Flexible information management

[Phillip Mills]

I've been dreaming lately of a piece of software that probably doesn't 
exist.  Since my specifications for it are really fuzzy I also can't 
say I'd recognize it if it *did* exist.  My intent here is to 
'scribble' some thoughts and see if anyone has suggestions about things 
that do -- or approach -- what I'm describing.  (For this exercise, 
Open Source is pretty much a requirement since I'd probably want to 
modify anything I found.)

- The primary data element is free-form text
- It's allowed to have structured attributes
- It exists (or may be viewed) in a hierarchical structure
- A single data element may be part of many hierarchies
- Data elements may be related by categorization and/or content
- Data elements may change role (e.g. a 'leaf' element may become a 
sub-category with its 'content' transformed into an attribute...or a 
new leaf.)
- Some form of automatic categorization via content analysis would be 
nice

Some things come to mind.
- When people are taught to use time management systems, they're told 
to enter things under various headings.  Some PIM software emulates 
this in a comparatively-inflexible manner.
- What I'm imagining isn't too different structurally from a file 
system with symbolic links...except for the attribute part.  (Other 
than MS's Structured Storage, what schemes are there for embedding a 
file system inside a file?)
- My memory of Lotus Agenda says it would have been close, so the 
Chandler project may do (much of) what I want, but I'd rather not wait 
three or four years.
- It's all very much like an object-oriented class browser without the 
syntax checking...assuming multiple-inheritance and re-factoring 
capability.
- "Content Management Systems" seem like they should include this 
functionality, but the ones I've used aren't good at the 'change role' 
part of the requirements.

My main uses for a thing like this would be brainstorming, project 
documentation/management, and -- above all -- organizing the zillion 
loose notes I make on every possible topic.

Comments?  Thoughts?

URLs?  :-)

........................
Phillip Mills
Multi-platform software development
(416) 224-0714

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