[Gzz-commits] manuscripts/FutureVision vision.rst

[Benja Fallenstein]

CVSROOT:        /cvsroot/gzz
Module name:    manuscripts
Branch:         
Changes by:     Benja Fallenstein <address@hidden>      03/09/18 18:40:22

Modified files:
        FutureVision   : vision.rst 

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CVSWeb URLs:
http://savannah.gnu.org/cgi-bin/viewcvs/gzz/manuscripts/FutureVision/vision.rst.diff?tr1=1.177&tr2=1.178&r1=text&r2=text

Patches:
Index: manuscripts/FutureVision/vision.rst
diff -u manuscripts/FutureVision/vision.rst:1.177 
manuscripts/FutureVision/vision.rst:1.178
--- manuscripts/FutureVision/vision.rst:1.177   Thu Sep 18 17:48:28 2003
+++ manuscripts/FutureVision/vision.rst Thu Sep 18 18:40:22 2003
@@ -40,30 +40,7 @@
 
 Computers are supposed to be "information technology,"
 to help you to keep your information organized. 
-We propose XXXX
-
-Paper notes don't work: Unless you are really tidy, you
-have to remember that you took a note about a subject
-a year ago, or you won't find it. If we could connect
-our thoughts and ideas to the subjects they are about,
-they would be in the place we need them. If we connect all
-the arguments that come to mind to the counter-arguments
-that we have considered, we would not have to think
-through them again.
-
-But
-we still have no sufficiently good **tools** commonly available to help us
-
-- remember our tasks, ideas and obligations
-
-- organize what we know about a thing, so that we can understand it better
-
-- structure our thoughts
-
-- when grappling with our problems today, 
-  remind us of the solutions of yesteryear.
-
-We need a computer that helps us keep track of 
+We need an environment that helps us keep track of 
 
 - "Personal information": addresses, appointments, birthdays
 
@@ -75,7 +52,7 @@
   classes in a program and structures in a plot
 
 Instead of being centered around irrelevant computery
-abstractions such as "files" and "directories," the system
+abstractions such as "files" and "directories," this system
 should **center around the things we care about**,
 the people, appointments, plants, articles we read, 3D models we create
 and so on. 
@@ -159,6 +136,8 @@
 connected to other items they relate to, for example the
 meetings they propose or the problems that they solve.
 
+.. _`Figure 2`:
+
 .. figure:: document-connections.gen.png
 
    Figure 2: (a) An e-mail, with connections to other items.
@@ -221,6 +200,15 @@
 information we already store in our computers, it may also
 help us to **organize our thoughts**.
 
+(Paper notes don't work: Unless you are really tidy, you
+have to remember that you took a note about a subject
+a year ago, or you won't find it. If we could **connect
+our thoughts and ideas to the subjects they are about**,
+they would be in the place we need them. If we connect all
+the arguments that come to mind to the counter-arguments
+that we have considered, we would not have to think
+through them again.
+
 .. _`Section 3`:
 
 3 Under the hood: Hyperstructure
@@ -263,8 +251,6 @@
 This is the sense of the word in which it was used in the title
 of the First Hyperstructure Workshop at Hypertext'03.
 
-.. XXX compare to HOSS / structural computing
-
 Hyperstructure may be implemented in many ways. 
 In the remainder of this section,
 we present zzStructure and RDF [#zzstructure-rdf]_, 
@@ -463,6 +449,7 @@
 change in the view, and the route back to the previous
 focus location is obvious, as shown in the following figure.
 
+.. _`Figure 5`:
 
 ..  figure:: buoysMotion-small.jpg
 
@@ -492,9 +479,27 @@
 references therein) by 1) providing context to the current node,
 and 2) having the non-disruptive motion between nodes.
 
