Web as secondary storage
Michael Davies liked my idea of the web as a knowledgebase, and draws a good conclusion: a primary reason to put stuff in is because you yourself will want to get it out again.
If I have something I know, and it's not particularly secret or private, then the easiest way to remember it is to put it on the web and let Google (or the web, collectively) remember it for me. And not just remember it, but also possibly make interesting connections to it (much as human memory does.)
Writing on the web seems very much like a stream of thought, and likely to become more so in the future: it's more about connections and recall than about careful indexing or categorization. It progresses over time but we revisit the past more by linking back to it than by rewriting it.
Do you go back and redraft yesterday's thoughts? Maybe, if you're writing a more-formal paper, but generally no. Or are you randomly reminded of things you thought before, rethinking variations on them, rhyming and riffing, building associations? ...
The web may become more like thought as it becomes easier to casually publish (blogs, camphones, ...) and as the tools for retrieving information become better.
posted Tue 24 Aug 2004 in /software/web | link
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