CONTACTS 

SUBJECTS
Lifestreams Manages Information Based on Chronology Continuous Infor

0803 -
0803 -    ..
0804 - Summary/Objective
0805 -
080501 - Follow up ref SDS 11 5946.
080502 -
080503 - Received ref DRT 1 0001 from Gary submitting information on a system
080504 - for organizing information based on chronology.  A copy was sent to
080505 - Jerry Nord.
080507 -  ..
080508 - Gary provides a link to the Internet for Lifestreams...
080509 -
080510 -        http://www.cs.yale.edu/homes/freeman/lifestreams.html
080511 -
080512 -     [On 040527 Gary sent a letter notifying that the Scopeware product
080513 -     based on the Lifestreams concept developed at Yale by Gelernter
080514 -     went out of business; Gary purchased Scopeware to evaluate.
080515 -     ref SDS 17 A95N
080517 -  ..
080518 - Below, Lifestreams based on doctoral thesis. ref SDS 0 1J41
080520 -  ..
080521 - Gelernter has been reviewed previously...
080522 -
080523 -     Jack Park submitted an article by David Gelernter that explains
080524 -     his product, "Lifestreams," reviewed on 000331. ref SDS 11 0748
080525 -     Gelernter supports chronology and people as useful criteria for
080526 -     organizing information. ref SDS 11 5946  Review shows Gelernter
080527 -     has taken significant strides toward a design for technology to
080528 -     support a critical mass of cognitive functions that convert
080529 -     information into knowledge, ref SDS 11 UO8P, called out by
080530 -     Drucker, reviewed on 991025. ref SDS 10 0785  This is evident from
080531 -     reviewing the Lifestreams paper prepared in 1997 by Eric Freeman,
080532 -     below. ref SDS 0 NS7G
080534 -      ..
080535 -     Jack Park cites Gelernter work on Lifestream for proof of
080536 -     concept to develop OHS/DKR, based on similarities to SDS,
080537 -     reviedwed on 000426. ref SDS 12 0784
080539 -      ..
080540 -     Gelernter published an article on 000710, ref SDS 13 3961, that
080541 -     has helpful ideas on time. ref SDS 13 7565
080543 -  ..
080544 - Research found a document dated 010416 that explains Lifestreams is
080545 - technology developed by Gelernter at Yale University. ref OF 1 0001
080546 -
080547 -            [On 041228 Graphing Calculator was begun in school in 1985,
080548 -            and became part of Apple computer operating system in the
080549 -            early 90s. ref SDS 18 KI49
080550 -
080551 -    1.  NEW YORK -- The way we compute today is wrong-headed.
080552 -        Commercial software is on the whole poorly designed, ugly and
080553 -        counterintuitive. It doesn't leverage even a fraction of the
080554 -        tremendous computing power now available. All the while, we
080555 -        fight a rising data tide with the crude tools of precomputer
080556 -        era office clerks -- sorting e-mails, text and image files into
080557 -        virtual folders. We waste hours organizing and searching for
080558 -        data. The personal computer was supposed to free us from such
080559 -        drudgery. This is David Gelernter talking; a Yale University
080560 -        computer scientist with serious credentials -- painter, author,
080561 -        artificial intelligence theorist, Unabomber victim. ref OF 1
080562 -        FJ4K
080564 -         ..
080565 -    2.  The brilliant computer design innovations of the 1970s -- born
080566 -        at Apple and Xerox and mass-marketed by Microsoft -- were stale
080567 -        by the time the Web arrived, Gelernter argues. The current
080568 -        prevailing "Windows-Menu-Mouse" model is maddeningly obsolete.
080569 -        ref OF 1 006P
080571 -         ..
080572 -    3.  Computing desperately needs a revolution -- a paradigm shift --
080573 -        because we all really want to organize data more organically,
080574 -        like the mind does, Gelernter says. And we want that
080575 -        information easily available to us wherever we go. ref OF 1
080576 -        OR6J
080578 -  ..
