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Stay away from using Gmail for Android to check Hotmail; battery hog

Posting this in the vain hope that search engines pick it up...on both a former Moto X (2014) and OnePlus One using the new Gmail app for Android (v 5.0.1; new design language) is crushing battery life. Turned my OnePlus One, which could previously go 24 without having to touch a charger, into an ordinary phone that was dead by 6:00 PM. Checking battery usage in Android showed that the Gmail app accounted for 40% of my total battery drain...not good!

I assume the culprit is how Gmail uses IMAP or whatever to check Hotmail. I had it set to synch/fetch every 5 minutes and it simply destroyed battery life.

Removing my Hotmail account from the Gmail app, and using Microsoft's Outlook.com app for Android, immediately rectified everything and battery life instantaneously went back to awesome.

I've seen similar posts noting issues with using the Gmail app to check Yahoo! mail as well. Sad news since ostensibly having the ability to use Gmail to do all email on Android was nice :(

Who to call at Global Integrity

If you've reached this post, you might be asking, "Well, who do I contact at Global Integrity now that Nathaniel is gone?" Below are some ideas; all email addresses for my colleagues there are FIRSTNAME.LASTNAME@globalintegrity.org. The main Global Integrity phone number is +1-202-449-4100. We have a fax number listed in the footer of globalintegrity.org but honestly, we rarely check it (and really, who sends faxes these days?).

  • For all things research-, data-, and indicators-related please contact Hazel Feigenblatt
  • For all policy and advocacy issues please contact Alan Hudson
  • For all technology and Indaba-related matters please contact Lyle Turner
  • For all operational, back office, vendor, funding, or human capital issues please contact Katherine Gatewood
  • For anything related to the OpenGov Hub please contact Christina Crawley
  • For anything related to a log frame, proposal template, or budget spreadsheet please take a long look in the mirror and ask yourself why you are inflicting such pain on humanity
  • For all Global Integrity nuclear launch codes click here

I'm reachable on Twitter or at nathaniel@integrilicio.us if there's a true emergency (disclaimer: there's nothing that qualifies as a true emergency in this context). If you need to reach me for things related to my future work at the Results for Development Institute, you can find me on nheller@r4d.org. 

An update on my professional transition

Since I'm being asked this half a dozen times each day, here's a brief update on my transition:

- my last day in the OpenGov Hub with Global Integrity is Dec. 19 2014

- my first day in the R4D office is January 19th 2015

The interim period is intended to be work- and email-free.

Shout with questions.

Some Reflections on My Departure from Global Integrity

If you’re reading this post, you’ve likely read the news that I’ll be transitioning out of Global Integrity in the coming months. This is obviously big news for me both professionally and personally. Rather than lengthen the Global Integrity announcement with my personal thoughts, I thought I’d do that here instead.

Where’d This Come From?

I was never looking for a new job. I’ve been challenged and rewarded every day I’ve come to work since co-founding Global Integrity in 2005. But as with most opportunities in life, these things tend to evolve over time from a fragment of a thought or a conversation into something more concrete that bears serious consideration. For me, this process and decision go back to last year, and it wasn’t until recently that I decided it was the right thing to do for my family and me.

My leaving Global Integrity is also, I strongly believe, the right thing for Global Integrity. I’ve been keenly aware of the ticking of the clock towards potential “founder’s syndrome” territory. I was loathe to allow that to happen simply to keep myself in a job I found familiar. We’ve all seen non-profits that stagnate and plateau in their mid-stages due to the founder’s inability to exit stage left and allow new leadership to take over. I’m proud of what we’ve done at Global Integrity during these past nine years but I know it’s not magic. A new leader and the world-class staff will have equally good or better ideas, and it’s important to give those ideas space to mature and ripen without the shadow of the founder hanging over every decision. This explains why I won’t be staying on the board of directors either; there’s little upside (in my view) to having a founder lurking around the proverbial hallways. That said, I’ll always be there for Global Integrity and will be cheerleading and supporting in every way I can.

What’s Next

I’m thrilled to be joining the all-star team over at Results for Development (R4D). I’ve known their social accountability and governance team for many years and have had only the deepest respect for their work, led by the terrific and brilliant Courtney Tolmie, with whom I couldn’t be more excited to begin working.

Once the transition is complete, I’ll be joining R4D as a new managing director for its governance work, helping to guide a team that’s working on incredibly important projects, including what is arguably the transparency field’s most important in-flight study of the impact of transparency and accountability on service delivery (the Transparency for Development research project). There’s no master plan in place for what new things we’ll be doing, and that will take some time to work out with the team in a collaborative fashion. But in general you can expect a continued emphasis on social accountability work coupled with more of a push to link those grassroots efforts to global policy initiatives (think Open Government Partnership, post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals). I’m also keen to more directly leverage transparency and participation towards improved service delivery outcomes in key sectors such as health and education, tapping into the incredible talent in those verticals at R4D. And I have some exciting ideas around the ways in which social purpose co-working communities can be leveraged to catalyze innovation in government (building on the experience and success of creating the OpenGov Hub). Watch this space.

Where to Find Me

As the Global Integrity announcement mentions, I won’t be going anywhere immediately. I expect to remain at Global Integrity throughout much of the rest of this calendar year as a new Executive Director is identified and comes on board. When there is a more concrete timeline to share, we’ll of course do that. I’m deeply appreciative of both the Global Integrity board and staff for their support and energy during this process. 

In the meantime, you can find me where you always have on both Twitter and email (nathaniel [dot] heller [at] globalintegrity [dot] org).

(Update: you can read the R4D announcement here.)