Storage of Ideas and Data

Academics are always faced with how to store and find the ideas data they need.

Name	Comments
Box.Net	What it Does: Online File Storage - Useful for sharing files Runs on: Web Free Best Feature: Easy sharing of files between groups. Worst Feature: Limited storage and download without having to pay Learning Time: Minutes --- Export/Import: Good My use: Test Only --- Confidence in Evaluation: Medium Comment: I recommend this to students in classes where I require them to work in groups. Review & Comments about Box.Net in Academic Tools Blog
Citation	What it Does: Bibliography database with note taking Runs on: PC only Price: $99 Uniqueness: It's one of only a few tools to provide this combination of functions Best Feature: Integrated note taking Worst Feature: Not licensed at Drexel Learning Time: Hours --- My use: Test Only --- Confidence in Evaluation: Poor Comment: I've only looked briefly at this product, but it seems good enough to include as an alternative to Endnote because of its integrated note taking capabilities.
Dunx1	What it Does: Drexel File Storage and web publishing server. Runs on: Web Drexel Site License Best Feature: 100MB of file storage accessible via FTP from home. Worst Feature: Web server is very basic - for security reasons I'm assured. Learning Time: Half Hour --- My use: Daily --- Confidence in Evaluation: Good Comment: Once set up it appears automatically on any Korman machine and can be easily added to appear automatically on your campus desktop. Techie Note: You can use "includes" by naming your files *.shtml
Endnote	What it Does: Bibliographic database with many output formats Runs on: PC, Mac Drexel Site License Best Feature: Integration with Word Worst Feature: Cannot take multiple notes on a single source. Learning Time: Hours --- Export/Import: Good My use: Infrequent --- Confidence in Evaluation: Good Comment: If you have to write a big document this is an invaluable bibliography tool. It does not have built-in note-taking capabilities as does "Citation" (http://www.citationonline.net/). See also the brand-new (10/2006) Zotero (http://www.zotero.org/) Storage note: Bibliographic information
Filemaker Pro	What it Does: Database tool (relational) with exceptionally straightforward interface Runs on: PC, Mac Price: $250 Best Feature: Allows fairly easy keeping of detailed grading and attendance records and personalized Emails. Worst Feature: You'll have to invest several days of time to get comfortable enough to use it (or any database) easily. Learning Time: Days --- Export/Import: Good My use: Daily --- Confidence in Evaluation: Good Comment: You want to pay for Filemaker if you do a lot of database work and want a really good user interface. Any time you get over about 100 things that need to be remembered, sorted, searched - up to that point Excel may be easier. If printed output appearance is critical FileMaker is excellent. - Access (in MSOffice) is licensed, but tougher to use. Base in Openoffice is an Access clone, and currently very flaky. MySQL is free and even tougher for the non-techie. Review & Comments about Filemaker Pro in Academic Tools Blog
GMail	What it Does: Online EMail account Runs on: Web Free Best Feature: Superior search and spam filter. Worst Feature: More spam because it's GMail. Immediately Useful: Yes --- Learning Time: Half Hour --- Export/Import: Medium My use: Daily --- Confidence in Evaluation: Good Comment: You can redirect other EMail accounts here. It's also easy to create on-the-fly sub-accounts by using the "accountid+subaccount@gmail" email ID. Storage note: 3GB storage allows backup of key files via attachments
HTTrack	What it Does: Capture a complete online website to your computer for local browsing Runs on: PC and Linux Free Best Feature: It's quite easy to capture a website Worst Feature: It can be a very big space eater. Learning Time: Minutes --- Export/Import: Good My use: Infrequent --- Confidence in Evaluation: Good Comment: Useful when must look at a website when not connected to the interet. May not capture websites that are "database driven" - many large ones. Storage note: For offline or archival access to websites Review & Comments about HTTrack in Academic Tools Blog
MS Access	What it Does: Solid relational database that comes with MS Office Runs on: PC only Drexel Site License Best Feature: Wide use Worst Feature: Unreasonably complex interface for simple tasks. Learning Time: Days --- Export/Import: Good My use: Infrequent --- Confidence in Evaluation: Good Comment: If you're getting started on databases consider Filemaker - despite its cost.
Zotero	What it Does: Online bibliography and notetaking - still very young Runs on: Web Free Best Feature: Click to record citation information Worst Feature: Doesn't seem to export yet. Immediately Useful: Yes --- Learning Time: Half Hour --- Export/Import: Poor My use: Test Only --- Confidence in Evaluation: Medium Comment: 10/2006 Still at very early development stage. Requires FireFox 2.0 - which is currently only a Release Candidate.

 

 

Update: 2006-11-26