There's been some discussion on the precise meaning of several
Engelbart-related terms.
Since we want to be absolutely sure that when we use a term that Doug and
his
group created, we do so in a way that Doug would appreciate and support,
I called Doug to see if he could shed light on the definitions.
Here's what I got:
Hyperdocument: "The knowledge container. No one says it has to be a file,
any container."
Dynamic Knowledge Repository: "The handbook, the conversations and
annotations,
the contents. Dynamically up to date representing the state of the
repository.
If you want more depth, you can trace back and find the evolution of
that in
the record."
OHS : "A toolset with the structure and properties of the knowledge
containers plus the functions that you can execute on them, including
viewing,
traveling, linking, editing, etc. Includes auxilliary languages,
compilers, tools,
user interface. Does not include the contents of documents itself,
only how you structure and operate on them."
HyperScope: "Part of the OHS, that you can implement early and get
immediate
utility in the context of legacy files. As it evolves to add more
features
(e.g. backlinking, editing), it becomes a bigger part of the OHS."
OHS to me now seems almost like the term "MS Windows", which contains the
operating
system, the look and feel, the philosophy, as well as a set of included
accessory tools such
as the web browser or media player. But it appears OHS does not represent
the content
of the knowledge repository or containers (documents).
Doug was thrilled to be asked about this topic and was happy that we are
having dialogs
about this, because he emphasized how working through terms is an essential
part
of cooperative knowledge work. I said this reminds me of learning a foreign
language:
when we learn a new word, we need to ask lots of questions to fill in all
the
nuances, scope, and color of the terms.
-- Adam
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