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By James E. Powell
Converting data between spreadsheet and word processor formats is usually simple-that is, if you're on a PC. Users of personal information managers (PIMs), on the other hand, face problems.
Help may be on the way, thanks to new technology called Personal Data Interchange. It includes vCard, which automates the exchange of data between e-mail, personal digital assistants (PDAs), telephony apps, pagers and PIMs. This has always been hard, given the variety of formats: Do you use an "X" to indicate a phone extension or a separate field? Do you keep the first and last names in separate fields?
Leading the charge toward unification is telephony consortium Versit, whose vCard Version 2.0 spec is based on industry standards and has been submitted to the Internet Engineer-ing Task Force (IETF).
Applications supporting the spec are already on the market. For example, Now Software has upgraded its Now Up-to-Date PIM to publish your schedule or contact list on the Web; the vCard standard makes it possible for a user with a different PIM that also supports vCard to drag and drop the same Web page data into their program.
The spec has been adopted by groups ranging from the InfraRed Data Association to Netscape. You can reach Versit at pdi@versit.com or 800-803-6240.
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