Many views, many modes, many tools ... one structure: Towards a Non-disruptive Integration of Personal Information

Abstract

People yearn for more integration of their information. But tools meant to help often do the opposite-pulling people and their information in different directions. Fragmentation is potentially worsened as personal information moves onto the Web and into a myriad of special-purpose, mobile-enabled applications. How can tool developers innovate "non-disruptively" in ways that do not force people to re-organize or re-locate their information? This paper makes two arguments: 1. An integration of personal information is not likely to happen through some new release of a desktop operating system or via a Web-based "super tool." 2. Instead, integration is best supported through the development of a standards-based infrastructure that makes provision for the shared manipulation of common structure by any number of tools, each in its own way. To illustrate this approach, the paper describes an XML-based schema, considerations in its design and its current use in three separate tools. The schema in its design and use builds on the lessons learned by the open hypermedia and structural computing communities while moving forward with new techniques that address some of the changes introduced by the evolution of the term "application" to move beyond desktop apps to mobile apps, cloud-based apps and various hybrid architectures.