2007 Predictions

Posted by Daly de Gagne
Jan 2, 2007 at 02:36 PM

Happy new year everyone!

After listening to all kinds of predictions on local media, I wonder what kind of predictions my fellow Crimpers might have for 2007 in terms of new software developments, approaches to info management, etc.?

As for me, I think we will continue to see more flexible, tag oriented approaches augmenting or replacing the two-pane outliners.

I am looking forward to the new version of IdeaMason as an indication of a new generation of academic/biblio software. The new version of Biblioscape still has not appeared, and I wonder how its developers are reacting to newcomers such as IdeaMason?

My hope is that ADM gets its act together, and releases a rock-solid version 4—the concepts are good, in spite of other issues.

I am disappointed that it seems development of Ariadne has been slowed, with the indication being there won’t be anything new until perhaps fall 2007. With its system of notes, plus comments, I find it one of the best approaches for drafting and putting complex pieces of writing.

Surfulater, Zoot and MDE InfoHandler are my main info programs.

Surfulater is by far the best web clipper/saver I have used/

Of course, anyone with any awareness of Zoot is eagerly waiting for 32-bit Zoot, which could happen this year.

And MDE has released a preliminary edition of its next version that builds upon the existing design, while providing a basis for new features.

ndxCards continues to develop at a rapid rate, its last release having strengthened its outlining capability—and I think we will see this product continue its development.

MyInfo could become a major contender if developed a more comprehensive approach to integrating with the web. Its current version is a major step forward, and shows the developer is committed to being part of the new generation of two-pane outliners.

UltraRecall’s future development will be interesting to watch. Will it introduce some of the features users have consistently been asking for, such as approaches to making it easier to navigate the tree through a system of hoisting or some such, plus the ability to use a variety of links?

KnowledgeWorkshop that entered the market about the same time as UR seems to have brought development to a slow crawl, having greatly lowered its prices from what they originally were. I am not expecting much change here.

MicroLogic is unlikely to change its approach to marketing and supporting InfoSelect, promising a lot and often delivering less. I predict that a significant number of IS users will continue to be frustrated, and wonder why they keep upgrading or paying the yearly subscription fee.

I would predict that mind mapping programs will increasingly try to close the gap with outliners.

As well, we will continue to see programs designed to centralize and unify info handling, such as IDEA, the now-open source OMEA Pro, and MDE InfoHandler.

WIKIs, which I don’t seem able to warm up to, will continue developing and proliferating.

And we will see more and more web based programs. Perhaps FOLDERA will finally release its beta version—if it lives up to the developer’s description it could be a very helpful product for folk who hop from computer to computer.

What else?

Daly