The Discourse District

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The Discourse District
A dynamic repository for community writings, a
map mirroring the writing community
OR

• A Tool for
• Communal Organization of Knowledge
• and
• Community Organization by Knowledge

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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

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Solution 1.0
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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.

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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.orgJanuary 2001 Start
  of the projectDecember 2003 180,000 articles in
  writingJuly 2004 302,073 articles in
  writing
• A manifestation of goodwill and cooperation

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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

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An example

• The Google Browser
• Note the crowding of unwanted links
• And the odd connotations of the automated process

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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

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Stage makeup
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navigation
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Navigation
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More navigation
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Logging in
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Log in
Logging in
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editing

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

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Editing
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More editing

• Adding graph nodes
• Link to user, is formed implicitly

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Adding a discourse,stage

• Graph distortion

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Recent changes
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recent
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Show hide users/discourses

• The graph may be simplified in case of over
  crowding

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Show hide users and disc.
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Time limit of links
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User view time limit
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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)

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use
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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 users
• Active users will bring their areas of interest
  closer together

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user
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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 users
• Active users will bring their areas of interest
  closer together