GC—007
Threskiornithidae
Ibis Workspace Manager
Threskiornis scriptorum
A matter is a folder full of other people’s documents, and the work of getting on top of it is reading. This is the room you do that reading in. Point it at the folder, and it catalogues everything beneath — PDFs, emails, Word documents — and puts them in front of you one at a time. Highlight as you go. Ink on a page. Flag what matters, tag what recurs, tie a paragraph in one document to a paragraph in another, and build the chronology out of what you have marked rather than out of a blank page. All of it is written back into the matter’s own folder, so the reading travels with the matter.
In use
The short account
- Habitat
- Anyone who has to master a large set of documents belonging to a single matter — litigation files, transactions, investigations, due diligence, a thesis
- Range
- A desktop browser that can be given a folder — Chrome or Edge. Elsewhere it opens read-only
- Field marks
- Catalogues a whole folder tree · highlight and ink on the page · flags, tags and topics · cross-references between documents · an outline and a chronology built from your own marks
- Where it lives
- The matter’s own folder. Every mark is written into a single file beside the documents. No account, no server, nothing uploaded
- Companion
- An iPad companion reading the same folder is specified and being built
- Status
- In use — running in our own practice every day; not yet released
How it goes
Give it the folder
Choose the folder the matter lives in. It walks everything beneath and builds a catalogue: every PDF, email and document, in the structure they are already in.
Read and mark
Open a document and work on it. Highlight, ink, flag, tag, and pin a passage to a passage somewhere else in the file.
Make it into something
The marks become the outline and the chronology. What you noticed on Tuesday is where you left it on Friday.
Everything it does
- The catalogue
- It reads a whole folder tree at once rather than one file at a time, so a matter with two hundred documents in fourteen sub-folders opens as one workspace. The structure on disk is the structure you see
- Marking up
- Highlights and freehand ink go on the page itself. Marks are stored as positions on the page rather than as pixels, so a highlight sits in the same place whatever the screen — which is what makes reading the same matter on two devices possible at all
- Finding things again
- Flags for what matters, tags and topics for what recurs, and cross-references that tie one passage to another across documents. The point is that a fact you found in a bundle in March can be found again in September
- The chronology
- Built out of the marks you have already made rather than typed a second time into a table. It is the document everyone needs and nobody wants to compile
The same matter, on the iPad
Reading happens in a chair, not at a desk. The iPad companion opens the same workspace folder, so a passage highlighted on the desk is highlighted on the iPad, and a cross-reference made in an armchair on Sunday is there on Monday morning.
- What it is for
- Reading and marking. Highlighting, ink, flags and cross-references, with a pencil if you use one
- What stays on the desktop
- Cataloguing a folder, heavy assembly, and anything that rearranges the workspace rather than adds to it
- How they meet
- Both read the same folder. Marks are held as positions on the page rather than as pixels, so a highlight lands in the same place on a thirteen-inch screen as on a twenty-seven-inch one
- Where it is
- Specified and being built. Two devices writing into one workspace is the hard part, and it is being done properly before anything ships
Your marks live with the matter. Everything you highlight, flag and cross-reference is written into one file inside the matter’s own folder. Copy the folder, and the reading comes with it. Archive the matter, and the reading is archived. There is no account, no server, and nothing that could hold a copy of a privileged file.
Questions people actually ask
Which browsers?
Chrome and Edge on a desktop, because they can be given access to a folder. Elsewhere it opens documents read-only.
Where are my highlights stored?
In a single file inside the matter’s folder, beside the documents. Nothing is uploaded and nothing is held by us.
Does it move or change my documents?
No. It reads them where they are and leaves them exactly as it found them.
Can two people work on the same matter?
Not yet, and we would rather say so than find out for you. Making a workspace safe for two devices at once is the work in front of the iPad companion.
Will it read emails?
Yes, along with PDFs and Word documents, catalogued in the same tree.
What happens when the matter is over?
Archive the folder. The reading is inside it.