[Sigia-l] Chronological filing as a type of classification system

[Travis Wilson]

At 05:21 PM 7/24/2002 -0400, David R. Austen wrote:
>I'm thinking of a more formal model for the organization of
>information by time (creation/change date) for people who are in a
>great hurry.

I'm not quite sure what your model entails, beyond a "date" attribute or 
two. But here's my thought, and the system I will use when it's ready. Tell 
me whether it seems useful.

I'm developing a plugin to FacetMap <http://facetmap.com>, my faceted 
classification suite, to create a "date" facet on resources. More 
generally, the plugin handles any "facet spectrum" -- a facet structure 
that has numerical values, like "price" or "score" -- or "date". It's 
specialized to search on ranges of values, which a taxonomy or simple list 
can't do.

This date feature is being considered for a San Francisco history timeline 
site. The real value is that you can pre-define certain ranges of dates, 
like "Golden Years: 1848-1905" so that the user doesn't necessarily have to 
suggest a date range from scratch. The predefined ranges can be subdivided, 
too, so a taxonomy can emerge -- but the user isn't forced to stick to it.

Thoughts on that approach? I think establishing chronological filing as a 
facet of classification makes it a more valid way to sort things, since 
it's just sittin there on the sidelines till you want to use it.

trav