Re: MyInfo 3, Jot+, etc., and the vital need for calendars

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Note: This message is from the outliners.com archive kindly provided by Dave Winer.

Outliners.com Message ID: 2373

Posted by sub
2004-12-28 17:26:20

The whole argument has become incredibly complex, but I’ll have a go at it myself. But first, an introduction to set the scene.

After a few months of using Brainstorm as my creative aid and Hyperclip as my knowledge base for everything from contacts to contracts to project info, I have this to say: I’ve never been as focused and productive as this in my life.

What these tools (which remain my subjective personal choice -others might have been equally suitable for the actual job at hand) have provided me with, is a reliable _starting point_ for everything I need to do; strategic overviews, proposal and copy writing, basic project management etc.

However, in no case has the final output to customers or collaborators come directly from any of these two programs. For example, I edit and keep all my public texts in Hyperclip, then export in RTF format to Word that supports Greek spell-checking, save as .doc and send that out. In a previous message, Jack had described how he used other programs himself to edit and format the final output.

I think that this is what we always need to keep in mind; our information and knowledge management oriented tools should cater first and foremost for our -subjective- needs in structuring and organising what lies within our unique individual minds. However, when we go ‘out there’ we need to use more communication-oriented tools, be it word processors (now much closer to personal DTP than text editing tools—remember Wordstar?), e-mail, web editors or whatever.

No outliner or similar software will ever be able to compete with such products because they are a lot more focused. Calendars too, are focused products.

Following a suggestion in this discussion list, I tried out Agenda At Once; it is indeed a well thought out program, combining a hierarchical to-do list with a regular calendar. Fine as a to-do manager, but for me keeping the actual project info tied to my project hierarchy is much more important than keeping its time data.

I personally agree with what I understand as Stephen’s main point; when a program tries to cover too much ground it becomes a feature-rich sledgehammer, not necessarily to everyone’s liking (just take a look at Outlook 2002’s Object Model at http://www.microeye.com/resources/ObjectModel2002.htm and see if it covers your individual needs).

It is best to go for total versatility in handling the core information. Zoot and Brainstorm, for example, do just that for plain text items. Idea! does it for linked files.

My proposal to outlining software developers; there is currently a vCal format for time events, similar to the vCard format for personal data. It should be possible to attach events as metadata to outline items. If these can then be dragged-and-dropped, or even better, mass-exported to our favourite calendar program, then we can have the best of both worlds. We can even e-mail vCal items to other project team members to use in their own planners.

And, by the way, why not be able to drag-and-drop contact info in vCard format to dedicated contact managers and share the info with our collaborators?

Best, alx

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