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A
New Pen and Paper Paradigm
By Ian Cullimore
President & CEO, Informal Software™
Colorado Springs Business Journal
December 15, 1999
Reprinted
with permission from the Colorado Springs Business Journal.
A
Look at My Day
Well, I’ve had a pretty productive day today – more
productive than my days used to be. In addition to all of my normal
tasks, I marked up and returned to the CFO the draft of the 15-page
business plan, annotated the growing corporate PowerPoint presentation
to refine it for next week’s major trade show, sketched out
and delivered to the graphics department my ideas for the layout
of our upcoming ad campaign, and noted my suggestions on the new
product’s box mock-up. Finally, just for fun, I wrote some
notes during lunch on the pictures we took over last weekend’s
visit to the mountains and sent the photos to the family.
What’s
even more impressive (amazing, in fact) is that I performed every
one of these traditional "pen and paper" tasks without
ever picking up a pen or touching a piece of paper. Everything was
done electronically using my PC, my Palm IIIx, e-mail, and enotate™,
an innovative software product from Informal Software™ Corp.Enotate™
is the first product within a new category of software that promises
to change not only the way we work with our PCs, but the way in
which we represent and communicate our concepts, ideas and information
with family, friends and colleagues.
A Look Back
Prior to the advent of the computer, we were all quite used to being
able to sketch, draw and doodle in our everyday work. We used pen
and paper to create freehand drawings and sketches, as well as mark
up (or annotate) the works of others. In fact, it could be said
that we had perfected the art of drawing and writing with pen and
paper. It seems odd, then, that these natural writing and drawing
functions became all but impossible in the new "computer age."
While the display, keyboard and mouse are the three basic input/output
peripherals of today’s PC, they don’t offer the flexibility
and convenience of good old’ "pen and paper." What’s
missing is a 4th peripheral – a real-time tool that offers
the electronic analog of pen and paper to the PC computing experience.
With enotate™ software and a stylus-based handheld device,
such as the PalmPilot, this 4th peripheral will allow business professionals
to save time and money by completing traditional pen and paper tasks
in a digital manner.
Reshaping the Way We Work and Communicate
For the first time, with enotate™ software, you can use a
stylus-based handheld device, such as the PalmPilot, as a real-time
input/output device to the PC that works directly within PC applications
such as Microsoft Word and PowerPoint. Take, for example, annotating
a Microsoft Word document. With the PalmPilot display providing
a movable and revisable "window" onto the Word document,
you can use the PalmPilot’s stylus to write comments, underline
or circle text, or add editing marks to indicate deletions or text
rearrangements. And you can do it all with the same flexibility
and ease as is done with pen and paper. You have multiple color
"pens" and variable pen widths that add even more capability.
The
entire collaborative process can now be done electronically with
the information being exchanged via e-mail. You’ll save time
(which translates to saving money), have fewer hassles, and can
even communicate your ideas and comments to multiple people at one
time from virtually anywhere (take note all you mobile professionals)
– you no longer have to rely on convenient access to printers,
fax machines or "snail mail." And as e-mail becomes the
most widely used form of communication, business professionals will
embrace this more natural and time-efficient way of expressing their
ideas.
Consider
the variety of things that you do with pen and paper every day,
whether working alone or with others. In addition to annotating
documents and presentations, pen and paper tasks might include drafting
concept sketches, diagrams and charts, or marking up graphics and
photos. An efficient electronic analog of the traditional "pen
and paper" model would allow you to continue to work the way
you are most comfortable, but now to do so using your PC and handheld
device. Whether you’re in your office, on a plane, in a hotel,
or at home, you’LL be able to work more naturally, communicate
your creative ideas more easily, and collaborate with others in
a more timely fashion.
It’s
not hard, then, to imagine that the introduction of this 4th peripheral
will have a significant impact on how you work and communicate information
similar to the advent of the mouse. The mouse was a key factor behind
the development of the graphical user interface that we all take
so much for granted today. Although developed in the days of DOS,
it offered such a profound improvement in the user interface that
the entire PC environment changed and adapted to it. Consequently,
today it is almost impossible to find a PC, be it desktop or mobile,
without a mouse or functional equivalent.
So
much of what we do today is still centered around pen and paper.
The increased need to share and communicate our ideas with others
makes the advent of enotate™ and the concept of the 4th peripheral
is the next logical step in PC computing.
If
you follow the history of the mouse, as this 4th peripheral becomes
broadly adopted, expect to see computer interfaces and applications
adapt to accommodate it in much the same way they did to accommodate
the mouse. It simplifies and enhances digital communication (saving
both time and money), makes the job of the mobile professional more
convenient, and it has the potential to greatly impact corporations
that are already standardising on the PalmPilot.
This
new category of software is poised to profoundly reshape the way
we work and communicate by offering new ways for business professionals
to utilise handheld devices to increase work productivity and make
their personal lives easier.
Author’s
Biography
Prior to founding Informal Software™, Mr. Cullimore was a
business development and technology strategies consultant for major
corporations where he specialised in venture capital fundraising,
the establishment of high-tech start-up companies, and future operating-system
strategy and design. Prior to consulting, Cullimore was the director
of software development for Xircom, Inc., where he conceptualised
the Mobile MIB (Management Information Base), which enabled the
effective management of mobile clients in a network environment.
Prior to his stay at Xircom, Cullimore was the chief systems architect
for the Novell, Inc., European Development Centre where he led a
software development team to design and develop a DOS operating
system product aimed specifically at palmtop and PDA-type machines.
Previously, Cullimore founded Distributed Information Processing,
Ltd., (D.I.P.) where he acted as technical director and headed the
development of the world’s first palmtop PC, the "Pocket
PC," which was subsequently licensed to Atari and distributed
as the Atari Portfolio. Cullimore was also a founder of Poquet Computer
Corp. where he served as vice president of software R&D and
contributed to the movement to use credit card devices in palmtop
and desktop PCs, which became the PCMCIA PC Card. Cullimore is the
author of "Communicating with Microcomputers," and PC
Magazine honored the Pocket PC with the coveted "Technical
Excellence Award." Cullimore holds a bachelor’s degree
in Mathematics from King’s College in London. Focusing on
his novel concept of Informal Interfaces as part of the Human-Computer
Interaction (HCI) group of the School of Computing & Cognitive
Sciences, Cullimore earned his doctorate from the University of
Sussex in Brighton, England. Cullimore specialises in business development,
technology strategies, venture capital fundraising, and mobile network
management technologies.
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