-Buoys contribute to applitudes' interoperability
-by allowing any applitude
-to anchor buoys to any node shown by another applitude.
+
+Buoys are the key for **making applitude-specific views
+part** of the overall **network of items**.
+
+When looking at cities on a map, for example, each city
+might be an item connected to other items (e.g.,
+a person living in that city) through the
+RDF hyperstructure; these connections will be shown
+as buoys. 
+
+If the user clicks on one of these buoys (representing a person),
+the view will change to an RDF focus+context visualizations,
+with the item representing the person as the focus,
+and the city as another item connected to it. Clicking
+on the city-item will take the user back to the map with the
+buoys, all in smooth, non-disruptive, animated transitions.
+
+A mock-up example of a similar scenario is shown in `Figure 2`_.
+
+
+.. _`Section 4.3`:
 
 4.3 Libvob
 ----------
@@ -648,17 +653,33 @@
 5.2 Structural computing 
 ------------------------
 
-The change of the underlying operating system abstractions 
-in Hypermedia operating systems (`Nürnberg et al 1996`_)
+Hypermedia operating systems (`Nürnberg et al 1996`_)
 and the subsequent structural computing framework (`Nürnberg et al 1997`_)
-are vital for an entirely item-based environment. 
+emphasize the importance of providing structural primitives
+in programming languages and the operating system, in order
+to help programmers to represent structured information
+more easily.
+
+Obviously, such an operating system would provide a great basis for
+the implementation of an entirely hyperstructured,
+item-based environment.
+
+Structural computing is less concerned with user interface
+techniques, however. Providing a user interface that allows
+users to extend applitudes and views with additional kinds
+of connections is an important part of our work.
+
+Also, structural computing does not put emphasis on choosing
+and visualizing the basic structural abstractions so that they can be
+easily understood by the user, allowing them to understand
+how the system works from inside.
 
        
 5.3 RDF, Semantic Web
 ---------------------
 
-The Semantic Web [xxxref] community uses RDF to represent
-*machine-readable information*. Berners-Lee [xxxref] argues that
+The Semantic Web community uses RDF to represent
+*machine-readable information*. `Berners-Lee (1998)`_ argues that
 the World Wide Web has been successful in integrating
 human-readable documents, but a similar approach is needed
 for machine-readable data.
@@ -677,8 +698,8 @@
 local Yellow Pages publish this data as RDF on the Web.
 
 The Semantic Web community is building tools to automatically
-convert data between different languages built on top of RDF
-[xxxreftbl]. Such tools could be of great use in Fenfire;
+convert data between different languages built on top of RDF.
+Such tools could be of great use in Fenfire;
 for example, when using two views written by different programmers,
 which show the same kind of information but assume different
 RDF vocabularies, a data conversion tool could convert the
@@ -722,7 +743,46 @@
 6 Conclusions
 =============
 
-We have presented... XXX
+We have presented the design 
+of a hyperstructured, item-based computing environment
+which **you can structure** according to your needs, rather
+than having to structure your work around the applications
+provided by the computer.
+
+We have also presented our implementation-in-progress,
+Fenfire, which contains two key user interface innovations
+for hyperstructure-based systems. 
+
+Firstly, **buoys**
+show items connected to a document or image as marginal notes
+on a circle around that document or image, and
+provide for smooth transitions between documents (`Figure 5`_).
+Buoys are a special case of Nelson's transpointing windows.
+
+Secondly, we show items that are part of a document using
+a buoy-based view, we show other items using an RDF
+focus+context visualization, and we use Libvob (`Section 4.3`_)
+to provide animations when moving from one to the other.
+This way, we can provide smooth transitions between browsing documents
+(buoy-based) and browsing the network of items in the hyperstructure,
+making the documents truly part of the network of items
+(`Figure 2`_).
+
+An environment like
+Fenfire will allow you to do things your way, instead of
+the way that some application programmer thought useful.
+It will help you to better understand the relationships
+between the items in your life. It will provide you with
+the information that you need, in the right contexts,
+rather than having to open a different application or
+search for a file. 
+It will help you structure your ideas and thoughts,
+and it will help you to structure everything else
+in your computer around *them*.
+
+That's why we believe that this will be
+"the next big thing." (You will not want to go back.)
+
 
 Acknowledgments
 ===============
@@ -798,6 +858,12 @@
 
 References
 ==========
+
+.. _`Berners-Lee (1998)`:
+
+**Berners-Lee, T.** (1998) "Semantic Web Road map".
+Available online as
+``http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/Semantic.html``
 
 .. _`Bush 1945`: