Idea for an "Ultimate" personal dev. app.

[Adam]

One thing that I have noticed in the few days that this board has been up is that there are several different methods for personal development (PD, through the rest of this post), each dealing with a different aspect of life. Most of these methods seem to work well together, or at the very least, aren't mutually exclusive.

I have also noticed that there are several programatically savvy people here, not the least of which is Steve himself. There have also been several threads dealing with different PD programs, including ones specific for Getting Things Done (GTD), as well as several generic programs, even those which weren't designed specifically for PD. I have seen Action Outline plugged a few times, Papal caught my eye, The Journal, Backpack, Tracks, and even M$ Outlook has also been mentioned.

So, we know what we want: An easy to learn, quickly extensible application that we can use as a generic 'mind map' or organizational tool, as well as take advantage of the different tools that we have learned through reading the various books out there.

Is there a one-size-fits-all application out there? Not as far as I can tell. So why don't we build it?

I realize that what I'm proposing is a huge ordeal... In order to develop it, we would need to devote months just to research, not to mention actual development, but what better place to start than in the best PD forum in the world? We wouldn't have funding, unless someone has the leverage to keep several developers fed and housed for an extended period of time, but Steve has shown us that some of the best things in life are free, such as his blog. Why wouldn't we be able to develop this app as open source?

Since it would (most likely) be a community driven, open source project, we would have a lot of feedback (so far, over 500 potential beta testers right now in the forum), and what would probably be record breaking initial support for the project.

So, what are people's ideas? Do you think that this has a chance? Do you think it is just a pipe dream?

One thing that I would like to see is minimal purple... No sense in keeping the color blind among us from enjoying its full use.

[Vinny]

I agree with your concept here. Count me in!

[Hsiang-Lin]

I think they did something similar in the PU (pick-up just in case you didn't know) community. Someone compiled all the important articles into one file using the program called Keynote. It had all the articles and advice written by the top gurus of the community and it was organized pretty well.

People would add to the file and upload it on the forum and so people could constantly download the latest file.

Although I think you have bigger plans in mind, which I think is admirable and interesting to pursue as well. I also think your idea could have a lot of potential. I'll have to dwell on this some more.

[Adam]

Funny that you should mention compiling the important articles together under one file... I was thinking of something like that as well to help people get the most out of the application.

What I was thinking was that, out of the 'box,' the program would have the most basic tools enabled, so that new users wouldn't be pummeled by several different PD methods. As a person went to enable the other built in tools, it would give a short description of the tool, and ask the user whether to read up on that topic... The user would then have three choices, probably something like "I already know how to use this tool," "I'll try to figure out how to use the tool on my own, but keep the articles quickly available just in case," or "I'm lost, please show me what I should do." If the user chose the last option, they would have several articles to introduce them into the method, then be able to use the specific tool with confidence.

[dan_popovici]

I think this a very good idea. You can count on my programming skills.
Lets find a good name for it and then put in on sourceforge.
Any ideas for a good name?

Dan

[greys]

Very nice idea, Adam.

I think this ultimate application should be an online tool though, or at least have some online functionality.

I've found various information organizers/planners to be extremely useful, but any personal development follower ends up optimizing his whole life, thus spanning his planning across few environments like work/home.

So, unless you have a single system for organizing these, it only gets harder to maintain.

This being a pretty typical limitation to many existing tools, I'm sure you've already thought of that.

[Matt]

Are there two things going on here?

It sounds like Adam is talking about a software application to manage your personal development and Hsiang-Lin is talking about centralizing topics and ideas in one easily manageable location, perhaps like a wiki.

[dan_popovici]

If I understand it right, the two things you mention refer to the same thing. To be able to build a piece of software that manages your personal development you need gather all the information about what exactly it would manage.

Dan

[Matt]

I envisioned Adam's software application as a system for storing and planning goals, holding book lists, storing notes, mind-maps, etc.

[Magnus]

I think that whatever shape the application takes in terms of functionality. You should do it in a manner that enables you to have it with you always. Like in you cellphone or PDA and then syndicate everything in an easy manner. Cross platform would be a big plus as well! Perhaps Java or some other intepreted language?

[annie]

Originally Posted by Matt

I envisioned Adam's software application as a system for storing and planning goals, holding book lists, storing notes, mind-maps, etc.

Hey Adam, Is this what you had in mind? If not, tell us more specifics. I'm interested...and curious.

[Adam]

Actually, Matt, why couldn't we include Hsiang-Lin's idea in the program? We would need help files, so why not make the help files also helpful by containing articles contributed for the project by the copyright holders?

Greys, you have me thinking... It would be absolutely wonderful to have the same version of your specific information, no matter what computer you went to. Putting the file on a thumb drive and carrying to and from every computer wouldn't be that big of a deal... until your thumb drive crashes, gets broken, or is lost. Even if the drive is lost for one night, it could cause someone undue stress...

What we would need is to also have a server. I don't want simple FTP capabilities built into the program, though that might be what we would use during alpha and beta testing, simply because the files could potentially get rather large after several years of using the program. What we would need is a simple way to compare the information on the server to the person's latest changes, so that, at most, only one day's worth of typing and tinkering will be clogging the network lines.

