Paper Reading #8: Planz to Put Our Digital Information in Its Place

Comments:
Jessica Gonzales
Kevin Casey

Reference Information:
Title: Planz to Put Our Digital Information in Its Place
Authors: W. Jones, J. Gemmell, D. Hou, B.D. Sethanandha, S. Bi.
Presentation: (Conference Paper)  CHI 2010. April 10-15, 2010, Atlanta, GA, USA


Summary:
This article explores and discusses the importance of digital space, the past and current research that has been done in this area and how there are opposing views about the topic. The authors describe some of the problems that user's have had with the storing of information in their digital space, including the fact that they rather navigate their file system instead of searching. Some researchers have concentrated their studies in exploring "placeless alternatives" to enhance the users' interaction with digital space, while others, like the application that this article describes, are trying to obtain a greater sense of "place" and "placing" of digital information that will allow the user to better interact with their file system.

Planz allows users to manage their file system through this document like overlay. When modifications are done through the file system they are reflected on Planz, and when they are done from Planz the file system is updated as well. They are able to create and modify projects from this document like planner, they are able to write notes on it as if it was a word document they are able to like folders, files, email, etc.

The testing was not very extensive, only eight people tried the application for a completion of a project. Basically they worked in two similar projects, one they managed with the tools they have used in the past, and one with Planz. At the end, they were interviewed and filled out a survey. The results were not very relevant, since like they stated they have been using their previous preferred tools for a long time so of course they find them beneficial.

Summary:
This is a very interesting project. I was a little surprised their testing methodology wasn't more extensive. Even for me as a student, I have so many files saved that I forget they even exist. I would really like to try this tool, it seems very promising, at least for me since I try to be very organized with my files. The integration of email to the organization system is very innovative for me, I hadn't heard of before... I'm not sure how I can relate email to documents or folders, but I'm sure that once having the functionality I would find an application for it. I'm still not sure how this document overlay would work, I mean does it cover the complete file system, or only projects that you create and attach or link files from the file system? Hopefully I get to read more about it, and try it out! 

While looking for a picture online, I found the website where Planz can be downloaded: http://kftf.ischool.washington.edu/planz_install.html