The database itself IS the resource. CRMs and applications interpret the data, but they can only interpret what is there. Structure the data correctly, and in many cases you won't even need the software. Learn MySQL and run it locally on your computer. The more work you do with data and databases, the more powerful they become.
You live or die on your database - but if you don't know how to drive it, die by driving off a cliff is a fairly predictable outcome.
chrisbrogan
· 2 years ago
Great. A follow-on question. How do you learn MySQL fairly painlessly? I'm not un-clever, but I'm also not a database superstar. What do you think?
Christopher S. Penn
· 2 years ago
You install it and make frequent backups for when you screw the pooch. There really is no "painless" way, beyond a few tricks. MySQL is a Hole Hawg.
You could check out Now Up To Date Contact. It has keywords and notes and will sync to a palm, and can be shared by multiple users (you can set what categories can be shared too.) They also have keywords that can be used like tags. You can sort and mail by keywords and you can search within the notes and can have multiple notes It can be exported to address book. It is cross platform (windows/mac). It also looks like it has a bunch more features that I don't really use (web services, applescript hook ins, etc.) It might be worth taking a look at.
Living without a computer or internet for a week or two stretches you - new ways of thinking.
Y'all try it sometime.
Doug Haslam
· 2 years ago
I have a different approach, might not work for what you a re trying to do, but:
I use Copernic desktop search, and when I am looking for something-- a keyword, a person, a type of document, I search through Copernic and then narrow down if I have to.
I have been abel to find anything, even on our company's network, in minutes or seconds. Those of us who use it are the "go to" people for finding stuff.
It doesn't categorize per se, but if you are in the habit of tagging things smehow, it may find that (no, Copernic is not a PR client)
P.D. Love
· 2 years ago
To go the MySQL route I suggest Access as a start, if you have it. With Access you can learn to build queries visually then look at the SQL code generated to get a feel for what it is doing. Then, move on to strictly SQL queries and the like.
Basic SQL is not tough and the web is full of examples. If you want to search for Podcamp items in a database you can simply search for items where a field ("MailBody") includes 'Podcamp'. Using different variations of terms (the LIKE clause, INCLUDES, etc.) can help you broaden or narrow you results.
As for organization and searches- I have started using Jott.com to get ideas into my gmail account then use Google's search technology for all that stuff.
PDL
John Wall
· 2 years ago
So glad to see this... I thought I was alone on Moleskine sucks bandwagon. I take short notes as memos on my treo and guess what - totally searchable, cut and paste into emails to share, and no shelf full of useless filled notebooks for your family to throw away when you die.
mia
· 2 years ago
Hi! The point on databases is that they have been relational for years, instead of flat. That means you can have a PodCamp table (flat) and a Contacts table (flat) and a VON table (flat), and they can all be linked in your database (relational). SQL is a way of aking about ("querying") the tables in the database. It's a way of saying, "I want the email addresses of only the people who said they were interested in VON" and it will link up the VON and Contacts tables and give you just that.
MS Access is a relational database. It allows you to build tables by dragging and dropping and allows you to make queries on multiple tables the same way. You will learn in about 10 minutes, don't sweat it.
One caveat: When you first start working with SQL, the rookie move is to not join your tables properly. You'll want to check to make sure you got the number of records you thought you should. For example, there's a way to get *everybody* in the VON table, and populate all known email addresses from the Contacts table. That way, if you have some missing addresses, you still have your complete VON list with some blank addresses. The other way to get the data returned to you is to get *only* the people who have a match, in other words, only the people who are both VON *and* have an email address. You could be dropping folks and not realizing it.
Anyway, when you're ready to experiment with that, just check into "inner joins" and "outer joins".
Also, don't be afraid! Don't run any "delete" queries and you don't have to worry about messing anything up. When you make queries, it doesn't alter your data at all. You absolutely cannot screw up, just by doing "select" queries. (99% of your asking falls into this category.) Asking just creates brand new tables, without altering your original tables at all. Brand new tables, such as "VON Contacts" created through the example query, can then be saved and all your stuff is still there. It just grows.
You can do it. You should do it. It's an easy way to manage your crap. :)
Travis
· 2 years ago
As personally valuable MySQL/Access/MSSQL and other granular proficiencies may be. Truth is the average person doesn't possess such skills, and must revert to a product that offers the results they are truly after (tracking, organizing, and measuring business activities).
There are a few on the market all have their benefits as well their challenges. Goldmine, Maximizer, ACT, Business Contact Manager, etc.
Actually if I was going to do a relational db for the addys the first shot at the DB I'd set up a contacts table with fields for all of the contact info, PLUS a unique ID for each contact.
Then have other tables that are essentially the tags tables VON_t, Podcamp_t, NO_email_t, Boston_t, etc. That table needs to only have the unique ID for each of the contacts that goes in there. (And I stuck the _t there so that it could be easy to have the front-end find all of the tags availble by grabbing all of the table names that end with _t.)
I'd also create a notes table which has an ID field and a text field (for the note) and the ID is the ID of the contact that the note goes to.
(Any other bit of data that you are going to have lots of the same (email addresses) can also be given it's own table like the notes table so you don't end up with email1 email2 email3 etc.)
Then you are not duplicating information and you can pull out subsets doing links between the table doing something like
select contact.email from contact, VON_t where von.id = contact.id;
You could also add to the query to make sure that anyone in the "NO_email" list is not shown.
