CONTACTS 

SUBJECTS
Human Cognition Strengths and Weaknesses
Correct Language
Precision Use of Language
WAC Writing Across the Curriculum

0706 -
0706 -    ..
0707 - Summary/Objective
0708 -
070801 - Follow up ref SDS 48 0000. ref SDS 45 0000.
070802 -
070803 - A week or so ago, on 060129 Jack Park and Rod ran into each other at
070804 - Stanford for an event celebrating Doug Engelbart's 81st birthday.
070805 - ref SDS 46 0001  At that time, Jack asked for some comments on what I
070806 - have learned about using SDS from experience the past 4 years.
070807 - ref SDS 46 1W9N
070809 -  ..
070810 - A couple of days later, Jack wrote a follow up letter on 060131
070811 - saying...
070812 -
070813 -    At issue is that you said some interesting things about some
070814 -    realizations that Gary was finding.  I'd like to have him tell what
070815 -    he learnt. ref SDS 47 4Q5T
070817 -  ..
070818 - Rod took an initial crack at jotting down some impressions we have
070819 - been talking about, beginning with the fact that performing the 8
070820 - steps of Communication Metrics takes time to learn.  It also requires
070821 - that management allocate enough time to use SDS for performing Com
070822 - Metrics. ref SDS 47 MO3I  I largely agree that SDS enables a new way
070823 - of working "intelligently," as defined in POIMS. ref OF 7 2300  In
070824 - many respects it simply means using good work practices that everybody
070825 - is taught, but are hard to use due to limited time.  One thing SDS
070826 - does is make documentation practices routine, but we have not fully
070827 - solved the time problem, when people are in meetings all day long.
070829 -  ..
070830 - So, I agree with Wayne Wetzel's comment after he used SDS for about 10
070831 - years, and reported on 010725. ref DRP 3 X56O  I further agree that
070832 - SDS is more of a "work role" than something everybody uses, because of
070833 - the time problem. ref DRP 3 03DW
070835 -  ..
070836 - On 030413 I made an assessment using SDS after about 6 months, that
070837 - still seems pretty much on the mark. ref SDS 20 0001
070839 -  ..
070840 - The record from 050929, Domain Expertise and SDS, ref SDS 45 0001,
070841 - addresses my thoughts on the amount of expertise that is needed in a
070842 - domain of knowledge in order to be able to use SDS (or any other
070843 - note-taking tool) effectively.  Another critical point in the record
070844 - on 050929 is that SDS enables capturing a greater share of daily
070845 - events than is commonly done, but experience has shown that often the
070846 - importance of information only becomes known with the passage of time,
070847 - and so having the prior record enables making connections that yield
070848 - solutions, which are otherwise overlooked. ref SDS 45 0185
070850 -  ..
070851 - The ideas here are not in any order of priority, but just the order
070852 - in which they occur to me. Where possible, I will point out where SDS
070853 - is unique, where other tools *might* work as well, and areas where
070854 - SDS could be improved.
070855 -
070856 -
070858 -  ..
070859 - Synergy of Concepts
070860 -
070861 - Follow up ref SDS 48 K15J.
070862 -
070863 - The first major point is that SDS (and I believe any really good
070864 - tool) is not about doing any 1 or 2 things well, but about doing a
070865 - number of essential things adequately.
070867 -  ..
070868 - It is the synergy of interacting features that gives SDS its
070869 - strength...
070870 -
070871 -    1.  Record editor
070872 -    2.  Schedule
070873 -    3.  Diary
070874 -    4.  Action Items
070875 -    5.  Document Management - Manage responses, waiting for. Link
070876 -        record to Contacts, search by contact.
070877 -    6.  Contact Management - can be linked to records
070878 -    7.  Subject Index, search, report
070879 -        Record Segments have Subject entries
070880 -    8.  Linking at the paragraph level to other records and documents.
070882 -  ..
