Re: Is InfoHandler an outliner (was Re: An Addi....)

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Note: This message is from the outliners.com archive kindly provided by Dave Winer.

Outliners.com Message ID: 2481

Posted by jackcrawford
2005-01-08 06:38:57

“Steve Z:
Outlining, to me, is a temporary, fluid process you perform as you try to make sense of existing data, or free-flowing thoughts, such as when you manage a project or write a paper. Managing that data (i.e. capturing, storing, classifying, and retrieving it) is a another function altogether.”

You make the point very well Steve.

Outlining to me is essentially a creative process. PIMs in a purist sense are about data management, whatever the origin of the data.

Why the frequent connection (and confusion) between the two? I’m not sure to be honest. I suspect it is linked to a fundamental human need to feel in control by being organised. If we didn’t have that need, we would all have massive flat databases and just use powerful search tools (like X1) to retrieve and access the data.

However, most of us also want an overview of our data. The outlining creative writing model also happens to be an excellent model for displaying data trees. A two-panel app like TreePad can display a large amount of information in visually useful patterns without much of a learning curve. Visually useful, not just in the sense of finding information, but more importantly of starting to suggest connections within the data. In other words it builds up a synergy of ideas that is not possible by just storing data randomly. The better software that we discuss here take that concept to considerable heights.

It is inevitable that if we create data by using a traditional outlining methodology, we will very soon also start looking at how we store and retrieve that data - to get that overview.

Just considering outlining in its raw creative sense would be removed from the real world of information management - a world in which data comes at us in many different ways.

Jack

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