Qiqqa - Reference Management System - Mini-Review

[IainB]

Original post:	2013-03-04
Last updated:	2013-06-28

Basic Info

App Name

[attach]

[wraith808]

Are these libraries indexed in place?  Or are they truly imported into Qigga's data structure?

[IainB]

Are these libraries indexed in place?  Or are they truly imported into Qigga's data structure?

In answer, I have added this note under the section in the Opening Post:
2. The ability to import documents to the Qiqqa library/database.

...
The imported/copied source PDF documents are stored/scanned/indexed in folders in the Qiqqa databases subfolder. This subfolder is either in the default location or a location assigned by the user, as here:
(Image 02.)
[attach]

[DBC]

IainB:

Thank you very much for the excellent mini-review of Qiqqa, which is a very exciting product. However, I'd like to raise an issue that has made me wary - perhaps unduly so - of using Qiqqa. This relates to one of the terms and conditions to which Quantisle wants to bind its users. When I began installing Qiqqa this afternoon I noticed the following clause in their License Agreement:

"By adding Content to Qiqqa and/or syncing your Content with a Web Library, you grant
Quantisle Ltd. a world-wide license to use this Content for the provision of PERSONALISED
services to you (not limited to parsing, indexing, transmission and storage) and for the
provision of anonymized AGGREGATED services to other users of Qiqqa (not limited to
aggregated crowd-sourced metadata and group recommendations).  The rights to the
ownership of the Content remain entirely yours."

After cancelling the installation I looked to see whether this clause had raised concerns from others. The only one I found was one posted on the Qiqqa forum about four months ago, at: https://getsatisfaction.com/qiqqa/topics/terms_and_conditions_and_content

The drafting of the clause itself seems to me to make its meaning ambiguous: does it apply to merely adding content to Qiqqa, or only to syncing the added content to a web library? I also found the answers by Qiqqa, to be unsatisfactory: in essence, "Trust me I'm a well-intentioned software designer."

First, the answer fails to address the potential user's question directly: can he or she use the software in the way desired?

Second, it does not explain why indexing locally held pdf documents should trigger the possibility of legal action against Quantisle.  After all, there are a great many other software programs - for example indexed search programs - that seem untroubled by these apparent risks. Is the notional risk because Qiqqa seeks to gain access via the internet to users' computers in order to index their pdf files?

Third, those who employ the pdf file format - e.g., for their own use; to circulate within a closed group, such as a research team or as part of the pre-publication editorial process; or for any number of other professional reasons - are unlikely to be persuaded to use Qiqqa if there is any chance of such documents being circulated or becoming accessible to outside persons. These are not only privacy issues but also security ones since potential users could include lawyers, law enforcement agencies, criminologists, medical researchers, etc. The rights to such intellectual property may "remain entirely yours", as Quantisle says, but is this assurance enough?

My apologies in advance if this sounds somewhat paranoid, nit-picking, scare-mongering, misleading, and so on...

DBC

[IainB]

@DBC: In response:
Here are the current, full Qiqqa Ts & Cs: (location: C:\Program Files (x86)\Qiqqa\licenses\license.txt)
(Surprisingly, perhaps, it's not a PDF document in the Library!)
I have emboldened the bit you quoted.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--- Qiqqa Terms and Conditions
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--- Copyright © Quantisle 2010-2013. All rights reserved.
--- Updated 11 November 2012
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By using Qiqqa, you are agreeing to be bound by these Terms and Conditions.

Qiqqa is Copyright © Quantisle 2010-2013. All rights reserved.

Qiqqa, Qiqqa Premium and the Qiqqa Web Library (from now on “Qiqqa”) are offered as
Services to you by Quantisle Ltd.

