iScape: A Collaborative Memory Palace for Digital Library Search Results
Katy Börner · 2001
Massive amounts of data are available in today’s Digital Libraries (DLs). The challenge is to find relevant information quickly and easily, and to use it effectively. A standard way to access DLs is via a text-based query issued by a single user. Typically, the query results in a potentially very long ordered list of matching documents, that makes it hard for users to find what they are looking for. This paper presents iScape, a shared virtual desktop world dedicated to the collaborative exploration and management of information. Data mining and information visualization techniques are applied to extract and visualize semantic relationships in search results. A three-dimensional (3-D) online browser system is exploited to facilitate complex and sophisticated human-computer and human-human interaction. Informal user studies have been conducted to compare the iScape world with a text-based, a 2-D visual Web interface, and a 3-D non-collaborative CAVE interface. We conclude with a discussion. 1.