Eugene Eric Kim <eekim@eekim.com>, January 31, 2001, v1.0
We constantly practice knowledge management, whether we are conscious of it or not. When we tell a story, we are sharing knowledge. When we jot down a note, we are recording knowledge. When we read a book, we are retrieving knowledge. Written language, white space, indices, libraries, peer review -- all are tools and processes for organizing and managing knowledge. 1A (02)
Today's computers are already useful tools for managing knowledge. However, there are several problems that prevent existing knowledge management systems from scaling. The main problem is the lack of simple, standard, machine-readable ways for associating related information. 1B (03)
These adjectives -- simple, standard, machine-readable -- are vital requirements for useful knowledge management software: 1C (04)
The Open Hyperdocument System (OHS) is a framework for sharing and managing knowledge that meets these requirements. It is not a single piece of software, but a coherent set of services for recording, sharing, retrieving, and linking information. 1D (08)
The OHS will initially support the following features: 2A (010)
Our hope is that eventually, all knowledge-related applications -- from word processors to PIMs to relational databases -- will be integrated into the OHS. In order to kick-start this evolutionary process, we will develop a number of initial applications that will demonstrate the utility of the Open Hyperdocument System. 3A (017)
The first application will be the Hyperscope, an open source, web-browser-based tool that will allow users to view supported data formats using OHS features. For example, users will be able to apply different view specifications to e-mail archives using the Hyperscope. Users will also be able to create links into e-mail manually by locating the desired address using the Hyperscope, and cutting and pasting the link destination into existing editing tools. 3B (018)
The next step will be to integrate editing features into the Hyperscope to allow the seamless creation of links between documents and to support other useful features, such as version control. 3C (019)
Eventually, the Hyperscope will incorporate a number of user interface innovations, including some that existed in the Augment system and others that will undoubtedly be discovered and invented as we gain more experience actually using the tool. 3D (020)
Although the Hyperscope will be useful for all types of knowledge management, our initial target community is programmers, especially of open source software. Consequently, we hope to see early efforts to integrate OHS features into existing tools used by open source software developers, ranging from e-mail clients to compilers. 3E (021)
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