Re: OneNote

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

Outliners.com Message ID: 3018

Posted by sub
2005-03-22 01:20:32

[Daly: would one seriously use (UltraRecall) as an outliner, rather than an information manager?]

You are right of course; I was using the term “outliner” referring rather generally to tree-based information and content managers.

My premise is this: there is a growing excitement with “mind tools”, steming from the information overflow that people are experiencing with e-mail, web, RSS etc. The different approaches and disciplines that these tools represent has been repeatedly discussed in this forum, but even here some of us would still like some kind of Holy Grail that could be used for everything from information gathering and organisation to braintorming and structured writing.

The market, too, is looking for something like that, which in all probability doesn’t exist; but that’s irrelevant. People still use Word tables to keep lists; once they do choose a program to support their knowledge creation they will probably use it for everything remotely realated, and more.

It is worth noting that the actual investment in a specific program may occur for rational or irrational reasons; i.e. looks good, my firm uses it, my son can teach me how to uses it etc.

So, my point was that UltraRecall, Evernote, Myinfo etc are modern-looking products offering a work paradigm (the tree) that most people can relate to. As such, I expect them to be able to lure more customers than, say, Brainstorm. Once they do, more and more features will be introduced to satisfy the growing customer base and remain competitive.

Take MindManager for instance. As Stephen pointed out, it is the heavier mind mapping program on features. Why is that? Because it’s the first and most bought—not, I believe, the other way around.

People started using it for mind mapping, then file mapping, then task management, then project management… and the developer added features to cater for all those expectations.

If Microsoft at some point decided to base its own vanguard product on the mind map paradigm rather than the tree/outliner paradigm, which established competitor would it model it after? Yup, Mind Manager; and it would add even more features on the way.

alx

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