070883 - These features are outlined in NWO that defines "intelligence
070884 - support."  The outline begins, as it should, with Jack's construction
070885 - of a "3-layer" architecture. ref OF 12 LW5I  Since "intelligence" is a
070886 - complex subject, like "good management," the outline of SDS support is
070887 - summarized by 8 steps of "Communication Metrics." These 8 steps offer
070888 - a more familiar "documentation" set of practices. ref OF 8 685K  Rod
070889 - simplifies this even further by describing the synergy of "plan,
070890 - perform, report." ref OF 8 6649  However presented, I believe the
070891 - power of SDS is synthesizing common work practices so that each
070892 - supports the other.
070894 -  ..
070895 - We have decided that a good catchphrase for what SDS does is
070896 - manage...
070897 -
070898 -             chronology, context, and connection
070899 -
070900 - ...as explained in POIMS. ref OF 8 8555  I will therefore discuss
070901 - experience using SDS in relation to these elements. ref SDS 0 X28K
070903 -  ..
070904 - But, first some background and orientation...
070905 -
070906 -
070908 -  ..
070909 - SDS on the Job
070910 - Background
070911 -
070912 - Capturing the record with SDS takes time. When I can take notes in
070913 - real-time as on a telecon, I can keep up with the presentation -
070914 - usually.
070916 -  ..
070917 - When I have to take written notes, then there is more time required to
070918 - get the notes and the memories they trigger into an SDS record.
070920 -  ..
070921 - Once the record is captured, the real work of creating value with SDS
070922 - begins, and there is seldom time to do very much of it. As a result,
070923 - my records are short on headlines, Subjects, links, and record
070924 - segments.
070926 -  ..
070927 - The automatic links to earlier meetings are valuable, particularly
070928 - when I am using SDS during the call and can refer to earlier records
070929 - with ease.
070930 -
070931 -
070933 -  ..
070934 - SDS is Underappreciated
070935 -
070936 - People frequently come to me looking for historical information or
070937 - understanding of technical issues.  The fact that I can address these
070938 - subjects is credited to "Gary is just good", rather than "SDS really
070939 - helps", but the truth is that using SDS improves my memory for events,
070940 - even if only because I go over the memory with some immediacy, and the
070941 - ability to find earlier references is powerful.
070943 -  ..
070944 - Since few people really have access to any sort of historical record,
070945 - they are used to doing without it until some emergency causes them to
070946 - become aware that sometimes they need to understand either history or
070947 - original sources.  Once the immediate need is met in some way (usually
070948 - through someone spending an inordinate amount of time or just giving
070949 - up on the "impossible" task), everyone forgets about it until the next
070950 - time. (see example reported on 030821. ref SDS 24 NH5N)
070952 -  ..
070953 - The concept of an historical record and connection to original sources
070954 - is totally foreign and therefore not valued.  Since there is little
070955 - value perceived for the results, there is even less value perceived
070956 - for the tool, despite all manner of professional standards calling for
070957 - precisely this requirement, as reported on 950721. ref SDS 3 1740
070959 -  ..
070960 - The culture in aerospace deals heavily with:
070961 -
070962 -    •  Meetings - seemingly endless meetings.  It isn't unusual for me
070963 -       to spend 4+ hours a day in meetings, and most managers do nearly
070964 -       twice that.  Since this organization is geographical, meetings
070965 -       are typically telephone and Webex (shared display services), see
070966 -       explanation on 020217. ref SDS 8 1332
070968 -        ..
070969 -    •  This doesn't count the time preparing PowerPoint charts for the
070970 -       meeting and revising the charts after the meeting.
070972 -        ..
070973 -    •  Years ago, when slides were prepared by hand, they were
070974 -       summaries of work that had been accomplished. More and more,
070975 -       the slides *are* the work, resulting in the term "PowerPoint
070976 -       Engineering".
070978 -  ..
