Thursday, October 09, 2003

Another Review of Scopeware

I have previously linked to a review of Scopeware (Google Cache: 1, 2, 3). I recently came across a far more positive review:
"There is a lot that I like about Scopeware.

• It is incredibly innovative.
• The ability to search for related files via a keyword is great.
• I really dig the time based navigation.
• The process for adding feeds is identical to most aggregators.
• Seamless integration with MS Outlook.
• Three different and intuitive navigation styles to choose from."

Whereas he seems to have liked the 3D, time-based method the previous review did not:
"Scopeware orders all your stuff by time. Its creators assume that time is the most natural way to organize information. But that's a bit absurd. The phone book isn't ordered by time. Mail-order catalog aren't ordered by time. Real estate properties aren't ordered by time. Online auction items aren't ordered by time. Music albums aren't ordered by time — at least, not all the time. Even video libraries usually aren't ordered by time. "

I agree. The summary of the article is great:
"It's clear that the problems of today's conventional filesystems have not been adequately solved by Scopeware, and that Scopeware actually introduces a whole new set of problems. What, then, is the answer? What sort of information management technology should be developed instead? I firmly believe the answer lies within each individual user. The user should always be in control of their information. You should be able to organize your information in a way that makes sense to you, rather than have to figure out how the computer has organized your information. "

"I propose an information management system where files can be stored in categories, and metadata attributes would be attached to each file such as description, keywords, context, and other information that users can enter. Additional file-specific metadata, such as author and publication date for a manuscript, or director, cast, and crew for a movie, or artist and media type for a digitized painting, should be easy to specify and query later on."

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