Knolbe.proposal
Overview
This project was submitted to a competition entitled "Library / Internet as a means of archiving and communicating knowledge" held by the University of Constance in Germany. This proposal entered the final round of competition.
Screenshot of the prototype.
To address the subject of "archiving and communicating knowledge", my proposal aims to add an extra dimension to the existing library's online presence. Currently, users of the library are granted some standard tools for accessing the library's holdings, including the ability to search for books and check out the ones of interest. While very useful, these transactions are one-dimensional in the sense that a user only interacts with the books and vice versa. My proposal centers around a prototype which mixes the library users and books into the same virtual space, and allows interconnections to be formed between these populations. These interconnections increase the dimension of the online space, thereby dramatically increasing its utility. (Here I follow Metcalfe's Law: "The value of a network increases as the square of its number of users".)
Prototype
The denizens of the virtual space (users and books) are depicted as nodes populating the surface of a sphere. Users are blue nodes, and books are yellow nodes. The intensity of a node is a measure of its popularity as determined by user reviews. User's may rate and review books, as well as rate the other users' reviews of books. This reviewing scheme is familiar from sites like Amazon.com.
By zooming closer to the surface, one may view details on a node, eg reviews of a book, or reviews written by a user. By selecting a node, one sees the first- and second-order links of a node. For a user, these are respectively the books s/he has reviewed and the other users who have reviewed this set of books. One may follow these links, and in this manner one experiences the library as a dynamic sphere of communication and evaluation.
More details on its operation may be found below \/.
Launch
Further Details
Nodes are clumped on the surface roughly by subject matter. A user with no book reviews will begin at medium intensity at a random point. As s/he becomes linked to books and other users, s/he is pulled via surface tension towards these links, thereby establishing a position. A similar thing happens for book nodes, but these start initially in the category specified in the library catalog.
Details of operation
On the panel to the left is a view of the sphere. The sphere may be manipulated by the mouse, as well as by surrounding controls. By dragging the mouse on the surface of the panel, one may rotate the sphere. Holding down the mouse will slow down or stop any rotation.
Above the panel to the left is the control for level of detail. By changing the level of detail, one may hide nodes below a certain intensity. One advantage provided by this control is that it helps less-powerful computers. If the interface interaction is sluggish, one may reduce the level of detail to improve computer responsiveness. One may increase back the level of detail after one has zoomed in closer, where less overall nodes are visible and the demands on the computer are less.
To the right of the panel is the zoom slider. The operation is self-explanatory. An alternate method for zoom is using the A and Z keys on the keyboard.
Other controls become active after one has zoomed near the surface of the Knolbe. A cursor appears over the center of the Knolbe panel to allow selection of elements. By rotating the surface, one may position a node underneath the cursor. Summary info about the node then appears in the information panels to the right of the main Knolbe panel. A node may be selected for further investigation by clicking the select button to the above right of the panel, or by pressing the Enter key.
Some nodes will have links to other nodes. These links represent relationships between nodes. Purple links from a (yellow) book node are to users who have reviewed that book. Any red links from that node are to other books reviewed by the linked users. Red links from a (blue) user node are to books that user has reviewed. Any purple links from a user will be to other reviewers of the linked books. Summary info about the link destinations may be previewed by placing the link under the cursor.
These links may be followed by clicking the follow-link button, or by pressing the F key. The back-to-selection button, or the B key, allows one to return to the currently selected node. One may cancel this travel by clicking the cancel button, or by pressing the Esc key.
On the right are the node information panels. Summary info is shown at the top, including size of the node, and any links emerging from the node. The lower text panel contains nothing for now, but is reserved for more detailed information on a node, such as book reviews, and a list of linked nodes. Although not shown in the prototype, the user will be able to write a review of a selected book, or rate a book review, in this lower panel.
In the upper right hand corner is the search button (the magnifying glass icon). This button will allow access to the search panel, through which one may search the contents of the catalog. The user will have the option here to highlight search results on the Knolbe, or filter the display of nodes. However, for the purposes of this prototype, this button is not active.
Road
Mentioned in the first yearbook of the Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst, HGK Basel, published by Birkhäuser -- Publishers for Architecture, March 2004.