As far as I understand, some of the earliest info management (IM) software mimicked the index card tray (or the Rolodex device). In this case, the IM software was modeled after the structure of a card to record unit level of information. We also have IM software that use the structure/metaphor of notebook (or journal). The Wikipedia entry for Comparison of notetaking software [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_notetaking_software ] has listed the structure/metaphor under the heading of "organizing principle(s)".

Is there any good article, etc. that discusses the evolution of IM (or notetaking) software from a structure/metaphor point of view? Or some article that compares various structures and their suitability with various types of information?

Not sure how far back you are indicating. I found Leading Edge Nutshell to be pretty much a file card metaphor. and the MSDOS version of askSam allowed making fields on a template using field names and brackets. Both had the advantage of not being limited to 254 characters per field.

Jeffery Smith wrote:

Not sure how far back you are indicating. I found Leading Edge Nutshell
to be pretty much a file card metaphor. and the MSDOS version of askSam
allowed making fields on a template using field names and brackets. Both
had the advantage of not being limited to 254 characters per field.

I don't know about Leading Edge Nutshell but according to Wikipedia, it later evolved into FileMaker which was a relational database software. Have used askSam which was a wonderful free-form database. As far as I know, one of the earliest card-based software was called NoteCards [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NoteCards ], but I am sure that there must be other contenders.

Please note that I am not primarily interested in the history of IM software per se. I am more interested in learning more about the *typology* of IM software on the basis of its structure/metaphor/model.

I suggest you correspond with Mark Bernstein, proprietor of Eastgate and creator Tinderbox. Mark has deep expertise in hypertext and note taking / information management. He can help, or he can point you to the right sources for your question.

On Eastgate's site press Contact and send an email -- he gets all the incoming mail there.

http://www.eastgate.com

tsahar wrote

Is there any good article, etc. that discusses the evolution of IM (or notetaking) software from a structure/metaphor point of view? Or some article that compares various structures and their suitability with various types of information?

You may want to look for articles about Bill Atkinson's HyperCard. This was also an early pioneer effort in the world of Macintosh. I suspect that later articles about it might lead to efforts that occurred afterwards.

Good luck,

--Ken

Thank you, Paul Korm and Ken. Have emailed Mark Bernstein my query. Will definitely check comparative articles about HyperCard and other similar software. Will report back to the forum if something tangible is found.

On Paul Korm's suggestion, I wrote to Mark Bernstein who was kind enough to respond to my newbie-ish query (i.e. the first message in this thread). With his permission, I am sharing his response on this forum:


The best and most detailed exploration in (part of) this area, and one of the best reviews of any software sector, is Ted Goransom’s “About This Particular Outliner.” It’s aging but incisive. http://www.atpm.com/Back/atpo.shtml

Personal information tools grew up in an era in which databases seemed to be the core of all information processing, and in which database theory was central to a good deal of thinking about systems. Databases — especially network databases (cf. the work of Charlie Bachmann) — were far more influential than the UI metaphors you describe. See, especially NoteCards (Xerox PARC, Halasz and Trigg) and the Smalltalk-80 book (Goldberg and Kay).

The Proceedings of the ACM Hypertext Conference in its early years are filled with papers in this area, many of them still worth reading.

It's interesting to realize ATPM/ATPO are over 20 years old, and have been gone these five years already. Mark is correct, in my opinion: ATPM/ATPO is a wonderful source of guidance for Mac users, despite that it is no-longer current.

Another source you might want to check into is Dave Winer at Scripting New (scripting.com). Dave first specified RSS and the OPML standard that powered it -- and was present at the creation of many outlining / notetaking / IM experiments and apps 15-20 years ago (or more). (He claims he invented blogging. Well, maybe.) He's a garrulous sort and may give you a different point of view than Mark in some ways.

A third source is Shelley Hayduk, inventor (along with her husband, Harlan Hugh) of TheBrain.

When I made the switch to Mac about a decade ago, I pored over www.atpm.com for weeks. I'm surprised but pleased that it is still up for others to peruse.

Jeffery Smith wrote:

When I made the switch to Mac about a decade ago, I pored over
www.atpm.com for weeks.

So did I. Ah the Good Old Days! It was also the place where I first read contributions by people such as AmberV (now working with Keith Blount at L&L).

I became familiar with the names Dave Winer (ThinkTank was my first outliner), John Friend (PC Outline and GrandView were my 2nd and 3rd outliners), and Neil Larson (I loved MaxThink). But the introduction of Windows and the collapse of MSDOS left me with little to love in the 90s. I used an outliner intended for the legal profession (NoteMap), and it disappeared as well. Thus, my migration to Mac.