How we manage data using Podio, part 2

part 1

I published this message on 15 May 2021.

One can consider e.g.: AnyType (Zhanna Sharipova), Atlassian (Tony Lam), DeskEra (John Fisher), ERPNext (Prakash Hodage), Fibery (Michael Dubakov), Height (Jessica Morrow), Lumeer (Jakub Rodák), Odoo (Mathieu Wanderscheid), SmartSuite, Tape (Stefan Eschenbach), TeamWork, YouTrack (Eugene Belyaev)

1.1 Main data groups

1.1.1 People manage data using:

1.1.1.1 messages that can be called transactional (and form conversations), and messages that can be called canonical (and form pieces of content).

1.1.1.2 horizontal and vertical lists of data sets

A set of data can include e.g. a message or a label.

People think in complex lines (nets), not in simple lines (lists or tables). So it’s not enough to link data sets: one must be able to manage the relations among data sets.

1.1.2 Metadata can e.g. describe data sets (administrative metadata), describe operations with data (statistical metadata), or include data management rules (administrative metadata).

1.2 Main actions on data

1.2.1 Creating data

A data management program (of an electronic computer) must record input e.g. from keyboards, touch screens, microphones, cameras, or other sensing devices (by using electrical energy).

1.2.2 I postpone writing again about deleting records.

1.3.1 Computer programs can display data sets in nets (e.g. id) and messages in oblique threads (e.g. Reddit). Nets have 3 dimensions, but it seems much more expensive to simulate a third dimension using a computer program. It’s worth trying because the net view is more useful than browsing linked table cells.

1.3.2 As I wrote here, we can apply any labels to a data set. I wrote here about how Google Plus could be improved. Irrespective of what some programmers have called their means of group communication (community, channel, space etc.), they might have mistaken computer programs for more physical artefacts, e.g. boxes.

Data are perceptions managed by our nervous systems. We have used e.g. pens and computers to copy data. We have used e.g. mineral tablets, parchments, and vegetal sheets to draw characters and other images. Since 1900 we have focused on copying sounds much more than before. Natural languages and writing systems are codes used to reproduce data. It seems that printing developed very slowly for 3 millennia before the common era and quickly only since 1900. We have been able to print complex images, but by printing we create copies of copies. Computers can look like tablets, but they help us manage just one tier of data copies in a more complex way than on tablets or sheets. Let’s try to imitate the way in which we manage data in our brains!

1.4 People start managing data together when they start communicating. The main functions of computers are to create copies of our words and ideas, and to help us manage these copies together.

As many people have felt for many years, a data management program must allow us to do the following things:

1.4.1 Create any number of discrete data sets.

In order to reduce the efforts necessary to give a command, the software developer must help software users to use e.g. whatever keyboard combinations.

A data set can include at least one datum and one metadatum. Many people have communicated about taking notes, creating tasks, and posting short messages. id can help you do such things even when you can’t focus much on them. You can get back to them, update them, organise them, and use them whenever. We can also discuss functions to merge or delete data sets more easily.

The software must allow its users to manage metadata.

1.4.2 Include any types of data, e.g. text, images, videos, and sounds, at any time.

Non-text data sets might be created using other programs. When one doesn’t copy such data sets into id, one can link to them or embed them.

1.4.3 Find every data set.

1.4.4 Place any data set where we please in a net of nets.

We can focus on a data set as we’d focus on a celestial body in a three-dimensional cosmic map. Users agree on moving data sets across these nets. A “space” wouldn’t be a box, but a part of the world with the points of view of the people who have rights to its data because they own the data or their owners have granted them these rights. Any group of people can connect any parts of their data nets to any other parts of data nets managed by other people according to their data management agreements. One can publish any data more effectively. One can find more easily people with similar interests and spend their spare time, trade, and take political action together with them.

In order to plan their actions, people can estimate their benefit-cost ratio from every relationship.

1.5 When 2 people start communicating, they can show each other databases with the topics that are worth their while, filter out the topics that they don’t share, and sort them by the most beneficial to discuss. They’ll see each other’s point of view. They’ll communicate and manage data related to these topics so that these points of view are aligned better. This will allow them to interact more beneficially.

Each data owner can do whatever with their rights to their data; they can also allow any person and any group to sense any of their data sets. The data sets created by more than one person will be owned by each creator according to the data management agreement among these creators. Each participant in a conversation owns their messages and should be allowed all their life to sense all messages addressed to them.

Group founders agree on whoever else should join their group. (Slack has a procedure for this.) Any member can leave a group, but can’t remove any group founder from any group. Group founders should be able to create any data sets. They can edit their own data sets and allow others to edit them, as they can do with any of their data sets that are outside any group.