080579 - POIMS describes a paradigm shift from information to knowledge.
080580 - ref OF 18 6528
080581 -
080582 -
080583 -
0806 -

SUBJECTS
Gelernter Time Chronology Primary Organizaing Factor of Knowledge In
Scopeware New Software Program to Implement Lifestreams

1004 -
100501 -  ..
100502 - Gelernter article continues...
100503 -
100505 -         ..
100506 -        Scopeware New Software Program to Implement Lifestreams
100507 -        Time Powerful Way to Organize Information Moment to Moment
100508 -
100509 -    4.  That's the idea, at least, behind a new program called
100510 -        Scopeware co-invented by Gelernter. It proposes to
100511 -        fundamentally alter how we compute. ref OF 1 008Q
100512 -
100513 -            [On 040527 Scopeware went out of business. ref SDS 17 667K
100515 -         ..
100516 -    5.  "It always seemed to me that the most natural way to organize
100517 -        your electronic life would be the way you organize your real
100518 -        life, moment by moment," says the 46-year-old Gelernter, whose
100519 -        1980s programming work was among the first to enable multiple
100520 -        computers to work together on a single problem. ref OF 1 ES7I
100522 -         ..
100523 -    6.  Gelernter's renown as a guru of computing aesthetics drew him
100524 -        the nearly fatal attention of Theodore Kaczynski. In June 1993,
100525 -        a bomb nearly killed Gelernter as he opened mail in his office.
100526 -        ref OF 1 004R
100527 -
100528 -
100530 -         ..
100531 -        Diary Powerful Part of Constructing Knowledge in Lifestreams
100532 -
100533 -    7.  Ten months later, Gelernter sketched out in a Washington Post
100534 -        article what would initially be called "Lifestreams" --
100535 -        software intended to wean users from file-and-folder dependency
100536 -        and let them organize data as if in "an electronic diary or
100537 -        journal or scrapbook." ref OF 1 SS8H
100539 -         ..
100540 -    8.  "I don't want to save bits of paper any more, nor computer
100541 -        disks nor videotapes, nor do I wish to care about whether my
100542 -        home computer is compatible with my office computer, or about
100543 -        any other such boring and preposterous compatibility questions
100544 -        ..." wrote Gelernter. "I want my life to be perfectly
100545 -        organized, and I want to spend no time whatsoever organizing
100546 -        it." ref OF 1 006R
100547 -
100548 -
100549 -
1006 -

SUBJECTS
Lifestreams Evolved from Yale Doctoral Thesis by Eric Freeman

1503 -
150401 -         ..
150402 -        Lifestreams Yale Doctoral Thesis by Eric Freeman
150403 -        Yale Doctoral Thesis by Eric Freeman Lifestreams Architecture
150404 -
150405 -    9.  In a telephone interview, Gelernter explained the software,
150406 -        which evolved from a Yale doctoral thesis he suggested to
150407 -        co-patent holder Eric Freeman, now director of engineering at
150408 -        Walt Disney Internet Group. "Each new everything that entered
150409 -        my life would just be stuck on the end of a time-ordered
150410 -        stream," Gelernter said. "The question, 'Where did I put that
150411 -        thing?' would always be answered because the answer would be on
150412 -        that stream." ref OF 1 KT9J
150414 -  ..
150415 - Research on the Internet found....
150416 -
150417 -        The Lifestreams Software Architecture
150418 -
150419 -        Source:  Year of Publication:  1997
150420 -                 Order Number:  UMI Order No. GAX97-33943
150422 -         ..
150423 -        Author:  Eric Thomas Freeman
150425 -         ..
150426 -        Publisher:  Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
150427 -
150428 -           http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=269465&dl=ACM&coll=GUIDE
150429 -
150430 -             [On 040527 Gelernter describes chronology a common storage
150431 -             strategy. ref SDS 17 JX7M
150433 -              ..
