Networking Tree - Concept
- Started
- Last post
- 16 Responses
- -kappa-
Hope this makes sense...
I've been thinking about this. A flash based network tree. Shows all your connections and who they know etc etc. If It's done well it would be an online 6 degrees of seperation type thing. You could see who you know and who they know and so on.
People could add their details and what they do, eg. if you needed a plumber you could search the tree and find a plumber that was somehow connected to you via a friend of a friend of a friend. The application of this could be adopter by user groups or online communities.
Am I on drugs or is this doable...
- Hym0
you are on drugs for thinking that it doesn't exist already. Microsofts Avalon comes with a demo source that displays your music collection like this with all the fancy 3d navigation effects.
- -kappa-0
OK time to family tree my drug collection...
- mirola0
i had a similar idea a few years ago, i wrote about it as a recommendation to oxfam for their big noise campaign. i've never had enough spare time to do it. mine was more linked to geography as apposed to abstract space. i love the idea you've got though. keep it up, it's a really beautiful idea.
all the people and their info could be done in a big xml tree.
- Engage_London0
It would work okay for lonely people who only have the number of connections you list, the ral feat would be to actually handle a real example... try mapping out the people you know and what would that look like?
If you know 100 people... that is going to be chaotic to start with... and you're not even linking to anyone else! Good examples of this are peoples link pages on their sites,they have a lot of links and the focus is usually quite specific
I guess you need a good way to only show a selected amount through progressive disclosure rather than scare someone who comes to the app and sees a mountain of names!
- -kappa-0
i agree, i didn't go into too mcuh detial as it would confuse firstly myself then others trying to understand my concept.
Your totally right. Displaying the data as to not confuse the user is the biggest hurdle.
- -kappa-0
relevant.
http://www.imagecels.com/im04004…I personaly think this is the way things will head in the future navigation wise. Instead of flat 2d folder you'll be accessing 3d data displayed in 2d format.
- Engage_London0
especially when you consider that visual theasaurus that has been around a while... there are many more people than words...
if 20 people know 20 people,
and those 20 people know 20 people,
and those 20 people know 20 people,
and those 20 people know 20 people,
and those 20 people know 20 people...good luck with it... its a good way to develop loads of really cool tools though...
if you can get it right for this, you could apply it to almost anything
- stem0
Agreed Engage.
In the 'screengrab' there's a small group of people - five or six, say these have twenty contacts each?
I'm sure the 3d thing will be visually imperssive, but in practical terms I think it would be a knightmare. I think a serach engine would be better.
Where does the database end?
This would be a organic database which mimics the 'human relationships'. Interesting phrase of friend of a friend in reality is more like friend of a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend... you get the picture!
I'll stick to my address book or simply ask my mates of they know a good plumber, should I need one.
- Engage_London0
I think people like to view data in different ways..
I worked on a 3d nav with a director once and he said that he had trouble before with a 3d environment for the story of snow white and the 7 dwarfs... he found that as people were flying around it they were getting lost and ending miles away floating in space...
Some people don't feel comfortable with 3d space... (I have trouble finding my way around 3d modelling packages)
I like the idea of being able to offer that form of nav to some people... but for others the concept of dealing out the stuff like a pack of cards can be just as simple and people understand some of these metaphors
- Engage_London0
You also need to think about for excample the british library... is it quicker for you to wander around it looking for the book... or is it quicker to do a serch in a database and find the book?
...Or even just find it wherabout s first before you start searching th whole space...
one good thing about a 3d environment though is that you will find / discover other stuff through browsing
- -kappa-0
that Thinkmap is very interesting cheers, Engage.
- stem0
one good thing about a 3d environment though is that you will find / discover other stuff through browsing
Engage_London
(Jun 21 05, 00:43)You may even have the opportunity to talk to a real human being and they might give you some suggestions of other books worth reading. Or ask where the toilets are. Make new friends etc.
I hate to sound like I'm pouring cold water on your idea. This is not the case. I think there is something in it. I'm just not sure of it application. It kind of seems like you are trying to find a need or a use for this software model, rather than starting with the human need/problem/issues.
It seems a bit back-to-front to me.
- foreign0
"People could add their details and what they do, eg. if you needed a plumber you could search the tree and find a plumber that was somehow connected to you via a friend of a friend of a friend. The application of this could be adopter by user groups or online communities."
i really like the idea. it's good.
but like other's have said for it to work the interface and the way you display the info is going to make it work or not.
- mirola0
how about swarms of people all positioned on a map of earth according to their ip address and londitude and lattitude. when zommed out you could see tiny dots where people are and you could perhaps zoom right into someone's profile. you might see a big swarm of your friends in london, then as you connect to people perhaps in america or something you would see it connect over there and start a littl swarm over. you could even watch a playback of the swarms grow over time if you timestamped all the people joining.
i'd be interested in helping you out on the back-end if it went in that kind of direction. if you need the help that is?
- SteveJobs0
i think usability is a big concern here.
if you're building a database driven application, you have to ask yourself if you are really making data retrieval easier for the end user or are you just putting together a project to show off your pseudo 3d skills in hopes of better industry recognition.
i've seen some very interesting projects done using this, "because i can" mentallity, but in terms of practicallity, they were pretty useless.
- -kappa-0
this is interesting
http://www.webbrain.com/html/def…