Capturing Information

There is a fantastic article in the Attorney at Work Blog by Daniel Gold today titled Save Random Sparks of Genius. Part of the article discusses the art of capture:

Finding a way to capture information anytime and anywhere—and then do something with that information—is critical to our success. It allows us to snare random sparks of genius like a hunter gets his prey.

Slaw has featured posts on capture using technology tools like Evernote, and Storify. There are low tech methods for remembering those fantastic ideas; I have a friend who swears by the notepad on the bedside table method. I like the notepaper app that is preloaded on my i-devices. Not only do I get to capture my ideas, but I don’t have to read my handwriting later.

Technology solutions to capturing good ideas can offer expansion packs. For example, in attending the Alberta Law Conference last week, there was a shared twitter hash tag. I used the #ALC2013 tag to capture (using Storify) all the interesting notes and ideas that people tweeted during the conference. I added some headings and video links. Check it out Highlights of the Alberta Law Conference. A bonus for me was seeing the discussion that took place at sessions I was unable to attend, especially since I have access to the papers in my library.

Why limit your capture to your own good ideas.

Wondering where you can get some inspiration for a random spark of genius? How about Don Tapscot’s Paper.Li production: Innovators Daily.