ISV Progress… slow, but steady
For awhile there, I was posting quite regularly, but then I started getting into initial development work. Actually, I’ve done a lot less coding than I’d have liked but I now have a lot more of my ideas and direction sorted out. For instance, I now know that ThoughtFiler needs to be a desktop product first, and a web service second. I still believe the web service would be unique and innovative enough to succeed, but it needs to go on the back burner while I concentrate on getting a 1.0 desktop version out there.
With all the thinking I have been doing about how to structure the product and the user interfaces required, I am once again excited by it and can see the benefits that it will provide. Heck, I want to start using myself NOW!
Matt Cornell‘s article, Where’s the IDE for personal information?, has been quite helpful in finetuning some of my own ideas for ThoughtFiler.
The downside is that I’m no longer sure exactly how to code all this, the upside is that I have now confirmed in which direction I need to go. 
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Workflow…
I’ve also been thinking a lot about workflow at the moment… What types of information do people deal with in their daily lives? How do they keep it for later referral?
How do people use paper? What areas are best handled by PIM software? And what, if anything, is best left to paper? Some things are just better done in physical form (or paper first, then digital).
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It is quite a challenge to find the right balance between advancing my product/company, retaining enough energy to give my day-job my best (after all, it is through that salary everything else is being accomplished), and maintaining a healthy social life so as not to become some kind of hacker hermit!
Ever onward!
SkypeCasts & our MicroISV community…
“Skypecasts are live, moderated discussions that allow groups of Skype users anywhere in the world to discuss shared interests, from classes to computer support to cultural or political debates. They amount to the conversational equivalent of Web blogs, complementing the written interactions of blogs.”
Read the full article here [via ZDnet] and also this [via the Skype blog].
A few minutes after reading this, I started wondering if this could be something useful for our Micro-ISV community. Kind of like a virtual uISV conference – but no travel expenses! Especially convenient to those of us, like myself, on the other side of the world from the U.S.
I think this could be worth a go. Anyone agree? Feel free to post topic ideas for a first Skypecast in the comments here and I may just see if I can get something going…
…if there’s enough interest I’ll try and pick a convenient time for those interested and announce it here and the relevent forums. Now it’s over to you…
Mini AJAX…
AJAX too much? Try AHAH!
First up, from crackajax.net, we have:
and also this from geekpedia.com:
Pen & Paper time…
Things have been quiet on the blogging front here of late, but busy behind the scenes (including the “minor” distraction of a cyclone).
I’ve been doing lots of pen & paper development, sketching out database schemas and UI designs. I’ve now got the initial UI for the ThoughtFiler desktop version worked out and, even though it doesn’t do anything, it’s nice to finally see something on a screen. It feels like I’m finally making some progress.
The web version will probably wait now until next year after the first release of the desktop edition.
JavaScript: Calendars & Pre-loading messages…
A few useful JavaScripts I’ve found recently. I have just used (this week) the first of each pair:
And a couple of popup calendars:
Another new Micro-ISV: Mental Velocity
Looks like someone else is taking the Micro-ISV plunge!
John Moody is currently pondering his situation and thinking about what direction to go in. It sounds like he’s leaning towards the ISV route.
It appears his first product will be some kind of GTD-oriented task list manager app and he’s currently thinking through whether to develop for the web or desktop. I’d recommend, if he goes the web route, having an option to generate nice on-the-fly PDFs for printing.
FogBugz vs HelpSpot…
A good post from Ian on FogBugz vs Helpspot as a help desk. Worth reading if you’re currently looking into this area.
I wanted to link to it from here as it nicely follows my previous comparison of help desk software. He also brings up a point worth thinking about early on regarding keeping your help desk and bug tracking software separate.
ThoughtFiler: Reasons to give it a go anyway!
This seems like an appropriate spot to quote a few paragraphs from the NGEDIT site:
“I know, I know. I am aware that there are plenty of text editors in the market. One could easily think that there is no need for yet another text editor.
“But I don’t share that point of view.
“I think that text editing can and should be improved. It can become a much more comfortable experience. There is a lot of innovation yet to be done in text editing, and I hope to make NGEDIT a sound first step in that direction.”
His thought’s on why he’s developing NGEDIT are similar to why I wish to develop ThoughtFiler: some parts of my idea have been done before, but there is still plenty of room for improvement.
Even given all the potential competitors I listed in my previous post, none of them really come close to the vision I have for ThoughtFiler. Even though, initially, ThoughtFiler will look like a clone of some of them, my hope is that eventually, its scope will extend beyond them.
….
“Pay attention to the idea that won’t leave you alone — this is taken from Paul Hawken’s Growing a Business. Sometimes an idea catches hold of you and you find you can’t put it down. Pay attention to that! Just start working on it. Can’t get yourself to do anything on it? Move on. Find yourself waking up out of bed to write down new ideas about it? That’s a good one to choose.” [Source]
This is an idea that has been chasing and bugging me for going on four years now. I’ve finally decided to start paying it real attention. The more I seriously think about doing it the more I think it has legs.
And, the final reason? ThoughtFiler is a product I want to be using now. It frustrates me that it doesn’t exist. I can (obviously) see the benefits of my vision and I want it available so I can use it! I wanna eat my dogfood!
ThoughtFiler: Reasons I should not bother…
There are a number of reasons why it could be said to be foolish to pursue the development of ThoughtFiler.
One of the biggest reasons is that it’s becoming a trendy area. Many have ideas about it.
“Consolidating your stuff to an online service is an exploding area right now – lots of the storage services are differentiating themselves by offering this type of thing.” [Source]
A few more cons on the web side:
- Google. ’nuff said really. There are enough hints already that they eventually want to store everyone’s stuff. GDrive. Also, here. Also, now with confirmation of their forthcoming calendar they will have one more piece of the PIM puzzle. On the other hand, the (current) lack of integration between most of their services could be seen as a benefit to myself or others, at least in the short term. Also, the growing distrust and uncertainty of Google’s future plans could be a good thing – they don’t seem to realise that most people don’t want all of their files out of their control.
- Yahoo. These guys already have some leanings in the ThoughtFiler direction (sort of), ala their Addressbook, Briefcase, Calendar, Notepad, Wallet (?maybe), and 360.
- BackPackIt & Remember the Milk. These guys are up and running now and have a user base. However, they have chosen to basically service one PIM element: to-dos. In other words, they could be considered only partial competitors.
All the various new ajax home pages [source] “could” be said to be competing in my marketspace:
- Eskobo, favoor,Fold.com, Google,Goowy (Flash, not Ajax), Gtalkr (Flash), HomePortals,Microsoft Live, Netvibes, Pageflakes, Protopage, Wrickr, Zoozio.
…but realistically, at least at this stage, they are not really competitors, but more something that people may initially confuse as such (until they use one or more of them).
There is more competition from the desktop side however:
- Ecco Pro (even if it’s no longer being developed)
- Info Select
- Keynote
- sqlDesktop
- Treepad
- UltraRecall
Hmmm…
ThoughtFiler: the idea…
I’ve been blogging now for a couple of months and I suspect some may be curious as to why I set up this ISV. What is my first product?
Well, read on for the concept-in-brief…
… continue reading.