Your Computer Desktop Rethought.
After Harlan Hugh's full session of attendees at VizThink 2008 we thought we'd provide you with some key ideas and concepts covered in the session as answered by Harlan Hugh.
What was the original inspiration for TheBrain?
When I first started working with computers in 1980 all there was to do for a kid was to learn to program. Games weren’t very exciting and I had no interest in spreadsheets or word processors. But programming was a way for me to take the ideas in my head and make them come to life. As I grew up, I found that most people didn’t see the computer that way – they just saw it as a typewriter with a screen on it, or at best a digital version of a filing cabinet.
Since I thought of the computer as much more – really the first tool that is purely information oriented, this perception was quite frustrating. I wanted everyone to be excited about using their computer. To me it was obvious that the desktop metaphor was at the core of the problem. By telling people that the computer is just like a desk, with folders and files, you limit their perception of the possibilities. Not to mention that the desktop for the most part actually does impose many restrictions on how we organize information that are merely hold-overs from the real-world metaphor it is based on.
With this realization, the next thing to do was to change the metaphor from the desktop, a symbol of the industrial age, to the human brain, a symbol of the information age. What better way to think of organizing information on your computer than the most powerful information processor ever created?
The metaphor of the human brain provided most of the fundamental inspiration from there – thoughts and their associations, the ability to work with many thoughts and switch between them instantly, each thought triggering related thoughts, and so on. Of course, the visualization of these concepts was also another key aspect of the creation of TheBrain software.
What are some problems with current methods of organizing information?
Current methods of organizing information are typically very linear or application centric: organizing your bookmarks in your browser, your documents in your My Documents folder. For basic tasks on your computer this might be fine but if you are working on a project that requires you to reference multiple sources or assimilate a variety of information you will lose your train of thought or miss important information. There also tends to be an over-reliance on search as a method of file management which can get users and companies into a lot of trouble. It’s great that we have powerful ways of searching for files and Web sites but you still need a system of organization for the information that you are storing. If you don’t your computer becomes a mess with redundant files and copies, no navigation system and a very stressful environment to work in. In other words, search is great if you know exactly what you are looking for but it’s difficult to discover related information and impossible to understand data relationships with search lists. It certainly is not a system of organizing information. Our own brains need more…
How does TheBrain solution address these problems?
We design software that is very idea or topic centric. The type of file or application you are working with or within should be incidental to understanding and accessing your information. This premise is reflected in the very core of our user interface design. Your Active Thought is at the center of your screen and all related items surround that topic. You can link files, Web pages, ideas; there are no limits to the number of connections you can make in your Brain. This offers the user a freedom of expression that is not possible within a folder structure yet still provides a structure and a system of organization that is reliable yet organic. By representing all information uniformly as Thoughts you can transcend the boundaries of your file types and applications, working in a world of concepts and ideas. It’s a mental space that lets you access relevant data as it’s needed. This is why showing someone your Brain can be very personal.
How has that vision changed with Web 2.0 trends?
The expanding Web communities and new Internet technologies have led to some very exciting developments for TheBrain that we continue to develop upon. With BrainEKP thousands of users can author and share Thoughts and links within a single Brain all through a browser. You can even setup different levels of access control and customize views for user communities. With PersonalBrain our HTML export is now in a lightweight Web component with the ability to quickly run on all browsers.
How many Thoughts are in your Brain and what do you use your Brain for?
My brain has about 12,000 thoughts. I track everything and everybody that is important to my life. Every project that I work on, people that I meet, resources I use – it’s all in my Brain. The key Thoughts in my Brain are: Personal – where I have information on my house, finances, healthcare, family, hobbies, and other stuff, TheBrain – where I track everything related to TheBrain Technologies (the company), and World – where I put everything else, such as people I meet, the companies they work for, products I am interested in, trends I am watching, etcetera.
I access my Brain constantly throughout the day – looking up people, opening Web sites, jotting down notes, writing proposals, etcetera. Everything one does to run a business. I also use my Brain a lot to track engineering projects that I am running. For this, I have feature lists, completed tasks, related technologies, key issues, and resources I might like to use (such as online articles and 3rd party products or open source projects).
What’s in store for PersonalBrain customers in 2008?
We have many exciting developments in the works right now. This year we have expanded our user community for PersonalBrain considerably, welcoming Mac and Linux users in addition to our PC user base. Our commitment to delivering to end users’ feature requests and innovation is paramount. You can get a sneak preview of what’s next via our beta program, which you can participate in by downloading the latest beta from the bottom of our download page. This year we’ll be introducing version 4.2, another free upgrade for PersonalBrain 4 users. Our focus is on evolving PersonalBrain’s rich editing and Thought creation tools, more integration with desktop applications and focusing on new ways for users to collaborate and share their Brains.
