[Chandler-dev] What's our product strategy for getting to a 1.0?

[Mimi Yin]

I have tried to pull together an articulation of the larger product  
strategy goals driving the work queues we've compiled for Desktop and  
Server.

+ http://chandlerproject.org/Planning/DesktopWorkQueue
+ http://chandlerproject.org/Planning/DesktopWorkQueue

Goal: Build on the core value we have today as a "knowledge manager"  
to get more users!

1. Get Chandler in front of more users, aka: Make it more viral.

+ NEW WORKFLOW Item Sharing
Sharing entire collections with family and people you work closely  
with is great. But oftentimes you have truly ad-hoc groups gathering  
for one-off events: Potluck Dinner, Picnic...and it'd be great if  
Chandler offered an easy way to collaborate with others on *just*  
that item.

We hope that this will allow our current users to introduce Chandler  
to lots more people!

Note: This is different from making it easy to point regular  
collaborators to a single item in their Chandler Hub account /  
Chandler Desktop. We'd like to do that, but the first step is to get  
ad-hoc sharing of individual items with non-Chandler users working.

+ FIX WHAT WE GOT Improve the web UI 'Ticket View' so that  
subscribers have an easier time figuring out how to subscribe to  
Chandler collections in applications they already use.

+ FIX WHAT WE GOT Interop
- Make it easy and useful for iCal/Lightening users to share with  
Chandler Desktop users. This could be Desktop users subscribing to  
calendars from iCal/Lightening users or vice versa.

- Make it easy and useful for iCal/Lightening users to use Chandler  
Hub and make the Chandler Hub experience a solid representative of  
Chandler's core value as a "knowledge manager" so that we get more  
users using the Chandler eco-system for knowledge management.

The flip-side of this is that we are *not* targeting iCal/Lightening  
users looking for Exchange-like functionality. We are looking for  
iCal/Lightening users who are in need of a Chandler-style knowledge  
management system.

Questions:
- What about Evolution? Mulberry? other CalDAV clients?
- Do we also want / need to support Google Calendar users to the  
extent that we support iCal / Lightening users?

2. Make Chandler more appealing to new users, aka: Reduce barriers to  
getting started. This includes:

+ FIX WHAT WE GOT Reduce the number of new concepts users need to  
understand in order to get started
- Desktop work to pare down the UI (mostly deemphasizing role of  
email in Chandler)
-- http://blog.chandlerproject.org/2008/02/13/desktop-10-work-queue/

- De-emphasizing notion of 'Item' and replacing it with notion of a  
'Note'
-- http://lists.osafoundation.org/pipermail/chandler-dev/2008- 
February/009593.html

- Removing the notion of Task, and introducing the notion of a Star
-- http://blog.chandlerproject.org/2008/02/14/what-makes-a-task-a-task/

- Improve Web UI experience for non-Chandler Desktop users (iCal,  
Lightening and Chandler Hub-only users, especially people who are  
directed to Hub by a Desktop user trying to share a collection with  
them) to introduce them to core Chandler workflows and concepts.  
Basically, make the web UI a more compelling sneak preview of  
Chandlers core 'knowledge work' offerings. This includes things like:  
Smoothing out the sharing workflows, auto-triaging CalDAV events, and  
making the Notes field in the Detail View more usable.

3. Make it easier for new users to ramp up to using Chandler every day.

+ NEW AFFORDANCE Notifications
We can't count on users to sit in Chandler Desktop all day long,  
certainly not in the beginning. Yet we want to demonstrate to new  
users how powerful sharing can be. the ability to send users  
notifications about what others are doing in shared collections is a  
great way to "loop people back in" when they're not in Chandler  
Desktop or logged into Chandler Hub.

The first notifications widget will be offered for iGoogle. But we  
want to get this working so you can broadcast and receive  
notifications via email, SMS, IM, etc. We think notifications via  
email, SMS and IM will be most useful for both Desktop users *and*  
those collaborating with Desktop users. However, building an iGoogle  
is an easy first step for us to get a "proof of concept" out the door.

+ NEW AFFORDANCE Remote Quick Entry Widget
We can't count on users to sit in Chandler Desktop all day long. Want  
to provide easy ways to get stuff into Chandler via the Hub service  
from places users 'sit in' all day long so that they do not have to  
fire up Chandler Desktop or log into Chandler Hub in order to dump  
new items into Chandler.

The first quick entry widget will be offered for iGoogle. But we plan  
on bringing the QE widget to more places: Desktop widgets (Yahoo  
Konfabulator, Vista Sidebar, OS X Dashboard, iPhone, email forward.)  
We think the Desktop, iPhone and email forward affordances will find  
broader and more regular usage but iGoogle is an easy first step for  
us to get a "proof of concept" out the door.
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