English 285 - Interpreting Cyberspace
Final Paper - Timothy Allen
You Want To Try Some Netscape?
In the book Snowcrash by Neal Stephenson, the theoretical and fantastic interface known as "the Street" is introduced and explained. It is described as a kind of central path for information flow in a three-dimensional graphical environment. In some ways, this alternate reality is like the real world, but in many ways the rules are changed. This is an example of a more transparent interface than we currently have ever seen. Transparent interface is a term meaning an interface that presen ts information via computer so that the human mind does not realize there is an interface involved. In other words, using a set of VR-goggles with surround sound and power gloves is closer to the ultimate transparent interface than using a monitor, keyboa rd, mouse, and Netscape. However, the transparent interface is still just a theoretical goal; we can come closer to a transparent interface, but by no means have we achieved anything like Stephenson's vision... yet. Netscape is taking major steps in that direction.
The natural growth of the World Wide Web and the onslaught of new features that are introduced every few weeks allow an author, for the first time, to keep a work in progress for as long as they please. This major difference between text and hypermedi a is a major step towards a more transparent interface. It is another logical step in the evolution of how humans archive and store information. With the rate of expansion and the total amount of information available on the Internet and specifically the Web, it is necessary to study information retrieval and the effectiveness of different interfaces. To use the Web effectively, one must study how humans interact with the Internet and computer interfaces in general. To come up with a construction design, literature should be reviewed on what has already been studied. After this background work is concluded as well as studies of experiments, a model can be developed. Then an example of this model can be programmed. To have a truly effective interface in t he quest to develop a more and more transparent interface, care must be taken to fully use the features available on the Web.
Hiro Protagonist had been involved in the construction of the Street from its conception. As it grew, his power base and knowledge guaranteed that he had quite a bit of power in this new realm. I often feel the same way about the World Wide Web: havin g been involved in its development for several years, and seeing its use multiply exponentially, it is easy to feel almost like a god. Then I realize I'm little more than a legend in my own mind, much like Hiro until the story gets moving. The parallels b etween the Street and the Web are easy to draw: more and more features are being added, the construction process of authoring a good webpage described before correlates nicely with Stephenson's descriptions of the construction of the Street.
Developing a superior webpage or a flashier avatar on the Street both involve studying results from human-computer interaction studies in cognitive science, development of a theoretical model for a web interface or Street interface specifically, and i mplementation of this more specific model on-line in the programming. By the time we reach the possible stage of having an interface as transparent as the Street, most of these studies would have already taken place. Since interface study is a recent conc ept and a blooming field, it is hard to be specific about what kind of background work would have been done on the Street and how much is up to the individual programmer. The Philadelphia Music Homepage serves as a good example because it provides the aut hor with plenty of experimental data to see how to improve interfaces, and eventually develop new algorithms for web searching in the field of music. A more general model would show a methodology for developing new search algorithms for any specific field of information. As a field, music is a challenge as well, as it not only calls into question organization of information, but also of opinion and efficiency, which make it somewhat more complex to analyze. These are the questions I answered in my senior thesis, but they apply universally to information. New ways of looking at data must be achieved as we come closer and closer to having a transparent interface.
Information is available to us in thought, speech, books, television, networks, and many other forms of media. The World Wide Web (WWW) is providing a massive amount of data in different media types, and study of its organization will allow us to impr ove how we present information in particular situations. The flexibility of the web and the interfaces that present the information available give the author of a web page many different options in how to structure the information he or she wishes to pres ent for viewing. In this paper, I will discuss techniques for combining the different features to allow the information to be accessed thoroughly, expediently, and easily. The World Wide Web or the Street provide a huge pool of users, so it must be taken into consideration that all types of people may desire access. To have a successful public web page of information that people use, one must cater to the needs of all concerned. This means creating intriguing multimedia demo guides filled with advice on u se for the novices, and point and click menus that experts can quickly find material through. The parallel for the avatar would be to understand what clique you are involved in, and to be as flashy as possible. This shows off your proverbial genius to the masses and pumps your ego.
When Apple Computers coined the term "hypertext" with the release of Hypercard in 1987, along with Microsoft's release of Toolbook at about the same time, a new mode of organizing symbolic information was established. The term "hypertext" has been bro adened to "hypermedia" and the two are used somewhat interchangeably. Strictly speaking, hypertext is merely one medium that can be used in hypermedia. The reason the terms are treated as synonyms more often than not is that terms such as "hyperphotograph " or "hypersound" have never been brought into use. However, the addition of visual and audio stimuli are also forms of symbolic representation. In the article "Cognitive Architecture in Hypermedia Instruction", Henrietta Shirk provides an excellent basic description of hypermedia: "Hypermedia may be defined as information which is presented via computer controlled displays so that readers can jump easily and quickly between different items." Notice, however, that this term only covers hypermedia a nd should not be extended to a meaning of efficient, effective hypermedia.
After a basic grasp of this terminology is understood, it is more important to consider the layout for the audience, both expert and novice. In his 1991 article, "Writing Space: The Computer, Hypertext, and the History of Writing", Jay Bolter explains the new elements available. "A hypermedia display is still a text, a weaving together of elements treated symbolically. Hypermedia simply extends the principles of electronic writing into the domain of sound and image." The organization of information is a task easily maintained by computers, but the human author must consider both novice and expert users to provide quick, yet easy to use hypermedias. This relationship between computers and the mind is key to remember when attempting to make hypermedias effective.
An individual interface can have only one presentation style, such as a video game, or many like Web browsers. The ultimate transparent interface could theoretically fully fuse with the human senses and thought. Web browsers, however, rely on the auth or to create the structure and interaction of the different elements of the page. Each server set up is like constructing a different part of the Street, and the links in-between the webpages are similar to the Street itself, tying together the masses of information. With the many ways information can be organized, the Web offers the flexibility of making it extremely easy to add new features to the current system, and have those new features simply be overlooked by older versions. This ingenious set up a llows an author to set up a fully featured page with alternate pages easily incorporated for users without all the features of a fully functional graphical browser. Reactions to interfaces can be quite different; not everyone can fully conceive of the Web and what a resource it is. By allowing flexibility to expand, a system of information structures has been created encouraging the Web to evolve during its construction. In 10 years, perhaps people will describe the inception, building, and linking of the Web in much the same way Stephenson describes the Street's beginnings.
With the different browsers available, one of the major factors to keep in mind is flexibility to as many of the browsers as possible. For example, it is possible to have a graphic with alternate text display, if the user it not using a graphical brow ser. Browsers are also programmed to ignore commands not implemented, rather than generate an error, so this allows web pages to be viewed by browsers whether or not all features used on the web page have been implemented. Of course, the features not supp orted by the browser are left out from the display of the information that the browser will give. For example, NCSA Mosaic does not support formatting command for text: the display output of many pages is customized to the Netscape standard, to which most of the web browsers are similar. Netscape was programmed by the same people as NCSA Mosaic after they left to form an independent company, and is generally considered the next step to NCSA Mosaic. Quarterdeck, Spry, Spyglass, all have similar features to Netscape allowing somewhat of a standard to be established at the command and programming level.
However, Netscape has recently ceded dominance in the market with the release of Netscape Navigator 2.0. With too many new features too list, including many that have started to solve many people's objections to the World Wide Web, it has quickly beco me the standard of the Internet user pool. In addition to animation and Java, a new powerful language incorporated into Netscape, frames have been added. One of the major complaints about the Web, as mentioned before, was the lack of a feeling of location . Many people who used the Web felt as if they were simply browsing through a stream of data not meaning anything or leading anywhere. It was easy to be lead from one tangent to the next. The idea of framing is changing that; by providing a more structure d screen, the expert author can now create a table of contents on screen, as well as separating frames for different uses.
The other major innovation being used by the Philadelphia Music Homepage is that of RealTime Audio. Still under development, this new program allows the transfer of audio in real time, whether it be pre-recorded or broadcast. It supports ethernet, as well as both 14.4K bps modems and 28.8K bps modem. This incredible program, which only works in conjunction with Netscape 2.0's new plug-in program feature, solves a major complaint many of our users had of waiting for long periods of time to download and then listen to a song. This is only one of the new plug-in programs being written for Netscape Navigator 2.0. These plug-ins allow specific new features to be added without Netscape's programmers having to do them themselves. RealTime Audio can be broadc ast or a previous recording. The idea of RealTime Audio and Video (Video on Demand, or VOD) are both accomplished by the Street. Only recently has Netscape been able to match this vision from years past. Many other kinds of plug-ins for many different fie lds are being written, and they are practically self-installing. This gives Netscape an even bigger corner on the market as anyone can now program customized new features and programs for their specific web page and make it easy for its users to install a nd implement the feature. As Netscape evolves more and more, it is offering the expert author more and more options to make his page more efficient and enticing.
The ever expanding features of Netscape and HTML create a cut throat environment wherein to have a successful webpage you have to be at the top of your field. This idea of a cut throat environment is also very prevalent throughout the Street. As more and more features expand, more tools are available to the author for specific uses. This increases the overall use of the World Wide Web as well, which has not slowed down in its rate of expansion at all. Information systems are being looked at in new way s because of the new ideas in hypermedia and the concept of hypercontext. This is why it is absolutely essential to develop a hypothetical model for an information system than can be modified depending on the reactions of the users to the information.
