Modeling interactive memex-like applications based on self-modifiable petri nets

This paper introduces an interactive Memex-like application using a self-modifiable Petri Net model – Self-modifiable Color Petri Net (SCPN). The Memex (“memory extender”) device proposed by Vannevar Bush in 1945 focused on the problems of “locating relevant information in the published records and recording how that information is intellectually connected.” The important features of Memex include associative indexing and retrieval. In this paper, the self-modifiable functions of SCPN are used to achieve trail recording and retrieval. A place in SCPN represents a website and an arc indicates the trail direction. Each time when a new website is visited, a place corresponding to this website will be added. After a trail is built, users can use it to retrieve the websites they have visited. Besides, useful user interactions are supported by SCPN to achieve Memex functions. The types of user interactions include: forward, backward, history, search, etc. A simulator has been built to demonstrate that the SCPN model can realize Memex functions. Petri net instances can be designed to model trail record, back, and forward operations using this simulator. Furthermore, a client-server based application system has been built. Using this system, a user can surf online and record his surfing history on the server according to different topics and share them with other users

Big Data\u27s Other Privacy Problem

Big Data has not one privacy problem, but two. We are accustomed to talking about surveillance of data subjects. But Big Data also enables disconcertingly close surveillance of its users. The questions we ask of Big Data can be intensely revealing, but, paradoxically, protecting subjects\u27 privacy can require spying on users. Big Data is an ideology of technology, used to justify the centralization of information and power in data barons, pushing both subjects and users into a kind of feudal subordination. This short and polemical essay uses the Bloomberg Terminal scandal as a window to illuminate Big Data\u27s other privacy problem

Trail records and navigational learning

An emerging wave of 'ambient' technologies has the potential to support learning in new and particular ways. In this paper we propose a 'trail model' of 'navigational learning' which links some particular learning needs to the potentialities of these technologies. In this context, we outline the design and use of an 'experience recorder', a technology to support learning in museums. In terms of policy for the e-society, these proposals are relevant to the need for personalised and individualised learning support

Hypertexte : une histoire à revisiter

International audienceL'essor considérable de l'hypertexte depuis une dizaine d'années consacre l'accomplissement d'un projet plus que cinquantenaire : ce n'est pas en 1945, date de la publication du texte fondateur de Vannevar Bush, qu'est apparue cette notion, mais dès le début des années trente. S'appuyant notamment sur des travaux de Buckland, Nyce et Kahn, Alexandre Serres retrace ici la genèse et les premiers développements de la notion d'hypertexte : un mode de lecture-écriture non linéaire qui s'est concrétisé à travers des techniques très différentes sans pouvoir être réduit à l'une d'elles. L'évolution de cette notion hybride se situe à la croisée de plusieurs histoires, celles de l'informatique, de la documentation, de l'imprimerie, de l'utopie du savoir universel, des technologies intellectuelles... Cette recherche conduit à relativiser, sans le diminuer, le rôle éminent de Bush, et à admettre une multiplicité d'origines simultanées de l'hypertexte. Et à rendre à Paul Otlet la part qui lui revient dans la préfiguration de cette idée : si Bush en a exposé les principes qu'il a commencé à concrétiser en "inventant" le Memex et le Sélecteur rapide de microfilms, les conceptions d'Otlet, sans doute moins précises, apparaissent beaucoup plus ouvertes et visionnaire

Anticipating the Internet: how the predictions of Paul Otlet, H.G. Wells and Vannevar Bush shaped the Digital Information Age

This is an historical research project that investigates predictions of future information technology made by Paul Otlet, H.G. Wells and Vannevar Bush, specifically those described in the Mundaneum, World Brain and Memex respectively. It is carried out by means of an extended review of the relevant Library and Information Science literature and aims to determine the reasons for their predictions, the relationship (if any) between them, and their influence upon the development of the modern-day Internet. After investigating the work of each figure in turn, further investigation is undertaken through a comparative analysis. It concludes that, although there are differences in approach and emphasis between the predictions, each of them was made in reaction to a common problem – the proliferation of published information – and each of them aimed to solve this problem by applying scientific means to improve the free flow of information throughout society, thus improving it for the benefit of all. Furthermore, their ideas stemmed from the same intellectual traditions of positivism and utopianism, and were expressed through technology, that although advanced for its time, was rapidly superseded by the rise of digital computing during the second half of the twentieth century. Finally, although the technology they used to express their predictions is now obsolete, and had little direct influence on the practical workings of the contemporary Internet, the works, concepts and ideas of Otlet, Wells and Bush remain highly relevant in today’s ever-increasingly Digital Age

Metadata and ontologies for organizing students’ memories and learning: standards and convergence models for context awareness

Este artículo trata de las ontologías que sirven para la comprensión en contexto y la Gestión de la Información Personal (PIM)y su aplicabilidad al proyecto Memex Metadata(M2). M2 es un proyecto de investigación de la Universidad de Carolina del Norte en Chapel Hill para mejorar la memoria digital de los alumnos utilizando tablet PC, la tecnología SenseCam de Microsoft y otras tecnologías móviles(p.ej. un dispositivo de GPS) para capturar el contexto del aprendizaje. Este artículo presenta el proyecto M2, dicute el concepto de los portafolios digitales en las actuales tendencias educativas, relacionándolos con las tecnologías emergentes, revisa las ontologías relevantes y su relación con el proyecto CAF (Context Awareness Framework), y concluye identificando las líneas de investigación futuras.This paper focuses on ontologies supporting context awareness and Personal Information Management (PIM) and their applicability in Memex Metadata (M2) project. M2 is a research project of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to improve student digital memories using the tablet PC, Microsoft’s SenseCam technology, and other mobile technologies (e.g., a GPS device) to capture context. The M2 project offers new opportunities studying students’ learning with digital technologies. This paper introduces the M2 project; discusses E-portfolios and current educational trends related to pervasive computing; reviews relevant ontologies and their relationship to the projects’ CAF (context awareness framework), and concludes by identifying future research directions

A Journal-Driven Bibliography of Digital Humanities

Digital Humanities Quarterly (DHQ) seeks Level II funding to develop a bibliographic resource through which the journal can create, manage, export, and publish high-quality bibliographic data from DHQ articles and their citations, as well as from the broader digital humanities research domain. Drawing on data from this resource, we will develop visualizations through which readers can explore citation networks and find related articles. We will also publish the full bibliography as a public web-based service that reflects the profile of current digital humanities research. The bibliography will be maintained and expanded through incoming DHQ articles and citations, and through contributions from the DH community. DHQ is an open-access online journal published by the Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations (ADHO), hosted at Brown University and Indiana University, and serves as a crucial point of encounter between digital humanities research and the wider humanities community

“Reconfiguring Narrative” Using Digital Tools

This article describes the use of digital technology and text markup in the production and dissemination of scholarship. Traditional narrative, as static, linked arguments and paragraphs reflect the constraints, limitations but important use of print technology. “Reconfiguring the narrative” to reflect the capabilities of online scholarship enables readers and writers to engage in more thorough explorations of the text, theory, concepts, and interpretations (Landow, 2006)