Re: A few ideas for developers (Re: My current set)

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

Outliners.com Message ID: 3962

Posted by sub
2005-08-27 05:39:41

[Part 3 of my thinking aloud]

Those involved in electronic music know that the most versatile synthesizers are so-called “modular” ones. Modules like oscillators, filters, modulators etc, can be interconnected in virtually any possible combination, with the output from one module becoming the input of another.

Being as versatile as described, Zoot appears to me like a modular information processor. What this means is that users choose the best configuration that meets their needs, rather than trying to use a pre-set configuration somebody else has deemed suitable.

For example, virtually all office applications allow you to click on an e-mail link and have a new message window opened in your default mailer. But how about the other way around? How many mailers allow you to open a message you just received, for editing (I’m not referring to attachments). Actually, Outlook and Outlook Express are the only ones supporting drag-n-drop of messages _outside_ the application; however, try opening the .msg file created, in Word, and you get an error message.

But what if drag-n-drop could be really universal? I could select a few mail messages, drag them to Excel and autofilter them or run statistics on them. Or drag them to Access and automatically get a list of contacts and e-mail addresses.

Gmail, as far as I know, seems to be the only mail system that implements threads, a tool borrowed from newsgroups. Yet it makes so much sense; why do I have to hunt around my inbox to follow a certain discussion?

Currently, I am using Brainstorm as my starting point for most of what I do. For all practical purposes, Brainstorm “models” are classic plain text outlines with clones. At the moment, I can paste a Brainstorm outline to most mind mappers and get a flat map of my structure.

OK, but what does that outline represent? Is it an events list with dates? Then I want to transfer them to my agenda and view them either in calendar or timeline form. A mind map of dates is not very useful!

Is it a project task list? Then, I’d like to paste it in my project management software or in Excel, to put some numbers next to them.

Is it a document? Then I want to transfer it to a rich text editor for formatting (this desire has been catered for rather well actually).

Is it a contact list, linking my various acquaintances? Then, I’d like to transfer them to a 3-D grid, like Personal Brain’s to see what kind of social groups I’m linked to. Or to my database and mailing list software…

[more later, I guess]

alx

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