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Re: [ba-ohs-talk] Tinderbox: tool for visual concept structuring


There's also a WebLog entry at 
http://radio.weblogs.com/0100524/stories/2002/03/30/tinderboxingAtEngelbart.
html about using Tinderbox to weave a net of notes during a lecture by 
Doug. An excerpt:    (01)

>  Reviewing my Tinderbox-captured notes from this event was a joy. I 
> could retain their chronology and also link, relate, and group items 
> together. This led me to discover insights and subtleties that I had 
> missed before.
>
> Themes, ideas, and concepts from the end of the discussion dovetailed 
> nicely with those made earlier. Arranging a Map View of my notes 
> revealed these additional "ah-ha" moments.
>
> Tinderbox not only allowed me to capture the information, but it 
> actually showed me the way to extract additional value.
>
> Engelbart spoke about automation and "smart agent" technology. It was 
> one of the reoccurring themes of the discussion. As I arranged my notes 
> in Tinderbox I added an Agent to find nuggets with these themes. I 
> watched as the software quickly associated several notes that I had 
> forgotten making.
>
> Engelbart discussed how technology should be used to augment our 
> abilities, to extend what we can do. Automating the mundane does not 
> move us forward -- we should be building tools that augment our human 
> capabilities -- making connections, thinking, communicating, and 
> extending our knowledge.
>
> I laughed aloud as I realized Tinderbox's had just done exactly that 
> for me. Its "agent" feature was allowing me to gather a better 
> understanding of this view of "smart agent" technology. How wonderfully 
> recursive!
>    (02)

An excellent short description of Tinderbox is at 
http://www.deosil.com/doug/entry.php3?id=030520022256. Besides allowing 
semantic mappings in a 2D (2 1/2?) space, it can manage incoming RSS 
feeds (news, blogs, etc), and can output blogs. Small collaborative 
linkages of blogs and RSS feeds can evolve from this. Much like Radio 
Userland, but with a perhaps more powerful personal info interface.    (03)

I used their Web Squirrel product in the past - dropped it for lack of 
"handiness": speed to task-importance ratio. Similar problem with The 
Brain. Perhaps this is better. It will be out soon for MacOS X and for 
Windows. And all-XML is the way to go!    (04)

- Mark    (05)


> Eastgate have just released a product based on years of research in the 
> hypertext community into spatial hypertext/idea structuring tools:
>
>    http://www.eastgate.com/Tinderbox/
>    (06)