My Dream App - John Bell

My choices in the semi-final round

2006-10-11T00:18:40Z

I’ve looked over the remaining apps and have decided which ones I’m going to vote for.

1. Hijack. This focuses on the message board and RSS articles that I wanted to organize in Minerva. Hijack goes into more detail and had more eye candy than the Minerva approach. Definitely something I want!

2. Ground Control. At first, I couldn’t figure out what GC did. I visted the GC web site and looked at it in detail and then I figured it out. It’s like the Control Strip from OS 9, but instead of showing control panels in the strip, it has shortcuts into the apps you use everyday. You can’t describe something so graphically useful in words, you need to see the mockups on the GC web site.

3. Whistler. I’m a closet musician without the training. You know how the Mac and MacWrite suddenly made everyone into desktop publishers? Well, Whistler is set to do the same for “the rest of us” non-musicians.

4. Portal. I personally don’t have a need to sync two Macs, but if I did, Portal would be massively useful.

5. Atmosphere. My home office is in my basement. Nuf said.

6. iGTD. Who can argue with being organized?

— John B.

Thanks to all!

2006-10-06T12:39:34Z

I want to thank everyone who voted for me, wrote to me on the boards, wrote to me in private e-mails, and supported my idea on these forums.

And a BIG thank you to Hoyaman who posted a story on Digg for me.

This has been a great experience for me and I hope for all of you too.

I can’t wait to see who wins and to get the winning apps when they’re ready to run. Hey, MDA… need any beta testers?

Enjoy!
— John B.

The Illustrated Minerva

2006-10-03T23:13:04Z

Here’s my concept of how Minerva’s main window would appear. In this example I have four priority categories. You can see the icons to the left that illustrate what type of content is in each column.

The window below is an example of setting preferences. Minerva picks up your address info from Address Book. For each e-mail address in the book you can set a priority level and indicate if you want to share calendars with that address. Note that some contacts in the list have multiple e-mail addresses and each address has its own priority level/calendar sharing properties.

And here is Minerva’s response after silently scanning an instant message session. Minerva catches the references to an appointment and pops up a dialog box asking if you want to accept it. The “Change” button at the bottom is if you want to change any of the specifics such as the time or date.

Send me your comments on these mockups, Thanks!

— John

And They Said It Couldn't Be Done!

2006-10-03T14:44:22Z

The feedback on Minerva has been great. I’ve received a lot of positive comments and encouragement (mostly privately, but also some on the forums). There has also been some commentary that Minerva is too hard or actually impossible to implement. This is very important commentary. There is no sense in voting an app into the final three if it can’t actually be turned into code. I thank the judges and other bloggers for raising this point.
I’ve been doing some research and thinking in the last few days to determine how to make the seemingly impossible become possible. I’ve worked it out, and I have the solution! Minerva is possible to implement. We can do this!
Minerva has to interface with the following items: e-mail, instant messaging, calendars, remote devices (iPods, Blackberries, and so on), RSS feeds, and web message boards. To keep this simple to start, I’d like to keep the number of interfaced apps to a minimum and stick with mostly Apple products, as they are the most common. As others have noted, most of these apps have never been designed to work with other apps. They have their own data, their own databases, and so on. There are no APIs to call. Until there are, the approach is to use openly available work-arounds or write some Minerva-specific code. Here goes:

e-mail integration
Apple’s Mail.app stores its e-mails in files that are easily available in the Finder. Minerva can open these files and scan them just as you can with any text app (such as TextEdit, BBEdit, and so on). There’s no magic to having Minerva scan your e-mails.

Instant messaging integration
Apple’s iChat can log instant message conversations. If user’s want Minerva to watch their IMs then they have to turn on logging and then point Minerva to the log folder. Then, just like it does for e-mails, Minerva can scan the conversations. A preference in Minerva can have it delete any logs older than a specified time, so you won’t be wasting disk space. A friend pointed out to me that keeping the logs for a short period of time can be useful to those of us with short memories who may need to resurrect a conversation to check out what was said.

Contact/Address info
Apple’s Address Book remains the standard repository for all your personal contact information. It is accessible already to other apps, as evidenced by it’s existing integrations with Mail and iChat.

Calendar integration
Apple’s iCal is the natural choice here. I know that it is possible to access its information, as PocketMac does this already. When Leopard comes out, iCal 3 will allow for sharing calendars through iCal Server or any CalDAV compliant equivalent. Perfect!

