Planz

Planz is an open source personal information manager developed by the Keeping Found Things Found group at the University of Washington Information School. It integrates e-mail, website links and content, computer files and folders, and informal notes into a simplified, document-like interface. Its purpose is to make the user's personal information easily accessible for use in planning everyday activities as well as larger projects. Planz is a research prototype rather than a commercial product.

Planz was conceived in response to research conducted by the Keeping Found Things Found (KFTF) group and elsewhere in the field of personal information management (PIM). The research suggested that people often have trouble organizing their digital personal information effectively, due to the fact that this information is both extensive and scattered and in many cases cannot easily be combined with other personal information. The developers hoped to accommodate the fluid and often informal nature of human planning by providing users an interface with powerful organizational features while at the same time leaving the structure of that organization to the user's discretion.

Planz was developed between 2008 and 2010. The head developer is William Jones, leading the KFTF group. The project was funded by the National Science Foundation. The software has progressed through several development versions, and as of 2010 Planz is not in commercial release.

Planz is meant to help people better organize their digital personal information by providing a central document linking related personal information around a conceptual theme, usually in the form of a project, such as a home remodel or a trip to Europe. The interface shows users a document in either a draft or outline view. This document can be edited to show all of a user's projects and tasks in a single, scrollable pane. Headings are used to represent high-level projects ("Re-model the house"); subheadings represent sub-projects and component tasks ("Kitchen"; "Decide on countertops").

Users have the option of working from within the Planz document, sending e-mails and creating documents without leaving Planz, in which case Planz dynamically links these new information items into the document. They also have the option of working from outside the document by dragging and copying files, e-mails, hyperlinks, and other items into Planz in the course of using other applications. The efficient transfer of information between applications was a key objective in the design of Planz, and the interface provides users with specialized tools to facilitate this.