tency are among the liabilities, which
can indeed be considerable factors in
PKB design. Examples of client-server PKBs include MyBase Networking
Edition ( http://wjjsoft.com), and Haystack’s three-tiered architecture. 1
A variation of the client-server approach is of course Web-based systems, in which the client system
consists of nothing but a (possibly
enhanced) browser. This gives the
same ubiquitous availability that client-server approaches do, while minimizing (or eliminating) the setup and
installation required on each client
machine.
Handheld devices. Lastly, we mention mobile devices as a possible
PKB architecture. Storing all of one’s
personal knowledge on a handheld
computer would solve the availability problem, of course, and even more
completely than would a client-server
or Web-based architecture. The safety
of the information is an issue, since if
the handheld device were to be lost or
destroyed, the user could face irrevocable data loss; this is easily remedied,
however, by periodically synchronizing the handheld device’s contents
with a host computer. More problematic is simply the limitations of the
hardware. Screen real estate, processing power, and storage capacity are of
course much more limited, and this
hampers their overall effectiveness.
the PKB of the future
Personal knowledge management is
a real and pressing problem, as the
sheer number of products included in
this article attests. Yet it does not appear that Vannevar Bush’s dream has
yet been fully realized on a wide scale.
Nearly every system mentioned here
has its circle of loyal adherents (“I find
Tinderbox indispensable for my work
and every update makes it that much
more mind-blowing.”e “The Greatest
Invention in Human History? I vote
for Microsoft OneNote.”f) But certainly
when compared with word processors,
spreadsheets, or Web browsers, PKB
usage lags far behind.
What would it take for a true PKB
solution to appeal to a wide audience
e http://www.eastgate.com/Tinderbox/news.html
f http://www.c3associates.com/2007/04/the-
greatest-invention-in-human-history/
and generate the kinds of benefits
Bush envisioned? Synthesizing les-
sons from the analysis here, the fol-
lowing recommendations for future
research seem apparent:
