This is forwarded from Jon Ippolito, apologies for delay. Begin forwarded message: > From: Jon Ippolito <[log in to unmask]> > Date: 27 April 2008 00:26:57 BST > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: ThoughtMesh > > I think Armin is quite right that academics are largely out of the > loop of networked culture and risk becoming increasingly isolated for > this reason. (I'd like to participate in Armin's TheNextLayer project > but am unsure how and where to make > contributions...?) > > For my part I have been working with Craig Dietrich on ThoughtMesh, an > unusual model for publishing and discovering scholarly papers online. > It gives readers a tag-based navigation system that uses keywords to > connect excerpts of essays published on > different Web sites. > > Add your essay to the mesh, and ThoughtMesh gives you a traditional > navigation menu plus a tag cloud that enables nonlinear access to text > excerpts. You can navigate across excerpts both within the original > essay and from related essays distributed > across the mesh. > > So let's say you are reading an essay on Modern art. You can pick a > single word out of that essay's tag cloud--say Picasso--and view a > list of all the sections from that essay that relate to Picasso. Or > you can view a list of sections of other > articles tagged with Picasso, and jump right to one of those sections. > You can also combine tags to narrow your search, such as Picasso + > Cubism + 1900. > > As an author, you can choose to post your essay in a central > repository hosted by the Vectors program at USC, the sponsor of this > project. Or you can self-archive your essay on your own Web site. > (That's the "distributed publication" part.) > > All you need is an essay with sections and about 15 minutes. > ThoughtMesh already includes articles by writers like Roger Malina, > Christiane Paul, Alex Galloway, and many others. Craig and I are eager > for more folks to try it; email me if you'd like > help: > > http://thoughtmesh.net/ > > Cheers, > > jon > > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------- Beryl Graham, Professor of New Media Art School of Arts, Design, Media and Culture, University of Sunderland Ashburne House, Ryhope Road Sunderland SR2 7EE Tel: +44 191 515 2896 [log in to unmask] CRUMB web resource for new media art curators http://www.crumbweb.org