When I first started working with computers in 1980 all there was to do for a kid was to learn to program. Games weren’t very exciting and I had no interest in spreadsheets or word processors. But programming was a way for me to take the ideas in my head and make them come to life. As I grew up, I found that most people didn’t see the computer that way – they just saw it as a typewriter with a screen on it, or at best a digital version of a filing cabinet.
Since I thought of the computer as much more – really the first tool that is purely information oriented, this perception was quite frustrating. I wanted everyone to be excited about using their computer. To me it was obvious that the desktop metaphor was at the core of the problem. By telling people that the computer is just like a desk, with folders and files, you limit their perception of the possibilities. Not to mention that the desktop for the most part actually does impose many restrictions on how we organize information that are merely hold-overs from the real-world metaphor it is based on.
With this realization, the next thing to do was to change the metaphor from the desktop, a symbol of the industrial age, to the human brain, a symbol of the information age. What better way to think of organizing information on your computer than the most powerful information processor ever created?
The metaphor of the human brain provided most of the fundamental inspiration from there – thoughts and their associations, the ability to work with many thoughts and switch between them instantly, each thought triggering related thoughts, and so on. Of course, the visualization of these concepts was also another key aspect of the creation of TheBrain software.
What are some problems with current methods of organizing information?
Current methods of organizing information are typically very linear or application centric: organizing your bookmarks in your browser, your documents in your My Documents folder. For basic tasks on your computer this might be fine but if you are working on a project that requires you to reference multiple sources or assimilate a variety of information you will lose your train of thought or miss important information. There also tends to be an over-reliance on search as a method of file management which can get users and companies into a lot of trouble. It’s great that we have powerful ways of searching for files and Web sites but you still need a system of organization for the information that you are storing. If you don’t your computer becomes a mess with redundant files and copies, no navigation system and a very stressful environment to work in. In other words, search is great if you know exactly what you are looking for but it’s difficult to discover related information and impossible to understand data relationships with search lists. It certainly is not a system of organizing information. Our own brains need more…
How does TheBrain solution address these problems?
We design software that is very idea or topic centric. The type of file or application you are working with or within should be incidental to understanding and accessing your information. This premise is reflected in the very core of our user interface design. Your Active Thought is at the center of your screen and all related items surround that topic. You can link files, Web pages, ideas; there are no limits to the number of connections you can make in your Brain. This offers the user a freedom of expression that is not possible within a folder structure yet still provides a structure and a system of organization that is reliable yet organic. By representing all information uniformly as Thoughts you can transcend the boundaries of your file types and applications, working in a world of concepts and ideas. It’s a mental space that lets you access relevant data as it’s needed. This is why showing someone your Brain can be very personal.
How has that vision changed with Web 2.0 trends?
The expanding Web communities and new Internet technologies have led to some very exciting developments for TheBrain that we continue to develop upon. With BrainEKP thousands of users can author and share Thoughts and links within a single Brain all through a browser. You can even setup different levels of access control and customize views for user communities. With PersonalBrain our HTML export is now in a lightweight Web component with the ability to quickly run on all browsers.
How many Thoughts are in your Brain and what do you use your Brain for?
My brain has about 12,000 thoughts. I track everything and everybody that is important to my life. Every project that I work on, people that I meet, resources I use – it’s all in my Brain. The key Thoughts in my Brain are: Personal – where I have information on my house, finances, healthcare, family, hobbies, and other stuff, TheBrain – where I track everything related to TheBrain Technologies (the company), and World – where I put everything else, such as people I meet, the companies they work for, products I am interested in, trends I am watching, etcetera.
I access my Brain constantly throughout the day – looking up people, opening Web sites, jotting down notes, writing proposals, etcetera. Everything one does to run a business. I also use my Brain a lot to track engineering projects that I am running. For this, I have feature lists, completed tasks, related technologies, key issues, and resources I might like to use (such as online articles and 3rd party products or open source projects).
What’s in store for PersonalBrain customers in 2008?
We have many exciting developments in the works right now. This year we have expanded our user community for PersonalBrain considerably, welcoming Mac and Linux users in addition to our PC user base. Our commitment to delivering to end users’ feature requests and innovation is paramount. You can get a sneak preview of what’s next via our beta program, which you can participate in by downloading the latest beta from the bottom of our download page. This year we’ll be introducing version 4.2, another free upgrade for PersonalBrain 4 users. Our focus is on evolving PersonalBrain’s rich editing and Thought creation tools, more integration with desktop applications and focusing on new ways for users to collaborate and share their Brains.
