The longest single conversation I have (which is still in progress) is about workflow. I always have it with the same person, James Newman, who is similarly obsessive about such matters – and finally, in a cruel ironic twist, it never gets resolved, consequently eating hours out of my potential and finite hours available to implement such a workflow. I dream of a day when one day everything will fall into place, a perfect union of system and software will take place and I’ll disappear into a supernova of productivity. Hmmm.
Until then, here’s the problem(s).
1. How do I capture, store and organise the research materials I find on the web. This is the primary source of my research, although I also need to store and organise audio / video interviews – of which I also do a lot.
2. How do I share and sync everything gathered in (1) across multiple machines is a transparent and TOTALLY stable way.
3. How do share and sync the library created in (1) across two machines and allow the potential for joint annotation.
4. How do I share the library created in (1) and allow the joint annotation enabled in (3) AND create an environment for shared authorship.
5. All the above must allow for the possibility for offline working.
With respect to point 1, it’s recently been announced that Devon Technologies are about to launch the public-beta of the next iteration of their popular knowledge management app. DevonThink. DT is one of the apps that both James and I have spent some time with, but to date have singularly failed to ‘get’*. Despite having some high-profile endorsements neither of us have managed to comfortably live with it for more than a week.
Having just flattened my two main working machines, I’m hoping DT might provide an early Christmas present.
*It is possible, of course, that we do *get* it entirely – it just doesn’t do what we want.