When will we be able to access our computerized data on the desktop with
out complete dependence on the hierarchy? Has anyone in the FOSS
community tackled this problem? What software is used?
I am tired of hierarchies. File sytems have hierachies. My bookmarks
which could conceivably be non-hierarchical have hierarchies. Mail
folders enforce hierarchy where perhaps none is needed. The difficulty I
have with hierarchy is that you have to remember the hierarchy. That or
the names given to elements in the hierarchy have to be intuitive. The
deeper and wider a hierarchy becomes, the more likely it is to be useless.
I would like all of the data that I use everywhere to be one click away
at all times. But placing all of that data in one central place is also
unmanageable. Thus we employ search and filtering. To do that we employ
proper metadata, tagging, or brute force searching.
In a library I can access pretty much every volume in two steps. Search
the index, then go to the location of the volume and pick it from the
shelf. Their is a pattern here. The easiest systems that I use all have
a "search/index" paradigm attached to them.
I keep an image in my mind of where to find data that I use during the
course of my employment or hobbies. My employer has incredibly good
information systems. I would say that I can access many millions of
documents somewhat readily. Unmanaged files in hierarchies quickly
become irretrievable.
Regards,
Jason C. Wells
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