ANTOM Index
 
 

Problems and issues with general filing systems

When you want to classify a document using a simple document filing system such as the “file-and-folder” offered by Microsoft desktop operating system, you may encounter the following questions or problems:

    • How many folders and sub-folders do I need? If there are too many folders, I may get drowned in the nets of folders, or if the number of folders are too small, it may not effectively categorize my documents.
    • What happen if some of my files belong to many folders, say 10? That would be very cumbersome to file all those folders they belong. What happen if a file only partially belongs (related) to a folder? Do I have to include it in this folder? How related a file is to a folder before I classify the document to that particular folder?
    • What happen if I have forgotten the file name to which folder(s) it belongs?
    • If I have installed a generic desktop search engine, what happen if through an index search, I get hundreds of document retrieved? Is there an easy way to handle a complex query to narrow down the retrieved list?
    • I don’t have any specific document to look for. All I want is to explore a group of related topics. Is there a graphical interface to ease my journey of exploration?
    • Is there an easy way for me to find a couple of documents that are most related to a document in hand? I don’t want to read over hundreds of related documents in my repository. Is there a quick way to compare how related it is for these documents with the one in context?
    • I need to make a quick look on other related fields (concepts) that each document may belong to; just like some digital library systems that show a list of keywords that an article is related to.
    • I want to refine my search. Does the system support search within search results?
    • I have a few computers located in different premises. How to make sure that every computer has all the documents that are categorized in the same folders?

Some of the problems may be solved by adding additional search tools such as “desktop indexing” and “document tagging”, but we need a more advance system to holistically manage all these problems raised. When systems that can manage your information and help you make better decisions in your daily life, we call them personal knowledge management systems. One of ANTOM's purpose is heading in this direction.

One of the most impressive performance of ANTOM is the system can categorize practically every domain of knowledge of the entire world! That is a bold declaration indeed; but if you don’t believe it can do so, just upload some specific documents and see if ANTOM categorizes it correctly. If not convinced, try to type in a specific concept and see if ANTOM can show you a related concept map. Before you begin your test, please read the user guide.