Info Mapping (was: Re: list of *good* books)

["Matthew B. Hicks" <matt -at- UNIDATA -dot- UCAR -dot- EDU>]

On Tue, 23 Jan 1996, Connie Winch wrote:

> Susan Gallagher wrote

> >>I also own "Mapping Hypertext" by Robert E. Horn, (to order call
> >>is put out by the Information Mapping people, but you can buy just the book.
> >>
> >Never read it, but I probably will now (thanks Marilynne!).

> I simply can't recommend it for the sole reason that the author tried,
> without success in my opinion, to put what should be linear (a hardcopy
> book) into a non-linear format to imitate hyptertext.  The result, for
> myself and my classmates anyways,  was confusion and a lack of desire to
> ever pick the book up again.  Every page had probably a half dozen "jumps"
> to other places in the book, and the graphic layout of the book did not
> make me want to read any of it, either.  For these reasons I remember
> probably not one iota of the book's contents; I only remember its poor and
> self-defeating design.

Well, I *did* read it, and I kept waiting for it to present some
information I could use. I didn't find that it even attempted to explain
the IM method, and I couldn't help feeling that it was just a big
advertisement for the classes that the Information Mapping folks offer.
It reminded me a lot of those mailings and infomercials about financial
independence that only hint at the methods you will learn if you take
their seminar or buy their tapes. I couldn't recommend the book, but I
can't say how that reflects on IM in general.

                               -Matt Hicks
                          matt -at- unidata -dot- ucar -dot- edu
                       Owner of the Dal-l Web pages:
            http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/staff/matt/dal-l.html