best tool possible for
a particular job. Having the best tools is important, but when one can more easily find information
from one's own organization through a Google search than via the organization's intranet, one knows
that there is a problem. Fortunately operating systems vendors are making the task of finding data on
your computer easier than it was in the past.

Illustration 1: File storage?2

1
“From a technology viewpoint, silos are managed by computer systems that do not provide efficient machine
communication systems to other computers.” - Anon. 2012. “Information Silo.” Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_silo​.
2
Picture Source: Google Docs

Page 4 of 35
1.2 Capturing Electronic Data
The second challenge is that many researchers have a hard time capturing electronic information in a
format that enables them to easily find the information months or years later. Often the default method
that researchers fall back on is to to convert digital content back into an analog format by printing it
out.

This was recently driven home to the author by an experience in a professor's office. While working on
her computer he noticed a six inch stack of paper on one of her desks. The top sheet was a printout of
an interesting article from an online newspaper. She apparently printed the article so that she could
have a copy to reference in one of her future papers. The author couldn't help but think that she would
have a hard time finding the article once it found it's way into the middle of the pile of similar articles.
Why was she building this mountain of paper? Not long ago there was a dearth of quality tools
available for capturing and searching electronic data. Fortunately it is now much easier to capture web
pages, PDF documents and other electronic documents, so that they can be annotated and then easily
retrieved and searched at a later date.

1.3 Collaborating in a Digital World

The third challenge, collaborating with colleagues, should be much easier now that there is a
proliferation of personal computers, tablets and smartphones, all connected to high speed internet and
research network connections.3 While the computers, network and software have been available for
over a decade now, the training for end-users, particularly in the humanities, has been lacking. A
revealing example of this is the professors who casually complained to the author about a collaboration
problem. "My colleagues and I are working on a paper, but it is difficult to keep track of who has the
most recent version. We end up having to do a lot of integration work when one of us inadvertently
works on an older version of the document." Fortunately there are now better ways to work
collaboratively on documents than e-mailing them back and forth.

1.4 Organizing Citation & Bibliographic Information

The bane of a researcher’s existence is the tedious, but important, process of properly citing their work.
Citation formatting is a particularly tedious task, especially for under-graduates who are new to the
research process. A closely related, but similarly dismal, task is that of creating a comprehensive
bibliography for the paper or report. The good news is that there are a number of tools available to
make citation and bibliographic work quick and relatively painless.

2.0 A Manhattan Project Sized Problem

Vannevar Bush saw the problem of information silos first hand. The year was 1945, and Bush was the
chairman of the National Defence Research Committee in Washington, DC.4 As director of the
committee that controlled the Manhattan Project, he was painfully aware of how difficult it could be to
find specific information in the vast stores of paper and microfilm that had been accumulated in the

3
Research networks like ​CANARIE​ in Canada and ​Internet2​ in the United States of America.
4
Anon. 2012. “National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics.” Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Advisory_Committee_for_Aeronautics​.
Page 5 of 35
course of the project.5 The information was there, but to find it and to get it into the hands of the person
who needed it proved difficult at times.

The Manhattan Project was nearly complete when Vannevar revealed his vision of a device that would
allow researchers to access their accumulated store of knowledge in his essay "As We May Think".6
This was a device which would allow an individual to store "all his books, records, and
communications, and which is mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and
flexibility. It is an enlarged intimate supplement to his memory." It would also automatically cross
reference one work with another. He called this device a "Memex"7, and it was to be an analog
computer that used microfilm for it's storage medium, four quick selector microfilm readers for access,
and one microfilm scanner to capture documents. It came complete with a dual monitor display in the
middle of the desk and push button controls on the right-hand side to control the device. Unfortunately,
Vannevar's prototypes were plagued with technical problems and never functioned reliably enough to
be useful. The microchip and computer graphical user interface were still over forty years away from
becoming mainstream.

Illustration​ 2: An artist's rendering of a Memex device.8

Fortunately for us, technology has progressed beyond the mechanical devices that Bush prototyped for
storing and retrieving information, and today's computer and communications devices realize Bush's 70
year old vision. A modern networked personal computer with two monitors, an optical scanner and
video camera is most closely analogous to his Memex. Unfortunately despite these technological
advancements, many researchers are still struggling with problems that he was trying to solve so many
years ago. Happily those concerned are now much better equipped to be successful.

5
Anon. 2012. “Manhattan Project.” Wikipedia. ​http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan_Project​.
6
Bush, Vannevar. 1945. “As We May Think.” The Atlantic, July.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1945/07/as-we-may-think/3881/​.
7
Anon. 2012. “Memex.” Wikipedia. ​http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memex​.
8
Anon. 2012. “Telecollaboration: Beyond Memex and NLS.” Telecollaboration Research.
http://www.cs.brown.edu/stc/resea/telecollaboration/story.html​.
Page 6 of 35
Illustration​ 3: A modern laptop with a second monitor - Ideal for Researchers dealing with digital information.
P​icture source9

3.0 Capturing, Storing and Retrieving Digital Documents

Capturing electronic data from online resources without resorting to printing it out was the second
research issue identified above. While printing an electronic article will preserve it for the researcher,
once a large number of articles are printed out, the issue becomes the difficulty of finding the article
when needed. Shortly after the new millennium began, a new breed of software emerged to meet the
need for capturing and organizing digital data in it’s native electronic format. These software programs
and related hardware don't look like Vannevar Bush's Memex, but they do most of the things he wanted
the Memex to do.