150434 -             [On 040527 Gary notified that the Scopeware product based
150435 -             on the Lifestreams concept developed at Yale by Gelernter
150436 -             went out of business; Gary purchased Scopeware to
150437 -             evaluate. ref SDS 17 A95N
150439 -              ..
150440 -             [On 070126 Freeman, author of Lifestreams phd paper,
150441 -             explains subsequent consideration of using powerful new
150442 -             search tools based on "google" design to help find things
150443 -             in data structures for common storage based on time,
150444 -             chronology, diary. ref SDS 20 167G
150446 -  ..
150447 - This location requires someone to sign up to be a "reviewer," and
150448 - there does not seem to be a way to examine the paper to evaluate
150449 - whether to sign up.
150451 -  ..
150452 - Gary later provided a pdf file for the Lifestreams paper.
150453 - ref OF 3 0000
150454 -
150455 -           F: 02 14 01 60 97 05 0104.pdf
150457 -  ..
150458 - The file is rendered in a text format for reading and analysis, per
150459 - report on 950204, ref SDS 5 7499, which does not contain pictures and
150460 - graphs....
150461 -
150462 -        Abstract.................................. 1, ref OF 3 0001
150463 -
150464 -           This section defines goal of Lifestreams to
150465 -           support...
150466 -
150467 -                Chronology............... ref OF 3 3J5L
150468 -                Organizing............... ref OF 3 3J5L
150469 -                Finding.................. ref OF 3 3J6J
150470 -                Reminding................ ref OF 3 NJ6J
150471 -                Summary.................. ref OF 3 3J5L
150473 -         ..
150474 -        Title..................................... 1, ref OF 3 0002
150475 -        Acknowledgements.......................... 1, ref OF 3 QN68
150476 -        Contents.................................. 1, ref OF 3 0001
150477 -        Introduction.............................. 1, ref OF 3 0001
150478 -        Model..................................... 2, ref OF 4 0001
150479 -        Implementation............................ 3, ref OF 5 0001
150480 -        Interface................................. 4, ref OF 6 2317
150481 -        Common Tasks.............................. 5, ref OF 7 5T3I
150482 -        Evaluation................................ 6, ref OF 8 JE3J
150483 -        Information Management.................... 7, ref OF 9 0N3I
150484 -        Related Work.............................. 8, ref OF 10 X364
150485 -        Conclusions............................... 9, ref OF 11 203J
150486 -        Bibliography.............................. 9, ref OF 11 2096
150488 -         ..
150489 -        [On 040527 Scopeware went out of business. ref SDS 17 667K
150491 -  ..
150492 - Freeman and Gelernter did another paper with Scott Fertig titled...
150493 -
150494 -                    Finding and Reminding Reconsidered
150495 -
150496 -      http://www.acm.org/sigchi/bulletin/1996.1/fertig.html
150497 -
150498 - ...that presents issues which arise in designing systems for finding
150499 - things on a computer.
150500 -
150502 -  ..
150503 - Diary Lifestreams Aligns with SDS Design Chronology Context Connections
150504 -
150505 - Freeman, et al, describe Lifestreams as an "electronic diary," to
150506 - store documents chronologically.
150508 -  ..
150509 - There is no evident discussion in the paper of using the diary to
150510 - think, remember and communicate that adds value to documents stored
150511 - chronologically with a plan, perform, report "intelligence process
150512 - that adds energy to "connect the dots" in document content into chains
150513 - of cause and effect, which yield the power of knowledge for
150514 - controlling the future.  Limiting organization to the document level,
150515 - rather than to document content at the paragraph level.
150517 -  ..
150518 - Another location reported below discusses the goal to manage
150519 - "documents. ref SDS 0 PSTT  Additionally, Freeman's original
150520 - Lifestreams thesis identifies important problems to solve for
150521 - organizing the record to find and assemble information in time to be
150522 - effective. ref SDS 0 K37H
150524 -  ..
