Re: But, what is a PIM

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

Outliners.com Message ID: 3787

Posted by graham.smith
2005-08-17 02:55:20

Daly,

>Of course, that happens all the time in advertising, but it is too >easy to blame simply the ad industry.

Yes, I agree, but the power of the media and advertising often leads the way. However, underlying that issue is the quality of teaching - not just in teaching the detail, but in believing it matters.

>That that definition is insufficient is seen in usage today as people >like myself broaden the meaning to include that set of information >which is of personal importance and value to me, and the software >applications that I choose to manage it. Is this kind of a usage >definition any more, or any less, authoritative than the one it’s >replacing, which I presume resulted from marketing and branding >exercises?

> Language evolves with usage so it is dificult to say, and I fully accept why you, and indeed others expand the term to include the programs you use to manage personal imformation.

>There is an effort now to differentiate between PIMs and knowledge >managers; somehow this feels arbitrary to me,

Possibly, I have no problem a definition ( I also have no authority) PIMs are rooted in a calendar/contact software. Personal knowledge management programs are rooted in free from data bases. With some PKMs including some PIM features and some PIMs including PKM features. However, I emphasise that I am not being critical of your useful list of PIMs, just bouncing around the question.

>To get closer to what you are meaning (or what I think you are >meaning) is that young people today know fewer words, and have less >awareness of how to use them to express the subtlties of meaning than >you or I probably did when we were boys. What will the impact of this >be in years to come?>

In the UK, it isn’t years to come, its now. As well as teaching at degree level my consultancy work involves reviewing technical reports used as a basis for the author being cross examined by a barrister at Public Inquiry. When the author appears as an expert witnesses at the Inquiry, any barrister would be able to rip the reports apart by showing what they had written wasn’t what they were trying to say. I admit this is far removed from us chatting here, and I am not suggesting we need to write everything in anticipation of being cross examined on it !!!

Graham

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