These Terms and Conditions cover the Services currently provided by Qiqqa. However, as we
strive to improve our service to you, new features may be made available to you. In the
event of material change (as determined by Quantisle Ltd.) to our service to you, we will
update these Terms and Conditions and notify you of the changes when you upgrade. We also
reserve the right to modify or discontinue any of the Services we provide to you. Any
changesto the Terms and Conditions come into immediate effect as soon as we make them
publically available.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Your Content
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You use Qiqqa to manage your research, be it the management of your PDF documents, the
metadata for those documents (not limited to titles, authors, abstracts and references),
and any annotations that you may have added to those documents (not limited to ratings
and keywords) (collectively, “Content”).

By adding Content to Qiqqa and/or syncing your Content with a Web Library, you grant
Quantisle Ltd. a world-wide license to use this Content for the provision of PERSONALISED
services to you (not limited to parsing, indexing, transmission and storage) and for the
provision of anonymized AGGREGATED services to other users of Qiqqa (not limited to
aggregated crowd-sourced metadata and group recommendations).  The rights to the
ownership of the Content remain entirely yours.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Acceptable Content
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The following points must be followed in spirit as well as in letter to all forms of your
use of Qiqqa:
• Quantisle Ltd. is not responsible for the management of any Content provided
       by you from other parties. If you believe that third-party Content has been,
or is being made available to you through Qiqqa in breach of their license or
rights please let us know immediately via the Qiqqa support website.
• You will provide only Content,
(i) to which you are permitted;
(ii) which was produced within, and complies with applicable law in your
country and the United Kingdom.
• You will not provide Content,
(i) that encourages illegal activity;
(ii) that contains information whose publication (accidental or not) will
cause financial damages or violate applicable law;
(iii) that infringes third-party rights, or that breaches data protection
or privacy rights;
(iv) that will cause detriment to the health of any person.
• Quantisle Ltd. will not be liable for any losses, damages or claims that arise
       because of your use of Qiqqa or the provision, storage, loss, transmission,
       distribution or publication of your Content.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Acceptable use
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You will not use Qiqqa,
(i) to bring Quantisle Ltd. into disrepute;
(ii) to knowingly reduce our capacity to provide our services,
(iii) to cause undue cost or damages to Quantisle Ltd.;
(iv) to reverse engineer our products.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Your non-personal information
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Qiqqa continuously collects non-personal information about how you use our services. You
agree that we can use this information to improve our service to you and to others, and
that we may disclose some of this information if required to comply with applicable law.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Services
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Qiqqa provides various for-pay Services (not limited to Unlimited Web Libraries and Qiqqa
Premium).

Use of these Services can be purchased, earned (not limited to various promotional
campaigns and social media incentive programmes) or awarded by an authorised Qiqqa
representative.

Unless otherwise provided by law, all charges resulting from purchases of Services are
earned by Quantisle Ltd. when received and are nonrefundable, and the costs of any
returns will be at your expense.

Quantisle Ltd. may cancel or suspend your purchased Services at our discretion.  If we
cancel a Service in its entirety without cause, we'll refund to you on a pro-rata basis
any payments that you have made based on the portion of the Service that would otherwise
remain.

Unless otherwise provided by law, earned and awarded Services have zero monetary value
whatsoever, are not transferrable, and can be revoked by Quantisle Ltd. at our
discretion.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Payments to Quantisle Ltd. for the provision of Services
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You must be authorized to use the payment method with which you pay Quantisle Ltd.  You
authorise us to charge you up-front for the Service at the time of purchase or shortly
after purchase using your payment method.

When you make a payment to Quantisle Ltd. for a Service, you understand that Qiqqa
endeavours to provide the Service immediately.  To this effect you will not be entitled
to a cancellation or "cooling off" period, except if the law requires a cooling off
period despite your waiver and even when a Service starts right away.

Services are provided on an account top-up basis by your instruction, and therefore
there is no basis nor need for you to cancel a Service.

