[Design] Human Knowledge Database - Thinking Bigger

[Hamish Harvey]

Selva,

On Tue, 2004-01-13 at 03:28, Selva wrote:
> Hi Hamish,
> 
> Comments in line.
> > 
> > From: Hamish Harvey <david.harvey at bristol.ac.uk>
> > Date: Mon, 12 Jan 2004 19:55:49 +0000
> > To: design at osafoundation.org
> > Subject: Re: [Design] Human Knowledge Database - Thinking Bigger
> 
>  Re the Palm
> > Desktop: did it develop since I last saw it, when it was essentially a
> > viewer for the data held on the palm? I didn't think it had any support
> > for cross linking between databases, which carry over all the problems
> > of unconnected data silos that our long standing fixation with
> > applications has left us with everywhere.
> 
> I actually didn't mean to imply Palm Desktop 1997 edition had
> relational database functions but rather, I meant to try to understand

No misunderstanding there.

>  what features made it so popular and to use these features as a

This intrigues me. How popular was it? How different was the installed
base of Palm Desktop from the number of PalmOS based organisers in use?
And of that installed base, how many people actually used the Palm
Desktop as their main desktop organiser, how many simply had it their as
a conduit to for example Outlook, and how many only used it to back up
the handheld device?

I have no answers to those questions. I just never had the impression
that Palm Desktop was a roaring success independent of the organisers it
supported.

Cheers,
Hamish