150525 - In any case, their basic idea of using a flexible structure of time
150526 - for a common storage strategy is a big step toward a solution that
150527 - enables people to find things quickly, and be reminded of critical
150528 - collateral details, which together help augment intelligence.
150529 -
150530 -         [On 040527 Gelernter describes chronology a common storage
150531 -         strategy. ref SDS 17 JX7M
150533 -          ..
150534 -         [On 070126 Freeman, author of Lifestreams phd paper, explains
150535 -         subsequent consideration of using powerful new search tools
150536 -         based on "google" design to help find things in data
150537 -         structures for common storage based on time, chronology,
150538 -         diary. ref SDS 20 167G
150540 -  ..
150541 - Further research found a web page for Eric Freeman that includes a
150542 - series of diary-like reports on various dates....
150543 -
150544 -        http://www.ericfreeman.com/
150546 -  ..
150547 - Eric's diary on 031112 says in part...
150548 -
150549 -     It's been quite a while since the Lifestreams dissertation has
150550 -     been available online. Lifestreams is the work that David
150551 -     Gelernter and I did back in the mid 90s on an alternative to the
150552 -     desktop metaphor. A number of commercial efforts have directly
150553 -     used parts of this work including Scopeware and Ricoh's eCabinet.
150554 -     Indirectly there have been reports that parts of Longhorn have
150555 -     been influenced by this work. In addition, there are many efforts
150556 -     underway today that are related to this line of research such as
150557 -     MIT's Haystack and Xeroc PARC's Placeless Documents (among
150558 -     others).
150560 -      ..
150561 -     In any case, if you're interested check out the dissertation.
150562 -
150563 - ...which has a link to...
150564 -
150565 -        http://www.cs.yale.edu/homes/freeman/lifestreams.html
150566 -
150568 -             ..
150569 -            [On 040527 Scopeware went out of business. ref SDS 17 667K
150570 -
150572 -         ..
150573 -        Organizing Record People Resist Proactive Management
150574 -        Subject Indexing Delayed Reward Negative Feedback Loop
150575 -        Negative Feedback Loop Management Degrades to Entropy
150576 -
150578 -  ..
150579 - Subject indexing to organize work breakdown structures for command and
150580 - control of the record, Freeman cites significant challenges in
150581 - Introduction section 1.1.1 "Finding and Filing." ref OF 3 QQQP  Good
150582 - examples are presented showing people have difficulty finding
150583 - information, ref OF 3 PSSY, because people biologically resist filing.
150584 - Organizing the record (i.e., filing) to be prepared for finding
150585 - information requires investing time performing hard work, for which
150586 - rewards from saving lives, time, and money are delayed by days, weeks,
150587 - months.  Lack of immediate payback, i.e., gratification, for proactive
150588 - management organizing the work drives a spiraling negative feedback
150589 - loop of declining productivity, ref OF 3 QQ6S, cited previously by the
150590 - USAFIT model showing management degrades to entropy over time due to
150591 - systems overwhelmed by disorganized, and therefore, useless
150592 - information stored on computers, reviewed on 970710. ref SDS 8 0108
150594 -  ..
150595 - Diligence problem of resistance investing time for proactive
150596 - management to invest intellectual capital creates spiral of failure is
150597 - presented in NWO explaining cognitive overhead. ref OF 29 9F5O
150599 -         ..
150600 -        [On 060905 organizing the record was discussed last year; the
150601 -        team raised important questions about advisability of investing
150602 -        time in the subject index due to the difficulty this work
150603 -        presents creating structure and managing context that maintains
150604 -        order in the record. ref SDS 19 0001
150606 -         ..
150607 -        [On 060905 a case study shows progress in Jack's work on Topic
150608 -        Maps to solve problems presented in Lifestreams thesis.
150609 -        ref SDS 19 GY6M
150611 -         ..
150612 -        [On 070126 goals for Knowledge Management seem to be failing.
