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ADM: Eric's Resignation from Advanced data Management
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Posted by Dominik Holenstein
Mar 9, 2007 at 11:49 AM
Hello group
I have received this message through the ADM Development group:
“To Our Valued Customers and Supporters,
For personal reasons, co-founder Eric Sommer has resigned his position with Advanced Data Management. Eric is moving on to pursue other goals and is no longer actively involved with ADM. Email should henceforth be addressed to staff@adm21.net.
The anticipated release of ADM Version 4.0 has been delayed - for which we apologize. An announcement will be made soon as to release date and update procedures.
Eric sends his very sincere appreciation for all the support testers have provided for our work over the years and his best wishes for ADM’s continued success.
Arne will continue to monitor this list while Eric will not.
All the best, Arne Hermann and Eric Sommer “
I have no idea how ADM will be developed further and what the goals of Arne are.
Dominik
Posted by Jan Rifkinson
Mar 9, 2007 at 01:33 PM
Dom, Thanks for the update. I’m glad to see that all the work, money & creativity put into ADM may have been salvaged.
—
Jan Rifkinson
Ridgefield, CT USA
Posted by Kenneth Rhee
Mar 9, 2007 at 02:40 PM
Jan Rifkinson wrote:
>Dom, Thanks for the update. I’m glad to see that all the work, money & creativity put
>into ADM may have been salvaged.
>
>—
>Jan Rifkinson
>Ridgefield, CT USA
Jan,
I’m not sure at this point I would be that optimistic. I will have to wait and see what happens next.
In the meantime, I’ve moved onto UltraRecall3, and with the a few new features (such as hoisting, custom labeling of flags, and outlook sync), I’m happy with the program so far.
Ken
Posted by Daly de Gagne
Mar 9, 2007 at 03:10 PM
Dominik, thanks for the info.
In a way I am sad that Eric is leaving. He had been the front man for so long, the face of ADM, and had visions for it. In his own life, a casual reading of the web searches, and his posts, shows he is a man with ideals and values he cherishes.
Somehow, I think, events or circumstances may have got of out control.
Perhaps the concerns raised by those of us who wrote Arne, and the traffic on the web, helped to bring things to a head where a change occurred.
I wish Eric well. I do not think he is snake oil salesman—I do think that events spun out of control, and that he found it difficult to fly through the turbulence. It takes a particular temperament to do that, and in the circumstance, I do not think that temperment was Eric’s.
I also wish ADM well.
I hope Arne will reinstate those of us who still wish to collaborate with the project. That is his choice.
Again, judging from what is on the web, Arne has built up a sizable business with its own niche, and enjoys the reputation of long-standing clients. In this I believe there is reason to be optimistic for ADM.
I imagine, based on nothing much more than wishful thinking, that ADM may return more to its English-speakking roots, and that visions of a world-wide outline notwithstanding, more emphasis will be placed on the nuts and bolts of developing and refining an integrated information capture and management system based on both outline tags, and incorporating capabilities such as calendar, alarms, etc. that will support its main mission.
Whether this will happen under Arne’s ownership, or whether he will seek a buyer, is unknown. For sentimental reasons I hope Arne can and will hold on to ADM, and do right by it. It would be nice to have one of the co-founders remain with the project.
But whether it is retained by Arne or sold, ADM requires quality programmers with an eye to detail, and who—with apologies to the late Gallo brothers—release no beta before its time and, one hopes, the market-ready new versions on time.
ADM has many strengths, and remains unqiue in its handling of metadata and its GUI (which I like but some others do not).
Good luck to Arne and ADM.
Daly
Dominik Holenstein wrote:
>Hello group
>
>I have received this message through the ADM Development group:
>
>“To
>Our Valued Customers and Supporters,
>
>For personal reasons, co-founder Eric
>Sommer has resigned his position with Advanced Data Management. Eric is moving on to
>pursue other goals and is no longer actively involved with ADM. Email should
>henceforth be addressed to staff@adm21.net.
>The anticipated release of ADM
>Version 4.0 has been delayed - for which we apologize. An announcement will be made
>soon as to release date and update procedures.
>
>Eric sends his very sincere
>appreciation for all the support testers have provided for our work over the years and
>his best wishes for ADM’s continued success.
>
>Arne will continue to monitor this
>list while Eric will not.
>
>All the best, Arne Hermann and Eric Sommer “
>
>I have no idea
>how ADM will be developed further and what the goals of Arne are.
>
>Dominik
>
Posted by Stephen R. Diamond
Mar 9, 2007 at 07:54 PM
>I imagine, based on nothing much more than wishful thinking, that ADM may
>return more to its English-speakking roots, and that visions of a world-wide
>outline notwithstanding, more emphasis will be placed on the nuts and bolts of
>developing and refining an integrated information capture and management
>system based on both outline tags, and incorporating capabilities such as
>calendar, alarms, etc. that will support its main mission.
>Whether this will happen under Arne’s ownership, or whether he will seek a
>buyer, is unknown.
A buyer? Are you joking?
What you describe is a vision, not a product. The feature set, in principle, is nice, but most features are implemented imperfectly. Certainly the development of information products in the last couple of years has underscored the importance of multiple undo. I’m clearly not the only consumer who thinks this feature today is essential. Yet, judging by the foot-dragging, ADM cannot implement such a command without fundamental changes.
Things “spun out of control,” it seems, upon discovering that extensive revisions needed to be made to the database. I imagine it was discovered that a great deal of the work must be redone to accommodate the changes. The developers didn’t want to hear about these problems until it was too late.
I can appreciate that Arne cannot simply abandon ADM. He cannot simply abandon ADM, no matter how much he would like to. His erstwhile partner might be outside the reach of the long - arm statutes of the law in China, but Arne is not. I’m sure he feels responsible to do something about the betas that have been paid for. This practice may or not constitute fraud, depending on details we don’t know about, but it is certainly breach of contract.
The lack of realism by you and some of your co-thinkers, Daly, is a bit scary.