Project contexts to situate personal information

The Personal Project Planner prototype works as an extension to the file manager to provide people with rich-text overlays to their information (folders, files and also email, web pages, notes). Rich-text, document-like project plans can be created which then provide a context in which to create or reference the email messages, electronic documents, web pages, etc. that are needed to complete the plan. The user can later locate an information item such as an email message with reference to the plan (e.g., as an alternative to a mostly context-free search through the inbox or sent mail). The Planner explores a possibility that an effective organization of project-related information can emerge as a natural by-product of efforts to plan and structure the project.