http://www.hypernews.org/HyperNews/
get/hypernews/history/53.html
This was a blast from the past. Back in 1995 or ’96 we used hypermail to create a web-based archive and interface to majordomo lists. This seems pretty dull until you see the number of mailing list packages or threaded discussion packages that still consider these two mechanisms to communication to somehow be mutually exclusive. Ever since this first time using hypernews, I have refused to consider any mailing list software that does not also present a web-based archive and interface, and vice versa, any threaded discussion software that does not support interactions through email. It’s the communications that are ultimately important, and email or web browsers are just the means of facilitating this, each with its strength and weakness.
I’m still seeing the same phenomenon occur now in the blogs, community software, groupware field, although much less than before. There are people who still want to ‘own the whole user experience’ and insist on building containers instead of conduits. If your software stops me from working with someone else, or from them seeing my work without having to republish it or do any onerous integration, you’ll find me, and a whole lot of others, moving away from your software. Luckily, I think because of a large number of converging factors (standards initiatives, the move towards the network being the point of integration, XML and the separation of content and presentation, a critical mass of people who ‘get it’) we are finding more and more tools that allow you to interact with your data/content through a variety of means, and also get your data into a variety of ‘places’ instead of containing it in just one.
It was nice to see that someone has kept this software going after all these years. When I think back, it was for me the ‘aha’ moment, one that recently was reignited by my immersion in blogs, portals and some groupwares I’ve been working with – SWL