The price stated for the Service includes all taxes and PayPal fees. You're responsible
for all other charges accrued to your payment method.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Termination
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Quantisle Ltd. reserves the right to terminate at our discretion your use of Qiqqa and
delete from Qiqqa any Content you have stored with Qiqqa. At our discretion we will
endeavour to give you reasonable notice in this eventuality unless you are materially
in breach of these Terms and Conditions.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Disclaimer of warranty
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, Quantisle Ltd. provides Qiqqa
on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or
implied, including, without limitation, any warranties or conditions of TITLE,
NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY, or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. You are solely
responsible for determining the appropriateness of using or redistributing Qiqqa and
assume any risks associated with your exercise of permissions under these Terms and
Conditions.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Limitation of Liability
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In no event and under no legal theory, whether in tort (including negligence), contract,
or otherwise, unless required by applicable law (such as deliberate and grossly negligent
acts) or agreed to in writing, shall Quantisle Ltd. be liable to you for damages,
including any direct, indirect, special, incidental, or consequential damages of any
character arising as a result of these Terms and Conditions or out of the use or
inability to use Qiqqa (including but not limited to damages for loss of goodwill, work
stoppage, computer failure or malfunction, or any and all other commercial damages or
losses), even if you had been advised of the possibility of such damages.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Trademarks
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
These Terms and Conditions do not grant permission to use the trade names, trademarks,
service marks or product names of Quantisle Ltd, including the product name Qiqqa, except
as required for reasonable and customary use in describing the origin of Qiqqa.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Qiqqa Champion Affiliate Programme
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The following are the terms and conditions (this "Agreement" or the "Terms") for
affiliates that direct potential customers to any Qiqqa web site (the "Site") and where
Qiqqa has agreed to pay that affiliate ("you") for directing those potential customers to
the Site.

1. Acceptance
By submitting your application for being an affiliate of the Site, you agree to be bound
by the Terms as stated herein without modification.

2. Site's Terms and Conditions
In addition to these terms and conditions, you are bound by the terms and conditions of
the Site.

3. Nature of the Relationship
The nature of the relationship between Quantisle Ltd. and you will be that of independent
contractors for all purposes and in no event will any person employed by you be held or
construed to be employees of Quantisle Ltd.  Specifically, Quantisle Ltd. is not a member
of any partnership, joint venture or franchise arrangement with you.

4. Ownership and use of Qiqqa Materials
"Qiqqa Materials" include any legal materials, documents, contracts, software, products,
web links, promotional material, email, information, partial Qiqqa Material or any other
materials provided by Quantisle Ltd., the Site or any Qiqqa service in any way. Quantisle
Ltd. retains complete ownership and all rights to the Qiqqa Materials. You do not have
the right to use or change any of the Qiqqa Materials without prior written consent of
Quantisle Ltd. You do not have the right to use any Qiqqa Materials for third party or
competitive use. All use of Qiqqa Materials, with or without prior written consent, will
cease after termination of this agreement.

5. Term
This Agreement will be for an indefinite term and can be terminated immediately without
cause by either Quantisle Ltd. or you providing notice to the other party. Upon
termination, you will stop using Qiqqa Materials and you will discontinue any use of any
Qiqqa or Quantisle Ltd. trademarks.

6. Your Compensation
Quantisle Ltd. agrees to pay you a commission of thirty percent (30%) of all Qiqqa Premium
and Qiqqa Premium+ sales (excluding fees paid to external service providers and fees paid to
external suppliers) generated from Qiqqa users with your Referral Code.  This Referral
Code will be applied by a new Qiqqa user as part of the creation of their Qiqqa account.
You will get credit for such sales each time an account with your Referral Code purchases
a Qiqqa Premium or Premium+ subscription.  In lieu of a commission (or in lieu of part of
it), you can elect to purchase Qiqqa services of equivalent value (but not applicable to
fees paid to external service providers or fees paid to external suppliers).  Payments are
calculated on a monthly basis and payment will be sent within five business days when
commissions payable total $50 or more. You will have access to sales and commission
reports available through the Qiqqa Champion Affiliate Program.

7. Content Development
You are solely responsible for all content development (and its cost) that you use to
promote Qiqqa.

