[chandler-users] Auto-filing in Chandler?

[Mimi Yin]

Hello Andy and Carl,

Chandler is certainly meant to support the kind of rule-based  
collections you're describing. They already exist in the app today:  
Dashboard, In and Out, plus the Mail, Task, and Calendar variations  
of each sidebar collection. Unfortunately you can't define them  
yourselves.

In the coming months, we're unlikely to put staff resources on  
implementing user-defined, rule-based collections - thought we'll  
gladly help anyone who would like to invest time as a volunteer.

As it happens, Chandler will take a pass at parsing date/time  
information in your email if you drag messages into the Chandler  
Events IMAP folder. (You can configure Chandler to set up special  
Chandler IMAP folders so that you can add messages from your email  
account to Chandler. The messages show up in your Dashboard and In/ 
Out collections as Events.)

Have you tried sharing with a Chandler Hub account? https:// 
hub.chandlerproject.org

Sharing fundamentally changes many of the workflows you're  
describing. In many ways, the problem of having too many email to  
file starts with not having a shared space to collaborate. I've found  
that getting even 1 other person to share a collection (a colleagues  
or spouse) dramatically reduces the amount of email that flies back  
and forth.

Also, if you're sharing with someone, they will automatically add new- 
items and events into the right collection, straight onto the  
calendar *for* you. No need to file or auto-file on your part. Better  
yet, if you're collaborating on a list with someone (say you're  
compiling a FAQ), you can both simply add to the FAQ item. No need to  
collate FAQ ideas across dozens of different emails into a single  
authoritative list.

This kind of read-write collaboration isn't anything new ;) but in  
Chandler, it's integrated with all of your personal stuff because you  
can manage that FAQ List in both a shared collection *and* a personal  
collection.

Mimi

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Carl Lemp <clemp2002 at yahoo.com>
> Date: March 16, 2008 12:38:02 PM PDT
> To: chandler-users at osafoundation.org
> Subject: [chandler-users] Re: chandler-users Digest, Vol 15, Issue 15
> Reply-To: Chandler users <chandler-users at osafoundation.org>
>
> I think Andrew Smart's comments reflect what a large number of  
> users, including myself, are looking for in a PIM or GTD type  
> application.  An electronic assistant files items, manages group  
> and personal calendars, and remembers everything.   Chandler is  
> part way there but to become indispensible, it needs to be  
> smarter.   Like  Andy,  I don't want to have to look at each item  
> and then manually assign it  to all the correct collections.  It  
> just takes too much time.  However, if simple content based rules  
> could be set up similar to what Agenda had so many years ago, it  
> would be much more useful for people trying to use it to manage  
> many items in many collections.  Even something as simple as the  
> following would be a big help: Allow the user to enter synonyms for  
> a collection name and then have items automatically assigned to the  
> collection if any of the words in the item match either the  
> collection name or it's synonyms.  Are there any plans to add  
> automatic assignment to Chandler in the near future?
>
> Regards,
>
> Carl

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Andrew Smart <andrew.smart at nyu.edu>
> Date: March 16, 2008 10:46:27 AM PDT
> To: Chandler users <chandler-users at osafoundation.org>
> Subject: Re: [chandler-users] The story of a new user
> Reply-To: Chandler users <chandler-users at osafoundation.org>
>
> Hi,
>
> I am also brand new to Chandler and I am trying it for apparently  
> the same reasons as Allan Day. I am a researcher at a lab and I was  
> hunting around for something that could magically organize my  
> calendar as well as our small group's calendar, and sync each  
> individual in the group to the group calendar. I also share Allan's  
> experience with setting up Chandler to do what I would like it to do.
>
> I am at the level where I can't get Chandler to read my email. My  
> email server is a big university email service so I am not sure  
> about security, but I would love for Chandler to be able to read my  
> email, so that I could really "use my inbox as my task manager".  
> Every person in our small group also has the same university email  
> server. Any tips about this?
>
> As it is now, I do use my inbox as my calendar, task manager, phone  
> number repository, list holder etc - basically all information I  
> need for my job is in my inbox because I don't have the time to  
> manually transfer the information in my inbox to a calendar. This  
> would require me thinking about each email, categorizing it and  
> placing it in the right place to be acted upon later. As I am sure  
> everyone in this situation knows, this could easily take hours  
> EVERY DAY. So if I need to remember a meeting, or a task, or some  
> contact information, where do I go? My inbox. Obviously this isn't  
> the most reliable and efficient way of storing and retrieving  
> information. I share the dream of having an automated system that  
> just reads my email for me and presents me with a calendar.
>
> Human memory is not designed for reliable information storage. This  
> is exactly why we need Chandler type programs. However, computers  
> are not designed for flexibility, "fuzzy logic" (yet), determining  
> how urgent a task is based on the current circumstances, when to  
> ignore irrelevant information (or even the means of determining  
> what is irrelevant), or when to change some piece of information  
> from irrelevant to relevant depending on my current goal.
>
> But I do think Chandler is a great start toward having an assistant  
> with perfect memory.
>
> Best,
> Andy
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