[stuartjohnson12]

It's so that the topology of the design system can mirror the topology of the information being stored. Top-to-bottom and left-to-right works great for information with a linear, generally one-way directional flow.

But how do you show that certain concepts are similar and related? Wiki informational design says that you should do that by splitting things up into atomic concepts that individually have a linear informational flow and using hyperlinks to connect them. You might group things into common categories.

Links can show a connection, but not how close those connections are or any correlations. The idea of whiteboarding is that you're not limited to segmented linear information flows, and you can represent your thoughts visually.

The "infinite canvas" is to a whiteboard what a wiki is to a filing cabinet of notecards. Or what a plotted graph is to a table of numbers.