Remote Devices integration
Synching with an iPod or a Blackberry or other device is best handled by that device’s dedicated app. However, Minerva doesn’t really need to exchange data with the other apps, it just needs to launch the synchronization process. That can be done by calling an Apple Script that loads the app, answers its typical prompts, and then optionally quits the app.

RSS Feeds
Minerva will need its own code for this. However, judging by the number of apps available that do this already, this doesn’t look like a major coding effort to create.

Web Message Boards
Minerva will need its own code for this. The code for finding, reading, storing, and then displaying messages is evidently fairly simple, judging by some of my developer buddies at work. These message boards are accessible on the web, and a stripped-down web browser can do this work. The tricky part is navigating the threads, as there are no standard navigation methods. Minerva could ship with navigation methods for several popular boards (such as the ones here at MyDreamApp, Apple’s own discussion boards, Yahoo’s financial stocks board, and so on. Other message boards could be implemented using a wizard to guide you in identifying the navigation methods, or using plug-ins. Those of you who own Harmony remote controls have experienced a very well-designed wizard that can support a wide variety of navigation styles.

So that’s the plan. There’s no barriers to implementation now.

I have a few new features to add to the list.
1. I liked Oliver Breidenbach’s idea of displaying a list of e-mails when you click a contact’s name. I’ll go it one further and display all e-mails in a thread if you click the subject. This can be extended to RSS articles and message board posts too.
2. Auto-calendar synching with approved contacts. My oldest son is the inspiration for this one. He e-mailed his marching band calendar to me and asked how the data in the .ICS file was going to get to my Blackberry. Minerva should be able to scan such attachments and if they come from an approved contact, open iCal and import the .ICS file. The next regularly scheduled synch will get the data to my Blackberry. SImilarly, Minerva should be able to send specified calendars to specified people. For example, I can create a Project Meeting calendar in iCal and tell Minerva to synch that specific calendar with the members of my project team. Minerva then exports the .ICS for that calendar and e-mails it to the contacts.

And yes, I *AM* working on mockups! I’ll have some posted tonight. I’ve made some up but I’m waiting on feedback.

— John

Minerva refined and defined

2006-09-26T22:35:56Z

I’ve been mulling over the ideas and suggestions and have distilled it down to these features.

Minerva works with the following types of objects:
* e-mail
* instant messages
* message boards
* RSS articles
* appointments
* to-do items

To avoid re-inventing the wheel, it is preferable that Minerva work with existing apps, such as Mail, iChat, and iCal (just to name the Apple-branded apps we’re all familiar with). For example, appointments are stored in iCal, regardless of how Minerva finds out about them. I don’t know if it is possible for one app to read another’s data easily, as I doubt that Apple built APIs (API = Application Programming Interface, which is a method for one app to “call” another app to get information) into their applications, but it may be possible to use clever work-arounds. For example, Mail stores each received e-mail in a separate file that is accessible in the Finder. Minerva could monitor the mail folders and scan the new messages as they come in.

Minerva’s main job is to construct a daily news list that has prioritized categories. You get to determine what categories you want, what those categories are named, and the rules for determining how items get prioritized. For example, I could use three categories and name them Hot!, Warm, and Cold. You could use five categories and name them TOP Priority!, Do today, On Deck, Long Term Assignments, and Someday. For each type of item (such as a news article, appointment cancelation, or e-mail from a friend) you decide which category they should go into. I want e-mails from my wife and my boss to go into my Hot! folder so they get my attention. But message board posts from the Apple stock quote board I want to put into my Cold folder. Setting your preferences may take awhile, but then again, training a secretary to your preferences always does.

e-Mail Integration
* scan incoming e-mails for:
keywords that indicate an appointment
messages from specific people
specific topics or keywords
commands from you
* when receiving an e-mail about an appointment, Minerva checks to see if this is:
a confirmation of an existing appointment. If so, it updates iCal with that information.
a cancelation of an existing appointment. If so, it updates iCal and puts this item on your daily news list
asking what times you have free. If so, and if you have pre-approved this person to get your schedule, Minerva e-mails back with your available times
a new appointment request. If so, Minerva checks for a conflict. If no conflict, Minerva replies with a confirmation, updates iCal, and adds the item to your daily news list. If there is a conflict, Minerva adds it to your daily news list and if the sender is on your appointment list (another preference item, as you don’t want to be sharing your calendar with random strangers!), then Minerva responds with suggested alternative times.

