Re: NoteMap -- Greg, it's time for Ver. 3

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

Outliners.com Message ID: 4254

Posted by jackcrawford
2005-10-02 23:51:05

Hello Greg

Thanks for taking the time to keep this exchange going. My 2c - FWIW.

I think it comes back to what Daly said. What business market are you in? If you’re in the legal services support business, I wouldn’t do much more with Notemap either, other than keep it bug free and compatible with the major systems and programs.

However, if you see yourself as being in the broader retail software business, then I think there are some development opportunities. Stephen’s feature suggestions make sense as part of a broader positioning exercise.

I use outliners for business - a standard corporate business environment. I don’t have special needs (like a writer). I just need something that is flexible enough for business writing, idea generation and project management.

As you will know if you have kept up with this forum, there is nothing on the market that totally meets these needs. Many of us are forced to use several tools to get our outputs in the shape we want. We have bits of the jigsaw, but not an all-in-one solution that we are comfortabe with.

It is difficult to break into the general business software market because of conservatism, inertia and the Stand Operating Environment imposed by many organisations. The product that has probably had the best results in breaking through the corporate barrier, as has been observed already, is MindManager. Yet its outlining functionality is primitive.

I would love a tool that toggles from a Notemap-type outliner to a mind mapper like MindManager. The only mainsteam application that I know that tries to do this is Inspiration. If you were a corporate IT exec and went to Inspiration’s website, you’d run a mile. They are in the education market, just as CaseSoft seems to be in the legal market.

Look at the MindJet website. It screams business, business, business .... and they seem to be succeeding. X1 (a pretty risky venture, I would have thought) are also chasing the business market aggressively.

So, this is a long-winded way of saying that there are business opportunities out there for outliners and related products, if they fit the positioning of your company and product. The fact that many of us can’t find the package of software features we want in the Windows world for genuine WORK-RELATED REAL LIFE TASKS (not obscure outlining theory) suggests that eventually someone is going to get it right.

It would be nice if it were a company like yours, rather than the giants of the industry, but then I may be exhibiting my naivety!

Best wishes

Jack

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