DesktopBrain

[mburtsev]

The problem

Imagine that computer files are bits of our memory. Usually, when we work on PC our brains need to accomplish a complex task of searching and managing all the resources needed to solve some task. Why do we have to remember locations of all the files we used last time every time when the work continues next day? Why do we have to manually sort out files and URLs? Why do we have to browse numerous folders? Why is our desktop so brainless? It is clear that we all need an application on top of the current OS UI to make our symbiosis with PC more efficient.

How can we do that? The neurobiology tells us that the brain stores, connects, retrieve and integrates memories in dependence of the task being executing at the moment. When we start riding the bicycle we do not need to browse all the memories in search for the biking skills, we just begin and all the pieces of memory related to the riding are already at work. This allows us to think where to go instead of how to ride the bike. So, let our desktops to track the relations of resources (files, URLs etc.) to our activities and then integrate the resources when we start the task next time. Let’s put a bit of the brain power into the desktop.

A bit of formal treatment

Usually user exploits applications to work on tasks (projects) which go on for considerably long time (hours, days, weeks). For different tasks user needs different subsets of available “resources” (documents, tables, URLs, pictures, sounds etc.). So, the user has to deal with groups of diverse resources but contemporary OS UI is suited for work with separate resources. This creates the following problems for the user:
- The user can not quickly and efficiently retrieve the resources related to some task.
- When the user works in parallel with a number of tasks the user should keep in mind and sort out manually all the opened resources in relation to current tasks.
- The information about relations between resources and a task is not available. When the user starts similar task after few months he should remember all the resources needed.
- Web bookmarks can be sorted manually or chronologically but it would be clearer if they were sorted in relation to the context of task they were used for.

The solution

The resources should be automatically tracked in relation to the tasks performed by the user.

Imagine

You can open “virtual” folder with resources required for the current task.
You can place them on the timeline of the project’s history.
You can look on the genealogy of your documents.
You can open all the windows closed yesterday evening by the one click.
You can hide all the windows for “writing the article” and activate all windows for “shopping” by the one click.
You can make your life with PC easier.

A basic implementation

1) Turn the PC on.
2) Choose the task (project) from list (or create new)
3) Push “record” button.
4) Work on the task. The DesktopBrain tracks all the resources you are working on.
5) If you want to switch to another task push “pause” button. All the windows will be hided and you can activate another task. Later you can switch back with the same ease.
6) When the work on the task is finished just push the “stop” button. All the windows will be closed.

What is important is philosophy of the work. It should be different from the current style folder browsing. User should work with tasks and not with files. It is much more natural and biologically grounded.

P.S.: Unfortunately I have only an idea but not programming skills to implement it. So, I would like to invite everybody interested in the future of GUI to collaborate for creation of the next generation “smart” interfaces. The DesktopBrain project can be found at the SourceForge.

Screenshots depicting tentative interface of the DesktopBrain application -

[Maurice_Z]

Which, of course can be accomplished manually, like I have ten users in Windows XP. User could go like:
-"Flash Mario"
--Autostart: Internet Connection, IRC, MSN, Flash, Firefox, Music Player, Mario Folder
--Desktop: Macromedia Flash, Link to Mario Folder, Link to Musics folder, link to sounds folder, link to Flash tuts, Firefox, Music Player
--Firefox: On top bookmarks like - My Site Admin, Flash Tuts, Newgrounds Forum, DeviantArt friend
And so on. Of course this includes doing everything manually, but from the other side, automated systems tend to go wrong at some points. But this one is rather weak argument.

[mburtsev]

Which, of course can be accomplished manually, like I have ten users in Windows XP.
...

You are right but as you mentioned it requires manual sorting of resources and, moreover, it can not provide one essential feature which is the history of resources usage. It is important for complex long lasting tasks. If you need to check out values in the big table with tech spec filled months ago from different sources then it is not easy to collect all sources of information again. So, the idea is that if you have history of resources usage in the context of some task, it will be easy to reconstruct how you had solved similar task before.

Another example, imagine that you are a sales manager and preparing commercial offers for different requests. Usually it takes ten days to complete the offer and you work with five offers in parallel. For every offer you should manually create or collect a number of docs, pdfs, etc. and sort out e-mails related to it in your e-mail client and bookmark a number of urls in your browser. Every day you should start with exploring your folders, opening your files one by one, remembering where are the files downloaded three days ago. It takes a lot of time and brain power. But DesktopBrain can help. It keeps history of relations between resources and your tasks (offers). Hence, you can use this history to easily retrieve resources required for some task and manage them in group. You open “Task explorer” and see all the resources (files, urls, e-mails) used for the task. You can “clone” existed task to start similar one, etc.

[Maurice_Z]

I can see your point .
Well, I'd have to try such a thing to decide whether I want to use it or not, but overall it seems like something good and helpful .

[TcM]

I think you forgot the link:
SourceForge.net: DesktopBrain

I would love to try it.

[mburtsev]

Thank you for adding the link. I can't do this in the first post.

Recently, I found the tool to organize resources which is called PersonalBrain. It has cool graphic representations of interlinked resources. PersonalBrain seems to be rather useful.
TheBrain Technologies

…. Unfortunately, it is manually operated , works with resources but not tasks and has no option for bookkeeping the history of resources usage. So, the DesktopBrain idea is still actual.

[Maurice_Z]

Let's see...
Nah, I will wait for the DekstopBrain (Because I looked at it again, and then again, and I thought it can be something really neat after all) . But I will bookmark that thing to investigate later.

[monkey_instinct]

I know a tool that can work. I don't know if work for other platforms other than linux but is really helpful. It's called Dogtail, and it's kind of an API written in Python that takes advantage of the Accessibility technologies to let you control the desktop. For example, you can write a script for opening your browser, pointing to gmail.com and write your username and password automatically. It have a tool that is called Dogtail Recorder and is basically what you talk about on the tentative implementation. It have a 'record' button and you do some task. When you click stop button, the tool generate the script that execute what you just did on your desktop. It's very cool and can actually help you on your project. I think that with Mac OSX you can do something similar using applescript. So check it out, here are the links:
Dogtail:
dogtail: taking your application for a walk
Applescript:
AppleScript: The Language of Automation

[mburtsev]

Thank you for the refs to Dogtail and AppleScript. Dogtail Recorder is really impressive. Of course, it gives too much details of user activity for the proposed basic version of DesktopBrain, but, with no doubt, it should be useful as the project develops .