Chandler Suspense
Keep an eye on Chandler. This has potential.
Kapor understands personal information management better than most. To date, no personal information mangement tool has had the sophistication, elegance, and simplicity of the remarkable product, Lotus Agenda. All other contenders either exhibit rigid database-like thinking or attempt to wax philosophical about the way we think. Agenda was an insightful work of genius and remains so.
Chandler has more ambitious goals, but is born of the same need: to consolidate, share, organize, and re-organize the information we touch. Right now, it’s really a technical toy. They’re building the API, and even though it looks like it’s moving slowly, they’re meeting milestones as predicted, so I see some solid dedication and project management. Building something so complex should take a while, it should require APIs and basic building blocks. So, I’m certain they’re on the right track. My only fear is that it will, like Agenda, remain inaccessible to most people because it may be too abstract, or too elegant. But, I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
Thomas Vander Wal has an interesting investigation going called Tools to Manage Information on Your Personal Hard Drive. He says it’s part of what’s needed to manage "The Personal Info Cloud". I’m not sure about what cloud he’s on, but he seems sensible. However, his list of tools highlights the current undifferentiated mess that typifies the collection of personal information and knowledge management tools.
When Chandler is closer to release, give it a try. Help them out. Seems like a great step in the right direction.
Tags: Web/Tech
