Monthly Archives: January 2012

An API (Application Programming Interface) is a way to get access to Qlockwork data from other applications.

Qlockwork provides 2 standard interfaces that can be used to access our data

1 – The Qlockwork activity data in Outlook is all held in standard Outlook AppointmentItems. This means that you can access the data using ordinary VBA scripts and macros using Microsoft’s Outlook Object Model.

2 – You can export the data in .csv files (comma separated files) on a schedule. .csv files can be read by Excel, but they can also be imported into databases using standard middleware or import software such as Microsoft SSIS.

Recently, several customers have told us about the interesting integrations they have done between Qlockwork and other systems.

This has got us very enthusiatic about what individual clients can achieve in systems built around Qlockwork. We have therefore decided to  document our APIs and set up some pages that will describe some of the innovative integration work that’s going on and how to go about doing it.

If any of you have done any integrating we would love to hear from you. Just drop us an email.

At Qlockwork we support the campaign against the SOPA legislation (badly thought through US legislation to cut off sites that are claimed to host copyrighted material, with little chance for appeal).

At Qlockwork we are IP producers, not IP consumers so we should support SOPA but we don’t, for 2 reasons

• Who will watch the watchers? We really don’t like the idea that websites can be blocked with very limited ability to appeal.
• Security. The way that SOPA is proposed to work would make it very difficult to make the internet more secure.

At this point, we consider internet security a more important issue to us all than copyright. We need to find another way to protect copyright.

I recently looked at a new website under construction for the impressive German time management coach Julia Thrul, who has very kindly given us feedback on Qlockwork in the past. One of her pages is on doing business in Germany  and it reminded us that though Qlockwork does very good business in Europe, a German and French version of the website would be an excellent idea.

Many of us need a nag to exercise. What about a fine if you don’t? According to the BBC, quite a few services have appeared in 2011 that are based on using money to force you to stick to your commitments. They take several approaches.

On GymPact, you make a bet on your gym attendance that week and if you meet your goal (confirmed with GPS) they pay you. If you don’t, you lose your bet.  

With 21 Habit you pay the site $21 up front and agree to do something every day for 3 weeks. For every day you do it, you get $1 back.

Our favourite idea though is StickK. Based on research by Yale economists, at StickK you can nominate a group or charity you particularly don’t agree with. For example, if you were a U.S. Republican it might be the Democratic party. If you were a Scottish Nationalist it might be the British Conservative Party. If you don’t meet your commitment, then the money you put up goes to them. We suspect that really works. Interestingly, we’ve just checked their site and they aren’t pushing the anti-charity angle. Maybe it works, but doesn’t sell very well. 

Unsurprisingly, we think a lot about time tracking software here, that’s what we do after all.

Here’s what we think are the top features we care about in a tracking application.

1. Really easy to use. Otherwise you just won’t keep it up to date.
2. Easy to back up your data. If you are using the data for billing, you absolutely don’t want to lose it if your PC blows up (Qlockwork does this by storing the data in Outlook, but other tools should do this for you too).
3. Learnable. It should be intuitive to learn.
4. Secure. Again, if this is your billing data you want to make sure it stays under your control. Either in your systems or a cloud service you trust.
5. Reportable. You need reports and at least an Excel export.
6. Projects. You need to be able to assign time to projects – that was our most used feature straight away.
7. Outlook meeting tracking and reporting. We didn’t spot how important this was at first but it has turned into another very popular feature of our time tracker.
8. Supported. Ideally nothing would ever go wrong, but sometimes it does and then you want someone to answer your emails!
9. Good looking. Steve Jobs wants all tech to be lickable and I tend to agree. It’s got to look nice, the way Office looks nice or a good website. It may be shallow but you’ll be looking at those icons every day for years.
10. Reliable. Last, but most important of all, it has to work and you have to be able to rely on it all the time.