070979 - SDS is Underappreciated to such an extent that we have been told that
070980 - there are no requirements for the features that SDS provides, such as
070981 -
070982 -    •  Maintaining a record of events (don't need a historian)
070983 -
070984 -    •  Traceability to original sources and commitments (our
070985 -       requirements are already traced)
070987 -        ..
070988 -    •  Connection to related materials (Word is the standard)
070990 -        ..
070991 -    •  Sharing information (ACE is the only collaboration tool allowed
070992 -       - trust us, we know exactly what you need to collaborate
070993 -       effectively, after all, we convinced the Army.)
070995 -        ..
070996 -    •  Tracking actions and decisions (personal notes and Excel
070997 -       spreadsheets handle all of that).
070998 -
070999 -
071001 -  ..
071002 - Chronology and Sequence
071003 -
071004 - To anyone outside of aerospace (or possibly any large organization)
071005 - it would seem that keeping track of the sequence of events and
071006 - decisions, including the rationale for doing certain things or doing
071007 - them in a certain way would be important.
071009 -  ..
071010 - We have such a poor grasp on this that we don't even notice that it is
071011 - missing.  We have the latest schedule (or maybe Fred has it), the
071012 - latest PowerPoint charts depicting the software architecture (they
071013 - *may* be on ACE, somewhere), and the email or phone call from last
071014 - week sometime (what, you weren't on the distribution?  I'll send it to
071015 - you).
071017 -  ..
071018 - Good luck on determining whether any document is the latest or whether
071019 - it is authoritative.
071021 -  ..
071022 - At one point, Rod was rather vexed because my notes from successive
071023 - meetings didn't link to the same discussion in earlier meetings.  It
071024 - took some talking to convince him that this was because, in that 3
071025 - months, we hadn't ever talked about the same thing in 2 successive
071026 - meetings.
071028 -  ..
071029 - SDS allows easy flagging of Action Items, and I mark them in my
071030 - meeting notes.  At one point I had more than 250 action items that had
071031 - been given out in various meetings and were never discussed again.  I
071032 - couldn't get anyone to review them with me to decide whether any of
071033 - those actions still needed to be done, so I finally stopped trying.
071035 -  ..
071036 - Review that Rod did on 020217 pointed to a DoD program manager who
071037 - cited personal and organizational memory of chronology as a critical
071038 - component of meeting productivity.  However, maintaining accurate
071039 - understanding of sequence is very difficult without SDS.  As a result,
071040 - people routinely get mixed up, get mad and "point fingers."
071041 - ref SDS 8 9360
071043 -  ..
071044 - This requirement is simply "hidden in plain sight" because the pace of
071045 - daily work suppresses awareness of confusion.  People feel that
071046 - mistakes occur because of poor work by others, or deliberate failure
071047 - to carry out orders, requests, etc., commonly described as failure to
071048 - "listen." SDS makes tracking chronology with connections to context
071049 - extremely easy.  This reveals a level of complexity on the job that,
071050 - though hidden to participants at the time, explains why hammers cost
071051 - $20,000 when provided for major projects managed by bureaucracies,
071052 - reviewed on 040203. ref SDS 26 N98M
071054 -  ..
071055 - My experience indicates that SDS addresses problems that big
071056 - organizations simply do not recognize, or believe are not solvable.
071057 -
071058 -
071059 -
071061 -  ..
071062 - KM Requires New Roles
071063 -
071064 - Neil Larson developed a number of DOS programs supporting the
071065 - creation of sets of hyperlinked records. He found, and my experience
071066 - with SDS and wikis confirms, that KM requires new roles in an
071067 - organization.
071069 -  ..
071070 - Wiki enthusiasts have discovered that a connected body of knowledge
071071 - requires periodic refactoring in the same way that code (which
071072 - encapsulates knowledge) does.
071074 -  ..