3.1 Capture Anything, Access Anywhere and Find Things Fast10

While there are a number of software packages and services available, the market leader for general
purpose web research assistant software is ​Evernote​.11 Evernote allows the user to capture digital
content, including web pages, PDF files or snippets of web pages, organize them, annotate them, share
them, publish them and search them. No more worrying about whether or not the web page being
looked at will still be online next year (or next week). Content can also be captured on mobile devices
like smartphones, and that data is automatically synchronized back to any computer that has Evernote
installed on it. Mobile content can be text, as well as pictures and audio. Very helpfully, pictures of text
are made keyword searchable, so that you can take, for example, a photo of a white board, and
Evernote will make the text searchable not only on your smartphone, but also on your computer. Here
is a ​short video that demonstrates the basic capabilities of Evernote​.12
9
Picture source: Apple Inc., ​http://store.apple.com/ca/product/MC914LL/A
10
Anon. “One Account. Many Devices.” Evernote. ​http://www.evernote.com/about/download/​.
11
Anon. “One Account. Many Devices.” Evernote. ​http://www.evernote.com/about/download/​.
12
Anon. 2010. Evernote Introduction: Mac. ​http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlOLXWvaIy0​.
Page 7 of 35
There are three ways to use Evernote. The first is via a web browser plug-in for Chrome, Firefox or
Internet Explorer to copy web pages or parts of web pages. This is the way the author captures data
most frequently. When on a web page that needs to be saved, simply press the Evernote icon in the
web browser's tool bar. Evernote also captures the available metadata from web pages, including the
original web address, author, keywords and capture date, so that this information can be used as needed
for citations it in research documents. Additionally all the information in an Evernote account can be
accessed through the Evernote web application.

Second, Evernote can capture data from mobile devices, including photos and text. Metadata for photos
includes, date and geographic location of where the picture was taken. Note taking on tablets and
smartphones is another popular use for the mobile program. Researchers can also search for any
information in their Evernote database on their mobile devices. Mobile versions of Evernote are
available for iOS, Android, BlackBerry and Windows 7 devices.13

Lastly, a feature rich Evernote desktop client is available for Windows and Mac computers, and the
web client works well for ChromeBooks and Linux. Markup (with the digital equivalent of a yellow
highlighter) is available to annotate captured and locally stored web pages in Evernote. Researchers can
add their own metadata to items in the form of tags, or they can put them in “notebooks” to help keep
things organized. This can be invaluable when looking at the document a year from now and having a
hard time remembering why it was so important when captured.

Illustration 4: Evernote - Capture anything, access anywhere, find things fast14

Evernote also makes it easy to share research with colleagues or the public. Folders along with
comments can be published to the user's Evernote page as new content is added. Published items and
folders can also be sent via e-mail to interested colleagues.

Microsoft makes a strong competitor to Evernote, called ​OneNote​.15 While OneNote has many of the
same features as Evernote, it does not have native applications for as many platforms as Evernote.
Interestingly, one exception is the OneNote iPhone app. That said, the close integration to Microsoft
Office may be appealing to Office users on Windows computers. Both OneNote and Evernote are free

13
Anon. “One Account. Many Devices.” Evernote. ​http://www.evernote.com/about/download/​.
14
Picture source: ​http://evernote.com/
15
Anon. “OneNote 2016.” OneNote 2016. ​https://www.onenote.com/​.
Page 8 of 35
for users to download and use.

3.2 Zotero the Social Citation Manager

While Evernote and OneNote are excellent general purpose research assistants, ​Zotero’s feature set​ is
aimed squarely at the academic researcher.16 Zotero captures much more citation relevant information
for each web page or document placed in it. More importantly for a researcher, it installs plug-ins for
Microsoft Word and ​LibreOffice17 that allow researchers to quickly and easily cite documents they
have captured. Zotero also works well with other word processors like Google Docs and Apple Pages,
even though it is not as closely integrated. Finally, when the paper is complete, Zotero will create the
bibliography, literally at the click of a button, based on the footnotes in the paper.

Illustration 5: About Zotero18

In short, Zotero assists researchers by helping them do the following:

● Capture Web Pages & Citation information easily while in a web browser.
● Captures other files like PDF & word documents.
● Take notes on research materials as they are captured.
● If desired, Sync, Share and Collaborate on libraries with other researchers.
● Export formatted citations and bibliographies to papers, articles, books or websites, in the

16
Anon. “About Zotero.” Zotero. ​http://www.zotero.org/​.
17
Anon. “About LibreOffice.” LibreOffice. ​http://www.libreoffice.org/​.
18
Anon. “About Zotero.” Zotero. ​http://www.zotero.org/​.

Page 9 of 35
 bibliographic style of choice.
● Search all the data and metadata in a Zotero library quickly and easily.

Here is a ​short video​ that highlights the main features of Zotero, and shows it’s easy-to-use interface.19

Zotero can also be a real time saver when working with physical books. Instead of typing in the
bibliographic data for a book, simply search for the book in a library catalog, and then click on the
small Zotero book icon in the URL field (see ​illustration 6​ below) and the bibliographic information is
automatically saved in the Zotero library.

Illustration 6: The Zotero book icon.

In the past Zotero was only available as a FireFox plug-in, but since the release of Zotero 3 in early
2012, Zotero has also available as a native application for Mac, Windows and Linux computers.
Browser plug-ins are available for FireFox, Chrome & Safari.20 While the range of operating system
and browser support is impressive, currently (as of early 2015) there are no native Zotero apps or web
apps available for mobile devices available. It is possible to browse your Zotero library via a mobile
web browser, however the website is not optimized for mobile devices, and is difficult to use on small
form factor devices.

Other popular and free to use commercial academic citation tools include ​Mendelay21 and ​RefME22. As
an Open Source project, Zotero has no licencing cost for users. It is being developed by ​George Mason
University​, and funded by grants from the ​Andrew W. Mellon Foundation​, the ​Institute of Museum and
19
Anon. 2009. Zotero 1.5 Screencast. ​http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLi3ZhUQDhs​.
20
Anon. “Download Zotero.” Zotero. ​http://www.zotero.org/support/3.0​.
21
Anon. “Mendelay.” ​https://www.mendeley.com​.
22
Anon. “RefME.” ​https://www.refme.com/​.
Page 10 of 35
Library Services​, and the ​Alfred P. Sloan Foundation​.

