Demo 95: Dozens of Demos (January 1995)
February 1995
Every year (in mid-Winter, of course), David Coursey of the PCLetter and Stewart Alsop of Info World pick out the hottest new products (mainly PC software) and show it all, in an amazing rush, to a giant roomful of open-mouthed industry insiders, gathered in Palm Springs. If you think no one's doing anything innovative in software any more, think again. We saw a dozen products that give new luster to that sometimes overused word.
if you think no one’s
doing anything innovative
in software any more,
think againWe'll give you reports on many more products next month, but we wanted to talk about two products we just had to talk about right away.
A real show stopper in Palm Springs was a new product from Delrina called Echo Lake. This product not only invents a new user interface (in the social interface category), it also invents an entire new category of software. How's that for innovation? Echo Lake is a Windows program that lets you store your memories about family and friends. It offers you a friendly environment -- a desk in a weekend log cabin retreat -- and offers you an endless supply of books in which you may write, store existing files, add drawings, photos, videos, or audios. You could keep a history of your new baby's progress or sit down with your aging parent and together create a family history.
Of course, you’ll want to share those precious books. Echo Lake gives you choices. You may put them on diskette or electronically mail them (just like any file); they include their own viewer, so the recipient doesn’t need a copy of Echo Lake to read them (but we bet they’ll be buying one soon.)
Echo Lake users can simply add the books they receive as gifts to their own book shelf. Since it's a virtual book shelf, of course it's also infinite in size, limited only by the size of your hard drive. That is a practical consideration. If you love Echo Lake and use it a lot, including lots of long video and audio clips, you're going to need new compression algorithms or very large hard drives. Fortunately, storage keeps getting bigger and cheaper.
You also have multiple ways to view your shared memories. The bookshelf, with its titles, is one way. Another very innovative interface is a cross section of a tree trunk. Relationships are pie-shaped sections; time is like the growth of the tree with new memories on the outer edge and old ones at its core.
Echo Lake isn't just for families. Imagine it as a way for friends to share memories, too. I'm sure it will show up at Class Reunions, 50th Birthday Parties, and as a way of maintaining and renewing childhood friendships. It will also be just as useful for building a history of your company's growth, with books on each project or team, but maybe Delrina will have a pin-striped log cabin with black and red leather ledgers for that version!
The product is just now going to beta. Expect it to show up in stores this spring and immediately leap into buyers' hands and onto the best selling software list. This one's a winner!
The second product I fell in love with was also an interface, but it's an interface that's also an intelligent agent. Her name is Marilyn, named for the real life administrative assistant of John Evans, the founder of News Electronic Data. Marilyn keeps your Rolodex and your schedule, but that's just the start. She is a persona (a face and voice in front of the interface) and she has enough intelligence, based on profiles of your preferences to be an intelligent travel agent.
Type in an appointment for Boston next Wednesday for 8:30 a.m. Marilyn will surmise from where you are on Tuesday (in the office) that you'll need transportation, a hotel room (to make that early meeting, and reservations for dinner on Tuesday night and lunch with the client on Wednesday. Marilyn knows which airlines you prefer to travel on, whether you like first class or coach, which hotels you stay at and whether you'd rather stay downtown or near the client's office. She also knows the kinds of food you like and your budget.
She can book everything for you automatically, using the News Electronic Data servers (that's where they will make their money, on commissions on these services), or check first for your personal selections. Maybe you usually like Japanese food for dinner when you're alone, but you'd rather have Thai this time!
Undetermined as yet is just what the client software (which includes Taxi for five cities in the base product) will cost. It could be anywhere from free, to create the biggest market to $75-100, priced just above other products with Rolodex and scheduling features. We love the free software model but bet they'll choose to charge; short term revenue and cash flow is so tempting even when it comes at the cost of long term market share and ultimate company size.
In any case, Marilyn is the best and most ambitious attempt we've seen to create an electronic assistant and give her real tools for real and useful tasks. Marilyn is likely to appear this fall and we think many professionals without their own administrative assistants as well as busy AA's who could use an electronic assistant of their own will want to give Marilyn a try.
Comments or Questions: Send Email to
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Entire contents © 1995 by Amy D. Wohl. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this publication in any form without prior written permission is forbidden.