2

hypermedia information spaces

everything must be intertwinkled

hypermedia information spaces

learning objectives

After reading this chapter you should be able to define information spaces in a precise manner, position the hypertextual capabilities of the web in a historical perspective, explain the difference between multimedia and hypermedia, and argue why computational support for narrative structure in multimedia applications is desirable.

However entertaining it might be presented to you, underlying every multimedia presentation there is an information space. That is to say, irrespective of the medium, there is a message. And being confronted with a message, we might want to inquire for more information.

In this chapter, we will define the notion of information space more precisely.

We will extend this definition to include information hyperspaces, by looking at the history of hypertext and hypermedia.

Finally, we will discuss visualisation as a means to present (abstract) information in a more intuitive way, and we will reflect on what is involved in creating compelling multimedia.

...

Current day multimedia information systems distinguish themselves from older day information systems not only by what information they contain, that includes multimedia objects such as images and sounds, but also by a much more extensive repertoire of query mechanisms, visual interfaces and rich presentation facilities. See  [Spaces].

S.K. Chang and M.F. Costabile -- Visual Interfaces to Multimedia Databases


The Handbook of Multimedia Information Management


multimedia information systems

multimedia applications

geographical information systems, office automation, distance learning, health care, computer aided design, scientific visualization, and information visualization.

multimedia databases

...

an information space is a representation of the information stored in a system or database that is used to present that information to a user.

we must distinguish between a visual information space (for presentation), a logical information space (in which we can reason about abstract information objects) and a physical information space (where our concrete multimedia objects are stored).

a logical information space is a multidimensional space where each point represents an object from the physical information space (read database).

...

www.w3.org/XML/1999/XML-in-10-points


XML is a set of rules (you may also think of them as guidelines or conventions) for designing text formats that let you structure your data.

XML in 10 points


  1. XML is for structuring data
  2. XML looks a bit like HTML
  3. XML is text, but isn't meant to be read
  4. XML is verbose by design
  5. XML is a family of technologies
  6. XML is new, but not that new
  7. XML leads HTML to XHTML
  8. XML is the basis for RDF and the Semantic Web
  9. XML is license-free, platform-independent and well-supported

related technologies


XML


...

information hyperspace


the logical information space may further be structured in a logical information hyperspace, where the clues become hyperlinks that provide directional information, and the information space can be navigated by the user following directional clues.

history


hypermedia systems

A curriculum promotes a false simplification of any subject, cutting the subject's many interconnections and leaving a skeleton of sequence which is only a charicature of its richness and intrinsic fascination.

classification of hypermedia systems

...

component

(CMIF) multimedia model

Amsterdam Hypermedia Model

...

research issues


...

visualization


Grasping the whole is a gigantic theme, intellectual history's most important.

Ant vision is humanity's usual fate; but seeing the whole is every thinking person's aspiration.

David Gelernter, Mirror Worlds 1992


data types


Whatever your target audience, whatever your medium, whatever your message, you have to be convincing if not compelling.

persuasion

(re)mediation

Virtual Reality won't merely replace TV. It will eat it alive.

immediacy

hypermediacy

Convergence is the mutual remediation of at least three important technologies -- telephone, televison and computer -- each of which is a hybrid of technical, social and economic practice, and each of which offers its own path to immediacy.

The telephone offers the immediacy of voice or the interchange of voices in real-time.

Television is a point-of-view technology that promises immediacy through its insistent real-time monitoring of the world.

The computer's promise of immediacy comes through the combination of three-dimensional graphics, automatic (programmed) action, and an interactivity that television can not match.

As they come together, each of these is trying to absorb the others and promote its own version of immediacy.

...

convergence

(p. 27) ... merging previously disparate technologies of communication and representation into a single medium.

The networked computer acts like a telephone in offering one-to-one real-time communication, like a television in broadcasting moving pictures, like an auditorium in bringing groups together for lectures and discussion, like a library in offering vast amounts of textual information for reference, like a museum in its ordered presentation of visual information, like a billboard, a radio, a gameboard and even like a manuscript in its revival of scrolling text.

interactive


...

immersive


multimedia authoring


web 2.0


video sharing / online gaming / social networking

daft punk -- technologic (cn / jp) 



  Buy it, use it, break it, fix it.
  Trash it, change it, melt -- upgrade it.
  Change it, point it, zoom it, press it.
  Snap it, work it, quick -- erase it.
  Write it, out it, paste it, save it.
  Load it, check it, quick -- rewrite it.
  Plug it, play it, burn it, rip it.
  Drag and drop it, zip -- unzip it.
  Look it, fill it, curl it, find it.
  View it, coat it, jam -- unlock it.
  Surf it, scroll it, pose it, click it.
  Cross it, crack it, twitch -- update it.
  Name it, rate it, tune it, print it.
  Scan it, send it, fax -- rename it. 
  Touch it, bring it. Pay it, watch it.
  Turn it, leave it, stop -- format it.

mashup(s)


web 2.0 design pattern(s)


Learnlog: XML Is The Fabric Of Web 2.0 Applications

service(s)


REST


the most powerful mashups don't just mix code and data, they mix cultures.

which provides a challenge that trancends all issues of mere technological correctness.

built-in(s)


resource(s)


flash/quicktime in SL


Quicktime supports Flash, but only up to Flash version 5. We're up to version 9 on that now! Luckily, I have been dabbling with Flash since the early days, so already knew how to do this 'the old way'... So, Flash is doing all the work. No LSL at all... I heart feeds. Did I say 'I heart feeds?

Referring to section 7.4 for a more detailed discussion, we may observe that there is no meaning in merely putting things together. Without mechanisms of personalization and recommendation we would simply be flooded by data and information, in a way that even search would not be able to cope with. Context, narratives and personalized presentation(s), notions from the past, reappear as keywords for the future of the web 2.0 and beyond.

...

2. information spaces

concepts


technology


projects & further reading

As a project, I suggest the development of a virtual tour in a city, museum or other interesting locatoion.

You may further explore the implementation of traversal within a context, taking into account the history of navigation when backtracking to a particular point, issues in hyperlinking and interaction in multimedia applications, and computational support for narratives.

For further reading I advice you to take a look at the history of hypermedia and the web, using online material from the W3C, or the history of media as accounted for in  [History] and  [Remediation].

the artwork

  1. book covers --  [Design],  [Eco],  [Avantgarde],  [Kunst],  [Flat]
  2. Federico Campanale -- Oxygen, fragments from video installation, 2004
  3. Vasarely --  [Vasarely].
  4. Vasarely --  [Vasarely].
  5. Vasarely --  [Vasarely].
  6. Federico Campanale -- Oxygen, more fragments.
  7. student work -- from introduction multimedia 2000.
  8. Rutger van Dijk -- mobius, interactive story, opening screen, see section 2.3.
  9. edgecodes -- screenshots, see section 2.3
  10. signs -- people,  [Signs], p. 244, 245.