For most academic researchers, there will probably be a place for both Zotero and Evernote in their
research work flow, as they have complementary strengths and weakness that lend themselves to
different types of research.

3.3 What To Do With The Leftover Paper?

With the ability to capture electronic research materials, and conduct full text searches on them, what is
to be done with leftover paper research documents? They could be left in their non​-​digital state, but
this would leave them outside of the searchable data repository that has been created, and makes them
more difficult to find when needed. They are thus less valuable because they are less accessible.
Another option is to digitize the documents.

Illustration 7: Scanning both sides of documents in one pass & then converting them to PDF format so they are
full text search-able.

Digitizing Documents sounds more intimidating than it really is. Scanners can now be purchased that
will scan both sides of a document in one pass and convert it into PDF format on the fly. For smaller
jobs, most smartphones are capable of taking a high quality picture of a page, and then converting it
into a PDF document.

Why PDF and not JPEG or some other format? Because ​Adobe Acrobat software​,23 and ​Google
Drive24 both have built-in support for recognizing text on the page. This means that scanned PDF
documents can be included in full text searches through a desktop search, or a Zotero or Evernote
search if the document has been imported into either of those applications. Researchers will have
fewer things to look for in their hard copy files, and more documents that can be instantly searched
from their computers or mobile devices.

Anyone who has been involved in a digitization project knows the time it can take for a program to
recognize the characters on a scanned page. Saving to PDF format gets around this problem because
the OCR can happen in the background after the scan has taken place so that documents can be scanned

23
Anon. “About Acrobat Pro.” Adobe Acrobat. ​http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobatpro.html​.
24
​Anon. “About Google Drive.” Google Drive. ​https://drive.google.com/start​.
Page 11 of 35
as fast as the hardware is capable of scanning. One thing to remember, however, is that the quality of
the original document will affect the quality of the character recognition. If scanning a photocopy of a
fax, the character recognition of printed text will probably not be very accurate once it is in a PDF
document. Handwritten characters and drawings may or may not be recognized depending on the
legibility of the writing. Nevertheless, the vast majority of documents can be converted into a digital
format and thereby be made searchable. From a researcher's perspective digital Nirvana has almost
been reached.

The cost of beginning to digitize paper can be very low. For example, an excellent iPhone “document
scanner” app for iPhones is ​JotNot Pro​, which costs only $2.25 An equally strong and free Android app
is ​CamScanner​.26 For your desktop computer or laptop, a quality double sided scanner, like the ​Fujitsu
SnapScan s1500​, bundled with Adobe Acrobat Pro now costs about $400.27

Illustration 8: JotNot Pro

25
Anon. “About JotNot Pro.” JotNot Pro. ​http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/jotnot-scanner-pro/id307868751?mt=8​.
26
Anon. “CamScanner.” CamScanner. ​https://www.camscanner.com/
27
Anon. “About Fujitsu SnapScan S1500.” Fujitsu Global.
http://www.fujitsu.com/global/services/computing/peripheral/scanners/product/s1500/​.
Page 12 of 35
3.4 Copyright and Cloud Security Considerations
It is important to remember than when using apps like JotNot or Evernote, that all the usual copyright
laws and regulations need to be respected, just as a researcher would when using a photocopier. That
said, many jurisdictions have “fair use” or “fair dealing” provisions in their copyright laws that allow
for limited copying under specific circumstances. For example, the principle of fair use has been
describe as the following: “In United States copyright law, fair use is a doctrine that permits limited use
of copyrighted material without acquiring permission from the rights holders. Examples of fair use
include commentary, criticism, news reporting, research, teaching, library archiving and scholarship.”28
Researchers, if they have not already, should become familiar with copyright legislation in the
jurisdiction where they live.

Cloud services raise interesting security and privacy issues that researchers need to be aware of. For
example, data stored on servers in the United States are subject to the Patriot Act,29 no matter where the
owner of the data resides. American cloud services like Dropbox, Evernote and Google, who store
their client’s data in the United States, can be compelled by law enforcement officials to give them
their client’s data, without notifying the client. Depending on the type of research being done, this may
or may not be a concern. In some parts of the world, like Canada and the EU, local legislation
prohibits public organizations from storing of personal data outside of their boundaries. A specific
example of this is the province of British Columbia, in Canada, who specifically amended their
legislation to prohibit the storage of health records outside of Canada.30

4.0 Finding What You Want When You Want

Document management can be as simple as an organized structure into which files may be placed, or as
complex as a system that requires the entry of metadata for easier retrieval. This paper will not look at
large enterprise systems, but at the familiar file folder system of organizing documents on a computer's
hard drive, or on a file server, as the case may be.

4.1 Manila File Folders

Below, ​illustration 9​ is the file structure of a typical shared hard drive. The organizing principle that it
uses is file name sorted alphabetically. The larger the subject area is, the more sub folders are created,
again by subject, until the number of documents in each folder is reduced to a manageable number.
This method of organization works very well when looking for a key word in a file name, but if looking
for documents authored by a particular person, or for a particular word inside a file, the organization
actually works against the user as it is necessary to look through many folders to try to find the desired
documents. This can be a huge time waster if the document is important enough that it ​has​ to be found.

28
Anon. “Fair Use.” Wikipedia. ​http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use​.
29
Gallagher, Sean. 2011. “Ars Technica - Law & Disorder.” Law & Disorder.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/12/patriot-act-and-privacy-laws-take-a-bite-out-of-us-cloud-business.ars​.
30
Munn, Larry. “British Columbia’s Privacy Laws Amended In Response to the USA Patriot Act.” Clark Wilson LLP.
http://www.cwilson.com/services/18-resource-centre/190-british-columbias-privacy-laws-amended-in-response-to-the-usa-p
atriot-act.html​.
Page 13 of 35
 Illustration 9: Traditional File Management.

