Hi,
Some time ago on this thread Mimi asked to envision the following scenario:
Mimi Yin wrote:
2. How would a photographer's studio use it to coordinate scheduling
equipment, traveling and client jobs?
Well, it just happens that I'm registered on a pro photographer mailing
list and today someone (not prompted by me BTW, that was in a thread
about backing up jobs and its different from Mimi's original scenario)
volunteered his own workflow method (appended to this mail).
Without saying it, he's doing triage using file names as a clue for
triaging so that his files and jobs show up in the right location. The
really interesting thing IMO is that it allows him and his assistant to
collaborate on a project without having to send messages to each other:
when the file shows up in the right location, everyone knows the status
and what needs to be done next. It's very smart.
It's not a scenario we want to support in Chandler but it gives an idea
on how triage and tags could be use not only by individuals (à la GTD)
but by groups to collaborate in a professional environment and manage a
project workflow. Food for thoughts I think.
Cheers,
- Philippe
------------------------
Tiger brought us Spotlight and 'Smart Folders' and they are just great
for this sort of thing.
For example, when I'm working on a book, which up till now have ended
up at around 25-35gbs, *not* including the original Eyelike galleries,
which have already been burnt to DVD, I have a 'smart folder' which
shows me all the Fits that have been worked on in the last week. These
Fits are buried in a hierarchy of folders, which are organised by
shot. Equally, I have smart folders which show the labels we use to
organise, the various stages of work. So, when Baptiste alters a file,
he gives it a label. When I alter a file I give it a different label.
When a file is awaiting further work it has another label and it has
another one again when it's totally finished. The incredible thing
with smart folders is that all of these labellings can be found without
having to do any searching at all. They're just there automatically!
And you don't have to organise anything ... change a label and the file
automatically appears in the appropriate folder and disappears from
the previous one. It is a very straightforward process using smart
folders to update the workflow.
As for burning to DVD. We have a 4x burner, which is fast enough and
if we make any changes to what was supposed to be the definitive
archive, I tend to have a final DVD with these altered files. We use a
CD catalogue software to keep track of everything and again, I rely on
the old-fashioned manual method, of adding a written note, into the
original 'jewel' case of any files, which were subsequently changed, so
that even though we forget ... as soon as we get a dvd out, we'll
notice straight away if there was a later version archived. I also use
dates in folder names and dvd names, so that we can always see when
something was considered to be 'definitive' and of course, I use those
text notes, sometimes in the form of text- clippings, which are great
because you can read them in the Finder's Column view, without even
opening them.
It all works quite well ... but I have to say that Tiger has made it
far more easy and quick to manage. I'm not expecting the dvd's to last
forever, or to be particularly important in the years to come, but as
technology moves on, it's important to move the files with it. I'm
planning to re-cut all my cd's and perhaps dvd's to the next generation
'blue-ray' or hd-dvd, whichever it is that becomes the standard on
Macs. As time goes by, this will become less and less of a pain. CD's
can be read at 32x and you can fit about 50 of them onto a single 50gb
dvd. Cool! Of course .... image files are getting bigger too!
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
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