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Re: [ba-ohs-talk] Email and shared space (was Wiki experiences?)


Jeff Conklin wrote:    (01)

> It seems we're all pointing the to the same thing: some kind of idealized
> hybrid of email (because it is the collaborative killer app to date) and
> shared space (like Groove, Notes, etc.).  We want the best features of
> email, like push notification and personalization of our view of the
> collective record, and shared space, like all the info stuff is coherently
> organized in one space.    (02)

I think that hits the nail on the head. The issue of whether we're looking
at an email or a document repository should effectively go away. Our
authoring/browsing/referencing/messaging environment should consist
of one seamless, integrated whole.    (03)

What I'm visualizing at the moment is xhtml-based. That gives all of the
necessary structure, with the ability to add purple numbers as id tags,
as Murray has done for a while.    (04)

I see a document sitting in the repository, and people "responding" to
parts of it, where the responses are tagged with an attribute that labels
them as "annotation", if they are not direct revisions to the document.    (05)

[Implied requirements:
   --an author list for the document
   --any responser not on the list automatically generates an annotation
   --a response to an annotation is automatically an annotation
   --an author has to choose whether an added note is a document
     modification or an annotation (or perhaps have different authoring
     modes -- multiple interface options here)    (06)

I see a "document repository" that is, in essence, a separate folder,
which allows conclusions reached in the message folders to be
"hoisted" to a position of prominence. Back links from the hoisted
versions (copies? references?) then allow recovery of the entire
discussion that led to the conclusions.    (07)

I see the option of "registering interest" in particular documents, so that
changes and additions cause their headings to be highlighted, as in the
folder hierarchy for email.    (08)

I see additional categories added as attributes to the document and
message elements, so they can be searched in intelligent ways.    (09)

If the server maintains the email folders, then the repository(s) are
shared folders, where message folders can be created to personal
taste. (Keeping things on a shared server removes issues of
concurrency and synchrization, too. Those are useful issues to
resolve, but isolating them at this stage makes it easier to focus on
the interaction dynamics.    (010)

Of course, this is high level conceptualizing. I applaud Eugene's
efforts to organize some graph-replication and discussion-organization
data structures, especially with respect to their potential mapping
into Nodal. That effort may well be more productive, in the long
run, but the construction of some rudimentary system we could
start evolving would help identify any refactoring necessary for
the design.    (011)

Note:
As for intraspect, I can't say that the descriptions I read on their
site "grabbed me". But Jeff's insights were provocative, so I'm
still interested in taking a look. It seemed like a proprietary
offering, though. Is it?    (012)