071075 - There is substantial overhead required to develop an SDS "Knowledge
071076 - Space" even though SDS reduces the effort as much as we can figure out
071077 - how to do. see NWO, ref OF 12 PX6J  This effort needs to be full time
071078 - for one or more people.  To justify that expenditure, the knowledge
071079 - captured and organized has to be used by the organization, as noted by
071080 - Wayne Wetzel, as well. ref DRP 3 X56O
071081 -
071082 -
071083 -
071085 -  ..
0711 -
0712 -
0713 - Technical Concepts
0714 -
071401 - This section discusses technical insights that working with SDS has
071402 - provided.
071403 -
071404 -
071406 -  ..
071407 - Lists Should Be Outlines
071408 -
071409 - Follow up ref SDS 48 4X7F.
071410 -
071411 - The record on 040817, ref SDS 29 0001, presents the idea that what
071412 - start out as simple lists almost always become outlines if they are
071413 - used often enough.
071415 -  ..
071416 - SDS records embrace this idea:
071417 -
071418 -    1.  Record segments can have their own set of Subjects, making them
071419 -        available from Subject searches.
071421 -         ..
071422 -    2.  Sections can be created which are outdented titles for the
071423 -        material that follows.
071425 -         ..
071426 -    3.  Headlines can be multi-level allowing for major outline
071427 -        structure. Since there can be any number of headlines anywhere
071428 -        there can be a single headline, it is possible to label a
071429 -        major heading in a number of different ways. There is a
071430 -        feature that allows taking a group of headlines and entering
071431 -        them as a group in the subject index.
071433 -         ..
071434 -        The headlines for the current record can be viewed as a linked
071435 -        index, similar in concept to the Document Map in Microsoft
071436 -        Word.
071438 -         ..
071439 -    4.  Bulleted and numbered lists may be nested. Numbered outlines
071440 -        will be renumbered when the record is saved, which saves a lot
071441 -        of keystrokes.
071443 -  ..
071444 - The use of outlines in a record is so powerful, that I would base any
071445 - system that creates individual records on an outline editor rather
071446 - than on an editor with some outlining.
071447 -
071448 -
071450 -  ..
071451 - Chronology
071452 - Common Storage Strategy for Knowledge Space Based on Chronology
071453 -
071454 - Follow up ref SDS 48 0135.
071455 -
071456 - Using date and time as a primary index turns out to be quite effective
071457 - in combination with other SDS tools for organizing the record.  This
071458 - is called a "common storage" strategy in POIMS. ref OF 8 1232
071460 -  ..
071461 - Email is date oriented and that by itself is not adequate. I have to
071462 - use subject folders to be able to find emails in a large collection.
071464 -  ..
071465 - At work, where the number of individuals is relatively small, a
071466 - structure of organization, project | person works well.
071468 -  ..
071469 - In SDS, having the Diary ordered by date and being able to view any
071470 - section of the Diary by date range works well.
071472 -  ..
071473 - Wherever there are dates, the day of the week should be there as
071474 - well. Often I know what day of the week a record should be on -
071475 - standing meetings, appointments, weekend, etc - an being able to
071476 - look at the day of the week would help.
071478 -  ..
071479 - David Gelernter built a tool that used chronology as the major focus
071480 - of its organization, and it was not terribly successful. Some of
071481 - that may be due to the strange interface, but I think it was due more
071482 - to the fact that chronology is necessary but not sufficient.
071484 -  ..
071485 - Synergy from complementary techniques in SDS helps address these
071486 - issues, as presented in the concept of Knowledge Space, shown in NWO.
071487 - ref OF 12 PX6J
071488 -
071489 -
071490 -
071492 -  ..
071493 - Connection
071494 -
071495 - Follow up ref SDS 48 PR9O.
071496 -
071497 - This was what originally attracted me to SDS. The ability to create a
071498 - structure of records that is hyperlinked at the paragraph level is
071499 - extremely powerful, and is essential to any knowledge tool.
071501 -  ..
071502 - The level of granularity in addressability is an area of
071503 - research, but there are some observations that are pertinent.
071504 -
071505 -    1.  Addressability is not only for the author but for others who
071506 -        want to refer to the material. Therefore, the author shouldn't
071507 -        be the only person to decide where anchors should be placed.
071509 -         ..
071510 -        This led Doug Engelbart, and the Purple Numbers efforts after
071511 -        that, to place anchors at every point of new meaning, the
071512 -        paragraph. For tables, this should be at the row.
071514 -         ..
071515 -        SDS attempts to work out some optimal placement for anchors.  I
071516 -        have argued for placing anchors on every paragraph, no matter
071517 -        how close the preceding anchor might be.
071519 -         ..
071520 -    2.  The paragraph, table row, bullet point, etc. is the point
071521 -        where a new thought is supposed to begin in English, so I
071522 -        think that is where anchors need to be.
071524 -         ..
071525 -        If some further addressability is provided as is done in
071526 -        Augment and XPath, that is fine, but there should be explicit
071527 -        anchors at every major thought point.
071529 -         ..
071530 -        This is one area where most tools that provide for some form of
071531 -        hyperlinking break down.
071533 -         ..
071534 -        Microsoft Office documents provide bookmarks for headings and
071535 -        possibly a few other items, but not at the paragraph level. MS
071536 -        Office products can open other documents at a particular
071537 -        bookmark, but there is no way that I have found to do this
071538 -        from the command line. It would be possible to create a macro
071539 -        that would add a bookmark to every paragraph that didn't
071540 -        already have one, but the creating links to them is so
071541 -        cumbersome that the process would be overwhelming.
071543 -  ..
071544 - The means of creating a link (mark where the link should be placed,
071545 - navigate to the target, press enter) is so much easier than in any
071546 - other system, that it counts as a major strength of SDS.  This is
071547 - readily apparent from examining an SDS record like this that makes
071548 - generous use of links.  Other material, for example the OHS work being
071549 - considered on Eugene Kim's website, has anchors on every paragraph,
071550 - but almost no links.  This underscores the point that anchors are only
071551 - a small part of creating a connected record.
071552 -
071553 -
071555 -  ..
071556 - Automatic Link Creation 1st Step of Connection Augments Intelligence
071557 -
071558 - Follow up ref SDS 48 0267.
071559 -
071560 - SDS provides a chain of records leading to this one by copying a
071561 - record as a starting point for new records. The record list also
071562 - holds location information for all references (links) within the
071563 - record. This helps shorten the link string and also provides a
071564 - convenient list of records that are likely to be relevant.
071566 -  ..
071567 - When a record is made the basis of a new record, each headline is
071568 - linked back to the same headline in the original record, so there is
071569 - a chain for the discussion on that heading.
071571 -  ..
071572 - The automatic creation of links based on the context of operations
071573 - being performed is very powerful, and is a strength of SDS that
071574 - directly implements requirements for traceability to original sources,
071575 - as shown on 950721. ref SDS 3 1740
071576 -
071577 -
071579 -  ..
071580 - Context
071581 - DNA for Organic Structure of Knowledge
071582 -
071583 - Follow up ref SDS 48 02RR.
071584 -
071585 - I left this one for last even though it is second in our catchphrase,
071586 - ref SDS 0 PR65, since it is the most difficult to explain.
071588 -  ..
071589 - Context speaks to the connecting of information by some sort of
071590 - index. In SDS, this is the Subject Index. The Subject Index provides
071591 - a way of locating information based on subject, and is a major tool
071592 - for locating relevant records for possible links.
071594 -  ..
071595 - The ability to phrase a Subject in as many ways as makes sense is
071596 - powerful.  The same information has a different focus in different
071597 - contexts, and being able to find the same topic phrased in multiple
071598 - ways helps.  Tools in the subject index help with providing
071599 - permutations of a Subject.  This is an aspect of Doug Engelbart's
071600 - notion of "multiple views," which is supported well by SDS, see POIMS.
071601 - ref OF 8 KH8J
071603 -     ..
