Submitted for your consideration

Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
Aug 18, 2012 at 02:27 PM

Stephen Zeoli wrote:
>Let me clarify my use of the term “create.” I don’t mean “creative.”
>This is really more a question of the source of the actual content.

Understood. I considered also the term “develop”, but this also applies to the re-organisation I mentioned (therefore making no distinction on the source), so “Collect-Create” are probably the best ends for the axis.

>I wrestled with this some before deciding to include tags under search,
>because I was not thinking about what the user did, but how the application works. The
>topic approach is static and manual. The user physically puts the item in its place and
>that is how it is displayed and found. With tags, you can apply multiple keywords, some
>of which you may never make reference to. In some programs, Evernote being especially
>so, the user experience of tags is similar to topics. Perhaps instead of “search” I
>should use the term “index.” It may make my view clearer. In that case tags are just a way
>for the user to more actively index the information.

I feel that the proactive vs. passive role of the user in organising the information is an important one to make, (a) because with Google and desktop search engines very little such proactive work is done nowadays and (b) it is by doing such work, e.g. in academia, that one recognises patterns, develops theories, perceives solutions, etc.

>You may be right. The key is trying to figure out the taxonomy that will give
>people the best idea of which application will best serve their needs. This requires
>more contemplation and input from others.

Definitely.

>In my initial approach, I assumed the relationships were topical. That is, if Topic A in
>ConnectedText contains a link to Topic B, this is a topical scheme. However, it is NOT a
>hierarchical scheme, so perhaps it does require its own dimension.

I think that relationships may imply various associations between Topics other than topical; in any case, as one moves around their model, they will eventually find all Topics interrelated…

>If this is to be useful, then the ultimate goal should be to give us a basis
>for comparing applications, and for people looking for tools to find the one(s) that
>best meet their needs.

You might also want to consider the “content vs. structure” distinction discussed here http://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/4232/30 and briefly on the next page.