150613 -        ref SDS 20 QH8L
150615 -  ..
150616 - Decided to cite Freeman's explanation of negative feedback loops in
150617 - NWO, because this is a very big idea. ref OF 29 9F5O
150619 -  ..
150620 - Freeman's view of "context," ref OF 3 QQVT, aligns with consideration
150621 - developing SDS organic subject indexing on 890523. ref SDS 1 3F8H
150622 - Difficulty constructing effective subject indexing was reviewed on
150623 - 910418, ref SDS 3 5584, and again on 940510 reviewing HBR article
150624 - noting information has multiple meanings depending on context.
150625 - ref SDS 4 3829  Freeman further cites Dumais and Landauer on why
150626 - subject indexing and filing are difficult, relating to multiple
150627 - meanings. ref OF 3 QQ5V  Landauer's paper on "Plato's Problem"
150628 - presented LSA.  Review on 960320 cited mental induction process for
150629 - constructing meaning of evolving experience is dynamic and fluid per
150630 - review on 960321. ref SDS 6 2882 and also ref SDS 6 4537, causing
150631 - continual "meaning drift," reviewed on 960518, ref SDS 7 4488, which
150632 - conflicts with rigid file folders on computers, unless
150633 - cross-referencing is employed.
150635 -         ..
150636 -        Summarizing Flexible Structure Manage Information Density
150637 -
150638 -
150639 - Freeman describes summarizing in Lifestreams provides command and
150640 - control of an expanding record by presenting information in chunks the
150641 - mind can process by evaluating whether to look at details. ref OF 3
150642 - OX3X  The call for flexible summary, ref OF 3 OX65, is supported by
150643 - POIMS technology as one of 8-steps for Communication Metrics,
150644 - ref OF 20 Y76G, and further fits the model of flexible structure
150645 - essential for an effective knowledge space, developed on 890523.
150646 - ref SDS 1 P13O
150648 -         ..
150649 -        Integrated Support for Related Tasks Think Remember Communicate
150650 -
150652 -  ..
150653 - Freeman notes users are forced to learn a wide range of software
150654 - program commands and practices in order to perform daily work.  Calls
150655 - for integration to perform common tasks in common ways. ref OF 3 6L7F
150657 -  ..
150658 - Gary Johnson at Boeing explained practice using 17 software programs,
150659 - reported 030407. ref SDS 15 TN9J  Learning a lot of software reduces
150660 - time for performing daily work.  Resolving program and work product
150661 - file compatibilities takes more time, and makes interoperability
150662 - critical for getting things done on the job.
150664 -  ..
150665 - On 031102 SDS support for interoperability expanded for multiple file
150666 - formats helps bridge gap between 2-worlds problem. ref SDS 16 0001
150668 -  ..
150669 - Gelernter article continues...
150670 -
150671 -   10.  A person's lifestream would originate with their birth
150672 -        certificate, include wedding pictures, bills, bank statements,
150673 -        vacation video -- and extend into future appointments.  And
150674 -        everything would be immediately accessible -- viewable
150675 -        chronologically in defined time frames and searchable by key
150676 -        word, project, sender. ref OF 1 00GN
150677 -
150678 -
150680 -         ..
150681 -        Useful Software is Software that is Used 24 7
150682 -        Cascading Index Cards Updated Constantly
150683 -        Scopeware Launched by Mirror Worlds March 2001
150684 -
150685 -   11.  Too good to be true? Gelernter doesn't think so, though it's
150686 -        too early to say how the market will receive it. Scopeware was
150687 -        only just launched last month by Mirror Worlds Technologies
150688 -        Inc. ref OF 1 BU4M
150690 -         ..
150691 -   12.  Gelernter is absolutely evangelical about the product: "I'm
150692 -        tuned to the thing all day, every day. It's what's on my screen
150693 -        right now. It's on all my screens, at home and at the office."
150694 -        ref OF 1 00AO
150696 -         ..
