Browse by author
Lookup NU author(s): Dr Alex Bowyer
Files are an anachronism in the digital age. It's time for something better.Files are an outdated concept. As we go about our daily lives, we don’t open up a file for each of our friends or create folders full of detailed records about our shopping trips. Create, watch, socialise, share, and plan — these are the new verbs of the Internet age — not open, save, close and trash. The file folder metaphor makes no sense in today’s world. Gone are the smoky 1970s offices where secretaries bustled around fetching armfuls of paperwork for their bosses, archiving cardboard files in dusty cabinets. Our lives have gone digital and our data zips around the world in seconds as we buy goods online or chat with distant relatives. It’s time for a new way to store data – a new mentalmodel that reflects the way we use computers today.
Author(s): Bowyer AJB
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: O'Reilly Radar
Year: 2011
Print publication date: 14/07/2011
Online publication date: 04/07/2011
Date deposited: 15/03/2021
Publisher: O'Reilly
URL: http://radar.oreilly.com/2011/07/why-files-need-to-die.html
Notes: Published prior to commencing my PhD at Newcastle University; included here to provide a reference to my earlier work.
