OS X users only:
I use the Pro version of Devonthink, which is very economical, to
store all snippets of daily research, calendars, webpages, Eudora
email, images, Office files, audio, video and so on, all of which can
actually be viewed from within the application or merely linked to
their single physical location on disk. The primary item they are
selling is their AI searching technology with automatic indexing as
you create items, but of course you can tag and hyperlink everything
yourself. I find it a tremendous advantage to organize items by
project. For example: Concert tour of Japan - all my excel budgets,
weblinks for tourism, contact emails and so on are in one folder for
quick planning and viewing, although the physical locations on my
hard drive might be organized another way. I basically use it like
the old Hypercard on the first macintoshes. And since a media item
can be metatagged for searching or filed under multiple hierarchies,
it might serve your purpose well. The recording can be listed in a
folder for the date you recorded it, but then linked from a list of
all recordings of nuns, all recordings above 10,000 feet, etc.
The software will automatically index a OS folder or entire hard
drive for you by filename, and then that is searchable even when the
disk is offline. If the disk is plugged in, you can audition the file
directly, and if not it will prompt you to attach it. I use the
indexing feature periodically with each of my 7 external hard drives
and 6 computers (into one database), and then metatag the files
gradually over time. You could be adding google earth coordinates at
the same time, or any other data such as linking your photos. You can
also publish websites directly from the software.
Can you tell I find it useful?
Devon Note starts at $20, but look carefully at the features of Devon
Think and Devon Agent before you decide. There are free 30-day trials
and the staff is helpful in extending or providing support.
http://www.devon-technologies.com/
There are many such products out there, and a ubiquitous one at
macworld is Circus Ponies' Notebook. It appears to be just one guy
developing it, but he takes it seriously and there are more and more
features every year.
http://www.circusponies.com/
In short, I would take a good look at the features of these tools
before investing in Filemaker. Naturally a relational database has
considerable power, as do the large-scale media management programs
designed for recording studios, but some of the technology is
available cheaply! Devon basically builds its application entirely
out of tools in the Apple SDK.
Someone else will have to find ideas for Windows users....
--
Hugh Livingston
El Mirador
491 Crescent Ave #304
Oakland Calif 94610
(510) 205-HUGH
www.livingstonsound.com
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