[chandler-users] The story of a new user

[Andrew Smart]

Hi Mimi,

Thank you very much for your comments and suggestions. The only reason I have not tried this yet is because I am still getting to know Chandler, but your suggestions will definitely help me, so that instead of trying things more or less at random I have ideas about where to go.

I will try it out on an upcoming project (first I need to get Chandler to work for myself) and update you on how it goes. 

I am sure I will encounter questions on the way.

Thanks again!
andy




----- Original Message -----
From: Mimi Yin <mimi at osafoundation.org>
Date: Tuesday, March 18, 2008 5:06 pm
Subject: Re: [chandler-users] The story of a new user
To: Chandler users <chandler-users at osafoundation.org>
Cc: Andrew Smart <andrew.smart at nyu.edu>


> On Mar 17, 2008, at 8:02 PM, Andrew Smart wrote:
>  
>  > What would be wonderful is a way to share collaborations across  
>  > groups as well. For instance, I am a member of a lab with a group  
> 
>  > of people who physically work at the lab. But I, independently of  
> 
>  > the group, also collaborate with researchers in Sweden, France etc. 
>  
>  > based on projects in which we have a mutual interest.  Other  
>  > members of the group here collaborate with people from other groups 
>  
>  > on their own projects. It is of course really difficult to  
>  > coordinate all this. And groups form and dissolve all the time when 
>  
>  > a project starts or is completed. When the group dissolves all of  
> 
>  > the useful things the group learns about organizing collaborations  
> 
>  > dissolves too. It would be great to be able to use Chandler to  
>  > store a platform for collaboration, so that when a new research  
>  > group forms we can just say "here is how this is organized" and  
>  > everyone can be literally on the same page from day one. Groups in  
> 
>  > research are often more like transient assemblies of people working 
>  
>  > on some problem. When the problem is solved, or more accurately  
>  > when there is a paper about the problem, the members of group move 
> on.
>  > I know this isn't very concrete.
>  
>  Hi Andrew, Is there a reason why you couldn't try this today with  
>  Chandler? You can share collections of Notes and a Calendar with  
>  arbitrary groups of people. You can have the same Note or Event  
>  appear in multiple collections (which would be useful when 2 groups  
> 
>  or projects overlap.)
>  
>  >
>  > So what I mean is that for instance a person in Sweden and myself  
> 
>  > think of an idea for an experiment. We have the necessary equipment 
>  
>  > here so we collect the data. The guy in Sweden has developed a  
>  > great new way to analyze the data, so we send him the data. Now,  
>  > some people in France that I know have done similar experiments and 
>  
>  > also take a look at the data and offer some insight. We send data,  
> 
>  > upload data, make figures - back and forth for several months,  
>  > sometimes we meet. Eventually one or two of us sits down and puts  
> 
>  > everything in a paper. We then send the paper back and forth among  
> 
>  > the group members for editing and revising. We then submit the  
>  > paper. It hopefully gets accepted, but always with revisions. The  
> 
>  > process repeats and continues. This group dissolves (for the time  
> 
>  > being), I find some other collaborators etc....
>  
>  It sounds like you might like Chandler to support documents. We've  
>  defined this as:
>  - A new kind of item called a Resource (in addition to Notes and Events)
>  - Resource items can have files attached to them
>  - Like Notes and Events, Resource items can be triaged and tickled  
>  with alarms like any other kind of item
>  - Like Notes, Resource items can be addressed and sent out via email, 
>  
>  placed on the calendar and starred
>  - Resource items can belong to the same collections as Notes and Events
>  - Add a "Resource" Application Filter to the Toolbar
>  
>  This is on the Desktop Work Q: https://bugzilla.osafoundation.org/ 
>  show_bug.cgi?id=11339
>  
>  > What I want to point out is that all of the organization of this  
>  > takes place ad hoc and on the fly. Often the planning of doing is  
> 
>  > more work than the doing- which is where I want Chandler to come in!
>  >
>  > Re: words. Personally I think the word Focus is very intuitive for  
> 
>  > me. The word Now induces a stress reaction in me. I have a range of 
>  
>  > things in my current focus, but if I label something as "now" or  
>  > "active" I feel like I have to think about it "right now".
>  >
>  That's interesting. Worth testing out on other people.
>  > Sorry this is so long - but I think about this a lot :)
>  > andy
>