Integrating All Library Content into One

May 27th, 2008 | Posted in Uncategorized 4 Comments »

I was digging into some SharePoint books on Safari online tonight, and I noticed something incredibly cool. While I’m reading a page of a book, there’s a section at the bottom called “Additional Reading.” Based on keyword/topic matches, it pulls similar content from other chapters of other books in the Safari library.

It’s not just showing me related books for my topic, but is showing me related chapters from other books. I ended up not just reading one book, but reading similar chapters of about 5 different books tonight. This integration breaks down the silos between books and seems to create one seamless library of information. All I can say is, this is totally awesome.

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Tags: Safari, usability, What I'm Reading

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gregory says:

May 28, 2008 at 3:09 am

it is awesome … something like omniscience … and because i have a mind that connects inner and outer i think it is a good metaphor for life lived with a quiet mind … we are already anyway just going from thing to thing, from what is in front of us to what is next … the mind imposes meaning and agree/disagree about each thing, but it is really just flowing along independently of what we think about it

and so started to think about modeling technology more closely with the way life works …

and arrived at one of the current memes being talked about, attention overload … and realized that this is NOT a problem, unless we are just paying attentions to the stuff, and then it is an impossible-to-solve problem ….

paying attention to the flow, with perhaps a quiet mind, one can simply say, what attention overload?

like walking in a meadow on a sunny day, there is really a fully saturated sensory overload, but we simplify it with a smile and call it beauty …

hmm, is there any money in this? lol, sorry

Tom says:

May 28, 2008 at 11:27 pm

Gregory, I can’t tell if this is spam or just a comment written while in a trance-like state. Anyway, I think I’ll leave it. Thanks for the poetic (albeit bizarre) stream of thought there.

S Foven says:

May 28, 2008 at 1:34 pm

Safari is great for stuff like this. I don’t read any books cover to cover anymore. I just find a section I like and follow the trail. Not sure why anyone would buy a single book on tech issues anymore. Don’t get me wrong, books are great but Safari is a much better experience for getting info out of them.

Tom says:

May 28, 2008 at 11:24 pm

Thanks for the comment, S Foven. It’s certainly a new way to approach reading.

I’d Rather Be Writing – Tom Johnson