Each data set of this group will include the group identifier. This can be a label, e.g. its name. To use any data from a group, one can search for its identifier or for any data that one remembers. Any person can use any label for any data set, e.g. for a group, and place a link to its location in the data net wherever on one’s screen. One can manage labels together with any other persons. This means that some label names become more valuable and can be used by hundreds of millions of people. When one creates a data set, one can choose its labels, so one can choose in what group they create the data set. They can see the members and the data management agreement of that group at any time.

One can grant rights to a data set irrespective of its labels. One can set software rules for anything, e.g. for granting rights to data or to metadata.

One can choose any topics for any data set. One can allow all people interested in the topics of a data set to sense this data set. id will notify those who are subscribed to certain types of data sets about any of these topics. (Maybe people won’t be bashed or banned from “spaces” for discussing a certain topic any longer.)

2. What can a member of organisation 1 and a member of organisation 2 do using Podio spaces?

2.1 We can’t really give equal rights to accounts. A space must be created in one account. It seems messed up to create an account e.g. with Podio for each relationship between or among persons. One can create more common spaces and even isolate them in a common “organisation”. (Such a poor name! When any number of organisations manage certain data together, they can say that the people who manage them form a group for some time, but they are improbable to create an organisation for that.)

Podio and ClickUp are teams who charge every human for managing data in every box that they call an “organisation” or a “workspace”. They can charge you USD 24 or 29 per month for being a member of one space. You can multiply that by 2, 10, etc. We let every human pay only one subscription for organising data as they please. How much would you like to multiply USD 19 per month by 1?

2.2 When person 1 invites person 2 to a Podio space, they can agree on 3 of the 4 roles that one can have: administrator, member, and light member. (Podio’s user guide can be improved, e.g. because it’s incomplete. Podio’s interface includes the command “Delete workspace”, but the right to delete a space is not described here.) Equality is important, so they can agree that at least the 2 of them have the rights specific of space administrators: change the few space settings, change the poorly designed user roles, and edit and delete tables and data management rules (They call them “calculations” and “workflows”. I refer to the latter. Regular members can input calculation formulas.).

2.3 After agreeing on the settings and the members of their common space, they agree on what tables they create, on the relations among these tables, and on how they process data using calculations and data flows (called “formulas”, “roll-ups”, and “automations” in ClickUp). This agreement must be based on the benefits on which they agree to get for a certain person. So they must create tables for discussing the topics that interest them. But the foremost thing is to discuss what they like to experience in their communication, so that they agree on their communication procedure and create the tables that help them build their dialogue.

Databases are more limited in Podio than in ClickUp e.g. because ClickUp includes more types of views.

Each person should create a database with their communication preferences in their account. They can link to them from the common spaces in which they are discussed in order to agree on communication procedures. One needs easy methods to list one’s (communication) procedures, search them, read them, use some as templates, use reports about them etc. Each group of people have to design a procedure for choosing in which account to discuss communication preferences.

It looks like any 2 persons should use at least 3 spaces: the original space that any person would have for oneself and a common space, in which the parties can conclude agreements. People can agree that hosts should not lock guests out of common spaces. Any person can provide services and use services. When 2 persons already think about a transaction in which they know who will use the service, the service user could create their first common space. When a person orders something for a household, the provider could host their common space. While this means that a household would use tens of Podio spaces, its members could retrieve all information fairly easily.

Data management programs help people to follow the status of certain actions, e.g. transportation, to coordinate with one another, and to understand certain things better. They can help people transact, transfer money, manage content, and keep “books” more easily.

Each person can create a Podio table with their interests. In order to filter the topics in a table, so that the host can focus on their interests in common with the guest, the host can link the respective table rows with the guest’s profile and filter their interests by this relation. They can copy these table rows into their common space and discuss them there.

One can act similarly in order to discuss one’s benefits with every service provider whom one considers. One can discuss the benefits of the service user in the account of the service user. Providers can share the tables with their profiles and their services from their account. When one wants to compare 2 services, they can copy 2 table rows into their account and have all updates from the original table rows copied into their copies.

It’s really important for people to manage plans together: orders, agreements, projects etc. It’s easier to manage orders, invoices, and agreements than all the other information about filling orders. 2 parties can link in a common space to data about their methods and means, and agree on the goals to be achieved by providing a service, on the service requirements, and on what data to share with one another while the service is provided. The service provider can set up rules to copy data to a space designed especially for the orders from this customer when they avoid sharing certain information about their methods (e.g. recipes) or about the rest of the supply chain. (It seems useful to allow communication across an entire supply chain to the extent that it is desired.) The tables in this space could be used by any provider (employees and suppliers). To the extent that a provider wants to hide some information from these people, they can make the set-up more complex. Podio is not designed for complexity.

It’s expensive to set up all these things using e.g. Podio, but the intention is to make data management easier and more useful. It’s easier to use such set-ups with organisations, especially with companies. It’s usual for people to avoid learning many methods and how to apply them using many means, so all people could agree on a single data management program. That’s id!