The Discourse District A Tool for Communal Organization of Knowledge and Community Organization by Knowledge A dynamic repository for community writings, a map mirroring the writing community OR

The Original Problem The community of scientists researching Complexity is wide and varied. A definition of this field that encompasses the scope of activity carried out by all the members cannot be compiled by any individual or committee. (and not just because of political reasons, but because of the sheer variety of research directions and opinions) A description be the joint effort of the entire community

Solution 1.0

New problems This does not scale, above a certain volume of inputs, it is flooded. the drawing is centralistic, and inherently reflects one view of the map. Updating occurs in batches, the map is static.

Inspiration for Solution 2.0 The Wiki –A collaborative internet authorship paradigm –Open content. Each participant may create new pages, and add or edit the content in existing pages. –Simple syntax, allowing to format the text and, more importantly link between pages easily. –Example: Wikipedia.org January 2001: Start of the project December 2003: 180,000 articles in writing July 2004: 302,073 articles in writing A manifestation of goodwill and cooperation

Ambiguities are resolved by context

Anyone may edit

Easy formatting links headline

More Inspiration Touchgraph –Open source tool for the visual representation of data/communities/ontologies. –Graphically represents entities and ties between them. –The topology is dynamic, the nodes repel each other and the links limit the repulsion

An example The Google Browser –Note the crowding of unwanted links –And the odd connotations of the automated process

Presenting the Discourse District The main nodes of the graph are stages The stages are containers representing the mapped entities which may be one of a myriad of objects In the first solution, the map represented the ties between fields of research. But generalizing: –A hierarchy of categories, topics and concepts. –Activities or specific events. –Related entities, such as research groups or universities A new stage is created with a link to an existing stage, but more links may be added later. The links represent some logical relation between stages The idea conceptualized in a stage, is therefore defined not only the original thought but also reference to all of the other stages, that have, over time, become related.

Presenting the Discourse District The Discourses related to each Stage are the manifestation of content. This is where the users enter their content, either as descriptive text or in conversation format This part contains the properties of the Wiki in terms of easy text formatting and linking A discourse is spawned within a stage, but may be linked to others later

Presenting the Discourse District The User, is the complementary entity in the graph. This node, besides its obvious subject. Represents the activity and preferences of the user Links are automatically created from the user to whichever stage/discourse he participated in The topology of the graph is then strained by these links, and topics in which the user acted within a given timeframe are brought closer together.

The graphical organization of knowledge The graph is editable by all users. Anyone wishing to add a node does so by joining it to an existing node of the graph. The topology of the graph at any given minute is the result of the combined efforts till that point, of users adding, and linking nodes. User activity is also represented in the graph by the links that are shown between a user and his recent contributions(more on this, later) The topological structure of the graph defines the context of each stage, and refines the meaning it captures.

Stage makeup The Stage has 3 main components. –Place on the map (and links to neighbors) –Optional remote coupled page –Discourses containing simply formatted, hyperlinked, collectively user-generated freely editable content

Stage makeup

navigation

Navigation

More navigation

Logging in

Log in

editing Text and titles may be edited A discourse may easily be created

Editing

More editing Adding graph nodes Link to user, is formed implicitly

Adding a discourse,stage Graph distortion

Recent changes

recent

Show hide users/discourses The graph may be simplified in case of over crowding

Show hide users and disc.

Time limit of links

User view time limit

Bookmarking and linking remote nodes In ‘edit’ mode, right clicking brings up the option for a user to mark/bookmark a node Marked nodes can be linked to any node in the graph by right clicking Bookmarks appears in the users page (right pane)

use

Show graph bent around user The graph of green links around the user temporarily distorts the structure of the graph. This represents not only the static relation between the stages but also an up-to-date picture of the activity of members. These links implicitly form connection between otherwise unrelated subjects Discussion hotspots will congregate usersDiscussion hotspots will congregate users Active users will bring their areas of interest closer togetherActive users will bring their areas of interest closer together

user

Show graph bent around user The graph of green links around the user temporarily distorts the structure of the graph. This represents not only the static relation between the stages but also an up-to-date picture of the activity of members. These links implicitly form connection between otherwise unrelated subjects Discussion hotspots will congregate usersDiscussion hotspots will congregate users Active users will bring their areas of interest closer togetherActive users will bring their areas of interest closer together