Context makes data more useful

Developer and curmudgeon Hank Williams, whose opinions about the generally sorry state of computing generally jive with my own, is totally with me on the “context is key” idea. His conclusion?

The point is that almost every piece of information we collect has a trail to other bits of information. Right now we can’t see those trails. And so, our data spaces, be they our Gmail archives, or our hard drives, or our Delicious tags, etc., are really more like old attics with years of junk covered in thick dust. Modern software technology can and should do better.