Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!hplabs!hpda!hpdslab!hp-ptp!garye
From: garye@hp-ptp.HP.COM (Gary_Ericson)
Newsgroups: comp.society.futures
Subject: Trend toward personal management
Message-ID: <2190001@hp-ptp.HP.COM>
Date: 25 Mar 89 18:40:09 GMT
Organization: HP Pacific Technology Park - Sunnyvale, Ca.
Lines: 55

I was reading a master's thesis the other day that discussed the architecture
of a Personal Support System.  In the introduction, he postulated an
environment which would allow a person to better manage information and
resources.  His ideas echoed something I've been thinking more and more about
lately, and that is this:  I think there is a trend afoot which is working to
provide an individual with tools that will allow him/her to merge all the
information (and certain other resources) in his/her life into a cohesive
whole.

There is work being done to link systems together with networking and optical
media is bringing once paper-bound info on-line.  But the area I'm thinking
about is the realm of personal information that I need every day, and that I
need with me wherever I am: calendar, time, names, addresses, phone numbers,
other personal pieces of info, and specific chunks of data that I need to take
with me for specific reasons (such as needing a specific set of reports for a
project meeting - which reports I need depends on the focus of the meeting).
How can an individual manage such bits and pieces of things, and, more
importantly, how can these be linked to the other information managers he/she
uses (such as his/her desk-bound workstation)?

Some people use a portable computer for things like meetings and on trips.  But
I think we need something even smaller, something I can carry into a phone
booth or use on a bus - something I can take with me *wherever* I need the
information.

There are a flood of personal managers produced today, used a lot more in Japan
than here.  I'm thinking of Casio's data diaries, gadgets by Seiko, and Sharp's
Wizard.  They are fine for portable data, but in general they are isolated
devices.  The Wizard breaks through here because of the way you can link it to
a PC to upload/download data.  And this is where I see the trend: personal,
portable electronic organizers, connected in a fluid way with the bigger
desk-bound information managers, designed to help individuals manage the whole 
spectrum of information they have to deal with.  I think the coming flood
(we're seeing a trickle, I predict a flood within the next year or so) of
"pocket PC's" is a step toward this trend, putting now enough power in your
hand to perform tasks like these.

Here are my questions:

  1) Is this really a trend, or will technology stop short of getting 
     this kind of toe-hold in our personal lives?

  2) Why do the Japanese use these personal managers more than Americans?
     What would it take to get non-techies, especially executive types, to
     use a small (very 'personal') computer to keep themselves organized
     (as opposed to the paper-based methods they're using now)?  What 
     would it have to look like?

  3) How long before we see personal managers (integrated into larger
     systems) a common appliance (like the paper-based managers (Time 
     Manager, Day Timer, Geodex, Day Runner) are today)?  What will be
     the steps to get us there?

Gary Ericson - Hewlett-Packard, Workstation Technology Division
	       phone: (408) 746-5098  email: gary@hpdsla9.HP.COM