The TeleInterActive Lifestyle

We are very interested in any tool that helps folk live the teleinteractive lifestyle by making it easier for distributed workgroups to exchange information quicker, more accurately, better in any way. As such, we've been closely following Dave Winer's revelations about the outlining tool that works as an OPML editor and can be used as an Instant Outliner to coördinate communication among members of group(s). So, I was instantly struck by the serendipity when I saw that Michael Swaine writes in the July 2005 Swaine's Flames:

"E-mail is a linear list or hierarchy of nearly opaque envelopes containing further linear lists of character symbols to be decoded into mental speech. When the filters fail and the subject lines mislead, we have to commit to open the envelope and start reading and interpreting the message before we know if it is deserving of our attention...

"The cocktail-party phenomenon is really two phenomena: (1) In the raucous confusion of party noise, we are somehow able to hear the conversation we choose to attend to and filter out the rest; and (2) there appears to be some subattentive monitoring of unattended channels so that significant content (like your name) in an unattended channel can shift attention to it...

"What if the defining metaphor for e-mail were not the United States Postal Service but a cocktail party?"

--Party Lines Dr. Dobb's Journal July, 2005, Michael Swaine

I do believe that the instant outliner, also being referred to as Really Simple Groupware, fits that defining metaphor very well.

[Related Reading:]

• I've posted a call...
• Help us finish...
• BTW, Dave Luebbert, who's working with me...
• Today's Sexy Dialogue
• What is a home page?
• A Powerful Idea, Time is Right Read the comments here
• Instant Outlining
• Approximately 42 people...

We've been using the Brainforest outliner on the Palm now for years. And I know that Dave had an interest in PalmOS outliners some time ago. I can't wait to see how outlining as an instant form of collaboration coördination pans out as a part of Web 2.0.

Dave - we're not currently hosting an OPML directory as such, and we're not going to Gnomedex, but if Clarise and I can help in any way, let us know.