A very simple and elegant visualization of a CollaborativeHypermedium by Alex Galloway and Mark Tribe for the Rhizome OnlineCommunity. Each page is represented by a star. Initially dim, each time a page is read, the star becomes brighter. Clicking on a star allows you to form constellations based on shared keywords.
Available from http://www.cybergeography.org/atlas/starrynight_large.gif
We could do similar things here, with the CategoriesAndTopics acting as the connecting keywords.
Spiral
Related to StarryNight is Martin Wattenberg's Spiral. Similarly each page is a star, with brightness reflecting HitCounts. Stars are arranged chronologically from the inside, out, and categories of pages are clustered together in the "fingers" of the spiral.
Available from http://www.cybergeography.org/atlas/spiral.gif
Somewhat related thoughts:
- (German) http://www.wikiwiki.de/newwiki/pmwiki.php/Wiki/BedeutungsWirbel
- (English) http://www.infoanarchy.org/wiki/wiki.pl?Whirl_Of_Meaning
For many, these views of a wiki, mirrored on the nighttime sky, are tremendously evocative.
Discussion
The idea to have such views of a wiki is awesome. When I was young I had an small 9 cm telescope and was fond of the sky and all this cosmic theories and Apollo stuff. I still remember the "small step for me" by Armstrong. -- HelmutLeitner
I had a 7 cm reflector, saturn rings and stuff I saw, mosquito-stiched in summer and stiff-frozen in winter. When Neil Armstrong climbed back into the eagle saying "It's too risky" - acording to a recent and not toooo bad Mercedes-Benz commercial spot, that ran on TV at least in Germany - I was eight. --MattisManzel
Wasn't it exciting? The first views of the blue planet seen from the moon... I think I could stop writing wiki and just look at the wiki sky for hours waiting for a shooting star. -- HelmutLeitner
This short communication was the inspiration for StarGazing