In my opinion, we need to get rid of the desktop metaphor. The powerful computer sitting on my desk currently does not offer as advanced interface possibilities than any web page on the Internet. What a shame.

The basic idea should be that the representation of information is only defined by the context of the retrieval process and not the context or a location when storing it.

Tagging in combination with advanced retrieval methods such as TagTrees is one example of many. Fast desktop search with high usability is another one. Provide and use as many retrieval options as possible. The journey has just begun. In my opinion, we are still in the stone-age of IT. There is more to come.

[img[https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1437962621l/1936029.SY475.jpg]]

From Jenne on Goodreads:

The author has one thing he wants to tell you in this book: faceted classification is awesome, and now that more things are digitized, we can actually use it.

(Faceted classification is where something is categorized in more than one place, e.g. how you can put a book on more than one Goodreads shelf, as opposed to in real life where it can only be in one physical location)

I kept skipping chapters to see if he had anything else to say, but if he did I missed it. He does have a lot of interesting metaphors that he uses to explain things, at least. Like if …

I don't understand a single word. I think the main purpose behind bookmarking this page is to try to look intelligent on delicious.

https://web.archive.org/web/20190123004508/http://shirky.com/writings/ontology_overrated.html