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How Conceptual Metaphors are Stunting Web Innovation
From a guest post last week by Venkatesh Rao:
Consider these terms: page, scroll, file, folder, trash can, bookmark, inbox, email, desktop, library, archive and index. They are all part of the document metaphor, a superset of the “desktop” metaphor. Some elements, such as scroll, desktop and library pre-date the printing press, but all are based on some sort of “marks on paper-like material” reference.
It’s an important point — the tyranny of conceptual metaphors (and in particular, Gutenberg’s shadow) can be quite limiting.
Disclosure: Xerox is a client.

