T.H Nelson begins his paper, Complex Information Processing: A File Structure for the Complex, the Changing and the Indeterminate, by stating that the use of a computer for personal reasons is very different than the use of a computer for business reasons. He references Vannevar Bush’s Memex, which we read about last week, to explain that personal use of a computer is much more creative and therefore sometimes more difficult to cater to. Every person has different personal tasks that they will use a computer for, as opposed to the relatively more uniform usage of computers for business purposes.
In his paper, Nelson declares that he will explain three things:
- The original problem of specifying a computer system for personal information retrieval.
- Why the problem is not simple but the solution must be simple.
- The philosophical implications of such an approach.
He goes on to say:
“I knew from my own experiment what can be done for these purposes with card
file, notebook, index tabs, edge-punching, file folders, scissors and paste,
graphic boards, index-strip frames, Xerox machine and the roll-top desk. My intent
was not merely to computerize these tasks but to think out (and eventually
program) the dream file: the file system that would have every feature a novelist
or absent-minded professor could want, holding everything he wanted in just the
complicated way he wanted it held, and handling notes and manuscripts in as subtle
and complex ways as he wanted them handled.”-T.H. Nelson
According to Nelson, there have only been a few impediments to the process. The three main ones were:
- High cost
- Little sense of need
- Uncertainty about system design
However, he adds that the third one is the only real problem left, and proposes a system called ELF (evolutionary file structure) to remedy that. This file structure is relatively fluid and has the potential to be shaped to fit the needs of the user. The ELF has a very simple structure, with only three elements:
- Entries
- Lists
- Links
This is a hypothetical drawing of ELF’s capacity for filing as used by a historian.
My Thoughts:
I’ll be honest, not much of this article made sense to me. However, I do understand that Nelson was intent on building on the framework provided two decades earlier by Bush, whose article I did understand (a little). It’s clear that both of these men were eager to find a way to organize and simplify both business and personal lives by introducing modern, digital filling systems. I think it’s a little brilliant that they were thinking so far ahead, considering that computers have become integral parts of our lives in a relatively recent amount of time. It amazes me that there were people sixty or seventy years ago who were already visualizing the machines that we take for granted in this day and age.
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