071604 -    As soon as you organize by (project, person), you find that you
071605 -    want to be able to view it by (person, project). Neil Larson
071606 -    (MaxThink) developed a program under DOS that would take a set of
071607 -    records (files) with dimensions and provide views that showed the
071608 -    records as multiple outlines with the dimensions in all possible
071609 -    orders. It was a very interesting tool.
071611 -  ..
071612 - The Subject Index is an outline.  The codes that represent the
071613 - subjects reflect the outline structure, and are generated by the user.
071614 - This makes it difficult to manipulate the outline.  Rod is adding more
071615 - tools to help with common manipulations, but it would need a
071616 - restructuring to make it work.
071617 -
071618 -    I have wanted to find a Topic Map application that presented
071619 -    itself as an outline with the addition of cross-links. If the
071620 -    outline could be manipulated as an outline, the result could be
071621 -    powerful. So far, the Topic Map applications I have found were
071622 -    either coupled to zooming viewers or provided direct access to all
071623 -    of the elements of the format and were therefore useful only to
071624 -    people wanting to experiment with Topic Map structures.
071625 -
071626 -
071628 -  ..
071629 - Learning Through Writing
071630 -
071631 - Follow up ref SDS 48 QG6N.
071632 -
071633 - This concept isn't new with SDS, but Rod's 8 Steps are one way to go
071634 - about developing information on a topic. (POIMS, ref OF 8 685K)  A
071635 - related term is "Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC)".  The premise is
071636 - that writing is how we express thought, and that writing therefore
071637 - causes us to reason and organize our thinking.  Using SDS for this
071638 - purpose supports that contention.
071639 -
071640 -    Book: "Writing To Learn" by William Zinsser
071642 -  ..
071643 - When writing emails in the Bootstrap and Blue Oxen forums, I would
071644 - often think, "There's an intriguing idea. I can hardly wait to see
071645 - what I am going to say about it."
071647 -  ..
071648 - Many, possibly most, SDS records are created for the benefit of the
071649 - author rather than the reader.
071651 -  ..
071652 - While it is possible to employ learning through writing using any
071653 - writing tool, including pen and paper or a whiteboard, SDS provides
071654 - some definite advantages, for reasons presented in POIMS. ref OF 9
071655 - 3742
071657 -  ..
071658 - Using various tools in SDS, it is possible to gather together most of
071659 - the relevant material from the record for study in the current
071660 - perspective.  The act of reviewing material, thinking about the
071661 - subject, writing about it, organizing the writing and thus the
071662 - thinking, and establishing connections to existing material and from
071663 - existing material to the current work provides a powerful learning
071664 - experience for the author.  In addition, there is the benefit that the
071665 - result is connected to other relevant material rather than merely to
071666 - memory, which is a difficulty that I sometimes have.
071667 -
071668 -    Morris Jones at Intel has framed the issue as "having everything in
071669 -    the right place at the right time." ref SDS 7 EP7F  On our project,
071670 -    the military frames the same issue as "situational awareness." see
071671 -    NWO, ref OF 12 08XX
071672 -
071673 -
071675 -  ..
071676 - Multiple Worlds Problem
071677 -
071678 - Follow up ref SDS 48 JJ6F.
071679 -
071680 - SDS works with its own documents and records implementing a common
071681 - storage strategy as set out in POIMS. ref OF 8 1232
071683 -  ..
071684 - External documents in other formats pose a problem.
071686 -  ..
071687 - At best, they need to be converted for use in SDS.  This in fact is a
071688 - critical dimension of using SDS, getting all information flows into
071689 - the record.  Rod does this routinely, one way or another, sometimes
071690 - simply by keying in material and entering a citation.  Getting more
071691 - material on the Internet eases the problem, because it is all
071692 - basically text, and can be processed with SDS to add anchors.
071693 - Sometimes this takes a couple of minutes, but can also take several
071694 - hours in some cases.
071696 -  ..
