Glacial Erratics

Jack and I have been talking about NexistWiki since he brought it online. The original version of NexistWiki was more like PurpleWiki than the current incarnation. The new version removes support for automatic parsing of WikiWords in favor a more intentional and formal linking mechanism. For certain applications, especially where the users are disciplined and motivated, this might be a good thing, but generally speaking I think the more casual linking provided by WikiWords is more encouraging of emergent understanding.    (0000YK)

The original purpose of PurpleWiki was to take the highly dynamic and easy-to-refactor nature of a wiki and make it more valuable as a reference tool by providing granular addressability with the PurpleNumbers. As such it still assumes that the linking and refactoring behaviors are going to primarily be the responsibility of human authors. Given the nature of the content in a general use Wiki I think this is good: human writing does not have high semantic content for machines without a great deal of metadata management. That metadata management cuts back on the casual and dynamic ease of use that a Wiki provides.    (0000YL)

My interpretation of NexistWiki is that it wants to be an augmenting tool but with some added automation. To achieve that it has to add some semantics to the data. Jack does this by having named links between the AIRs. I think this is a fine way to go, but I've never found myself actually using NexistWiki because I find using it contrary to my style.    (0000YM)

I feel there are several dimensions in understanding processes of knowledge management (if you want to call it that) and tool development is both a reaction to choices about where on the dimensional scales you want to be and an enforcer of certain choices. One of those scales could be called LocusOfDiscipline.    (0000YN)

If I recall correctly, NexistWiki assumes, to a minor but greater than PurpleWiki extent, that disciplined behavior is available at the time of writing. That discipline is used to name links and divided content up into AIRs. That's perfectly acceptable behavior for tool users that work that way, especially in situations where later reuse, refactoring and network creation is going to be done, at least in part, by automatic processes.    (0000YO)

PurpleWiki, on the other hand, assumes that discipline, to a certain extent, comes after the initial writing. The Wiki provides the dumping ground onto which ideas can be deposited lest they escape. PurpleNumbers then provide the handles which allow the reuse, refactoring and network creation (by people) that bring about (emerge) greater understandings. TransClusion takes this a step further.    (0000YP)

In either case, Nexist or Purple, some form of granular addressability, whether PurpleNumbers or something else, is helpful. They provide handles for getting at information in a more precise form.    (0000YQ)