Integrating Time into Spatially Represented Knowledge Structures

Abstract

For decades hypertext has provided a means for structuring information. Versioning has been perceived as very important for hypertext, but research focusing on it has targeted almost exclusively one type of hypertext application: navigational hypertext (i.e., node-link structures). Spatial hypertext is an alternative paradigm for associating information by spatial arrangements or visual cues. There has been little work done on providing versioning for this structure type.We propose Socs, a spatial hypertext application that specializes in representing social relationships. It combines versioning, spatial interpretation through a specialized parser, awareness support, representation of time, intuitive browsing and visualization of different versions, and support for forgetting and remembering information. The benefits of these individual features have been demonstrated independently in various areas. However, Socs is the first application of its kind that combines them. A system with these capabilities creates the basis for the next development step toward a collaborative and distributed spatial hypertext system.