4.2 Desktop Search

The first research problem identified above was data sitting in a number of different silos (e.g. file
system, email, web applications) and in different formats (e.g. Word, Excel, PDF, HTML), sometimes
in multiple formats in the same silo! Fortunately, starting with Windows Vista in 200731 and OS X
10.4 in 200532, useful desktop search tools have been included in the major desktop operating systems.
Before 2007, Google also offered desktop search software, but have recently discontinued it.33 These
desktop search engines run in the background on the computer and index every file that the user
creates or puts on the hard drive. Once a file is indexed, the desktop search engine can perform a
keyword search on the whole document seemingly instantaneously. As the keywords are typed in they
start to display the documents that it thinks most closely match the search in real time. This makes it
quick and easy to refine the search. One must experience it to appreciate how well it works. Here is a
video that shows ​Windows 7 Desktop Search in action​.34

31
Anon. 2012. “Windows Vista.” Wikipedia. ​http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Vista​.
32
Anon. 2012. “Spotlight (software).” Wikipedia. ​http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotlight_(software)​.
33
Anon. 2011. “Inside Google Desktop.” Google Desktop Update.
http://googledesktop.blogspot.com/2011/09/google-desktop-update.html​.
34
Anon. 2009. Windows 7 - Windows Search. ​http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkQ7XSlC3qw​.
Page 14 of 35
 Illustration 10: OS X Desktop Search (Spotlight)35

Desktop Search makes it so much easier to find documents that there is no reason not to use it.
Researchers, however, should be aware of some of the limitations of both Mac and Windows desktop
search tools. First of all, if you are connected to network drives at home or in a workplace, desktop
search tools do not automatically index and search share drives. On the other hand, if you use a utility
like ​Dropbox36, ​iCloud37, ​Google Drive​ or ​OneDrive38 the the search tools work very well, as those
services put a copy of your files on your local hard drive, thus making them searchable. Secondly,
desktop search tools do not necessarily search the data in non​-​Apple or non-Microsoft applications. For
example, users of the popular ​Evernote39 program cannot search data they have stored in that
application using the Windows desktop search, but instead have to use the built in Evernote search tool
(OS X desktop search does not have this limitation). This may or may not be a problem, depending on
how the search tools are used by the researcher. An interesting work around that some third party tools
like Evernote are employing, is to create browser plug-ins to allow Google web searches to include
their local application data in the results. While not an optimal search method for local data, it has
proved helpful to the author.

Another issue that is becoming more prominent with the increasing use and reliance on webmail40, is
35
Robert Harder. 2011. “Spotlight Searching at the Command Line.” Robert Harder, Think Harder Not Smarter.
http://blog.iharder.net/2011/04/05/spotlight-searching-at-the-command-line/​.
36
​https://www.dropbox.com/
37
​https://www.icloud.com/
38
​http://onedrive.live.com/
39
​http://evernote.com/
40
McCue, Rich. “UVic Law Student Technology Survey 2011.” Rich’s Random Thoughts.
http://richmccue.com/2011/09/14/uvic-law-student-technology-survey-2011/​.
Page 15 of 35
that desktop search engines do not index and search webmail data. For this reason, even if the
researcher uses a web interface for their email, they should seriously consider setting up a native mail
client to download their email locally (typically using the IMAP email protocol) to make it visible to
their desktop search engine. On OS X the built-in mail client can be used to access webmail services
like Gmail, and with Windows, Outlook is a good choice. Here is a video that shows how to setup
Gmail on the OS X mail client​.41

5.0 Research Collaboration in the 21st Century

There are many different aspects of research collaboration. Traditionally researchers have collaborated
with their colleagues by having face to face discussions, exchanging letters, e-mail and talking on the
telephone. Depending on how physically close colleagues are to each other they would use each of
these methods of communication to a greater or lesser extent.

New products and services have not only made it easier, less time consuming and less expensive to
collaborate with colleagues at a distance, but have also reduced the amount of time and effort it takes to
undertake collaborative research or paper writing with colleagues who are locally based.

5.1 Voice, Video and Desktop Conferencing

For many professors, the telephone is still their primary means of real time communication with their
research partners. But for a number of reasons, younger researchers are opting to use more feature​-​rich
digital tools instead of telephones.

Illustration 11: Basic Skype features.

Skype​ is a widely used program for making free voice, conference and video calls over the internet to
anyone else who is also running Skype on their computer or mobile device.42 Best of all the software is
free to download and it’s basic features are also free to use. Skype does offer some fee based services,
like calling to land lines or cell phones, and multi-point video conferencing. On the other hand Skype
to Skype voice and video calls are free. Skype also allows you to share your desktop with others which
can be useful for reviewing documents with colleagues in real time, showing PowerPoint presentations
and reviewing web based materials together. Other Skype features include:

● File transfers: send that file on the screen to the person being talked to.

41
Anon. 2011. Mac OS X Lion 101: Setting up a Mail Account on Apple Mail 5.0.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogA3xA2aXy8​.
42
Anon. “About Skype.” Skype. ​http://www.skype.com/intl/en-us/features/​.
Page 16 of 35
 ● Security: Skype automatically encrypts everything before sending it through the internet.
● Chat: For long distance communications, Skype is arguably easier to use than the international
long distance telephone system. Skype also provides a fee based service for using Skype to
make calls to a regular telephone for colleagues who do not have access to high speed internet.
● Translation Services​: Translates conversations into a limited number of languages in near real
time.

