Re: Re WIT

Dan Hinckley (hinckley@netcom.com)
Fri, 10 Jun 1994 07:35:32 -0700 (PDT)


I am as frustrated by the lack of an effective tool for managing online
conferences such as this. Threaded news is a giant serial tube, and email
is cacaphony; sometimes I get the feeling like I am at a loud cocktail
party- there are five loud drunks over in the corner talking incessantly,
a guy pulling at my sleeve to ask if I could recommend a home computer for
his daughter (apologies to mosaic preemies), and every once in a while,
out of the corner of my ear, I catch a snatch of a discussion that I am
vitally, critically interested in.

Isn't there SOME alternative to the technology we are using? I take it WIT
fails in some regard, but it seems as though HTML should provide the
foundation for something like an n-dimensional (or at least hierarchical)
threaded reader, but there are issues. It is more than academic; not only
could www-talk use a better tool, but at The EarthWeb Project we are
keenly interested in implementing new technologies of web conferences for
EarthWeb.

If someone would tell me where to go (watch it), I'd gladly take this
discussion somewhere else. Let me know if you want to hear more.

BTW: could someone direct me to more information on WIT?

Dan Hinckley The EarthWeb Project
Executive Director voice: 303.642.7330
204 Divide View Drive fax: 303.642.7330
Golden, CO 80403 email:hinckley@netcom.com

On Thu, 9 Jun 1994, Terry Allen wrote:

> >> I agree, the idea is good, but the implementation is too clumsy
> > to be practical if we can use email instead.
> It is a little bit harder to use but what is going to happen when we have
> 1500 email messages on this topic? Who is going to organize all the
> thoughts so that we could ever hope to go back over it all and apply the
> information over the long term.
>
> In response, I have to remark that only a human could organize the
> *content* of 1500 messages anyway, and WIT doesn't improve on
> properly labelled email in that regard.
>
> Regards,
>
> --
> Terry Allen (terry@ora.com)
> Editor, Digital Media Group
> O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.
> Sebastopol, Calif., 95472
>