8. Confidentiality
You may be given or obtain access to non-public information of Quantisle Ltd. that
Quantisle Ltd. considers to be of a confidential, proprietary, or trade secret nature,
including, but not limited to, customer information, pricing, financial and operational
information, business information and marketing information, in whatever form or media,
whether or not marked as confidential (collectively "Confidential Information"). You agree
not to use any Confidential Information disclosed to you by Quantisle Ltd. for your own use
or for any purpose other than to carry out your obligations under this Agreement. You will
not disclose any Confidential Information to third-parties or to your employees or agents,
other than employees and agents who are required to have the information in order to carry
out your obligations under this Agreement. You agree to notify Quantisle Ltd. immediately and
in writing of any misuse or misappropriation of Quantisle Ltd.'s Confidential Information,
which may come to your attention and to return Quantisle Ltd.'s Confidential Information upon
the request of Quantisle Ltd.

Confidential Information shall not apply to: (a) information that is or becomes a matter
of public knowledge through no fault of or action by you, (b) information that prior to
disclosure was rightfully in your possession as a result of disclosure by a third-party
under no obligation or restriction of confidentiality, (c) information that, subsequent
to disclosure, is rightfully obtained by you from a third-party under no obligation or
restriction of confidentiality, and (d) information that is independently developed by
you without use, knowledge or access to the Confidential Information of Quantisle Ltd.

9. Return of Confidential Property
Upon Quantisle Ltd.'s request (and upon termination of this Agreement), you will deliver to
Quantisle Ltd. all Confidential Information, memoranda, notes, records, drawings, manuals,
disks, or other documents and media pertaining to Quantisle Ltd.'s business including all
copies, extracts, summaries and analyses.

10. Indemnification
You agree to indemnify and hold Quantisle Ltd., its directors, officers, shareholders,
successor and predecessor companies, attorneys, agents and employees harmless from any claim,
demand, or damage, including reasonable attorneys' fees and costs, asserted by any third
party due to or arising out of the your actions (including but not limited to
advertising, web site content or how you otherwise direct potential customers to our
site).

11. Limitations of damages
Quantisle Ltd. will not be liable to you for any exemplary, punitive, special or consequential
damages, including lost revenues, lost profits or lost prospective economic advantage
arising from any act or omission in performance or failure to perform under this
Agreement, even if Quantisle Ltd. is at fault and/or knew or should have known of the
possibility thereof, and you hereby release and waive any claims against Quantisle Ltd.
regarding such damages.

12. Trademarks and other Intellectual Property
You acknowledge that all rights in any registered trademarks or any pending trademark
registrations associated with the business of Quantisle Ltd. (i.e., trademarks, service marks,
slogans, logos, designs and other similar means of distinction), including all goodwill
pertaining thereto, shall be the sole property of Quantisle Ltd. You may use and display such
trademarks only in the manner and for the purpose authorized by Quantisle Ltd., and only during
the Term of this Agreement. Quantisle Ltd. reserves the right to add to, change or discontinue
the use of any trademark it owns, on a selective or general basis, at any time. You shall not
use any trademark or trade name of Quantisle Ltd. in any corporate, partnership or business
name without Quantisle Ltd.'s prior written consent. Qiqqa is a trademark of Quantisle Ltd.

13. Media
No press releases mentioning your affiliate program participation may be made without
prior written consent of Quantisle Ltd. to a release being made. You will provide a copy of
any press releases to Quantisle Ltd.

14. Conduct
You agree to conduct yourself with due regard to public conventions and morals and agree
that you will not do or commit any act or thing that will tend to degrade Qiqqa or Quantisle Ltd.
or bring it into public hatred, contempt, scorn or ridicule or that will tend to shock, insult or
offend the community or ridicule public morals or decency. Further, you will not market
Qiqqa's Site or products using illegal, unethical, or misleading methods, or through
inaccurate content.

