[Design] Design input

[Tim Boyden]

Great project, the more options for PIMs the better!

As far as design goes here are some of my thoughts:

Calendar -

Group calendaring essential, perferably in a all at once view window rather
than individual windows for each member

Access to individuals calendars while their computer is off (this is in
assumption that if P2P is the collaboration protocol their computer would
have to be on to see their data)

Public Folders -

I don't really like Exchange's Public Folders because their implementation
isn't really all it could be, however a good PIM should have some sort of
central depository to share info and data to the organization as a whole or
for workgroups. For instance the company's event calendar or contact list.
There is a PIM called Centrinity First Class that has an interesting
approach to this called conferencing, which takes a subject - let's say a
project - and creates an area where members of the project can store
documents, project calendar, project related messages and so on. The
conference also gets its own email list through which members can send
information to the project. Here is the link for more info:
http://www.centrinity.com/FirstClassDocumentation/FirstClass7Documentation/O
nline%20Books/Bus.%20Prof's%20Guide%20to%20FirstClass#CUSTOMIZINGYOURDESKTOP
VIEW

Email -

Easily import mail (correctly) from all the major email programs - Sys
Admins won't advise to make the switch if this process is tortureous

Ability to highlight or colorize messages in a mailbox to make them stand
out for future attention.

A really good junk mail filter!

Filters that allow any incoming mail message to be made into a task or
calendar item, for instance a message from a mail list for IT help requests
can be redirected into a task or to-do list item, this is something Outlook
cannot automatically do, you currently have to  manually drag and drop the
message for it to work.

Documentation - 

The more self help the user can get the better!

Disaster Recovery -

The user's data better get backed up somewhere (not on their computer) so I
don't have to say "sorry that's gone" when they "accidently" delete
something or it magically disappears.

*************************************
Tim Boyden
MIT Department of Facilities
Applications & Desktop Services Team