If all of the features described in the Street were available to us today, and we had to program an avatar rather than a webpage for our final project, I suspect we might follow similar patterns to what we did for doing the webpages. After looking at all the available homepages of the class, here is how I would visualize our class avatars if we were all members of the Street and had a virtual class party instead of a real one.
We decided to have our class party at Beth's virtual house. She has virtual residence in a nice part of the Street, definitely in the downtown area, near the center of action but not right in the middle of it. Somehow, she has managed to have a lot of personal space for her virtual objects and her virtual home is very artistically decorated with an elaborately programmed holofountain in the foyer. Her avatar welcomes me at the door: a nice artistic mesh of colors not entirely resembling a human. I not ice Alex's avatar and recognize it, although as usual he's added and subtracted several bits of his look. It looks, for the most part, like Alex, just with flashy little jewelry routines and a really cool read-out screen on the back of his "Fuck the CDA" virtual shirt.
Christian yells to me from across the room. He is with Susan, both of whom have very abstract avatars with common elements throughout them. Susan's always resembles one of her photographs, her profession in the real world. You can recognize her from t he photographic style she uses, and her traditional purple. Christian is easy to recognize from his Space Ghost cape that his avatar always wears; he tends to change the body of his avatar daily depending on his mood, with the same face. My avatar is easy to pick up on: a cross between a human and a guitar. I've always wanted to have a guitar be the natural extension of my body.
Over in the corner, I hear arguing: its Dave and Jessica. They have very generic avatars, but speak loudly. Conversation spouts forth from Jessica's simple female avatar resembling Audrey from Twin Peaks and Dave's avatar, just four capital letters i n black and white spelling "DAVE." Never ones for flashy interfaces like Christian, Alex, and I, they make up for it in the forcefulness of their words. Douglas can be recognized, because although he uses one of the more generic male avatars, an American flag and a British flag can be seen on both sides of his white T-shirt, as well as hearing his voice. Ian's bright smile hasn't quite translated over onto his avatar as well, but his wonderfully optimistic voice definitely gives his avatar plenty of chara cter in real time.
Melissa taps me on the shoulder and yells "The Flyers won!" I can tell its her from her traditional Flyers jersey and her avatar. Her avatar started off as generic, but with help from a friend she managed to spice it up by linking to some specific fea tures. Its interesting seeing her avatar's new plasma hair, which she tells me she just added a link to. Dan and Nam-june sit together on the sofa, with Mir&a in the background as a hippie style avatar, tie-dye and all. Nam-june's avatar is quite flashy: definitely still resembling human form, but with very flashy threads. Luke comes down from the ceiling, resembled only as light with a voice activated routine on his avatar that allows you to look through all of the indexes he has made for links on improv ing avatars and recovering from cyber addictions. Kathy has learned to make her avatar resemble both Ren and Stimpy, although her voice comes from both of the characters intermittently. She uses them both to speak in an interesting sort of repartee, and t hey both are wearing bandannas. Guy's avatar has a bright blue eye at the center with tentacles in multiple colors. Always the whacky voice of reason, he is having a discussion with Lindsay trying to tell him how to be more creative with his rather plain avatar. Lindsay replies that although Guy's innovative choice of semblance may be good for Mr. LaBonte, that a more simple semblance keeps major tech-geeks away - always an advantage! Vivek and Nick are a treble clef and a bass clef respectively with thei r names swirled down the curve of the bass clef and the straight of the treble clef, each with a face-pic and unlimited e-business cards with more data in them about the music industry than anyone knew existed. The other people in the class still hadn't c reated their generic avatars or made any modifications, so they were not at the party. We all had a great time, and by the end of the class term, a lot of the people with flashier avatars and better programming skills had taught people with fewer skills h ow to improve their own avatars.
The previous fantasy may have been a bit of a stretch, but it works as a correlation. For the assignment of uses the features of the webpage for our final project, certain people used it for all of their course work and some people used it as minimall y possible. I believe the same thing would happen in avatar programming. The only difference is that right now the technology is not available for a transparent interface. The ultimate transparent interface will be a reality when you turn on your computer and start thinking. Once the computer can meld with thought itself, the interface will no longer be something to get in the way between human thought and information. However, we may want to keep a construct available at all times as a point of reference is never a bad thing to have.
Bibliography
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Stephenson, Neal. 1992. Snowcrash. Bantam Press.
Vygotsky, L. S. 1978. Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.