Our family is totally digitally connected. To wit:

• We have high-speed (N class) wifi throughout the house and a digital telephone line and all six of us can be streaming at the same time with very little slowdown. This is such an important feature of our home that after Hurricane Sandy blew through and we had endured 10 days without power and 12 days without heat, the first question from the kids was “is the wifi back on?”
• In this house, we have the following functional technology: five Apple computers, one gaming PC, two iPads, one Kindle Fire, four iPhones and one iPod, an Airport Extreme and two Apple TVs. There are also two cheapie phones.
• Every person in this household has at one time had a WordPress-themed blog on our own domains.
• Every person in this household knows what cloud computing is and how to use Google Drive.
• Every person in this household has been in Second life, a 3-D virtual world.

After saying this, it’s with a bit of shame that I admit to you that we STILL can’t keep track of each other’s schedules, what’s needed at the grocery store, and who fed the pets.

Jim and I are productivity tool hounds and we religiously use such apps as Evernote, Dropbox, Remember the Milk, OneNote, IFTTT (If This Then That) and dozens of others. We have long conversations about the things you can do with the various services. Cross-posting to social networks? Yep. Saving Google Reader articles to Instapaper? You bet.

How are families sharing information using shared apps, social sites and other tools?

What platforms would these tools need to be present on? IOS apps, PC and Mac app downloads, web access?

What are the tools that work? Family checklists and shared notebooks including Evernote and ….?

Cool ideas?
What’s for dinner and when
Plans to go out to eat
grocery list
recipes
Chore reminders
Individual calendars including work schedules for those with jobs
Pet care daily checklist
Shareable videos and photos
Links to great articles and essays
Shared music and art
Plug-ins, apps and tabs
Family game stats
Email and SMS reminders, event invites
Family-only online games

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad