ActiveWords

Earlier this week I mentioned my problems with Chapters censoring their in-store Internet terminals. Because Doc Searls’ weblog was one of the sites I couldn’t view, I sent him a carbon copy of the email I sent to Heather Reisman.

In reaction to that, Doc mentioned the incident on his website which, in turn, prompted a man named Buzz Bruggeman to send me an email. Buzz met Doc at last years Pop!Tech conference in Camden, ME. Why he emailed me, I’m not sure. But it was one of those emails that, for some reason, amdist the clutter of the penis enlargement and the interest free loan spam emails, I paid attention to.

Buzz is hawking a nifty little program for Windows called ActiveWords. Buzz’ Big Problem is that he is trying to sell the world a product that the world doesn’t know it needs. In fact he’s trying to sell the world a product that you don’t really know you need until you’re using it. And even then there’s a learning curve. Actually it’s not really a learning curve — it’s more like an “experiencing curve.”

I will not even begin to try and describe what ActiveWords does. Go to their website and download a free trial copy (don’t bother reading the PR on the website; most of it won’t make much sense). Install the program (again, this is a Windows-only program) and take it for a spin. Then you’ll understand.

I’m still learning how to integrate ActiveWords into my workflow. I cam imagine hundreds of ways I will put it to use. It’s one of those rare “shareware” programs that I will actually purchase. Enough said.