The
EmailBinders topic struck me as I got going on the
ThreeRingBinders metaphor.
I would like to put down my thoughts on
WikiWiki <-> Email and Email List
integration. This is something that Ward has put into play at:
http://c2.com/w2/wiki/RecentMessages
and see foot of
http://c2.com/w2/wiki/YouHaveBeenAddedToWikiForumOnelistCom
I visited with
WardCunningham almost two years ago. Ward was kind enough to give me the tour of his office and walk the less than a block up the hill to the village for a cup of coffee. What I noticed was that Ward using a Wiki on his
notebook machine as, guess what :), a notebook for the storage of thoughts
wiki pages and enteries on other wiki pages (esentially emails to himself) and of course emails from others.
Since I don't have a Wiki on my notebook, I started sending myself emails and
filing them a way in the folders that my email machine accommodates. I cannot
edit email that is in a folder but I can copy it into a new message and edit
it and then send it to myself. I find this a very useful idea system. I am
looking forward to the day that I can integrate my personal email to self
and others with a Wiki editing and filing system.
JohnDeBruyn (January 17,
2000).
This segement, the stuff that comes next, was repeated at the foot of
ThreeRingBinders and the foot of the
WhyDontOthersGetWiki. So if you have
been there and read that skip over the this segment
May be
ThreeRingBinders could be a useful metaphor. Seems that it was the hard copy version of an intranet for the enterprise, agency or institution
that it served. Good
ThreeRingBinders
permited forward evolution more so than the typical intranet does today.
That is
ThreeRingBinders had certain Wiki like qualities.
However, in lieu of page linking, the binder permited easy addition of pages to the appropriate section and in the appropriate place within the section. What Wiki does is replace the sectional organization and the page sequence with an open, three dimensional hyperlinking page scheme.
One could ink or pencil in comments and cross references and, more recently append, sticky notes to the pages in the binder. Unlike the binder that may have been assigned to an individual or a work group, Wiki permits these comments
to be shared with all.
What made the binders special, beyond writing on a page, was that whole pages could be added. Even better, the binders permited a bit of the Wiki anachry
in that user could add their own pages (memos from above, below and contempoaries as well as ones self within the organization). Perhaps that
is the core of some of the resistence to Wiki that is described on
WhyDontOthersGetWiki JohnDeBruyn (January 17, 2000)