Hi,
This post is to share my thoughts on the upcoming Entity View/Documents redesign with Blocks, as read in the last #34 June 2021 blog post:
We may do even better here, improve connections and information mixing, and transform Fibery into a second brain for teams . Feature-wise it will lead to Entity View / Documents re-design with Blocks, new navigation patterns to explore connections quickly, and new collaboration patterns, like Chat in Fibery.
and what Michael shared with us afterwards:
I think we’ll not jump into Chat feature this year, but will focus on Blocks, Links and Navigation more.
We are going to post our ideas around Blocks and Entity View/Docs redesign in about 2 weeks
I think that sounds promising because as a new user I’ve found a few things confusing in Fibery, I’ll explain:
Currently, a document (view) and an entity (of a type) look very identical, with only a few differences:
- Document is really full screen without the CREATED BY info at the top right of the screen. I like this view of a blank canvas better for writing down a new idea, for example, and before deciding if it’s part of any Entity.
- However, a document is somewhat limited, because you can’t add a file or a whiteboard, for example.
- Documents can’t be placed in a Smart Folder, so you can’t apply the sorting capabilities.
- For these reasons Documents are not really suitable for use as a Wiki, while at first glance a Document is the most logical use for it.
My suggestion would be to merge these two types of “pages” into one type so that the document and an entity will be the same thing with the same functionalities. In your workflow, you would have the option to start writing down your thoughts in a simple document. And if the document turns out to be something more serious, like a task or project, you would have the option to “Convert Document to Entity” so that it can be part of a database from then on.
I think this would also fit Fibery’s vision regarding “Unstructured → Structured evolution”, as read in the March 15 blog essay “Augmenting Organizational Intelligence”, and if you look at the screenshot below, this actually seems to be part of Fibery’s plans already.
Similarly, in an organization, you might create a call transcript document with customer feedback. Initially, it’s just a text, but then you may transform or link some parts of the text to insights, features, bugs, and competitors.
There are several ways to support this evolution.
- Convert Unstructured information into Structured, for example, a Document becomes a Product.
- Create a new Product and link the original Document to it. It’s important to have an automatic back-link from the Document to the Product as well.
- Transclude several parts of the Document into the Product (we’ll explain transclusions later).
I hope my input is helpful!
Rudolf
