Curiouser and Curiouser!

Giving ActiveWords another go

Okay I'm hearing a lot of positive things about ActiveWords again and being something of a tool freak this makes me want to take another look.  I've tried it twice and both times I've been fairly irritated with it and not found it terribly useful.  However Jim's comments suggest that maybe I haven't given it a fair shake.  Maybe this time it will click...

Topic Maps: CMS is only the beginning

Topic maps in content management. Lars Marius Garshol recently e-mailed me, and pointed me his very interesting article on topic maps and content management. This talks about using an Integrated Topic Management System (ITMS) to provide a much more powerful management interface to the normal... [Column Two]

» I'm fundamentally a believer in topic maps even though I haven't really seen them in concrete action yet.  I just believe that they are too simple and elegant an idea to not work.  The nice thing is that with XTM and XFML beginning to take off we are sure to see more and more applications that do support topic maps.

One thing in particular that interests me is that Alex Shapiro (of TouchGraph fame) has created a Personal Brain viewer.  This uses the new brain exporter to create a map that is browsable in a TouchGraph viewer.  It's very cool to be able to take the plex-style view of Personal Brain and switch to a TG style view.  If only they could be integrated somehow...

For my own part liveTopics adds to the capability of Radio as a CMS by overlaying a topic based structure onto the content.  This will become more powerful when topics can themselves be structured, and when the postings from multiple weblogs can be related by content.

Something that worries me though is a recent comment (I cannot remember the source) that weblogs+topics are just recreating threaded discussions.  I can't quite articulate yet what it is I don't like about this comment, but there is something here that bothers me.  (Note: I see nothing wrong with threaded discussion per-se, I think I am more bothered by the possible perception that blogs = another usenet somehow)

Inbox Buddy released

Inbox Buddy 1.0 Now Available !!!!!.

Inbox Buddy 1.0 Now Available !!!!!

[The FuzzyBlog!]

» Congrats to Scott & Brian.  I hope the hard work pays off for you guys.

For anyone cursed with having to use Outlook (I'm keeping a watchful eye on Spaces) Inbox Buddy is definitely worth checking out.