Interesting site/idea and all but ruby related?... Whats the net comming to when someone with a yale email address commits spammery? On 11/18/05, Mike Schwab <michael.schwab / yale.edu> wrote: > Good evening, > > I am thrilled to announce the launch of my website > http://www.officeofgreatideas.com . I do hope that some of you will > find time to scope it out and submit a few ideas (I welcome > computing-related ideas and knowledge, but please also consider > submitting political ideas, and the empirical info that qualifies > them!). > > The site is a simple front end for a database - the goal is to store > and organize information in ways that will allow people to make > structured arguments with a minimum of redundancy. To this end, I have > created eight different types of data, each with a couple unique > properties, so that users can use the most appropriate tools when they > attempt to convince someone of something. > > Basic instructions - first create an account. The 'create' link at > left allows you to submit data (text, hyperlinks, what have you). > After submission, confirmations show up with a link that says 'draw' - > click this to add the entry to your drawing board. When you click > 'save', all the items on your drawing board are associated with each > other. > > Example - You are reading a book and discover something interesting. > Paraphrase it and submit it as an argument. Then create the author and > the book, and put all three on the drawing board, and save. Now, > whenever someone views that argument, they will see that it is related > to that book and author, and vice versa. > > I plan to update the documentation that is available on the site later > tonight. For now, there is already somewhat detailed info up there (if > a bit dry). There is, however, an as-yet undocumented feature which I > will explain here for those who wish to read on. > > In addition to a drawing board, each user has a clipboard. This is for > wrapping 'old' information into your 'new' ideas without explicitly > associating your new ideas with the existing 'old' stuff. Items on the > clipboard are not associated en masse like items on the drawing board > are; rather they are associated only with the items on the drawing > board that are of the same type as them. So, arguments on the > clipboard are associated with arguments on the drawing board, and not > with books on the drawing board. Specifically: > a book on the drawing board will gain a footnote for each book on the > clipboard (suggesting that the clipboard books were cited in the > drawing board ones) > a category on the drawing board will become a subcategory of each > category on the clipboard > a list on the clipboard will be added to a list on the drawing board > a message on the clipboard will be referenced by a message on the > drawing board > an argument on the drawing board will 'cite' each argument on the > clipboard > these relationships are dealt with in this way because they are not > symmetric. (author-author and hyperlink-hyperlink relationships, > conversely, are symmetric so they cannot be put on the clipboard) > > I hope this is not confusing; I used the words clipboard and drawing > board to remind the user that the clipboard is for old things that need > not be changed, and the drawing board for new ideas that rely on those > old ones. Hopefully this will not be lost on my users. > > As this is an open source project, my source may be downloaded from > http://www.officeofgreatideas.com/app/ > I could use a few suggestions [one pressing issue is a bug in the > create controller that fails to store files that I attempt to upload]. > > Please feel free to publicize this site to other communities. My need > for a fast take-off is more pressing at this point than my need for a > semi-private test period. > > -Mike > > > -- Into RFID? www.rfidnewsupdate.com Simple, fast, news.