So, since I've been absolutely horrid in using this blog to document my progress, I decided that the rest of my postcount can be dedicated towards disseminating all the links that have been sent to me via del.icio.us, and settle for accumulating all the work Jasper and I have done in one page.
So, on to where I last left off.
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Is Cyberspace Really a Space?
This article mostly talks about how to make the concept of cyberspace appealing to a reader or viewer - rather than boring them with details of the technical aspect of the internet and data transfers, or going in depth to the point that people wouldn't even understand it anymore, it simply says that a simple metaphor will help make it interesting. Like, as the example used, in Neuromancer, a cyber "space," where various aspects of the underlying technologies manifest themselves as physical objects.
This pertains to the concept of our project in that we are trying to make the internet into a "space" - space as we actually know it. Data is manifested as physical planets and objects, distances between planets and solar systems depend on interconnectivity, and some of the underlying things like IPs determine space ports and other connections.
One of the things the author expresses concern about is the "distance" of a cyber "space." That making things actually have a distance and require time to get to takes away some of the magic of the near-instantaneous connections of the internet. I think our project addresses a concern like this by making space travel near instantaneous as well. Sure, we could make you sit through a minute of stars zipping past in order for the user to reach a "distant" planet - one that doesn't really relate to other pages all that much - but then I feel that would detract users from actually going to planets such as that, and users would then only stick to the common planets, the one close to each other, and not feel like they should be branching out.
All in all, this article touches on a lot of what we're trying to do with this project, which is make the internet into something people will want to understand and explore, because we've done all the legwork of making it understandable to the user.
So, on to where I last left off.
------------------------
Is Cyberspace Really a Space?
This article mostly talks about how to make the concept of cyberspace appealing to a reader or viewer - rather than boring them with details of the technical aspect of the internet and data transfers, or going in depth to the point that people wouldn't even understand it anymore, it simply says that a simple metaphor will help make it interesting. Like, as the example used, in Neuromancer, a cyber "space," where various aspects of the underlying technologies manifest themselves as physical objects.
This pertains to the concept of our project in that we are trying to make the internet into a "space" - space as we actually know it. Data is manifested as physical planets and objects, distances between planets and solar systems depend on interconnectivity, and some of the underlying things like IPs determine space ports and other connections.
One of the things the author expresses concern about is the "distance" of a cyber "space." That making things actually have a distance and require time to get to takes away some of the magic of the near-instantaneous connections of the internet. I think our project addresses a concern like this by making space travel near instantaneous as well. Sure, we could make you sit through a minute of stars zipping past in order for the user to reach a "distant" planet - one that doesn't really relate to other pages all that much - but then I feel that would detract users from actually going to planets such as that, and users would then only stick to the common planets, the one close to each other, and not feel like they should be branching out.
All in all, this article touches on a lot of what we're trying to do with this project, which is make the internet into something people will want to understand and explore, because we've done all the legwork of making it understandable to the user.
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