Google Talk and ​Google Hangouts43 are newer products and are not yet as widely used as Skype, but
they offer all of the features that Skype has, plus a few extras that may be useful for some researchers.
First of all, for a group of researchers, Google Hangouts allows researchers to conduct private or public
video conference with up to ten people at one time, and the option to broadcast to thousands via
Google+ and YouTube.44 Skype also offers group video conferencing, but at least one user needs to be
a paying user of Skype, and there is no Skype facility to broadcast the meeting beyond ten people.

Another feature built into Google Hangouts is the ability to not only share the​ ​view of a computer
desktop or windows (similar to Skype), but to share a Google Document, and allow participants to
co-edit the document in real time. Here is a video that gives a brief ​demonstration of the main
collaboration features of Google Hangouts​, including co-editing documents while videoconferencing.45

Illustration 12: Google Hangouts.

43
Anon. “About Google Hangouts.” Google Plus Help.
http://support.google.com/plus/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1215273​.
44
Anon. “Hangouts On Air.” Google+ Support.
http://support.google.com/plus/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1669903&rd=1​.
45
Anon. 2011. Google Hangouts with Extras: A Brief Demonstration. ​http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SHXOjTYewo​.
Page 17 of 35
Google Hangouts and Skype are both available on iPhone, iPad and Android devices for when the
researcher finds her or himself away from a computer. Both support audio and video calls, and Google
Hangouts supports multi person video calls for free.

5.2 Real Time Collaborative Document Editing

The ability to have a central, secure location available over the internet to store master copies of
documents can help research groups avoid a lot of coordination headaches. Many groups of researchers
are still using e-mail to distribute documents for editing. While this is a great improvement over
mailing or faxing documents, it does introduce the problem of knowing who has the most current
version of the document or documents. There are few things more frustrating than putting significant
time into working on a document, and then finding out that someone else has also done significant
work on the same section of the document, necessitating a time consuming manual merging of the
documents.

There are several products available that allow groups to share and edit documents over the internet.
Some of of the more popular products include, ​Google Docs46, ​Microsoft OneDrive47, ​Zoho Office48
and ​Microsoft 36549. They not only allow for the sharing of documents, but they also give groups the
ability to co-edit documents in real time from any internet connected computer. This helps groups
avoid the duplicate editing of documents, and also allows more than one researcher to edit the
document at the same time. If a particular document is important to a member of the group, he/she can
“subscribe” to that document so that they are notified by e-mail any time someone edits the document.
Here is a video50 that shows some of the key advantages of collaboration services. The document
management features alone are often sufficiently valuable to convince many groups to use them, but
there are additional features that are also useful to research groups.

46
Anon. “About Google Docs.” Google Docs Help. ​http://support.google.com/docs/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=49008​.
47
Anon. “About Onedrive.” Microsoft Onedrive. ​http://onedrive.live.com/​.
48
Anon. “About Zoho Office.” Zoho Office. ​http://www.zoho.com/​.
49
Anon. “About Office 365.” Microsoft Office 365. ​http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/​.
50
Anon. 2010. Introducing a New Google Docs. ​http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_hJ3R8jEZM​.
Page 18 of 35
 Illustration 13: Google Docs. Two users co-editing a document & it’s comments in real time.

Basic version control functionality is built into all the products mentioned above. This feature makes it
easy to see how a document has evolved over time, and allows the group to recover sections of the
document that may have been removed or modified at some point in the editing process. The need for
version control typically increases exponentially with the number of authors editing a document.

Illustration 14: Google Docs. Version Control.

Another feature that most collaboration suites include is an integrated commenting system for threaded
discussions about a particular document, or individual comments about a specific block of text. These
tools can be very helpful in allowing all participants to read what others in the group think, and then
weigh in with their own positions, without modifying the text of the document.
Page 19 of 35
The collaboration suites all have basic calendaring tools so that groups can keep track of important
dates and milestones. Task managers can help a group assign responsibilities for research tasks, and
then keep track of their status. Different privileges for elements of the collaboration suite can be
assigned to members of the group. For example, some members of the group may be given only “read”
and “comment” access to the document; they can see and review documents and participate in the
bulletin board section of the site, but they cannot modify the documents.

The good news for researchers on a tight budget is that most of the collaboration suites can be used
with little or no cost. Many universities have licensed products like Google Docs and Microsoft
SharePoint 2010 or later (which is a locally hosted version of Office 365) for their community
members, so before spending any money on software or services, researchers should check with
department and campus IT departments.

Service Cost Notes

Google Docs Free or $60 / year All research related functionality is available in the free
version, but the paid version comes with a service level
agreements (SLA’s)51 and increased storage capacity.

MS OneDrive Free or $80 / year Basic document editing online can be done for free. Extra
storage for additional fees.

Zoho Office Free or $60 / year Basic document editing and sharing can be done for free.
Other features can be added for small fees as needed.

Office 365 From $60 to $150 / This is Microsoft’s business version of OneDrive. It is
year basically SharePoint in the cloud, and comes with a service
level agreements (SLA’s).

