The Tudumo Times


16.8.07

GTDWannabe's list...and User's Bill of Rights item #1

Posted by Richard
GTDWannabe (almost) completes her online GTD app reviews in this story. Wander over there if you're keen to find any apps that suit you way of working.

During one of the mini-reviews, she mentions this:

"In fact, I actually spent a couple of hours bringing all of my next actions in, and used it for a couple of weeks."

That is something I think should be solved. I'm all for importing your actions into Tudumo but I'd like to know what to import from. My thinking has been to get together with the other GTD application makers and decide on a common standard. This would mean you could import your data, try Tudumo out, export it again, try another application out.

In fact, I think it's so important that it's part of my Users Bill of Rights:
"The user has the right to own their data."

What that means is that application creators don't try to lock users in by restricting how they can get at their own data. That was used as a technique for competition in the Bad Old Days, but now the user is king (and queen) and we should be working to make their (your) lives easier. As a user, I'd like to import/export my data. As a developer, I want you using the tool you want to use!

So, if you know any GTD app creators and they're keen to collaborate on this, get them to mail me on richard (at) tudumo.com and I'll add them to the group. My thoughts are to create an XML file in an agreed-upon standard that can be shared, or to agree that e.g. we'll export/import from the ical format.

If this post doesn't get traction I'll follow up with a few myself and see how it goes. I don't promise that I'll do it immediately, but I will.
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9 comments:

  1. Richard, I don't know if you saw Things from Cultured Code yet. The developers seem to share your vision:

    "Yours forever. We don't lock you in. Things uses an open XML file format to store your data. This gives third parties a transparent way to communicate with Things. Even better still, by using a modern web browser users will be able to view Things files fully formatted on any platform anytime."

    Now, I don't know them personally, so I can't get you in touch with them. But see: http://culturedcode.com/contact.html

    I would definitely favor an open XML standard and not import/export from iCal.

    By the way, I think it's great you are showing active initiative on this important subject!
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  2. Tudumo also has an xml data format and a couple of my users have created import and export to/from it. So I totally support what Things is saying and from their file screenshot the format looks as if moving between our formats should be pretty easy. Now just to create a common one :)

    This'll also help a bit for those who have a Mac at home and a PC at work. More on that later...
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  3. Great idea Richard. I'm passing along the call to action. :)
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  4. I haven't developed the data export option for my GTD app, tedium yet, but I agree completely that all the user's data is their own to take when they want.

    There was some initial discussion about a GTD file format on the 43Folders board a while back, so I figured I'd link these two efforts together to help things gain some momentum.
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  5. Great link Adrian, and nice to know others have the same feeling about it!
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  6. Rich,
    either CSV with a heading line naming the fields or XML. Tamas
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  7. I'm liking the look of tudumo but as always I'm nervous about chucking too much time at it when it looks like I may not be able to get at my data. Lack of export or an (obvious) data file gives me some level of fear. This post makes me happier as you're obviously making moves in this direction, but I'm still a bit nervous..is the XML data format you mention visible on the filesystem anywhere? I can only see a .dat file in the Tudumo folder but it didn't look like it contained anything useful to me.
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  8. No worries, I found the xml!

    * feels much happier *

    :-)
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  9. Mike: glad you found it :) You can also copy-paste (or drag & drop) out of Tudumo although that doesn't take the dates and tags with it, yet.
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