Everything Still Looks Like A Graph (but graphs look like maps) by Dan Brickley.
From the post:
Last October I posted a writeup of some experiments that illustrate item-to-item similarities from Apache Mahout using Gephi for visualization. This was under a heading that quotes Ben Fry, “Everything looks like a graph” (but almost nothing should ever be drawn as one). There was also some followup discussion on the Gephi project blog
The entry quoting Ben Fry is entitled Linked Literature, Linked TV – Everything Looks like a Graph and is a great read! Both from the experiments he reports on visualizing linked data and the visualizations that are part of the posts.
Near the end of the “Everything Still Looks Like A Graph…” Dan remarks:
There’s no single ‘correct’ view of the bibliographic landscape; what makes sense for a phd researcher, a job seeker or a schoolkid will naturally vary. This is true also of similarity measures in general, i.e. for see-also lists in plain HTML as well as fancy graph or landscape-based visualizations. There are more than metaphorical comparisons to be drawn with the kind of compositing tools we see in systems like Blender, and plenty of opportunities for putting control into end-user rather than engineering hands.
What do you make of:
There’s no single ‘correct’ view…of similarity measures in general, i.e., for see-also lists in plain HTML…
and
…plenty of opportunities for putting control into end-user rather than engineering hands.
???
Is it the case that most semantic solutions offer users “similarity measures” as applied by the author’s of the semantic solutions?
That may or may not the same as “similarity measures” as applied by users?
Is that why user continue to use Google? That for all of its crudeness, it does offer users the freedom to create their own judgements on similarity?
So how do we create an interface that:
- Enables users to use their own judgements of similarity
- Enables users to capture those judgements of similarity for use by others
- Enables uses to explain/disclose their judgements of similarity (to enable other users to agree/not-agree)
- Does so with only a little more effort than like/dislike?
and
and
and
Suggestions/comments/proposals?