So you've realised that my thoughts are still all over the place on this - and that I have my head up in the clouds, but I do think my toes are still on the ground, so hear me out on this one. Also, in the hope that you'll forgive me for the link to yet another "solution without a problem", I'll try to justify myself from the outset.
So I discovered that folders were a great way to organize things into neat little pigeon holes - kept things from getting messy and I knew more-or-less where to find things.
Then I discovered tags, and realised this was a great way to overcome the limitations of grey, when subjects were too blurred to fit into a specific pigeon hole, or indeed belonged in more than one. Ok, so I first encountered them as keywords, and learnt the hard way how difficult it is to build up a valid taxonomy, never mind make sure that everything was properly marked up in a way that is visible and available in all situations.
Maybe I was lucky to have relied on folders for so long that tags never eclipsed their value totally. It did not take me too long to realise that rigid pigeon-holing still had value over and above an organic tagsonomy. Factors such as ownership or record typing still had to be black and white, with a clear and unarguable structure. After all, how can you wield ultimate power (or sly away from responsibility) if you have grey areas in ownership or unclear chains of command?
And so the problems came in trying to find a good way of actually marking things up properly. I know that it kind of depends on record types and file formats, and we might never get to a perfect solution, but I was very interested to come across the idea of microformats. At first glance it seems like quite a strange and difficult idea to define (see microformats.org) but I think the article How microformats affect search engine optimization does a good job of explaining what they are and most importantly why they are useful.
I know there are a few too many buzzwords involved, but I have the horrible feeling that this going to be a common issue in the space I am currently navigating. I guess I'm going to have to get over that, but I'm not sure how easily you will.
Folders
So I discovered that folders were a great way to organize things into neat little pigeon holes - kept things from getting messy and I knew more-or-less where to find things.
Tags
Then I discovered tags, and realised this was a great way to overcome the limitations of grey, when subjects were too blurred to fit into a specific pigeon hole, or indeed belonged in more than one. Ok, so I first encountered them as keywords, and learnt the hard way how difficult it is to build up a valid taxonomy, never mind make sure that everything was properly marked up in a way that is visible and available in all situations.
Folders plus tags
Maybe I was lucky to have relied on folders for so long that tags never eclipsed their value totally. It did not take me too long to realise that rigid pigeon-holing still had value over and above an organic tagsonomy. Factors such as ownership or record typing still had to be black and white, with a clear and unarguable structure. After all, how can you wield ultimate power (or sly away from responsibility) if you have grey areas in ownership or unclear chains of command?
Missing the mark
And so the problems came in trying to find a good way of actually marking things up properly. I know that it kind of depends on record types and file formats, and we might never get to a perfect solution, but I was very interested to come across the idea of microformats. At first glance it seems like quite a strange and difficult idea to define (see microformats.org) but I think the article How microformats affect search engine optimization does a good job of explaining what they are and most importantly why they are useful.
I know there are a few too many buzzwords involved, but I have the horrible feeling that this going to be a common issue in the space I am currently navigating. I guess I'm going to have to get over that, but I'm not sure how easily you will.
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