Mail/Category vs Category/Mail

Today there is an app for everything. Quite hyperbole I know, but please follow along with me. An app for mail, an app for contacts, an app for editing, an app for browsing, an app for passwords, an app for word processing, etc.

These apps work on the local filesystem or on an internal data hierarchy which is often similar to a filesystem, just for the app. The mail app has imap folders, the browser has url paths, the contacts app has a folder where all contacts resides. I call this the app-first organization model. First the mail, then inside the categories, the content.

I propose a different model, called context-first. It defines context folders, inside which app-specific folders can be placed. For example the mail for a specific use case, connected to a specific mail account, resides inside my/email, while notes for it resides in my/notes. Contacts for “my” reside under my/contacts, things I want to learn under my/learn, passwords under my/passwords.

Quite a simple organization idea, but today non-existent. The context-first approach mimics the unix-idea of user accounts. It enables organization of information to further goals one has. It enables one-click archiving of old goals, which are not up-to-date anymore. This way of thinking gives power to the user to shape his organization along natural associations, meaning first the category and context, then its content.