Wouldn’t it be useful if all the information in your life could be captured in digital form? That’s the purpose of the MLD project – to capture my digitally.
Benefits
- It would take up no more space than the storage medim.
- Everything would be in one central storage place.
- It would be easy to organise.
- It could easily be backed up.
- It could be shared more easily.
- The information could be transported more easily.
- I could search for the information I want more easily.
- The information could be held securely (encryption).
- I would have a range of tools for manupulating the information.
- Can be transfered to a different medium.
- Can be preserved by copying to new medium as the old one deteriorates.
- The cool factor.
Challenges
- Cost of digitising (time, money, complexity, tools).
- Longevity of destination format / medium.
- Legal considerations – copyright etc.
- Backups.
Types of Information
- Diary / Calendar
- Address Book
- Task list
- Birthday book
- Music
- Videos
- Photos
- Finances
- Software
- Books and Manuals
- Written notes
- Letters and cards
- Drawings and paintings
- Memories
Current Media
- Paper. Lots and lots of paper.
- CDs, Cassettes, Records
- DVDs, VHS, Super-8
- Books
- Files
- Floppy disk
Tasks
- Capture
- Organisation
- Storage
- Manipluation
- Use
Capture Methods
- Throw it away – some information I just don’t need
- Capture it digitally in the first place
- Obtain it from source in a different format – e.g. buy the MP3s of a track I have on cassette
- Find out if someone else has digitised it already – ask friends, family, Google
- Use a specialist digitising service
- Collaborate with others
- Digitise it myself
- Keep on existing media – some things are just too expensive to digitise
All Wrong 
I don’t think it would do everything you want yet, but have you tried out Evernote? http://evernote.com/
Ed:
Thanks for the suggestion, I’ll take a look.