"Re: Definition of Xanadu (fwd)

[katherine@xxxxxxxxxxx (Katherine Cochrane)]

>> From avatar@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Mon Mar  4 20:38:58 1996
>> Subject: Re: Definition of Xanadu (fwd)
>> To: xanadu@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> From: katherine@xxxxxxxxxxx (Katherine Cochrane)
>> Date: Mon, 4 Mar 1996 00:41:25 -0600
>> Sender: avatar@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>
>>
>> >Hi Katherine--
>> >
>> >(Have you gone to a different last name?  Or did I just not know?)
>
>> Thank you for the response.  Sorry I made it more difficult by changing
>> back to my domain name -- I've kept lots of people confused with
>> flip-flopping in that regard lately.  With luck, since I've moved to a new,
>> *reliable* ISP now it won't need to change again, ever.
>
>The misunderstandings continue.  I mistook you for Katherine Phelps,
> naturally assuming that any Katherine at xanadu.com.au was she.
>That out of the way, hello.

I wasn't sure if that was what you meant or not.  Hi. I'm new here <G>.
Except that "here" isn't Australia.  I'm in Alabama, USA, of all places.


>
>> Should I get the gush out of the way first?  <G> It's quite a thrill to me
>> to get a direct communication from someone who's work has influenced my
>> life and career so heavily.  I'll tell you about it sometime if you're
>> interested.  I've even been told by someone who was on the contract eval
>> committee that a paper I wrote for the NASA Space Station contract proposal
>> (1988), which was very hypertext/hypermedia intensive, was the determining
>> factor in their awarding it to Boeing, and that it was the hyper-things
>> that did it.
>
>GOOD GOD!  INCREDIBLE!  Congrats and thank you.  (On behalf of Boeing,
> which I like; I have everybody's fondness for 747s).
>

Thought you might like to know.  I haven't been at Boeing for about 5
years, though.  Now I'm a (cuss-ed') independent consultant in CD-ROM & Web
publishing.

>- - - - -
>
>> >Anyhow, I THINK what I mean is media.  Managing "content" is the
>> > Negroponte line-- analyzing the contents, knowing what they
>> > contain, being able to spew them back out in English or Swahili.
>> > To me, "media" just means the text, the frames, the audio samples,
>> > the brushstrokes.
>> >
>> >However, I need to be alert to other interpretations, so if you
>> > have any, plz lemme know.
>
>> Regarding "media" -- you are using the word differently from the way I was
>> thinking of it.  I understand "media" as being the means for delivering
>> content -- paper, online networks, CD-ROM, tape, floppy disks, etc.  You
>> seem to have something partway between what I use "media" for and
>> Negroponte's "content" in mind.  I'd call what you are discussing "methods"
>> rather than "media."  You certainly are not discussing content.
>
>Now I am TOTALLY confused.
>
>It doesn't so much matter which words we use, as which meanings we intend.
> I'm embarrassed to say that I often say "content," too, so I guess I use
> the words interchangeably.  Maybe I DO mean "content"-- but I'm sure I
> don't mean METHODS!
>
>Actually, thank you for this, it's making things a bit clearer.  I think
> I mean both media, in your sense, and content.
>When I say
>
> Xanadu is
> A SYSTEM FOR MANAGING CHANGES, RE-USE, INTERCOMPARISON AND OWNERSHIP
>  OF CONNECTED DIGITAL MEDIA.
>
>-- I'm referring both to the content and the places, just as saying
> someone "manages hotel rooms" is to say they manage the rooms and
> what's in them.
>

Oh, dear. I'm going to have to argue :-(  If we don't use mutually
intelligible words, how can we communicate the meaning?  (The linguist in
me sticking my silly neck out.)  Perhaps that's why you're working on this
definition.

I wasn't very clear in my original statement.  Maybe this will better
convey my intent.  In my lexicon media is the wires, CDs, computer screens
-- the mechanical things that enable us to move information.  Content is
the information itself, in whatever form it can be.  Xanadu is a system for
managing changes, re-use, intercomparison and ownership of connected ...
information in digital form?  This digital information can consist of
content and links between elements of content, and tracking and controlling
meta-information such as ownership records and change files, and other
attributes.  Somehow, though, I don't think you mean to include the
mechanical devices used to transmit or store or retrieve this information,
do you?  I have a feeling I'd better go back and read some more recent
discussions of the system before I really get in trouble here.

Respectfully,

Kathy


Katherine Cochrane                              katherine@xxxxxxxxxxx
The CD-Info Company, Inc.   ph (+1)205-650-0406  fax (+1)205-882-7393
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