Every once in a while, somebody lays a great idea out before this
group. Eric Armstrong started it all with IBIS. Now, TouchGraph. I
believe that all readers of this list should go play with TouchGraph, and
download it, as I just did.
Cheers
Jack
At 09:52 PM 8/22/2001 -0400, you wrote:
>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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