5.2 File Sharing and Document Version Control

Lastly, for researchers who would like to use a more a traditional, if somewhat less capable, form of
document collaboration, there are file synchronization tools available like, ​Dropbox52, ​Google Drive53,
iCloud54 and ​Box.net55. All these tools facilitate document collaboration, but significantly, only one
user at a time can edit a document (unlike the tools mentioned above in ​section 5.2)​ . Depending on how
a research group functions, and how quickly they need to do their writing, this may or may not be an
important consideration. Here is a video that ​demonstrates some of the key features of this product

51
“​Internet service providers​ will commonly include service level agreements within the terms of their contracts with
customers to define the level(s) of service being sold in plain language terms. In this case the SLA will typically have a
technical definition in terms of ​mean time between failures​ (MTBF)” - Anon. 2012. “Service-level Agreement.” Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service-level_agreement​.
52
Anon. “About Dropbox.” Dropbox. ​https://www.dropbox.com/tour​.
53
Anon. “About Google Drive.” Google Drive.​ ​https://drive.google.com/start​.
54
Anon. “About iCloud.” Apple iCloud. ​http://www.apple.com/icloud/​.
55
Anon. “About Box.net.” Box.net. ​http://box.com/personal/​.
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type​.56

Researchers typically use file synchronization software in the following manner: When Dropbox is
installed on a computer, a Dropbox folder is created. Any document placed in that folder is
synchronized between all computers using the same Dropbox account. Most commonly, a researcher
with a laptop and a desktop computer will use Dropbox to synchronize files between the two machines.
The researcher can also create sub-folders for projects, and then share specific folders with other
collaborators. If any file is updated in a Dropbox managed folder, those changes are immediately
synchronized to all computers sharing that file. If a computer is turned off when the file is updated,
then the file will the synchronized the next time it connects to the internet. Google Drive functions in a
very similar manner.

Illustration 15: Dropbox synchronizing files across multiple machines and platforms.

All the products mentioned above support basic version control, but some, like Box.net, do not include
it with their free service. The biggest benefit to using this kind of document collaboration tool over one
of the co-editing capable tools, is the minimal amount of training necessary to get a researcher up to
speed and productive.

6.0 The Right Hardware for Researchers

Once all the appropriate software has been provided to a researcher, one needs to assess the hardware
she is using to insure that it is sufficient for the job. This step is often overlooked unless the
researchers’ computer is obviously out of date. It should be noted that real, quantifiable productivity
gains can be made for most researchers with a modest investment in the right kinds of additional
hardware.

56
Anon. 2009. Box - Business Collaboration Software. ​http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcjgqQTPFx4​.
Page 21 of 35
6.1 A Second Monitor for Increased Productivity
Here is a quotation from a law professor at the ​University of Victoria, Faculty of Law​,57 after she
reluctantly tried using a second monitor with her desktop computer: "Until you've tried working with
two displays hooked up to your computer, you cannot believe how much of a difference it can make to
your productivity when doing online research." For example, on one monitor one can have a word
processor to do composition, and on the other monitor, a web browser where the research ​is​ found and
referenced. As was mentioned, this same faculty member was resistant when she was first asked to try
a dual monitor setup, but now she would have difficulty going back to a single monitor given her
estimate of a 30% time savings by using two monitors (or one very large monitor).

Illustration 16: A tri-monitor setup with a laptop driving two additional monitors.

Her estimate is backed up by research conducted by Microsoft where they compared the productivity of
individuals using a single 15” monitor to using a customized three monitor setup.58 The research
showed a 9% productivity gain for users who work with multiple windows on their desktop and need to
switch back and forth between those windows on a regular basis, which is typical of many researchers.
Given that the subjects of the research were exposed to the three monitor desktop configuration for
only an hour, one suspects that additional productivity gains would be realized over time as they
modified their work habits to take advantage of the additional desktop work space. In comparing this
to other hardware and software changes Microsoft researchers have examined, this change to the
desktop environment (three monitors instead of one) provided by far the greatest productivity gain they
have measured. The cost of facilitating this 10% increase in productivity is currently between $150 and
$250 dollars.59 Laptop users can also take advantage of a dual monitor configuration by using their
57
Anon. “University of Victoria Faculty of Law Home Page.” UVic Faculty of Law. ​http://law.uvic.ca/​.
58
Hutchings, Dugald Ralph, Greg Smith, Brian Meyers, Mary Czerwinski, and George Robertson. 2004. “Display Space
Usage and Window Management Operation Comparisons Between Single Monitor and Multiple Monitor Users.” In
Proceedings of the Working Conference on Advanced Visual Interfaces, 32–39. AVI ’04. New York, NY, USA: ACM.
doi:10.1145/989863.989867. ​http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/989863.989867​.
59
This assumes the extra monitor will cost between $200 and $300 dollars, and that the computer the researcher is using
comes with a "dual head" video card. Dual head video cards typically come standard on most mid range desktop computers,
Page 22 of 35
laptop's built in monitor in conjunction with a second monitor. The difference that a second or third
monitor can make for a researcher who often has multiple web browser tabs open along with a word
processor, is measurable and significant.

Another option is to use a tablet device as a second monitor. With the ​Duet Display​ software running
on your laptop (PC or Mac) and your tablet (iOS), it is possible to connect the two devices together
over a USB cable.60 For most research tasks, this setup works quite well. The small tablet screen size
make this a good solution for researchers looking for a portable dual monitor setup. For a researcher’s
primary workstation it is recommended that a second monitor be purchased.

6.2 Mobile Devices & Software

When a researcher is away from her office, mobile devices can be of great value in allowing her to
continue researching and collaboration as desired. The most useful, but also the most bulky device for
mobile use, especially in libraries and when traveling to conferences, is a laptop. That said there is a
wide range in laptop size and capabilities, ranging from a 2.4lb, 11.8” screen ​MacBook Air61 to a 7.1lb,
17.3” screen ​Dell Inspiron 17R62. In the past laptops were often noticeably less powerful than their
desktop counterparts when performing typical research tasks like switching back and forth between
browser tabs, and editing a document in a word processor. Fortunately all but the least expensive of
modern laptops can now comfortably handle the typical workload of a researcher just as easily as can a
desktop computer.

and are typically a $50 option on most enterprise desktop computers. Ask about this before you buy your next computer to
make sure that you can easily upgrade to the second monitor.
60
​Anon. “About Duet Display.” Duet Display. ​http://www.duetdisplay.com/
61
Anon. “Apple MacBook Air.” MacBook Air. ​http://www.apple.com/macbookair/​.
62
Anon. “Dell Inspiron 17R.”
http://www1.ca.dell.com/ca/en/corp/Laptops/inspiron-17r/pd.aspx?refid=inspiron-17r&s=corp​.
Page 23 of 35
Additionally almost all laptops can power a second external monitor if the laptop is also the
researchers’ primary computer. This puts the power and flexibility of all the collaboration and research
tools already mentioned in the hands of the researcher no matter where she finds herself. An added
bonus for the environmentally conscious is that laptops typically consume about a quarter of the energy
of a comparably powerful desktop computer.

Illustration 17: The size difference between 11”, 13” and 17” laptop computers.63

Smart phones are another valuable tool for the modern researcher. Besides the obvious voice call
capability that has been the primary use for cell phones for years, newer devices like the iPhone and
Android phones allow researchers to participate in person to person video calls, as well as video
conferences using Skype and ​Google’s Hangout feature​ respectively.64

Much of the software already recommended for laptop and desktop computers is also available on most
smartphones: Evernote, OneNote, DropBox, Skype, Google. Additionally, using an app like ​JotNot Pro
can turn your smartphone into a photocopy like device, that can capture pages of text and put them into
a PDF file65. Lastly, the latest iPhone and Android phones feature built in dictation software so that
researchers can avoid the painful process of typing with their thumbs and simply dictate to their phone
and allow the phone to convert the voice to text. While not 100% accurate, this software can be
extremely useful when a researcher is not able to easily access a computer with a keyboard. Here is
video of ​Apple’s Siri software​.66

63
King, Alex. 2010. 11“ Air, 13” Air, 17" Pro (size Footprint). ​http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexkingorg/5120598161/​.
64
Anon. “Google Mobile.” Google Plus Mobile App. ​http://www.google.com/mobile/+/​.
65
Anon. “About JotNot Pro.” JotNot Pro. ​http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/jotnot-scanner-pro/id307868751?mt=8​.
66
Apple Inc. 2011. Apple iPhone 4S Siri Video Tutorial 1st Look. ​http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZSkvwpBBok​.
Page 24 of 35
Tablets and eBook readers are being used more and more as research tools. While not as flexible and
powerful as laptops, tablets are typically lighter, easier to carry, have a longer battery life and are better
reading devices. Their smaller form factor does make them a better device for reading books and
longer documents than laptops. Depending on an individual's personal preference, a back-lit screen,like
that of the iPad, may be suitable for reading long documents, but for some these screens cause eye
strain. If eye strain is an issue, tablets that use ​eInk67, like the Amazon Kindle Touch, are an option to
consider as they are not back-lit and are reportedly easier on many peoples’ eyes even after reading for
long periods of time. The trade off is that eInk devices are strictly for reading, while most back-lit
tablets support the same books, plus multimedia textbooks, web browsing, video, email and more.68

Illustration 18: A plethora of table devices69

Another area where back-lit tablets can be helpful is in note taking. While their virtual keyboards take
some getting used to, and for many make note taking less efficient, an app like ​Notability70 allows the
researcher to record the audio of a class, and sync it with the text that was typed in. This enables the
researcher to skip to any point in the audio recording via pointing at any note. This is particularly
useful if the researcher is having trouble deciphering the notes, or if he only wants to take light notes
and refer primarily to the audio recording.

67
Wikipedia contributors. 2012. “E Ink.” Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=E_Ink&oldid=485278546​.
68
Falcone, John P. 2012. “Kindle Vs. Nook Vs. iPad: Which E-book Reader Should You Buy?” Cnet, March 13.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20009738-1/kindle-vs-nook-vs-ipad-which-e-book-reader-should-you-buy/​.
69
Keith, Jeremy. Tablets. http://www.flickr.com/photos/adactio/6005668024/sizes/l/in/photostream/.
70
Anon. “Notability.” Notability. http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/notability-take-notes-annotate/id360593530?mt=8.
Page 25 of 35
7.0 Backing Up Your Digital Life

The author’s dentist years ago told him, “don’t brush all your teeth, just the ones you want to keep.”
I’d say the same thing about your digital documents and photos. Don’t backup all your files, just the
ones you want to keep! For most researchers, this will be all their data files.

A couple of years ago a student visited the author’s office with a new laptop, and a sad story. She
related that there had been a fire in the basement suite where she was living, and her laptop, and the
external hard drive she had been using to back up her hard drive both were both destroyed in the fire. A
very sad story, especially since she had made a real effort to backup her data, but still lost it all. What
could she have done differently? Having an off site backup along with her external hard drive backup
would have made a decisive difference. An off site backup service nowadays means using an internet
based service like ​CrashPlan71, or ​Mozy​.72 Another option would be to use services like ​DropBox​ (2gb
free)73, ​Google Drive​ (15gb free)74, ​iCloud​ (5gb free)75 or ​OneDrive​ (25gb free)76 to synchronize your
key “Documents” folder across computers, via an internet based cloud service (effectively backing up
your key documents off site).

Illustration 19: Laptop catches fire...77

Fire, theft and natural disasters are difficult to predict, however hard drive failure is predictable. On

71
Anon. “Crash Plan.” Crash Plan. ​http://www.crashplan.com/​.
72
Anon. “Mozy Home.” Mozy Home Free. ​http://mozy.com/home/free/​.
73
Anon. “About DropBox.” DropBox. ​https://www.dropbox.com/​.
74
Anon. “About Google Drive.” Google Drive.​ ​https://drive.google.com/start​.
75
Anon. “iCloud.” Apple iCloud. ​http://www.apple.com/icloud/​.
76
Anon. “OneDrive.” Microsoft OneDrive. ​http://onedrive.live.com/​.
77
​Butterfield, Stewart. 2006. Obey Your Battery Recall Notices. ​http://www.flickr.com/photos/stewart/248442701/​.
Page 26 of 35
average, if someone owns a computer for four years, they have an approximately 1 in 10 chance of
losing their data due to hard drive failure.78 Those odds alone should be sufficient encouragement for
anyone who is pointed in the direction of a potential solution, to do something about it. For all
important data, researchers should implement a ​3-2-1 backup strategy​.79

● Keep ​3​ copies of important files (one primary and two backups).
● Have files on ​2​ different media types (for example one on your hard drive and one in an internet
backup service).
● At least ​1​ copy should be stored off site (in case of disaster or theft).

