Hi Tom,
My guess is that if anyone is qualified to do the work and to get paid for it, that be YOU!
Indeed, when you are attempting to create a pool of thoughts on some subject area, you need two (actually three) levels of representation.
The first level (view it as the lowest level) is that of the raw discourse (notes, posts here, relevant emails, papers, books, and web sites). That level is *raw*, completely untouched by human or electronic means.
The third level (I'm skipping the second for a reason) is the user interface, where individuals can interact with all levels, navigating, discussing, arguing, posting new ideas. This level is really important; it is the one I am presently using to write this post. I would like to think that it could eventually give me a nice way to navigate or even browse all the various *threads* this message board has spawned. Right now, I am somewhat forced to either a)browse all the threads one at a time (recall, we don't have subject headers, and even if we did, email lists strongly support the idea that nobody would use subject headers properly), or b) do a search on keywords (I've never tried that). One way to prune a browse is to go to your favorite author's page and scan his/her recent posts. I just don't think that is enough to satisfy the needs I can imagine given the extremely rich environment SI otherwise offers us.
The second level is the charm (Hah! You thought it's the third one ;^) This is where a massive linkage mechanism is constructed to tie threads to the *topic* that they discuss. That's the whole point of threads, to pick away at some idea until it is either exhausted, disproven, or otherwise becomes boring or unimportant. It's those *topics* that we use to navigate as keywords. Presently SI doesn't offer these other than the extremely high level description of each message board. Not good enough. To drive that point home, the topic AIM covers this list. But this list covers subtopics like which brokers are friendly to AIM tradiing, what settings should one use when trading an AIM platform, what is the value of a 26-week moving average, who makes the best AIM software, how much beer can a beer drinker drink if a beer drinker has a sore throat, and so on.
Right now, SI gives us a kind of forward link into the responses to a thread, and a backward link to where any given response comes from; it gives us no practical way to get to any given thread at the outset.
Should this idea be incorporated into something at aim-users, or should SI consider adding it as a new feature here? I would vote for SI doing this thing, and doing it right. That would allow us to trade links out to other discussions (e.g. when we are discussing particular stocks to AIM, it would be nice to find links out in other threads that talk about, say, volatility, insider trading, whatever). Such links would allow other groups to see what this group is thinking.
Knowledge is a social construct. Knowledge is *embodied*--it resides in that 3.5 pound blob of stuff that's only a bit more sophisticated than body fat in your head. As a social construct, knowledge grows through interaction with the environment and with others. SI, IMHO, has created a terrific space where traders and investors can enhance their personal knowledge as well as helping others. Also, IMHO, SI hasn't yet gone where it can logically go.
'Nother 0.02 euros.
Jack |
