Here is perhaps a glimpse at something new (actually old as an idea, but new as a product).
Here is a new service to keep your eye on (I have probably said this before). Freebase is a new type of user authored information source in which users add both content and connections. It is dangerous to suggest comparisons to the human brain, but one thing our brains appear to do that offers an advantage over simple storage is to connect the units of information we store (nodes and links). Looking up information when we want is great and the reality of access to information on demand argues against the need to memorize. However, what people miss in suggesting that searching the net eliminates the need for personal storage is that we do more than store information. We connect it. The connections we form may be activated when we retrieve this information and the connected information likely has some utility for us or we would not have formed the connections during encoding. The next generation or semantic web may offer potentially useful connections as well as the information we request.
In describing Freebase, blogger Nicholas Carr describes a wiki-like repository layered with user created metadata connecting elements of information.
Esther Dyson offers additional comments on this project.
