RFC: a project idea

["Anthony Clark" <anthony clark adv sonybpe com>]

Sorry if this rambles but here's a project idea for y'all to throw around
(out?:-)

BACKGROUND:

I'm a technician/project administrator in a Sony R&D department in
Basingstoke, Hampshire, UK who also writes GUI design
documents and does testing.  At work I use windows NT, while at
home I use GNU/Linux.  I've recently become interested in
"Next-Generation"/innovative GUIs that depart from the normal WIMP
usage to a greater or lesser degree.  My project idea is one that
may not appeal to the many hackers out there; It may not "scratch
the itch" that esr refers to.  Hopefully there will be some interest.

Office workers were uppermost in my mind when I thought of this
project.  The original inspiration came from discussions with our
department's UI engineer, and from observation of both my own and
other's work patterns.

OBSERVATIONS:

I've observed that people have a mental "list" of tasks to complete.
This list is prioritised and sorted according to what task is most
important at the time.  These priorities are often dependent on
factors outside your control.

People associate (mostly unconsciously) tools with those tasks:
	Dreamweaver, internet explorer and textpad with HTML tasks and
	FrameMaker, PhotoShop and SourceSafe with document tasks.

People often arrange their desktop/virtual desktop based on the task
in hand.

Also associated are "Data sources/Metadata" with these tasks:
	HTML, Perl and JavaScript knowledge bases with HTML tasks and
	Project documentation with document tasks.

I also associate targets (i.e.. where the web pages go) and
deliverables (a UI design document) with the tasks.

These tasks are served at present by a single desktop that contains
all the applications I need, but they are disorganised and always
available.  I would like a desktop that morphs based on the task I'm
doing.  My desktop should be aware of what I'm doing, and present me
with the apps and data I need automatically.  I would be able to
create different desktops for different tasks.

Take this one step further:  People can assign others tasks,
and they can collaborate on tasks with other people.  Tasks can
contain other tasks, or can be conglomerated into "projects"

If I don't have an application available for a certain task, it
should be made available (it could be permanently installed if I
begin to use it more often)

THE PROJECT:

To design a desktop system that goes one step further than the
virtual desktops provided by most X window managers.  It should
allow the user to create multiple desktops that are task oriented.
The desktop system should be "task aware" in that a user can say
"I'm editing web pages now" and the system would change desktops
accordingly.  Desktops would contains generic data sources that
help/inform the user.  Desktops would contains links to
applications that are relevant to the task in hand.

The system would include a "task list" that would also serve as the
means to switch desktops ("pager").  There would be a way for others
to add tasks to this list, and the relevant desktop would be created
automatically.  The task list would prioritise tasks to a certain
degree based on metadata (i.e. who assigned the task? when does it
have to be done by?)

The desktop system would provide the user with awareness of the
"context" of their task. i.e. What project is this task based on?
What tasks do I have to do first?

A user's computer may not have all the applications/libraries needed
to complete a task or decode a data source.  The system would provide
a method of both temporarily and permanently installing applications
on a user's computer.

EXAMPLE:

I have an ongoing task to keep my project website up to date.
A new person joins the team and I have to update the web site to
include their picture and personal information.  As my manager gave
me this task and wants it done YESTERDAY, the system moves the task
to the top of my "pager" list.  I get back from lunch and see the new
task.  I accept the task by opening it (I don't want to annoy my
manager, do I?)  As the task is really a subunit of my ongoing
responsibility to maintain the project website, I drag the task's
button into the "maintain project website" task.  This makes the new
task a sub-task of my ongoing task.  I activate the ongoing task and
the system displays the desktop for this task and loads the
applications and data sources I need into memory for fast startup.
I add the new project member's details to the website and mark the
task as complete.  My boss is informed that the task is done
automatically. As the "add new person" task is complete, it
is shown as complete within my ongoing web site task.

NOTES:

I'm not advocating a "big brother" approach to office worker control.

This is different to the virtual desktops of e/fvwm et al  - I'd envisage
being able to save/archive desktops away and recall them at will.  Also,
virtual desktops don't autoswitch based on what I'm doing.

It would be extremely cool to be able to log off a
gnome-session/task-desktop at work and then be able to use it from home -
even if I'm using a different OS!

I see tasks as "update the project website - ongoing", not "update
pagexx.html to include the new project members"

I'd imagine the GNOME system would come in very handy in this
project; Loading apps automatically would seem a good CORBA
responsibility.

There's a lot of potentially useful data to keep track of:
	Project/task creator
	applications needed
	priority
	due date
	contact information
	data sources
RDF/XML would seem a good candidate for this.

The system would need:
	A desktop designer
	network desktop storage
	A task scheduler
	A data source designer
	and loads more!

I see a key component of this system being intelligent automation.
i.e. taking the burden off of the user, without removing control.
My real problem with many parts of Microsoft Office's
"Intellisense" features is that I can't configure them to work
exactly the way I want. i.e. I can tell it to check spelling as I
type, but the way it does it is only slightly configurable.

Sorry for such a big email, but I ramble at the best of times...

PS - this is my own idea, not the idea of Sony BPE

/*
 * Anthony Clark,
 * Broadcast R&D,
 * Sony Broadcast and Professional Europe,
 * Jays Close, Viables, Basingstoke, UK.
 * RG22 4SB
 *
 * Tel: (+44) (1256) 483444 (direct)
 * Fax: (+44) (1256) 810950
 */