15. Modification to Terms
Quantisle Ltd. reserves the right to change these terms at any time and to notify you by
updating and posting these terms on its Site. Quantisle Ltd. is not bound by any other
modifications to these terms and conditions unless signed in writing by an authorized Quantisle
Ltd. officer.

16. Entire Agreement
This Agreement and the Site's terms and conditions constitute the entire agreement
between you and Quantisle Ltd. which is the owner of the Qiqqa trade name, brand and
trademark.

17. Assignment
This Agreement cannot be assigned.

18. Waivers
No failure or delay, on the part of Quantisle Ltd., in exercising any right or power under
these Terms will operate as a waiver of such right or power.

19. Severability
The invalidity or unenforceability of any provision of these Terms or the Site's terms
and conditions are intended to be read and construed independently of each other. If any
term, covenant, condition or provision of this Agreement is held by a court of competent
jurisdiction to be invalid, void or unenforceable, it is the parties' intent that such
provision be reduced in scope by the court only to the extent deemed necessary by that
court to render the provision reasonable and enforceable and the remainder of the
provisions of this Agreement will in no way be affected, impaired or invalidated as a
result.

20. End User
The end user of Qiqqa's Material will be subject to the Site's terms and conditions and
disclaimers.

21. Binding Effect
This Agreement will pass to the benefit of and be binding upon the respective heirs,
executors, administrators, successors of Qiqqa and you.

22. Headings
The headings, captions, titles, and numbering system are inserted only as a matter of
convenience and may under no circumstances be considered in interpreting the provisions
of this Agreement.

I had scanned over the Agreement as it was quite a while back, and though I forget the details, my take on the Qiqqa approach then was that it was intentional to use your account/data info as legitimate aggregated (non-personal) marketing demographics to enable ad-targeting. I thought this only applied to the unpaid versions of Qiqqa, and if you had a paid account, then you would not get targeted ads.

Main points I would consider:

• 1. Legitimacy: As a happy user of the unpaid version, I personally have no real/major objection to this kind of  "Agreement". I regard it as a nifty and legitimate way for them to claw some indirect (advertising) revenue out of the product, and it does not seem to be invasive, a breach of privacy, or a nuisance.
  Having several years' worth of solid experience in contracts - including the study of Contract Law and drafting and negotiating contracts related to the large-scale provision of IT services and software in different countries - I tend to read all contracts with a critical and jaundiced eye. I could be wrong, of course, but there was nothing untoward in the Qiqqa Agreement - or at least, not that I perceived, at any rate.
  
• 2. Security + Trust: Act in haste, repent at leisure. Whilst the rule I advocate for clients is to trust no-one, of the few occasions that I have personally ignored that rule in my own affairs, I have only once had cause to regret it. Unfortunately it was a big time letdown and breach of trust by someone whom I had previously trusted implicitly, and I am still under the shadow of the potential consequences. It was actually criminal (common theft), but it had ramifications. However, I told the police that I did not wish to press charges (though they seemed quite keen), and I did not wish to take the perpetrator to civil court over it. The lesson is to enforce the above rule, and to get it in writing, and make sure that you are happy with the writing.
  You have a responsibility to yourself and your family to protect your assets from con-merchants and fraudsters. The world seems to be permeated by a class of seemingly well-meaning people whose primary and ulterior motive turns out to be to relieve other people of their hard-won money/property/rights by any means possible. Software developers - and even US Presidents - are not necessarily excluded from this class.
  So, I have not pointed Qiqqa at any highly confidential or proprietary files to take into its Library. If I did, then I might want to scrutinise and question the wording of the agreement more carefully first. As things stand, it's not an issue for me, but I can't speak for others.
  
• 3. Applicability: The sentence:
  

  "By adding Content to Qiqqa and/or syncing your Content with a Web Library..."

  - I rightly or wrongly assumed that to probably mean that if you have a paid account and you add stuff to Qiqqa, then it will be synced with a Web (Cloud) library. I do not think that the unpaid version syncs at all, and so you could probably be pretty private with a free account.
  
