Attributes Again

I was thinking about representing shared documents. Is it shared over NFS, SMB, BitTorrent? Is it uploaded to an FTP or web server?

Some of these attributes are tricky to categorise... Is it really appropriate to put all of these attributions into the file, or is there a secondary set of attributes that are better stored as part of a user's desktop. Some properties are intrinsic to the document, some are to do with an individual's application of that document.

I guess I'm just looking to find a way to extract information about a document in a uniform, intuitive way that is not constrained by having to identify a particular application or shell that contains the information I am looking for. And of course, I need an effective means to ascribe attributes to a document.

New desktop features should improve the effectiveness and productivity of the user. Improvements to the graphics enhances the experience and is certainly exciting, but these are ancillary to the need for a robust system that enables productive work.