Do you use our products to cope with the current situation?

#1

Dear all,

COVID-19 is everywhere, in the news, blogs, podcasts, but also quite literally. We’re all giving our best to adjust our lives to the new rules that will impact our societies for quite some time.

We don’t want to carry all this into this forum — we’re just a small software manufacturer after all. And we don’t want to publish neither any “We’re all fine here and you’ll still get your licenses in time” article nor the next “How to work effective from home” guide that people now find everywhere on the net.

Instead, I have another question that could become a blog article:

Do you use any of our products, mainly presumably DEVONthink and DEVONagent, to help you manage the crisis, either in your private life or at work? For example: Do you use DEVONthink for working from home? Or do you use DEVONagent to gather better information about what’s going on everywhere? Or do you collect and organize links and other information that helps you or lets you better help others in your area?

P.S. Please do all stay healthy and safe, wherever you are.

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#2

I’m currently using DEVONthink (DT) to collate the copious quantities of information coming my way on a daily basis. That includes (ever changing) decrees from various levels of government ranging from details of the current curfew to what protective equipment I have to wear during my work, and how to work despite the shortage of protective equipment. It also includes case reports, trials and updates being published in major medical journals relating to treatment of seriously and critically ill COVID-19 patients, but also other essential publications on SARS-CoV-2. The hope, obviously, is that lessons learned by others may help us save lives.

Whilst this is not very different to (but rather more intense than) my everyday use of DT, I currently require up-to-date information and references at my fingertips. Personal experience from previous major disasters suggests that mobile internet and communication can spontaneously collapse when large numbers of personell are mobilised and that any data not carried on my person may be inaccessible for hours or even days. Memory does not always serve well in times of too little sleep. DT instead allows me to carry that information with me in a searchable format on all my devices at all times.

Disaster relief can require me to mobilise for up to 7 days at a moments notice; the nature of the current emergency means there is a risk of becoming stuck somewhere other that home for extended periods of time. Whilst that comes with a whole set of worries, DT means I will at least have any necessary documents (think insurance), papers etc. with me.

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#3

Using DT3 as a daily diary with thoughts and stats, recipes made, neighbors needing help and how many showings we turned down. our house is on the market to be sold
I have documented my cat’s silly antics, photos of my coloring efforts…just a time capsule of these past few days. I have been on home isolation since 3/13, because of high-risk status

It makes me feel better to document HOW and WHAT I am doing to save my little part of the world and keep myself and loved ones safe.

Thank you for asking.

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#4

DEVONagent helps me to gather the „right“ information out of the vast amount available on the internet. I want to be up-to-date but do not want false or incorrect information. So, I have created a set of websites from the federal and local government in DEVONagent to get the most recent information into DEVONthink. DEVONthink will collect all those information for later review.

With this setup I can stay focused and get only the information I need to act upon if and where needed.

If there are PDF files out there for further information, I use DEVONthink in order to get an update. So DEVONthink is my hub of information collected through DEVONagent and the internet.

Stay all healthy.

Best,
Steffi

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#5

Perhaps it’s inappropriate to reply in this thread—for I have no specific use of DEVONthink as a direct result of the coronavirus crisis. However:

  1. It is hugely reassuring to me to have my life filed away, indexed and easily available in DEVONthink and, even though I’ve been using it only since version 3 came out in beta, it is indispensible to me.

  2. I find this forum and those who post here—most particularly including the developers and those who support here—a sane, courteous refuge from some of the current horrors of the outside world. I have considerable admiration for all of you…and for your product.

I hope all those here will stay safe and healthy and that this community will continue to be helpful and supportive however our world may develop in the coming months. Thank you to everyone here: you mean a lot to me.

Stephen

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#6

While working in legal advisory service and counselling business I use DEVONthink to gather and manage all the governance or other „official“ information letters, general decrees and interim arragements I come across. All these documents are very important to all served companies and their decision-making persons.

All the same questions come multiple times a day and with relevant legal information in the right spot (DEVONthink database!) its much easier to give anybody the same (newest) state of information and feed our members section of the website.

