Ken,

Wow, what a post this is.  I have to strongly disagree. Maybe I could agree
the augmentation as a goal is bad but direct research is not.  I read a
business article about the benefits of researching and plotting
relationships maps.  This is the whole study of degrees of separation that
has been taken up lately in business schools.  Well it turns out that by
mapping public publishing and associations, you can learn a great deal about
who is doing what, who knows who, and who can actually help you get
something done.  The relationship mapping that I've been doing has been very
beneficial.  I have a meeting coming up with a bunch of really powerful
people and now, given the listing of who will be there I actually know who I
should talk too.

I would like to say that I understood fully what point you were trying to
make but I guess I don't.  I suppose that you could take the same tact and
propose a life like "Walden" and its subsistence only living and a personal
responsibility that removes one from all public life.  You could say that
education is unnecessary because it only pollutes the mind, and grossly
invalidates what is important.  Education and analysis, learning and social
responsibility are not abominations but a gift, from God.  

I strongly believe although (and of course I'm speaking from complete
ignorance of what point you were trying to make) that profit based companies
are a major problem.  I do believe though that value based companies,
companies that provide for a greater value and therefore receive greater
popularity (as an example real organic farmers), should be sought out and
patronized.  I believe that the wall-martification of business is bad
because it directly removes economic resources from a community.  We should
value; local economies, the environment, healthy populations, and the
dignity of every person including workers and yes businessmen that strive
for value over profit.

If you would like to discuss this more email me off the list, to spare
others.

Ron 

-----Original Message-----
From: squeak-dev-bounces at lists.squeakfoundation.org
[mailto:squeak-dev-bounces at lists.squeakfoundation.org] On Behalf Of
jwalsh at bigpond.net.au
Sent: Saturday, October 08, 2005 6:57 PM
To: The general-purpose Squeak developers list
Cc: Ken G. Brown
Subject: Re: Knowledge Documentation topic/relationship maps??

Augmentation of the mind is another nonsense theory from SRI.
Closely followed by similar theories from MIT.
The end result of the theory is OWL. 
What caps the OWL series? God?
All that augmentation has achieved is obesity of the mind.
When will Systems designers realise that it, pragmatism, does not work.
Sure, immediate success are not to be denied, but the body corporate is just
getting fatter and more unwieldy.
So much so that the immediate success becomes lost.
Smalltalk80 is facing the same danger.
Refactoring and Normalisation techniques are merely remedies not a cure.
The mind does not need augmentation, least of all by computers.
The very phrase "Back to the Future" is as much a nonsense as the phrase
"Inventing it".
"Back to sound Principles" is far better.


---- "Ken G. Brown" <kbrown at tnc.ab.ca> wrote: 
> Perhaps have a look at Augment.
> http://www.openaugment.org/
>    Ken
> 
> >Hello all,
> >
> >Does anyone have any suggestions for relationship mapping documentation?
> >I've been keeping track of a bunch of information like people,
> >organizations, grants, funding projects, legislation, web links ...  all
on
> >Visio.
> >
> >Does anyone know of anything that can make this easier?  Is there some
> >system out there that will help me track and query for relationships, and
> >display it all in a relationship map?
> >
> >Any suggestions would be welcome even if it's just close.
> >
> >Ron
> 
>