• 4. Firewall control:
  You could always control Qiqqa's access through the firewall.
  For example, here is the default outgoing access in W7FC (Windows 7 Firewall Control) when set to LanOnly for Qiqqa:
  
  [attach]

[IainB]

Update 2013-03-11 2034hrs: Opening post now includes links to some YouTube Qiqqa tutorials:

• Instructional videos:  lots on YouTube, including:
  - Tutorial | Qiqqa - YouTube
  - Qiqqa Tutorial: Manage your research PDF collection with ease!
  - Qiqqa tutorials: How to use Qiqqa InCite to write your bibliographies
  - Qiqqa Tutorials: Adding bibliographic information to your PDFs
  - Qiqqa Tutorials: Brainstorms

PLUS: The Qiqqa User Manual is now available.

[superboyac]

Thanks IainB.  Cool software.

[DBC]

@IainB:

Thank you for your advice on this, especially on Firewall control. I'll probably take another look at the free version - perhaps on a computer that doesn't contain any of my sensitive pdf files. Can't be too careful these days.

[40hz]

PLUS: The Qiqqa User Manual is now available.

Yes thanks. Now that there's a manual I'll have to give it another try. I personally found it a little heavy on  its feet when I first gave it  a shot. Possibly because I didn't adequately understand how it worked.

Time to read a manual and to see if I missed something or was just using it incorrectly.

[wales]

I have tried to install Qiqqa several times, each time I receive error SP2 is reqd, this is already installed plus sp3.  I first wrote to qiqqa about a year ago, their answer we are aware of this problem and it is being addressed.  After reading the above I thought I would give it another try, same problem, it will not install. 
Any ideas how I may overcome this? 

[IainB]

@wales: Sorry, I can't help. I've never come across this problem that you describe, as I installed Qiqqa onto Win7-64 Home Premium, and it all seemed to work a treat.
I googled the problem and came up with some questions:

• Are you using XP or Vista?
• Have you got all the latest Windows Updates installed?

[wales]

Ian

XP pro, all updates installed.

[IainB]

@wales: I have drawn a blank looking for help on this install problem you have been having.
On the Qiqqa forum there is an unsolved problem posted:

XXXX February 17, 2012 14:42
Installation problem
When trying to install qiqqa on windows xp the message "sp2 required" the problem is, I have already upgraded from sp2 to sp3, but the installation does not recognise this.
Help would be appreciated.

I guess this would be you.(?) The indication might be that no-one else has reported the problem.

[oversky]

I tried this several years ago. So my experience is based the old version.
There are somethings that I don't like
1. Qiqqa save the OCR result in the database, instead of in the corresponding PDF.
2. Qiqqa is designed to use the internal pdf viewer. But I prefer to use PDF XChange.

PDF XChange can perform OCR and save the result in the PDF.
This makes Qiqqa less attracting.

[wales]

IanB

I have overcome the problem by downloading to my laptop, installing, then copying the complete program and installing onto my desktop.  Now works fine, in my opinion, not as good as Mendeley

[IainB]

I tried this several years ago. So my experience is based the old version.
There are somethings that I don't like
1. Qiqqa save the OCR result in the database, instead of in the corresponding PDF.
2. Qiqqa is designed to use the internal pdf viewer. But I prefer to use PDF XChange.

PDF XChange can perform OCR and save the result in the PDF.
This makes Qiqqa less attracting.

Thanks for that rather interesting info. I did not know that "Qiqqa save the OCR result in the database, instead of in the corresponding PDF", but I can see that, if true, then that would probably explain why "Qiqqa is designed to use the internal pdf viewer". I wonder if the current version still does that?

That could be quite an important distinction to make for someone who wanted to move about Qiqqa's version of the PDFs and the OCR together - after all, PDF does stand for "Portable Document Format"!   

I shall try and find out whether Qiqqa still does not embed the OCR output in the PDF file to which it relates. If it still does not, then I feel sure there would be a reason. Fortunately, it wouldn't really affect me, either way, because for my requirements the only document I want to be able to move about would be the original (source) document in my Library, not some semi-proprietary version/copy of the original that Qiqqa had created in its database.

