Some vague history of the iCite net

Hi, I am Jay Fienberg. I am developing the iCite net.

Some of my ideas about the iCite net go back as far as 1991, when I was working on a very tricky Library digital cataloging project and started thinking about developing a system to allow lots of people around the world to use and contribute to the catalog.

I later started building some content management systems, as a way to experiment with these and other ideas that I had considered.

More recently, I was inspired by David Weinberger's book, "Small Pieces, Loosely Joined". The iCite net is definitely about "small pieces, loosely joined".

Over the past few months, I have been out of work, and, as much I have tried to focus on employment, I have been distracted by some new ideas and experiments I have done. These new developments over the past few months are what I am calling "the iCite net" (more soon on the name).

What has been exiciting to me is seeing a lot of development and ideas happening that are complimentary to the iCite net, and to which the iCite net is complimentary. These are in the areas of "Social Software" and "the Semantic Web" (as well as areas that I work in: information architecture and some unusual librarian stuff). These developments, which include the hot-at-the-moment topics of trackback, ThreadsML, and ENT, have fueled my interests.

(Note: I will write more about all of this on going, and, in future posts, including proper links to sources for more information on everything.)

So, at this moment, I haven't told anyone about what exactly is the iCite net. I am about to start talking about it here. So, if you have found this post, you have reached the beginning of the iCite net story.

If any of this sounds like it might be up your alley in any way, I suggest you subscribe to my RSS feed (click the XML link at the top) and see what unfolds!

the iCite net development blog

Some vague history of the iCite net