150697 -   13.  And the beauty of it is that the stream of cascading index
150698 -        cards on his screen is updated constantly as new items arrive
150699 -        addressed to him or generated by colleagues who authorize
150700 -        Scopeware to share the items with him. ref OF 1 EV5K
150702 -  ..
150703 - The report of pervasive use of Lifestreams technology is supported by
150704 - the Lifestreams paper reporting in 1997 that some people had used
150705 - Lifestreams daily for over a year. ref OF 5 KP4J  This fits the model
150706 - of "useful" technology based on continuous use, and shows progress
150707 - toward SDS requirements for a universal application to augment
150708 - intelligence by helping people add the connections that convert a
150709 - continuous stream of information, received chronologically, into
150710 - useful knowledge, explained in POIMS. ref OF 17 0367
150712 -  ..
150713 - Can continuous use of Lifestreams be sustained under psychological
150714 - pressures on users to give up, reported by Wayne on 010725,
150715 - ref SDS 14 02EW and ref SDS 14 03M6, and, also, overcome resistance to
150716 - commercial success, cited by Morris on 990527? ref SDS 9 1233
150718 -  ..
150719 - Previously, on 890809, Morris warned that technology, which improves
150720 - productivity, because it can be used for a wide range of tasks, is
150721 - resisted, because people like to use tools they have alrady learned to
150722 - use, and are reluctant to give up on the prior investment in time.
150723 - ref SDS 2 2079 In the case of SDS, people feel more comfortable using
150724 - technology that looks good, rather than technology that works more
150725 - efficiently, under the common rule that pretty things sell, noted in
150726 - POIMS.
150728 -             ..
150729 -            [On 040527 Scopeware went out of business. ref SDS 17 667K
150731 -  ..
150732 - "Cascading index cards" could be a form of organic structure that SDS
150733 - uses to manage context, reviewed on 890523. ref SDS 1 P13O  Possibly
150734 - it is a step in that direction.
150736 -  ..
150737 - Another location evidently related to Yale University...
150738 -
150739 -            http://www.cs.yale.edu/homes/freeman/lifestreams.html
150740 -
150741 - ...says in part...
150742 -
150743 -   14.  Lifestreams is a novel software architecture that was initially
150744 -        developed at Yale University. The goal of Lifestreams is to
150745 -        minimize the time users spend managing their documents and
150746 -        electronic events while increasing their ability to find and
150747 -        make use of this information.
150749 -  ..
150750 - Seems to support analysis above. ref SDS 0 NS7G
150752 -         ..
150753 -   15.  To accomplish this we have worked to create a software
150754 -        environment that parallels the way people work with electronic
150755 -        information and simplifies their electronic interactions.
150756 -        Lifestreams is built on a simple storage metaphor --- a
150757 -        time-ordered stream of documents combined with several powerful
150758 -        operators --- that replaces many conventional computer
150759 -        constructs (such as named files, directories, and explicit
150760 -        storage) and in the process provides a unified framework that
150761 -        subsumes many separate desktop applications to accomplish and
150762 -        handle personal communication, scheduling, and search and
150763 -        retrieval tasks. While our current prototype is tailored to
150764 -        managing personal information, a "lifestream" is also a natural
150765 -        framework for managing enterprise information and web sites; we
150766 -        are just beginning to explore such use.
150768 -  ..
150769 - Lifestreams discussion of subsuming common applications for personal
150770 - communication, scheduling, search, etc., supports POIMS requirements
150771 - for integrating a critical mass of tools.
150773 -  ..
150774 - Lifestreams plans to expand their prototype (Scopeware??) to integrate
150775 - personal and organizational memory that strengthen enterprise
150776 - management, further supports POIMS requirements.
150777 -
150778 -            [On 040527 Scopeware went out of business. ref SDS 17 667K
150779 -
150780 -
150781 -
150782 -
150783 -
150784 -
150785 -
150786 -
150787 -
150788 -
150789 -
150790 -
1508 -