Data, information, and knowledge management software-"What software should I use? Bytes

Source: Internet
Author: User

Data, information, and knowledge management software-"What software should I use? "
A Primer on data, information, and knowledge management software tools

Feature comparison chart:

What each data, information, and knowledge management software package can and can't do

This chart covers major features that most knowledge workers need. It will give you a broad-brush indication of whether a tool will meet your needs:

Suggestion: This table is big. if you have Microsoft Office, right-click on the table, and choose "export to Microsoft Excel ". then you can manipulate it yourself: sorting, searching, removing columns that aren't relevant to you, etc.

Software: Text or visual based Handles RTF Text Handles images internally Handles audio/video internally Visual mind maps Visualizes
Data and information
Organizes data into categories "Googles" your hard drive Can export data/
Handheld capable
Or link?
Can handle
Email
Attachments?
Powerful internal search Compresses data Saves webpages
Text-based tools:                 -        
Pinpkm (dot matrix) Both MS word Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes/No Yes
Brainstorm Text Yes No No No No No No No No No No No
OneNote Text Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ? No ? Yes No
Readynotes Text Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Adm Text Yes No No No No Yes Yes ? ? Yes No ?
Info select Text Yes Yes No No No Yes No Yes/yes-with purchase
Of Palm version
Yes Yes Yes ?
Ariadne Both Yes Yes No No Yes-Calendar No No ? ? Yes ? ?
Asksam Text Yes Yes Yes No No Yes-keywords No Yes/No Yes Yes ? ?
Personal knowbase Text Yes No No No No Yes ? ? ? ? ? ?
Informaizer Text Yes No No No No Yes ? ? ? ? ? ?
Myinfo 2 Text Yes Yes No No Yes-tables Yes No Yes/No ? Yes ? ?
Mybase Text Yes Yes No No No No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes
Treepad Text Yes No No No Yes-tables No No No Only Enterprise version Yes No No
Texnotes Both Yes Yes No No Yes-calendar & tables Only date/time No No No Yes No No
General Knowledge Base Text Yes No No No No Yes No No No Yes No No
Infohandler Text Yes No No No Yes-Calendar Yes No Yes/yes-Pocket PC ? Yes No No
Ultra recall Text Yes Yes No No Yes-tables Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes


Visual-based tools:

- - - - - - - - - - - - -
The brain Visual Yes No No Yes No No ? No/No ? ? ? ?
Mindmanager Both Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes No ? ? No ? ?
Inspiration Visual Yes Yes Audio-Yes Yes Yes No No Yes/No ? Basic ? ?
Mindmapper Visual Yes Yes No Yes Yes No No ? ? No ? ?
Smartdraw (drawing) Visual Yes Yes No Yes Yes No No Yes/No ? No ? ?
Screen capture) Visual No Yes No No No No No Yes/No ? No ? ?
Notemap ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Haystack Both Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ? ?
Freemind Visual Yes No No Yes No No No No No No No No
Axon Visual ? ? ? Yes No No No No No No No No

Content savers:

- - - - - - - - - - - - -
Contentsaver Visual Yes Yes No N/ N/ Yes Yes Yes/No ? Yes ? Yes
Scopeware vision Defunct-company has gone out of business
Everdesk Text Yes No No No No No Yes ? ? Yes ? ?
Egems collector pro Both Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes Yes/No ? ? ?

Apple/Macintosh products:

- - - - - - - - - - - - -
Tinderbox Visual Yes Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes
Omnioutliner Visual Yes No No No No Yes No ? ? Basic (?) ? ?
Idea keeper Text Yes Yes Yes (?) No No Yes No ? ? Yes ? ?
Features-categories defined:

1."Text or visual based"-This means that the focus of the Data Management System is text based rather than visual. for example, when you create a quick outline of 10 things to do in a project, some of which are subordinate to others, does the software prompt you to enter each item separately into a list-like hierarchy structure or does it prompt you to enter items into a visual flowchart, organization chart, or graphical Outline? The first is a text based. the second is visual based. text based tools are fast, efficient, and data is highly organized. visual tools are slower, inefficient, and data is not necessarily organized logically.

2."Handles RTF Text"-Text based tools don't like RTF-bold, highlights, fonts, colors, etc. This stuff complicates it because the underlying core of the software is a text database.

3."Handles images"-This is important. A text-based tool simply will not be able to import, input, or manipulate images. it may be able to link to them, but not actually interact with them. A visual-based tool will allow you to grab a picture off the Net and put it next to an item in the flowchart you just created.

4."Handles audio/video"-Similar to images, a visual based tool will allow you to embed a multimedia file right into whatever you are working on. the link must be to a dedicated, internal copy of the sound or video file, not just a link to a file previusly accessed or on the Internet. in other words, a tool that actually handles the sound or video file. in this day and age of 250 GB hard drives, multi-terabyte raid hard drive arrays, internal handling of multimedia shold happen.

5."Visual outlines"-The software can allow you to create and manipulate outline information is stored ally. for example, after inputing your ideas via a keyboard into text "blobs" you can move them around with your mouse and attach them in varous orders and hierarchies, patterns, and relationships.

6."Visual mind maps"-For the creation of mind maps, the software is almost transparent-it supports your work by visualizing your thoughts around a central idea with linked off-shooting concepts or ideas. the key difference between mind maps and visual outlines is that the process of creating mind maps is an idea capturing process where the software facilitates seamless and transparent entry so that the user is not held up by software.

7."Visualizes data and information"-The software takes existing relationships between data and visualizes them or finds new relationships and creates a visual display of the relationship. an example is a text-based calendar versus a visual calendar. another is the creation of a flowchart from spreadsheet data.

8."Organizes data into categories"-The software allows or forces groupings of data into logical sets. a freeform, visual diagramming tool, for example, won't be able to group and relate "blobs" of text data using a logical organization. they may be related or visually linked, but not categorized and not searchable.

9."Googles your hard drive"-The software can delve into all the files on your computer, catalog the files, and delve into your types of files and pull out data or information.

10."Can export data/handheld capable or link? "-Using data and information from one software package in another is imperative. Users shoshould never be locked into a proprietary format that is not "exportable" to another hardware or software tool or data format.

11."Can handle email attachments"-If the software works with email as a raw data material, can it access email attachments?

12."Powerful internal search"-Can search against SS any type of data and information that has been internalized by the program. does so quickly, pulling out most relevant items it found, and ranking the items based on highest possibility of being the most useful or relevant compared to the search parameters.

13."Compresses data"-Does the software store the data in a non-compressed, openly accessible data format or in a compressed data format that cannot be easily converted or accessed outside the software?

14."Saves web pages"-Is there a one-click feature that grabs everything on a web page and stores it-text, photos, and/or the HTML code (perhaps), etc .?

Related Article

Contact Us

The content source of this page is from Internet, which doesn't represent Alibaba Cloud's opinion; products and services mentioned on that page don't have any relationship with Alibaba Cloud. If the content of the page makes you feel confusing, please write us an email, we will handle the problem within 5 days after receiving your email.

If you find any instances of plagiarism from the community, please send an email to: info-contact@alibabacloud.com and provide relevant evidence. A staff member will contact you within 5 working days.

A Free Trial That Lets You Build Big!

Start building with 50+ products and up to 12 months usage for Elastic Compute Service

  • Sales Support

    1 on 1 presale consultation

  • After-Sales Support

    24/7 Technical Support 6 Free Tickets per Quarter Faster Response

  • Alibaba Cloud offers highly flexible support services tailored to meet your exact needs.