If a Library PDF document of mine was an imaged document, and if I wanted to OCR it, then I would tend to do the OCR on/in that original Library document on an individual or batch basis, using (say) PDF XChange Viewer - which does a good job in that regard.

[IainB]

...I have overcome the problem by downloading to my laptop, installing, then copying the complete program and installing onto my desktop.  Now works fine, in my opinion, not as good as Mendeley

That's really odd. I wonder why a straightforward install does not work on your PC? At a guess, I'd say it might be some necessary system file/version that is absent from from your XP OS.

Are you able to elaborate specifically as to why Qiqqa is "...not as good as Mendeley..."? That could be quite useful feedback for me to put into the OP of this review. I had tried Mendeley and some others quite some time ago, before settling on Qiqqa, so it might be that these softwares have changed and are in a kind of technological leapfrog.

[superboyac]

My brain keeps telling me the name of this software is ALMOST racist.

[IainB]

2013-06-28 Update: Qiqqa v55s released end of May 2013.
Release notes: per the Qiqqa blog.

• - Premium Fields allow you to restrict your searches to ANY of the fields that you have added in your PDF BibTeX records.
• - Qiqqa now supports the Bluebook legal CSL style.
• - Qiqqa supports the “short form" of journal name in your bibliographies.
• - You can refresh the Annotation Report for a PDF or jump straight to a full blown Annotation Report.
• - Qiqqa warns about DropBox conflicts.

[Contro]

IainB
As you may remember we talk somewhere about Qiqqa. Big program indeed.
Finally I don't adopt and I don't remember why.
A few days ago, in my rutinary revision of sotware i discover docfetcher.

don't appear in the wiki in the category you express above.

What are the differences ?

Best Regards

[IainB]

@Contro: I took a look at the details on the DocFetcher website, and it seems to be purely a document Search/Index proggy - could be an alternative/replacement  to (say) Windows Search/Index. Thus apparently not the same thing as Qiqqa at all.

[40hz]

(Possibly semi-OT)

I've recently started experimenting with PiggyDB. It's not really so much a 'reference management' system as an 'information annealing' type tool.

Piggydb is a flexible and scalable knowledge building platform that supports a heuristic or bottom-up approach to discover new concepts or ideas based on your input. You can begin with using it as a flexible outliner, diary or notebook, and as your database grows, Piggydb helps you to shape or elaborate your own knowledge.

Interesting essays about some of the thinking behind it here and here.


A little rough around the edges and limited in certain areas at this point. But it has some promising thinking behind it. Very similar to some of Neil Larson's concepts that drove such (sadly gone IMHO) products of his as: Transtext, Houdini, HyperLAN, HyperBBS, Hyplus, and HyperRez.

More on Neil Larson here

From Wikipedia:

In 1984, expanding on ideas from futurist Ted Nelson, Neil Larson's commercial DOS Maxthink outline program added angle bracket hypertext jumps (adopted by later web browsers) to and from ASCII, batch, and other Maxthink files up to 32 levels deep.[citation needed] In 1986 he released his DOS Houdini network browser program that supported 2500 topics cross-connected with 7500 links in each file along with hypertext links among unlimited numbers of external ASCII, batch, and other Houdini files.[citation needed]

In 1987, these capabilities were included in his then popular shareware DOS file browser programs HyperRez (memory resident) and PC Hypertext (which also added jumps to programs, editors, graphic files containing hot spots jumps, and cross-linked theraurus/glossary files). These programs introduced many to the browser concept and 20 years later, Google still lists 3,000,000 references to PC Hypertext. In 1989, he created both HyperBBS and HyperLan which both allow multiple users to create/edit both topics and jumps for information and knowledge annealing which, in concept, the columnist John C. Dvorak says pre-dated Wiki by many years.[citation needed]

From 1987 on, he also created TransText (hypertext word processor) and many utilities for rapidly building large scale knowledge systems ... and in 1989 helped produce for one of the big eight accounting firms[citation needed] a comprehensive knowledge system of integrating all accounting laws/regulations into a CDROM containing 50,000 files with 200,000 hypertext jumps. Additionally, the Lynx (a very early web-based browser) development history notes their project origin was based on the browser concepts from Neil Larson and Maxthink.[4] In 1989, he declined joining the Mosaic browser team with his preference for knowledge/wisdom creation over distributing information ... a problem he says is still not solved by today's internet.

