Like, what is this shit anyway? Outlines are HIERARCHICAL . They are Old Media and Old News. Hypertext and hypermedia subvert hierarchies. So why would we want to reinscribe hierarchy after having just broken free of them with this hyperlinked version of old Vannevar Bush's Memex machine?

Old Vannevar had no truck with hierarchies. Well, in his Memex machine, at least. He found they inhibited the exchange of scientific information that should be associationally linked instead.

Then you can take a look at Alvin Toffler in PowerShift. Not exactly a guy I think that highly of, but that book popularized a lot of anti-hierarchical ideas, such as the idea of a Flexfirm that undermines the hierarchy of the org chart and bypasses what he calls "smokestack era" gatekeepers and turf guardians.

Nah, I just don't figure where all this love affair with outlines is going, but that the folks at Radio/Manila made a toy for outlining, and all the good little bandwagon folks piled on without thinking about the relationship of outlines to hierarchical structures, structures that are oppressive and most definitely do not fit the interactive associational linking structures of New Media.

Miasma

living with outlines. Like Russ, I too live in a world of outlines.

The built-in outliner in Radio UserLand has a lot to offer, including timestamps and weblog integration.

Weblogs are rendered outlines from how I look at 'em.

[Adam Curry: Adam Curry's Weblog]
2:42:29 AM