[ge-talk] Project tracker

[Ari Haviv]

Many have pointed out that file managers just don't cut it for
organizing files used for all kinds of projects. Queries (smart
folders, virtual folders, whatever) don't cut it because they are too
specific and not enough freestyle.
I thought about it last night and came up with this idea.

It first starts off looking like tracker. tree on the left, details on
the right. there's a 3rd pane under that which I'll get to in a
moment.

In the tree pane, you set up folders representing projects or ideas
you are working on. You can place individual files and links to
websites, people files, bookmarks, rss feeds, site maps and history.
Clippings, annotations and subfolders.

You can add saved local queries and web queries. **You can add/delete
individual results after the fact by drag/drop because for every rule
there is always an exception. **

now here is where it gets cool. Let's say i make a project called
"Project Tracker" So i'll add this email thread, a web query that
searches for "Project manager" and a people file "Bob" because Bob is
working on this project. Now, Bob is working on 5 other projects so
next to "Bob" would be some icon and when I press it, I see the 5
other projects with Bob in the 3rd pane.

One of the projects is "Cheese." Bob is there as well as Harold.
Harold is in 4 other projects so there's an icon next to his name as
well. I click and another row would appear with the 4 projects.

So the idea is integrating web with local, less rigid queries and the
3 dimensional relationship between everything you're dealing with.

some refs:
the long forgotten Netscape Aurora
http://wp.netscape.com/browsers/future/aurora.html