This backup arrangement makes it very unlikely that someone would not be able to recover their files
in almost any scenario imaginable, including a fire, theft and natural disasters like Hurricane Catriona.

8.0 Conclusions
Vannevar Bush had some amazing insights into how to solve the problem of dealing with large
quantities of documents and large amounts of information accumulated over the course of a project or
the course of a career. The technology he used to try to solve the problem was not up to the task, but
the seeds were planted. We can now realize his vision in our digital, wired age; all that is needed is to
acquire the hardware and the software necessary to capture, organize and share information in ways
that even Vannevar would have had a hard time imagining. The productivity gains he foresaw are ripe
for the taking.

The two major benefits that come from effectively using digital capture, search and collaboration tools,
are an increase in the speed and quality of the research being performed. Less time is spent looking for
information that has already been identified or created, so that more time can be spent in analyzing and
associating disparate pieces of information. Modern electronic research tools, like ​Zotero​ & ​Evernote​,
make the collection of research data, and collaboration between colleagues possible that in the past
would have been difficult, expensive, or impossible. They also save large amounts of time citing and
creating bibliographies. Free voice and group video conferencing services, like ​Google Hangouts​ and
Skype​, can facilitate real time collaboration at a fraction of the cost in time and money of flying
members of a research team to a central location. Online collaboration tools like ​Google Docs​ and
Microsoft OneDrive​ can greatly facilitate group document creation and editing, in real time if needed.

Once researchers have the appropriate software to manage their data and help them collaborate, they
need to make sure that they also have the appropriate hardware and infrastructure to take full advantage
of the benefits the new software will give them. Access to an uncongested high speed internet
connection is a must for video and voice conferencing, as well as real time document editing. An
average desktop computer with two monitors (or one very large monitor), instead of the traditional
single monitor, will give researchers a​ ​10% + boost in productivity​. Mobile devices, including laptops,
tablets and smartphones can be of great value in allowing researchers to conduct their research &
collaborate with colleagues wherever and whenever they desire. With more and more research

78
Bryan, Chaffen. 2010. “French Retailer Data Offers SSD Failure Rates.” The Mac Observer.
http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/french_retailer_data_offers_ssd_failure_rates/​.
79
Krogh, Peter. 2012. “Backup Overview.” Digital Photograpy Best Practices and Workflow.
http://www.dpbestflow.org/backup/backup-overview#321​.
Page 27 of 35
materials being created and remaining digital, the backup of research data is becoming increasing
important. Fortunately, easy to use online backup services are making it simple to automatically backup
all a researcher’s data.

Whether they realize it or not, most researchers are struggling with the mountains of digital data that
they are generating and have accumulated during their studies and careers. If shown the tools available
to them to find, capture and collaborate, many, if not most, will be able to use these tools to increase
their productivity and effectively manage and collaborate with their data.

Page 28 of 35
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Appendix A Table of Software & Hardware Discussed

Capturing, Storing and Retrieving Digital Documents:

● EverNote, ​http://evernote.com/
● Microsoft OneNote, ​http://office.microsoft.com/en-ca/onenote/
● Zotero, ​http://zotero.org
● EndNote, ​http://endnote.com/
● Mendeley, ​https://www.mendeley.com/
● JotNot Pro iPhone app, ​http://jotnot.com/
● CamScanner for Android, ​https://www.camscanner.com/

Other Mobile Apps:

● Zite & Flipboard for News

● Notabiltiy: note taker records audio & syncs audio with text
● Tripit -
● Google Hangouts -
● Google Drive - Edit your documents anywhere.

Finding What You Want When You Want:

● DropBox, ​http://dropbox.com
● Google Drive, ​http://drive.google.com
● iCloud, ​http://icloud.com
● OneDrive, ​http://onedrive.live.com

Voice and Video and Desktop conferencing:

● Skype, ​http://www.skype.com/
● Google+ Hangouts, ​http://plus.google.com/
● Google Drive, ​http://drive.google.com/
● Microsoft OneDrive, ​http://onedrive.live.com/
● Zoho Office, ​http://zoho.com
● Microsoft Office 365, ​http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/
● Documents to Go Premium app, ​http://www.dataviz.com/products/documentstogo/premium/
● Apple Siri, ​http://www.apple.com/iphone/features/siri.html
● Notability, ​http://gingerlabs.com/cont/notability.php
● Acrobat Pro, ​http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobatpro.html

The Right Hardware for Researchers

● Apple 27” Display, ​http://www.apple.com/displays/
● MacBook Air, ​http://www.apple.com/macbookair/

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 ● Dell Inspiron 17R, ​http://www.dell.com/ca/Inspiron_17R

Backing Up Your Digital Life

● CrashPlan, ​http://crashplan.com/
● Mozy, ​http://mozy.com/home/free/
● DropBox, ​http://dropbox.com
● iCloud, ​http://icloud.com
● OneDrive, ​http://onedrive.live.com

Other Hardware:
● Fujitsu Snapscan s1500 dual sided scanner,
http://www.fujitsu.com/global/services/computing/peripheral/scanners/product/s1500/
● Apple iPad, ​http://www.apple.com/ipad/
● Amazon Kindle Touch, ​http://amazon.com/kindle/
● Apple iPhone, ​http://www.apple.com/iphone/
● Android Smart Phone, ​http://www.android.com/

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