That would also be our way to monetize the project. I can not promise salaries, especially not consistent ones... but if we have to maintain a server and keep upgrading it as demand increases, we'll have to charge people for the ability to use that server. Personally, I want any recurring costs to be as low and as as infrequent as possible, but any surplus would go to the developers through a democratic process. I.e., we would vote for each other's pay checks.

[Adam]

Oh, and the only name that I can come up with for the project is Project Light Workers... Very cheesy...

If anyone has a better idea, don't be afraid to post it. When we have some good ones, we'll start a poll.

[dan_popovici]

Here is my idea of doing this:

1) Have it as an online application. Each user creates an account, and manages everything online. Thus all the information is kept in some database on a server.
2) Now that all the information is online, we can have an interface that works on any handheld and synchronizes its information with what is in the online database.
3) Seeing that(if we take this approach) most of the information would be entered/managed in a web browser by the users, one way of monetizing the project could be with online ads(like google adsense) and have a monthly fee, if you want to get rid of all the ads.

Dan

[Magnus]

There is a standard for syncronizing data between handhelds over GPRS/WAP or internet. It's called SyncML. There is also an opensource server which handels this called funambol (sync4j). Perhaps you could leverage that? Reinventing a server-client structure + protocol seems like a bad idea? The problem would not be how to store the data, but how to present it in a good accessible manner. Flesh out how it should operate and feel first. Then build an application based on that.

Also, thinking about how to monetize the application also seems like a backward strategy? I suggest first value then profit. I wouldn't use an application that I knew were bulit around a system structure that forces me to pay for no good reason. By that I mean that everybody should have access so that they can set up this system by themselves. But you could provide an service for those who don't want to. That is only my opinion tho.

[greys]

That's exactly what I was talking about, Adam.

I've been planning such an application for quite some time now, and I will try and develop it with modular approach - start by little fully functional core (offline client + server), and then gradually add more functionality.

For synchronizing data, I'm sure there are many algos around to do this properly, but I was thinking of something simple like breaking all the data into fixed chunks of data and comparing checksums for them against similar storage on the server.

[Minishark]

This is a great idea. I've been wanting a make a similar application for my own personal use, but this is even better. I'm currently a Computer Science student at the University of Vermont, and contributing to something like this would be a great learning experience, and look great on a resume.
If a group of us wants to get in contact through e-mail and maybe come up with some prototype designs that we can start working on individually, then send me a PM. In about a month I've got an entire month off between semesters at school, and I would definitely be up for spending it coding.

[Adam]

1) Have it as an online application. Each user creates an account, and manages everything online. Thus all the information is kept in some database on a server.

That is a great way to do it, Dan, but I am looking for something a bit more cost effective, so that if I can, I can host the server out of my house on residential bandwidth. If I can do that, then it would be absolutely free... Using a client/server model, we would basically have one database that gets updated fairly infrequently, so it could handle up to 300 people on a simple residential cable/DSL line.

If we went with a web-app model, though, we wouldn't be able to support 300 people from a residential line. Even though there would be less information passed per request, there would be many, many more requests... I estimate that, if a person visited a site built around this three times per day, a residential line would only be able to support 30 users before everyone ate up each other's bandwidth.

Also, security is a concern. There are some things that people want to keep track of, such as their finances, that they do not want to store in a central server. They could simply buy another product, such as M$ Money, but it would be better to have the flexibility in a program to create a business plan as you're looking at your finances, and maybe even have a handy way to link the two together.

I'm certain that we'll have plenty of time to debate this later... We may even decide to use both routes, where a user can log into a web interface to the server when they're away, and use the executable program at home and in their regular office.

I also agree completely with having a handheld version for PDA use... We may also want to look at portableapps.com for ideas on how to turn it into a thumb-drive app.

As far as monetizing the project, I'm a very firm believer that only the people who want/need to use the server should be forced to pay for it, and then, they should only pay if the server can not be kept running any other way... *if* there is any profit after that (such as, we can support each user on a dollar per year subscription, and we're still making profit) then the remaining money would be divided among the developers... These would be some pretty small checks.

[elainevdw]

Have any of you guys downloaded DavidRM Software's The Journal? It's what Steve and Erin use, and it's absolutely fabulous.

But if you're hell-bent on programming your own, maybe it would be a good source of ideas.

[Doku]

A feature that I'd like to suggest: Encryption. The main reason that I don't use any of the online stuff is because I'm more than slightly paranoid. Other than that, I'd love to help out with a project like this when I get myself un-swamped from other work.

--Doku

[htmljenn]

It would have to have an offline component if I were going to use it.

I know, this is sacrilege in this forum, but I've been resistant to a lot of other systems because they were 100% online. And I like to pretend that my life isn't chained to the computer (it is, but I pretend it isn't).

The way I do that now is by using a Moleskine notebook that I carry with me always. I write down notes, thoughts, and whatever whenever I'm away from a computer. The only frustration I have with this method is that if I (say) write a chapter of a book in there, I have to then retype it into the computer. And I dislike retyping.

[Adam Sargant]

My birth father has written a software tool for stimulating and then organising creative thinking (stimulating a la de Bono), which he used to market to corporations... I once wrote something similar, though not as ambitious and effective as his... any such tool should IMO contain a variety of tools for provoking creative thought within all other aspects of the application