And now for something completely different: the post that I’ve alluded to for a few weeks (and as far back as last year)…
Inflo is an on-line tool for collaboratively constructing arguments. It’s wiki meets spreadsheets. It’s a bit like a spreadsheet in that you can enter numbers and formulae in individual nodes (cells). But, unlike a traditional spreadsheet, each node has its own permanent URL corresponding to a snapshot in time that can be sent around or used as part of other arguments. My very first blog post involved a back-of-the-envelope calculation comparing carbon dioxide emissions for printing against reading on a computer. But enough chitter-chatter. If you’re on Safari 5+, Chromium, or Firefox 3.5+, why not pop over to https://inflo.cs.toronto.edu (ignore the certificate warnings), watch a screencast to learn how to use Inflo, create yourself some fancy arguments, and then share them!
P.S. You may have noticed this post wasn’t put out during my normal publish cycle. It’s to coincide with the Research In Action event at the University of Toronto today.
jonathan lung