People processing the substance of their existence find inspiration in the thoughts and reactions of others. When searching for ideas beyond those that are readilly available in their 'neighborhood' , bloggers should be able to search blogspace using universal substantive categories or, my second choice, a thesaurus.

Eventually I'm picturing blogspace (or its descendent) as a place hundreds of thousands of people to meet people and to form associations, neighborhoods. Those neighbors will take pleasure in each other but will do so as they process substantive concerns like music, child-raising, justice, food, friendship, love, death, etc.

I believe that individuals and neighborhoods should be able to search the substantive material in blogspace. They already can, sure, by putting words or phrases into a Google search. If we tinker with the nature of the weblog entry (as DW is presently doing) we might make the possibility of higher yield searches of blogspace. The result: A harvest-ability of not only neighborhoods but substantive clusters within blogspace. If the weblog structure were adapted to systematic categorizations of the material of a weblog entry the relatively small [and optional?] effort of the blogger would allow more useful and predictable harvest for those who are searching for topics and topical neighborhoods in the future.

Take the following quote, for example, from Plato's Apology: (R.E. Allen, trans. 1980 Univ of Minn Press) . Socrates: "For to fear death, gentlemen, is nothing but to think one is wise when one is not. No man knows death, nor whether it is the greatest of goods; and yet men fear it as if they well knew it to be the worst of evils. Yet how is this not folly most to be reproached, the folly of believing one knows what one does not? [I will not give up doing what I know to be good because you threaten me with death which is not known to be an evil.]."

Apologies for what might seem to be a laawwwng reach [;>}], but I think the specific example, now entered into blogspace, helps to illustrate my point. How is one to more eaily find thoughts of good, of evil, of knowing, of fear, in blogspace? I believe with Shifted Librarian and David Gemmel that it is important to be able to do such a search. A thesaurus or a universal category system would help immensely. Searching for phrases and names using Google can have exciting results. But, because individuals use different words, often, to refer to the same or related things, such a search wont find all entries that relate to the searcher's interest. Use of a universal category system at the time of entry would increase the chances that a searcher could find the items the searcher hoped to find. The ability of the writer to [optionally] and multiply (up to three?) categorize her/his entry would enhance harvest for all searchers working in their conceptual space. IMHO even one category system would be an improvement over none.

Spike Hall