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The Economist article “Death to Folders” endorses the design concept behind Cadweb’s forthcoming Version 7
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November 2005
Cadweb’s new version 7 is scheduled for launch in January 2006. In its 17th September 2005 edition The Economist Magazine published an article entitled ‘Death to Folders’. In this article the magazine describes how the latest operating systems do away with the old static folder structure, replacing it with ‘Tagged Files’ and ‘Smart Folders’. Both ‘Tagged Files’ and ‘Smart Folders’ are features built into Cadweb’s new version (V7). These features will help users manage the huge volumes of information generated on projects, enabling them to find the right file much faster. This article illustrates how Cadweb remains at the cutting edge of academic and theoretical computer science and its practical applications.
The Problem
The article starts by describing the limitations of the familiar folder structure.
‘The once-revolutionary notion of folders is now showing its age. Why hobble digital documents with the limitations of paper ones, such as the need to have a single fixed location? “A Lawyer cares about things like dates and cases,”…. How can a lawyer file the same document by both client and by date? He cannot without using unwieldy multiple-location workarounds.’
‘The only thing worse than creating such a nested hierarchy of folders or directories is not creating it. But most computer users could not care less about folders, a way of organising digital files that is a relic from computer history.’
The Solution
‘Oddly, however, just as it is becoming harder to find things on your computer, it is becoming much easier to find things on the web. Search engines such as Google can search billions of pages in a fraction of a second. The notion of folders in particular, has fallen behind. It is time for folders to die with dignity – and to yield to a new, more web-like way of storing and finding things.’
A New Way of Searching
‘Most operating systems performed the most primitive form of searching by matching a query against filenames one at a time. Searching in this way is akin to looking for a library book by examining every book on every shelf, one at a time. Libraries, of course have catalogues to make it easier to find books. And now the same idea is being grafted onto computer file systems.’
‘The result is that documents scattered across the hard disk can be summoned with Google-like speed and simplicity.’
The Future for Desktop Searching
‘Apple, Google and Microsoft are hammering nails into the coffin of the old file-and–folder approach. As the reach and power of desktop-search software grows, the need to put things in organised folders disappears’
‘Tagged Files’
‘When saving a document rather than naming it and dropping it into a folder, you may well tag it with a few keywords and drop it into a database. “You can just tag it instead of filing it, and you can rely on the search system to quickly find all the things with the same tag.” Says Marti Hearst, a computer scientist at the University of California at Berkley’s School of information Management and Systems.’
‘Smart Folders’
‘Ironically, the search-based metaphor also allows folders to be reincarnated in a new and more useful form … a ‘Smart Folder’ feature that looks like a folder, but is in fact the result of a search (the name implies that if these are Smart Folders, then existing folders must be stupid ones.)’
Cadweb V7 Preview
Both ‘Tagged Files’ and ‘Smart Folders’ are features of the new version of Cadweb. "We can now predict how much data a given project will generate using our historically derived benchmark of 6,000 records per £1m of construction spend. This is already a lot of data and it is growing all the time.” Said Chris Newman, Cadweb’s Managing Director and Chief Technology Officer.
He continued; “We have been working on our latest release for the past 2 years and it is gratifying to know that we have come to the same conclusions and created a similar solution for, ‘a new, more web-like way of storing and finding thing’ as the industry at large. Cadweb V7 is built around ‘Tagged Files’ and we have created ‘Smart Folders’ for our Document and Drawing Registers. This is very exciting; we are looking forward to the launch.”
This article in The Economist Magazine endorses Cadweb’s belief that the best way to organise and display large volumes of information in the future is to do away with the static folder structure and replace it with ‘Google’ type searches for ‘Tagged Files’ displayed in ‘Smart Folders’.
To see the full text of The Economist Article please go to http://www.economist.com/research/articlesBySubject/display.cfm?id=348909
Acknowledgement: The Economist Magazine
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Ends
For further information please contact Francis Newman on 0208 964 5040.
Notes to Editors
- Founded in 1995 Cadweb is the longest and oldest, established project extranet provider in the UK. Cadweb is now recognized as the de facto market leader in it's field with a long and growing list of blue-chip clients. Project Extranets provide an internet based central searchable repository for project information whereby project data can be stored and retrieved by all members of a construction project.
- Cadweb.net provides an internet based, central, highly searchable repository for all project information, whereby project data can be stored and retrieved by all members of a construction project.
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