To help software locate specific chunks within these documents, so people
do not have to read through a lot of irrelevant pages, we now identify
each part of the document as a distinct object, tagging each
element we write, labeling this one "a procedure," and that one "a product
description."
But in a giant pile of information, tags are not enough.
We must also organize each document, and each component object, according
to a clearly defined structural model, so that the software can
anticipate exactly where each element will appear, and skip all the
intervening material.
Gradually, our idea of the document is being decomposed into its
constituent objects, and the document itself comes to be regarded as just
another object, containing other objects nested within, like painted
wooden dolls within dolls, endlessly.
Downsides for writers
As we write in this environment, our method of discovering and arranging
material, becomes more routinized, more conventional, less
improvisational.
The group we work with sets up a model structure for each type of
informative object, defining which pieces are required or optional, in
what order, and we have to write the objects that will fit, like blocks,
into that architecture.
Upsides for writers
Each class of object has a purpose--to answer a particular type of
question, deal with a common request, or satisfy a fairly widespread need,
wish, or whim.
The abstract structure reflects the team's best idea of a satisfactory
response.
And each new object we create following this model is designed to serve as
a virtual reply to our visitors, in this odd conversation that
takes place over the net, and through the screen.
Arising, then, as a way of coping with the huge amount of information
accumulating on the Web, this new way to come up with ideas, explore
topics, and organize our writing necessarily focuses our attention on the
individual building blocks that software assembles into Web pages,
customizing them for niche audiences, or personalizing them for individual
visitors.
Subtly nudged by XML and an object orientation, by customization
and personalization, and by the sheer volume of content, we are being led
to worship at the altar of structure.