071697 - My experience indicates this part of SDS requires a dedicated
071698 - specialist, because the time it takes does not seem worth investing at
071699 - the time a new document is encountered, so the tendency is to ignore
071700 - investing time, when there are lots of meetings, calls and documents
071701 - to fuss with.  It is evident from Rod's records that investing the
071702 - time is very worthwhile, but I feel that for most users this is a big
071703 - "two worlds" problem.
071705 -  ..
071706 - Other document systems have similar problems. I have files from old
071707 - word processors that I can no longer read with anything that I have.
071709 -  ..
071710 - There is a definite advantage to using some sort of text based
071711 - format when it comes to longevity. Given text in any reasonable form,
071712 - it is possible to reverse engineer a conversion program if necessary.
071714 -  ..
071715 - SDS is based on a text editor. Everything shows up in the text being
071716 - edited.  There is no way to separate presentation from content.
071718 -  ..
071719 - Since the world is dominated by Microsoft Word, Adobe PDF, and HTML,
071720 - we have done some work with each.
071722 -  ..
071723 - SDS documents support limited HTML markup.  Editing raw HTML with an
071724 - editor that isn't designed for it is painful.  I would prefer one of
071725 - the simpler markup languages, but I have seen them get out of hand as
071726 - well.  SDS uses routine HTML markup that is automatically added.
071727 - Creating an SDS record, like this one, is largely simply thinking
071728 - about the ideas and structure, i.e., thinking through writing.  A
071729 - single click then adds HTML formatting.  If SDS were created in an
071730 - HTML environment, the user would have greater control over appearance.
071731 - I don't know if this would offset loss of control over structure.
071733 -  ..
071734 - Getting Word or PDF into a form that can be used is a challenge.  I
071735 - haven't taken the time to write a script to do the work of getting
071736 - clean text (or HTML) out of Word.  I *think* someone has done some of
071737 - that work, but I haven't checked.  Rod simply saves everything to
071738 - text, or uses cut and paste with PDF.  On the Internet many PDF files
071739 - have an HTML option which provides a text file that can be quickly
071740 - captured, meaning 5 - 10 minutes.  However, for research that does not
071741 - justify investing this kind of time, achieving the SDS objective to
071742 - manage everything is hard to implement in every case.  An example of
071743 - this kind of research is Rod's record on 950603 where about 40
071744 - documents are organized and reviewed, all with various formats from
071745 - Word to PDF, and drawn from books, magazine articles, papers, reports,
071746 - product specs, etc. ref SDS 4 0001  This is another reason why a
071747 - dedicated SDS work role is needed.
071748 -
071749 -
071751 -  ..
071752 - Conclusion
071753 -
071754 - Follow up ref SDS 48 8P9H.
071755 -
071756 - SDS has a handle on more of the pieces I have come to see as essential
071757 - for managing a knowledge base than any other piece of software that I
071758 - know, as Jack Park related on 001130. ref SDS 6 H17O  In many ways,
071759 - the individual pieces are archaic and arcane, but the combination
071760 - provides so much strength that SDS is one of my most heavily used
071761 - tools for knowledge organization, as related in my discussion with Rod
071762 - on 040227. ref SDS 27 RH77
071764 -  ..
071765 - Any attempt to replicate what SDS does would have to take into
071766 - account the synergy among the elements rather than concentrate on any
071767 - single aspect. Without the synergy, the power dissipates.
071769 -  ..
071770 - If OpenIRIS or any other tool tries to incorporate the "good points
071771 - of SDS" it needs to make sure that it gets all of the points, and
071772 - integrates them well, or it will not realize the full benefit.
071774 -  ..
071775 - As with any tool, it has to be used to get any benefit.  Unless there
071776 - is perceived benefit to aligning records to history and commitments,
071777 - SDS will continue to be marginalized.
071778 -
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071780 -
071781 -
071782 -
071783 -
071784 -
071785 -
071786 -
071787 -
071788 -
071789 -
071790 -
071791 -
071792 -
071793 -
0718 -