WikiFolders: Augmenting the Display of Folders to Better Convey the Meaning of Files

Abstract

Hierarchical file systems and file browsers offer powerful capabilities for managing and organizing folders and files. Yet they lack robust tools for annotating and documenting these files—individually or collectively—with descriptive text. In contrast, Web pages and wikis make it easy to embed digital artifacts in explanatory images and prose, thus enabling rich and meaningful narratives. Unfortunately, they require considerable effort to manage individual files and ensure that the published content remains up-to-date. In this note, we describe WikiFolders, a hybrid system for annotating file folders that draws upon the strengths of both the hierarchical file system and wikis while mitigating their weaknesses.