Hi, my name is Alex Shapiro, and I am very interested in the evolution of
hypertext, and computer-based mediums of interaction in general.
I've read the thread on Malleable Archives, and the one about Taxonomies
and TopicMaps, and have a response that is vaguely relevant to both issues.
(Funny, as I type this, my spell-checker tells me that the correct spelling
for "Maleable" is "Malleable", supporting the notion that the author should
be able to go back and alter his/her messages).
Ok,
I am developing some software (opensource), which can bee seen at
http://touchgraph.com whose eventual goal is to be used for browsing
multiple hierarchies, and associative networks. Currently, it is just a
nice graph layout applet, and another for organizing links, but in a few
months the underlying structure will be completed, and rapid development of
features should be possible.
The technology of easily browsable and editable associative networks will
make possible the creation of visual newsgroups. I envision such a
newsgroup as a network of nodes, where posting a message will consists of
adding a node to the network. The advantage of this type of format for
discussion, is that related messages can be placed next to each
other. Whereas conventional newsgroups already achieve such adjacency with
threads, they have the disadvantage that old threads get forgotten about,
or not read by new members. In a visual newsgroup, however, one should be
able to bring old threads back into focus by adding a link from current
messages to the old ones. In fact, adding links rather then posting new
messages could be another way of contributing to the discussion. Along the
same lines, one would no longer be constrained to responding to just a
single message. One could chose to simultaneously respond to multiple
messages thus bringing the messages responded to closes together. Some
experimentation with this idea using TouchGraph technology can already be
seen at http://memes.net
Speaking of taxonomies, I think that a type of taxonomy that has been
largely ignored is that of hierarchies with multiple inheritance (or
multiple hierarchies). It seems that a lot of information could benefit
from being organized into multiple hierarchies. For instance, look at the
leaf-most categories in the open directory project. Often we find lists of
links containing over 200 items. Yet splitting these items into
subcategories would be impossible without making subjective choices. The
best solution, would be to offer the user multiple options as to how they
want to divide the items. That way one could narrow one's search to a much
more manageable set of 10 items or so.
Thanks,
--Alex
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