When receiving an e-mail from someone, Minerva can check to see what action I want taken for that person. Actions could include:
* send an out-of-office response (with options for: every time, once a day, once a week, once per outage)
* send a prepared response
* ignore
* Put on my daily list in *X* category (such as Hot, Warm, Cold)
* run an applescript

Commands. This is an optional feature you can turn on for when you’re away from your computer. When turned on, Minerva scans incoming e-mails for a pre-determined passphrase that indicates an e-mail from you. The mail would also contain an instruction, such as:
Forward e-mails from *person name* to *person name/e-mail address/instant message*
An example of this use is I’m away from home and Minerva gets an IM from my boss. Minerva forwards it to my blackberry and I see that the boss wants to know if I got Pat’s e-mail about the schedule change and needs an immediate response. I query Minerva to send me Pat’s e-mail, which I then read, but I need more info so I reply to Pat with my question. I then remotely instruct Minerva to send me any e-mail Pat sends. I can now get the response and get back to my boss without any serious loss of time.

Instant Message Integration
Minerva scans incoming and outgoing messages for keywords indicating appointments and to-do items. If it finds one, it pops up a dialog asking if it should be added to my calendar or to-do list.
Example conversation:
Chris: We should do lunch soon.
me: Yeah, we should. Tuesday?
Chris: Not good for me, I have a meeting then. Thursday around 12:30ish?
me: Ok. What do you want? Scottish food again?
Chris: Yeah, that works for me.
Minerva pops up a dialog that asks: “Accept an appointment for lunch with Chris on Thursday at 12:30 at McDonalds?”

Message Board Integration
I read a lot of message boards and some threads I follow closely and some I ignore. Minerva will be able to read those boards, scan for new messages and put them in my daily news list according to the priorities I’ve configured. It will also ignore any threads and any posters I’ve indicated that I’m not interested in.

RSS Article Integration
Minerva will scan articles and based on keywords will place the article into my priority categories. I’m envisioning a scoring mechanism whereby I can assign a score value to each keyword and then a threshold value that defines the minimum score needed to put a message in my top priority list. Example: To be in the Hot! category, and article needs a score of 100, but to be in Warm it needs a score of 20. I define the keyword “My Dream App” as being worth 90, but a keyword like “Microsoft” is only worth 10.

Now the cool part.
Minerva is constantly updating my daily list. Not just while I sleep but also during my work day. When it displays an item for me to read, it also includes buttons for me to indicate what should be done with future items like it. For example, if it is an e-mail, then I can indicate if future e-mails with that topic (or from the same person, etc,.) should be a higher or lower priority. With a message board posting I can raise/lower the priority, and even ignore the thread or poster. As time goes on, Minerva “learns” my preferences and can adjust accordingly.

Minerva is also time-sensitive. For example, at 9 PM, Minerva reminds me to plug in my Blackberry and iPod. At five A.M. Minerva uses the text to speech app to convert each category (Ex: Hot, Warm, Cold) into separate MP3 files and then synchs my iPod to put the MP3s on there and synchs my calendar on the Blackberry.

That’s enough text for now.
If I can draft #1 son into doing some photoshop (I’m a writer, not an artist), I’ll post some mockups of the daily news list and some prefs.

— John Bell

The Dream Lives!

2006-09-13T01:07:28Z

Minerva has long been a dream of mine ever since I read “Time Enough for Love” by Robert Heinlein. In the story, Minerva is an AI application that functions as a personal secretary; it listens to what is being said, reads your mail, and anticipates what you need. If you’re talking on the phone and agree to meet a friend for lunch on Thursday, Minerva hears that and automatically puts that in your schedule for you. Heinlein’s “Minerva” is still too advanced to be real today, but the Dream App “Minerva” can start laying the groundwork for the fictional one.

I’m not an expert on copyright law, but we may need to change the name to avoid problems with Heinlein’s estate. I don’t know how litigious they are! My backup name is “Molly”, in honor of a former co-worker who was amazingly adept at keeping her boss on time and informed. I had considered “Nyota” but I figured that was already a copyrighted name too. Extra points to those who already know who Nyota is without having to look her up!

I’m very excited about getting Minerva built. I need a Minerva to keep me organized between work and home activities. I’m a technical writer so I’m looking forward to writing a very comprehensive user guide to accompany the software. Maybe I can sneak another feature into the already packed feature list: context-sensitive embedded online help!