Monthly Archives: February, 2007
Borders, areas and fractals
A border is generally seen as a line of separation. A line, however, is a theoretical construct. A border is in fact an area, defined by its own boundaries—boundaries which are themselves areas. Interpreted this way, borders can be compared to fractals. Ranging from the infinitely large to the infinitely small, borders create further borders—geographically, [...]
Beyond the desktop metaphor
As an extension of the self, the avatar, which (despite the slightly outmoded term) remains a familiar concept from the world of gaming, could become a new paradigm for operating system interfaces. Three tendencies may contribute to this paradigm shift. First, computers are becoming increasingly mobile. Not only are laptops outselling desktops, they are also [...]
Mapping and metaphor
Since geographic information systems have become mainstream, maps are everywhere, and not just on our computers, but on our phones and in our cars. We are now literally surrounded by maps. Yet, despite so much exposure, I have not lost interest in mapping as an art. On the contrary—I am more than ever drawn to [...]
Browsing informal hierarchies
Informal or soft hierarchies have become popular mechanisms for data storage and retrieval, as seen in applications such as Flickr, del.icio.us, and others. What differentiates soft from hard hierarchies is the use of overlapping categories, or tags, instead of namespaces. Tags can be used to describe more than one object, and hence they will appear [...]