[OGo-Discuss] BLOGing/Journaling/ACTing [Was: OGo and asterisk, SUMMARY]

[Adam Tauno Williams]

> >> Why don't you use a project, that is the notes of a project, for  
> >> that?
> > I wasn't aware of project classification then.  There is also the  
> > issue of linking the contact to the appropriate project;  but  
> > doable via an object link or a property.
> I'm not sure what you mean. Projects are linked to contacts anyways?  
> (associated contacts/companies).

Right, but a contact may be associated with multiple projects;  for
different reasons.  But the 'CRM Journal' is a specific set of
information used by the salesperson and/or call-center people.  For
instance a new salesperson may want to read over all the notes for the
contact in the journal; and in our case we have some journals that go
back over a decade.  So reading the notes on all the projects the
contact is associated with isn't really the same thing - there may be
notes on those projects that don't pertain specifically to the
contact.  

Of course just looking up project.kind="crm" that the contact is
associated will work;  so long as there is only one project.kind="crm"
for that contact. 

It would be nice if a project could be associated to a contact in the
same way as the fake enterprise project,  this ensures a 1:1
correspondence.   In the CRM point-of-view, while there are things like
campaigns, etc... which look like "projects", the contact itself really
is a project.  

One might think of that project as a catch-bin for all the notes that
didn't seem appropriate for any of the specifically created project.  It
really is bewildering the kind of stuff that gets recorded;  if the guy
mentions his kid has the flu, that might get recorded - then the note
serves as a reminder so the salesperson can ask how his kid is doing
next time they communicate.  Nauseating manipulative - yes, but their
sales people.... and they take that kind of thing very seriously.

> >> Just because it a note has no type?
> >> Because you can't enter the date of a note?
> > Both actually.  Both of these things could be added to a note via  
> > an object property.  (Now i wonder if that is true, that I can't  
> > enter a date on a note.  If I specify a date in the command to  
> > create a note what will happen...)
> Well, even if this is possible, it would be a bug ;-) Creation/ 
> modification dates are internal, if you want a user-defined date, we  
> should add a property or a column.

Yes, the ability to date-stamp a note would be extremely useful.
Especially concerning contact/journal like notes they are very often
entered after the fact or loaded in from some external source.

> For the type we could probably reuse the file extension since notes  
> have no visible filename anyways.

Interesting.

> >>> 2. A work journal.
> >>> This is for lawyer and engineering types.  This seems like it  
> >>> would be
> >>> related to a project,  but the end-user really looks at it as a  
> >>> journal.
> >>> So some way to query and present a view of all entries by a  
> >>> particular
> >>> user is needed,  which may traverse multiple "projects"  (at  
> >>> least how
> >>> the end-user is thinking of the concept of "project").  This is  
> >>> the one
> >>> that seems really arbitrary - and they REALLY want it a certain way
> >>> [ lawyers and engineers... if you haven't had the pleasure... :) ]
> >> I can't follow that completely. Isn't that tasks? Attached to  
> >> projects
> >> and also shows up in an overview.
> > I personally would think so, yes.  But how that operates doesn't  
> > really correspond to how the users view the issue.  Tasks open and  
> > close and are fairly specific,  Journal entries are strictly  
> > chronological and variously 'categorized' entires intermix  
> > chronologically.  But I think I have this one licked anyway.
> Hm, so maybe its a "notes" overview. Currently we show notes only in  
> appointment and project viewers, maybe we should have a top-level  
> "Notes" application which cummulates the records.

Absolutely, yes.

> Sounds useful. In fact notes seem to be a perfect fit for journal items.

Yes.

> >>>> Most objects in OGo already do have a "journal" (tasks,  
> >>>> appointments,
> >>>> projects). I suspect whats actually needed is some kind of
> >>>> "reporting" frontend here? Possibly just an RSS feed which  
> >>>> cumulates
> >>>> the "notes" of the individual object types?
> >>> I agree,  at least on Tasks.  Otherwise they only 'sort of' have a
> >>> journal;  notes could work but I think the functionality would  
> >>> need some
> >>> tweaking.
> >> I was referring to notes. What is missing?
> > Contacts don't have notes, this is one of the big issues.  Of  
> > course a project can be created for each contact.
> Well, my personal opinion is that notes are always bound to a  
> "context" aka a project (eg "sell xyz to abc" [a project] or "case  
> 333, murder vh" [a project]). Even if you just start out with one  
> context (aka project) per contact.
> So I suppose whats really missing here is a faster way to create  
> projects. And possibly a tab which displays the notes of all projects  
> associated with a contact.

Yes.