The main subjects are:
Author: Ironic Software;
Latest version: 1.6.6 @ 27-aug-2007;
Platform: MacOSX 10.4 (Universal);
MicroContent Types: PDF, Documents;
Checklist appreciation;: (not yet appreciated) out of 90 [4343];
]]>Not really MicroContent.
Applications that help to manage PDFs are Yep, Preview, AcrobatReader.
]]>Documents are not MicroContent as they do not follow all the rules laid out in the Definition. Documents do not have structure. There actual document itself, the internals, is unstructured. However often Documents have well structured meta-data. Also the message of a Document can be very large and thus conflicts with the Micro-aspect.
]]>MicroContent contrasts with Content in general thanks to the use of these adjectives (2185):
- Self-contained: the piece of information can stand on it’s own. There is no need for context. All the meaning is contained in itself. This allows a MicroContent Item to be single, to live on it’s own. (2228)
- Indivisible: a MicroContent Item can no longer be cut into smaller useful pieces. This adjective explains the micro-part of MicroContent. Micro is a very elusive term and indivisible is a better description.
- Structured: MicroContent does not consist of a single blob of information, but it has structure. One can distinguish between metadata and internal structure. Metadata is information that pertains to the publication of an MicroContent item, such as the author, the publication date/time, the permalink, etc. The internal structure can be limited to a single field, which contains the actual information. However usually more Fields are used. (is there a relation with Dublin Core here?) The Fields used in a MicroContent Item defines the MicroContent Type.
- Addressable: MicroContent is addressable on the Internet. This implies that it has a permalink, or better an (perma)URI. The permalink is an essential part of the structure of MicroContent. The addressability of a MicroContent Item is what makes MicroContent interesting.
Note that I do not user the word small as this has become ambiguous. The word MicroContent can also apply to pieces that are in fact very large in terms of megabytes. Sometimes the word small is used in relation to screen size, such as a mobile phone. (2419) Ideally a MicroContent Item is flexible, that it is possible to add new fields and thus enhance the structure of an item (2225). We usually think of MicroContent as computer data, but that does not have to be the case.
There might exist a relation between Items. The relation might be episodic, meaning that the Items are a sequence in time. (2420, 2419, 2199)
The word Content should be seen in the range data, information, content and knowledge. Data refers to how things are transcribed in computers. Information is what is stored, Content is about presenting to the user and knowledge is the meaning the user takes out of it. (note to self: this is a lousy definition. there are better ones around). (2245))
One can look at MicroContent from various perspectives (Views).
]]>Even by defining a Type of MicroContent one has not solved everything. For instance a drawing or a photo can be represented as an image. And a bookmark might point to a physical book in your library or to a website. The same is true for audio (music, ringtones). So for each MicroContent Type one also has to define it’s semantics.
Many more examples of MicroContent can be mentioned. A few ones that I came across are:
]]>MicroContent are self-contained indivisible structured pieces of content, which have a single focus and an unique address for (re-)findability.
Lists can have other names as well, such as Bookshelves (Delicious Library), Accounts (pmPost), Workspaces (OmniWeb), Groups (Address Book), Playlists (iTunes), Albums (iPhoto), Subscriptions (NetNewsWire), Weblogs (MarsEdit), etc.
Most Clients manage a single Library with Items. There are however Clients that are Document-based. Such Clients can open multiple Libraries. One could view these multiple libraries as multiple Lists or even multiple Groups. Info.xhead is a Client that is Document-based.
In grouping various Items a grouping logic is followed. In analysing the various Lists found in Clients, we distinguish two grouping principles: location logic and item characteristic logic. These two grouping principles are orthogonal, i.e. they can be combined. Lists are either defined by the user (user-defined) or defined by the Client developer (pre-defined).
The location logic refers to the actual storage place of the grouped Items. The storage place tells the user where the Items are physically located, i.e. on the computer, a connected device, on the local network or a on remote server on Internet.
The item characteristic logic refers to the relation between the Items themselves, which is based on the content of an Item. This could be for instance recipes which are made with a certain ingredient. Or the menu mentioned earlier, which follow a logic only known to the user.
]]>It is possible to define Tags as a MicroContent Type themselves. A Tags MicroContent Type can consist of a tag-title, a tag-description, a tag-image and a tag-parent-title. This example structure is taken from the Expression Engine publishing environment. The example shows that there might be an explicit relation between tags (a hierarchy). This hierarchy is defined by the publisher of these tags Item. In this case one might better talk about keywords. in an explicit system the publisher of a MicroContent Item can only use keywords from the set provided to him.
There can also be an implicit relation between Tags. In that case the user can define tags himself and enter them in the appropriate MicroContent field. The way the user combines these words define an implicit hierarchy or even network between tags. This is also known as a foksonomy.
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