With DTTG all this is even possible from my phone when on the go. As I feel „fantastic“ is not the correct vocabulary in our situation your software is close to the meaning anyway.

So at this point an universal THANK YOU!

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#7

I teach college and this has upended the face to face classes, as many of you know. Last semester I created an online version of Environment and Society and that is working out pretty well. I used DT extensively in organizing materials and interactions with Tinderbox. That was before the virus, but that experience made me more prepared for this circumstance.

We found ourselves suddenly needing to bring several sections of our general environmental science course online; a course that includes labs. I had, fortunately, already built some features into Blackboard for my course (figuring mixed mode was coming at some point). Emails were flying around among the faculty and our department head; so many emails… I use Airmail, so I was sending them all to a specific folder in DT3. I then had Tinderbox watch that folder and from there am able to create agents to locate specific topics, composite them based on the topics, etc.

We also had to massively update labs, get the tests online, and so on. Any documents and the revisions I sent from Airmail to DT3 and when there was some finality to them, I put them into Curio for visualization (schedule PDFs, labs, etc.) and to make it easy to do a final review before loading them up in Blackboard. I used PDF Expert to modify several documents that were in PDF format during all this. There is more that I need to do, but being on the forum is more fun, LOL. At least we are socially distanced!

I had purchased my GF a Ninja Foodi for a gift. I’m also using DT3 to organize recipes that we’ve found for it. This is quite handy since we’ve gone from eating out 75% of the time to eating at home entirely. It is probably apparent to you that DT3 is a central focus of my workflows.

–Bob

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#8

We couldn’t get toilet paper, so I printed off the documentation… :grimacing:

Just kidding! I would never.

I have been working on workflow. The quiet COVID-19 has placed upon the world has been a good opportunity to fiddle and implement some new ways of working—changes that are hard to make in the conventional bustle of everyday life.

I’ll post about some of these when I get them finished!

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#9

I have started keeping a journal in DT3 partly to keep from going stir crazy and partly as a means of de-potentiating any stress arising from the constant news bombardment. DEVONagent Pro is proving invaluable in ferreting out accurate information about what is going on as sell as making me more productive while working at home.

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#10

Thanks for asking and your kind points. I’ve now the time to get the info in my DT databases cleaned up (moves, adds, and changes) and gathering stuff not there into the right DT place. Thanks for a great product which allows this!

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#11

Yes. I’m currently using DEVONthink 3 to maintain my personal journal. :blush:

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#12

This seems a very relevant and interesting case to be blogged by DT.

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#13

Like another poster, I have not yet used DT to deal with the crisis, though the discussion of online teaching (which I do) has raised questions in my mind about whether I should find ways to use DT for that. But I am fascinated by several people using DT to keep journal. Maybe keeping a journal would be a way to get through the next three months of confinement. Is there a recommended way to do that and why DT rather than some simpler software? Is the idea that the journal can just be the equivalent of sheets of paper (a new one each day), and DT will then give them structure and find links, or should I impose structure some by making journal entries in a specific way?

(I know I do not make maximum use of DT, something of which forum posts make me very conscious, even though I find the limited use I do make of it is enough to make it completely indispensable.)

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#14

Thank you very much, everyone, for your great answers! I’ve compiled them into a blog article that will go live later today after we’ve translated it to German.

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#15

I have used the webserver for several months now so that I can work at home while staff is located in multiple locations . Covid-19 has now turned us all into at-home workers and DT3 has thus become that much more indispensable.

#16

Regrettably, my C.E.O. here at home has instructed me to use lockdown as an ‘opportunity’ to clear up my hell hole. This includes getting rid of the piles of unarchived paperwork that, strangely, seem to be everywhere. Having fun then, scanning, shredding while listening to Qubuz at high volume. Thank you DevonTHINK, I don’t know what I would do without you.

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#17

From the blog post:

We don’t want to give you yet another list of tips for how to work from home.

Thank you!

Actionable information specific to DEVON. Marketing departments around the world should take note.

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