Web-based Real-Time Group Outliner
March 31, 2005John Robb has a wish: “Here’s a product I would like to use. When I was at UserLand we used a group instant outliner to coordinate our efforts. It was very, very helpful. The only problem was the desktop to desktop synchronization. One way to fix that would be to offer a group outliner as a subscription-based Web service. A group instant outliner that works like Google Maps (as an example of the real-time, responsive, visually intensive Web service) would be amazing. Let me say it again: it would amazing.
You might be able to get somewhere near with BrainStorm. It was originally created before outliners, but with a similar purpose. Rather than modelling itself on a paper outline format (Dave Winer’s wife’s studies and his own knowledge of Pascal led him to create ThinkTank) BrainStorm owes more to the way the mind collects, stores and relates information.
It is a text-based program and is usually used as a personal tool. However, it has a merge function which allows the blending of models and the elimination of replications.
A Java browser is available which can surface a BrainStorm model from the web server.
Taken together, this means that co-workers can collaborate on the creation of a BrainStorm model. Control would be exercised by only allowing one to update at a time, or for updated models to be merged into the master copy, taking it out of circulation for the few moments this would take.
The master copy would be viewable from a web page, providing the client machine could run Java.
Another method would be to web-publish the model as either a JavaScript/HTML page with navigation buttons, or as a plain outline. This, however requires the republishing of the model each time it changes.
This is a Java rendering of information about an upcoming conference. Left and right chevrons move between instances of the same information, revealing the context in the heading. A click on an = next to an entry moves it to the heading. And a click on an = next to a heading brings it back to the body.
Here is the JavaScript/HTML rendering of the same BrainStorm model.
Comment by David Tebbutt — March 31, 2005 @ 8:11 am
David,
Thank you very much for the information.
It sounds (and looks) rather promising. I believe it’s a cool product and I hope to have some time to explore more precisely. Will try return back to the topic later. Good luck!
Tag
Comment by Tag Liner — March 31, 2005 @ 4:03 pm
You will see that I have updated the published models so that all the HTML links are now ‘hot’.
This is because basic HTML can be embedded in the native BrainStorm models and be automatically rendered by the Java and JavaScript views.
Comment by David Tebbutt — March 31, 2005 @ 9:35 pm