And now back to more normal types of comments.
Barlow Keener
· 2 years ago
After reading GTD I switched from Act! back to Outlook 2003 when Act! started repeatly crashing. I have been very happy with Outlook. I organize all my contacts by Categories (Cnt+G) where I have lots of subcategories like Network:VONSpring2007 to show where I met someone or Telecom:Video. Advanced Find lets me find all the contacts using multiple category searches. Easy. I use Outlook Journal for all notes, phone calls and tracking time. For keeping notes while away from my laptop, I use my Smartphone's email and take notes and email them and cut/paste to Journal. Believe it or not Outlook Journal has a fast search and you can sort by Categories, Contacts, etc. I also understand the MS CRM is an upgraded Outlook like Saleforce.com but that is another step up.
Chris Brogan...
· 2 years ago
Okay, I've just learned that Goldie and Mia both know craploads more about a database than I ever did. Holy cats.
Now what I need to do is figure out what to do next.
BTW, I'm on a Mac. Access isn't going to happen. I found out that Neo Office has a database software with SQL and everything, but what it doesn't seem to do is let me import a CSV file to make into a database, or maybe I just dont know what I'm doing.
If I had a starter helper, I could tackle this. I need to do that. Get a starter helper.
Whitney
· 2 years ago
I get this- it's wanting to think three dimensionally in a 2d world- how do track data about people that is "drill down-able" and move laterally through it at the same time? Sometimes I need to drag out the white board and chart ideas in a large space, and then get frustrated because this doesn't have sufficient space for 3D either. We need 3d search software and informational databases.
All Comments
You live or die on your database - but if you don't know how to drive it, die by driving off a cliff is a fairly predictable outcome.
If you don't know the reference:
http://steve-parker.org/articles/others/stephen...
But whatever you use be sure to make backups!
Software can be found here:
http://www.nowsoftware.com/
Y'all try it sometime.
I use Copernic desktop search, and when I am looking for something-- a keyword, a person, a type of document, I search through Copernic and then narrow down if I have to.
I have been abel to find anything, even on our company's network, in minutes or seconds. Those of us who use it are the "go to" people for finding stuff.
It doesn't categorize per se, but if you are in the habit of tagging things smehow, it may find that
(no, Copernic is not a PR client)
Basic SQL is not tough and the web is full of examples. If you want to search for Podcamp items in a database you can simply search for items where a field ("MailBody") includes 'Podcamp'. Using different variations of terms (the LIKE clause, INCLUDES, etc.) can help you broaden or narrow you results.
As for organization and searches- I have started using Jott.com to get ideas into my gmail account then use Google's search technology for all that stuff.
PDL
MS Access is a relational database. It allows you to build tables by dragging and dropping and allows you to make queries on multiple tables the same way. You will learn in about 10 minutes, don't sweat it.
One caveat: When you first start working with SQL, the rookie move is to not join your tables properly. You'll want to check to make sure you got the number of records you thought you should. For example, there's a way to get *everybody* in the VON table, and populate all known email addresses from the Contacts table. That way, if you have some missing addresses, you still have your complete VON list with some blank addresses. The other way to get the data returned to you is to get *only* the people who have a match, in other words, only the people who are both VON *and* have an email address. You could be dropping folks and not realizing it.
Anyway, when you're ready to experiment with that, just check into "inner joins" and "outer joins".
Also, don't be afraid! Don't run any "delete" queries and you don't have to worry about messing anything up. When you make queries, it doesn't alter your data at all. You absolutely cannot screw up, just by doing "select" queries. (99% of your asking falls into this category.) Asking just creates brand new tables, without altering your original tables at all. Brand new tables, such as "VON Contacts" created through the example query, can then be saved and all your stuff is still there. It just grows.
You can do it. You should do it. It's an easy way to manage your crap. :)
There are a few on the market all have their benefits as well their challenges. Goldmine, Maximizer, ACT, Business Contact Manager, etc.
For those using the ACT Database Software you might want to visit this ACT Software Blog.
http://www.highrisehq.com/
contacts table with fields for all of the contact info, PLUS a unique ID for each contact.
Then have other tables that are essentially the tags tables VON_t, Podcamp_t, NO_email_t, Boston_t, etc. That table needs to only have the unique ID for each of the contacts that goes in there. (And I stuck the _t there so that it could be easy to have the front-end find all of the tags availble by grabbing all of the table names that end with _t.)
I'd also create a notes table which has an ID field and a text field (for the note) and the ID is the ID of the contact that the note goes to.
(Any other bit of data that you are going to have lots of the same (email addresses) can also be given it's own table like the notes table so you don't end up with email1 email2 email3 etc.)
Then you are not duplicating information and you can pull out subsets doing links between the table doing something like
select contact.email from contact, VON_t
where von.id = contact.id;
You could also add to the query to make sure that anyone in the "NO_email" list is not shown.
And now back to more normal types of comments.
Now what I need to do is figure out what to do next.
BTW, I'm on a Mac. Access isn't going to happen. I found out that Neo Office has a database software with SQL and everything, but what it doesn't seem to do is let me import a CSV file to make into a database, or maybe I just dont know what I'm doing.
If I had a starter helper, I could tackle this. I need to do that. Get a starter helper.
Sometimes I need to drag out the white board and chart ideas in a large space, and then get frustrated because this doesn't have sufficient space for 3D either.
We need 3d search software and informational databases.