Date: Sat, 03 May 2008 15:02:15 -0700 From: "Jason C. Wells" <jcw@highperformance.net> To: fbsd_chat <freebsd-chat@freebsd.org> Subject: Tired of Hierarchies Message-ID: <481CE0E7.7070900@highperformance.net>
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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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