Elimination of the file system

Jeff Atwood writes that the file system should be eliminated, or at least hidden from the user. I agree with this, at least for some types of documents, such as word processor or spreadsheet files.

It’s not difficult to arrange a system to make it easier to find documents and keep track of versions in a corporate environment.

The current options on a file menu would be replaced by the following:

1) Save
2) Load
3) Email
4) Copy to
5) Revert to previous version

Save asks you for the following:

1) Who is allowed to read the document.
2) Who is allowed to change the document.
3) Optionally, tags to make it easier to find the document. These will typically be needed for things that can’t easily be indexed such as pictures.

It does not ask for a file name or directory. It then records the document, keeping all existing versions (disk space is less than 30p/GB now). This will be stored on a server drive somewhere, but the details of the file name don’t matter to the user. If it’s more efficient to store files in e.g. a database or combine documents into the same physical file, then the system could do this transparently.

Load asks you for some keywords, and remembers keywords you have used and others have used. It then presents a list of files that you are allowed to open in a similar format to a search engine. The search should be weighted by

1) How closely the keywords match your document.
2) How recently edited the document is.
3) How close a user is to you. Something written by someone in your department would appear higher in the list than something written by someone the other side of the world. Weightings could be calculated automatically from how often you send and receive emails from that colleague.

The list would include who last edited the file, and when it was edited.

It will then load the most recent version of that document, avoiding the risk that different people are reading different versions, and users will not have to learn any document management system.

Email will let you copy the document to an email message. The system could keep track of this, so if someone were to leak a confidential file, the person responsible could be found.

Copy to will let you copy the document to another device, e.g. a USB drive. Again, the system could keep track of this.

Revert to previous version will show the different versions of the document and allow you to go back to a previous version.