[superboyac]

(Possibly semi-OT)

I've recently started experimenting with PiggyDB. It's not really so much a 'reference management' system as an 'information annealing' type tool.

Piggydb is a flexible and scalable knowledge building platform that supports a heuristic or bottom-up approach to discover new concepts or ideas based on your input. You can begin with using it as a flexible outliner, diary or notebook, and as your database grows, Piggydb helps you to shape or elaborate your own knowledge.

Interesting essays about some of the thinking behind it here and here.


A little rough around the edges and limited in certain areas at this point. But it has some promising thinking behind it. Very similar to some of Neil Larson's concepts that drove such (sadly gone IMHO) products of his as: Transtext, Houdini, HyperLAN, HyperBBS, Hyplus, and HyperRez.

This is something I'm really interested in, specifically for my music studies.  My teacher has strongly advised that I keep a daily journal of the tidbits I learn and practice.  He does it on staff paper, but being a computer geek, I want to see if I can do more.  Plus, paper doesn't appeal to me for this sort of thing.  I also want to incorporate video, audio clips, etc. all into it.  I like the idea of piggydb being able to evolve with the tags and concepts instead of most knowledge databases where it's really difficult to reorganize once a lot of data has been structured.
I've played around with programs like The Brain, which is similar to concept mapping and piggydb.  But it was again difficult to reorganize on the fly, so in the end it wasn't that much more convenient than a normal tree hierarchy, or a simple tag based tool (like evernote).

Then there are practical concerns, like how easy is it to link non-text items to the db.  Video clips, audio clips, pdfs, websites.  Being able to link is one thing...being able to link easily is another.  And then how do those links show up in the database?  Having a "chain link icon" is one thing (tells you there's a link there), then accessing it or seeing it in the middle of everything else is another.

Also, being able to print or export the stuff in a useful way is important. Let's say there's a specific topic I want to review, like "major seventh chords".  It would be nice to select that topic, then print a pdf with a hodge podge of your notes, knowledge fragments, links to articles, audio, etc. presented in an interesting way, maybe with arrows or onenote-like blocks of stuff around the page.

This would make for a really interesting journal.  It can help people like me while learning a complex topic and seeing what road we have travelled.

[Contro]

@Contro: I took a look at the details on the DocFetcher website, and it seems to be purely a document Search/Index proggy - could be an alternative/replacement  to (say) Windows Search/Index. Thus apparently not the same thing as Qiqqa at all.

Ahp. But search inside PDF. Does that windows search ?

[IainB]

@Contro:
^^ Good question, though a bit off topic.
In response:

• As I wrote above, I took a look at the details on the DocFetcher website, and it seems to be purely a document Search/Index proggy - could be an alternative/replacement  to (say) Windows Search/Index. Thus apparently not the same thing as Qiqqa at all.
• Qiqqa is a fairly specialised (for PDFs) and self-contained reference management system. I think it makes its own copy of every PDF documents file that it finds in the  directories you tell it to monitor, and it searches/indexes them and OCRs any image content, and builds metadata about all documents.
• Windows Search in Win7 can, by default, index/search hundreds of file types, and for those it can't by default, all you need to do is install the appropriate iFilter - e.g., here are some instructions for installing the PDF iFilter.
• Unlike Qiqqa, I don't think Windows Search can OCR images with embedded text in PDF files, though it can OCR and index any embedded text in images in TIF/TIFF files.