Knowledge Management
DeepaMehta is an open source platform for knowledge management.
DeepaMehta is the technical basis for a Knowledge Management Infrastructure.
DeepaMehta is a tool for knowledge workers.
DeepaMehta includes support for storage and distrubution of information, for knowledge acquisition and capturing of ideas.
For All Daily Work
DeepaMehta is an operating system for knowledge management.
DeepaMehta provides a core set of topic types for the every day needs: Person, Email, Webpage, Document, Workspace.
Potentially you can perform all your daily information based work in one window.
Conceptually DeepaMehta can be used as an universal user interface for the most of your every day tasks.
You can use DeepaMehta for all kinds of projects: personal, business or community.
Anyone who have to deal with a lot of information can benefit from DeepaMehta.
You can use DeepaMehta to handle all kinds of information in an universal user interface.
You can see the DeepaMehta user interface as a "networked semantic desktop" replacing your current desktop.
DeepaMehtas "networked semantic desktop" provides you with a "productivity layer" that works above your current desktop.
Cognitively Adequate
The unique feature is an universal brain-savvy user interface.
DeepaMehta provides a brain-savvy user interface that focuses on the knowledge building process of an individual.
DeepaMehta applies research results of cognitive psychology, learning theory and user interface design to remove the barriers between user and machine.
The user interface is built according to research in cognitive science and accomodates the knowledge building process of the individual.
DeepaMehta uses interdisciplinary research results to remove the barriers between user and machine.
DeepaMehta is based on cognition science as well as computer science.
DeepaMehta to allow more people to use the computer as a tool for workflow and social processes.
Hides Apps & Files
The DeepaMehta Desktop rids you from dealing with applications, windows, files and directories.
DeepaMehta doesn't confront the user with files, applications and document windows.
DeepaMehta rids the user from handling information by means of files, applications, dialog boxes ... instead the user handles information semantically.
Instead of handling information through applications, windows and files with DeepaMehta the user handles all kind of information directly and individually.
The DeepaMehta user interface is different. All information is presented to the user in form of a topic map. Instead of working with files, applications and windows the user is inside the information.
All kind of information is displayed and manipulated directly on the desktop -- without using applications.
With DeepaMetha information is directly handled on the desktop, and is never hidden by any window.
All information is handled directly at the desktop level.
The desktop is never obscured by other windows.
No mind boggling questions anymore: which application? which window? what file?
Applications designed for the DeepaMehta platform run completely out of your sight.
Instead the traditional GO TO navigation -- which application? which window? what file? -- DeepaMehta realizes a BRING TO ME navigation, that is is information is brought to the user.
Handle Info directly
Instead you deal with the actual topics of your daily work, e.g. emails, projects, webpages, images, contacts, appointents.
Instead you arrange information from a variety of kinds and origins into topic maps that support your current work situation.
Instead arbitrary kinds of information are arranged as semantic networks.
Everything can be part of a topic map, e.g. emails, projects, webpages, images, contacts, appointents.
A topic can be any object, e.g. a person, an article or an project.
Topics are e.g. persons, webpages, emails, ...
A concept can be anything, e.g. a person, an article, an organization or a search result.
DeepaMehta stores all kind of information in a "Corporate Memory"
All kinds of topics may be displayed together in one window.
The 1-Window graphical user interface shows a pool [of information objects] subset as topic map.
Topic Maps Interface
The most outstanding trait of DeepaMehtas is its topic maps based user interface.
DeepaMehtas graphical user interface is completely based on Mind Maps / Concept Maps
Information is dislayed and handled as topic maps.
DeepaMehta shows nothing but topics maps.
Concepts and Relations
DeepaMehta holds all kind of information as semantic network of concepts and relations.
Information is always presented and handled as a map of topics and associations.
DeepaMehta presents information as a topic map. A topic map consists of topics and associations.
A topic map consists of topics and associations between topics. Topics as well as associations are typed. Associations might be directed.
A topic map consists of information nodes and relationsships between them.
DeepaMehta maintains a pool of information objects and relationships between them.
Information is stored as topics and associations, both are typed.
Information is represented as a semantic network of topics and associations.
An association is ...
Relationships between topics, e.g. the participants of a meeting are expressed visually.
A relation e.g. can define a membership between a person and a workgroup.
Semantic relationships may be manifested.
Standard operation are provided by all concepts, e.g. the "What's related?" command is used to navigate alongside the relations.
Depending on their tasks and interests the users navigate through certain areas of the network.
In DeepaMehta a topic map is always the users personal view to the pool.
Topic position is actively controlled by the user.
The topic map emerges while the user reveals related topics.
Topics that are no longer of interest are hidden.
DeepaMehta lets you define your own terms and views.
Living Topics
In DeepaMehta concepts and relations are living: they not only represent information but also provide operations, e.g. a email provides a "send" command.
behind the scenes are actually running applications, e.g. for email, web and calendar.
Topics and Associations are not just graphic elements but carriers for typed information.
Topics are not just static information, they have behavior too: an email topic may be send, a webpage topic displays the webpage directly.
That's why an email is sent instantly, or a webpage is displayed seamlessly -- without switching between applications.
Community
DeepaMehta can be used alone or together with others.
User interfaces of today do separate the user's data into windows and applications. The real-world relationships between the data are lost resp. exist only in the user's head and thus can not easily be shared between users.
Workgroups and internet communities need a more efficient knowledge management concern.
The pool [of information objects] can be huge and is maintained by many users.
The DeepaMehta infrastructure lets us think together by building shared structures of meaning.
The entirety of topics and associations -- the corporate memory -- may comprise millions of topics and is potentially accessible by thousands of workgroups collaboratively.
You can use the demo.
You can get an account.
A registered user can
- create topic maps in a private workspace
- join shared workspaces to build topic maps collaboratively
- create shared workspaces for any interest
- work with documents, email, web, appointments, forum discussions, chats ...
- build further topic types
- associate arbitrary topics with each other
- export topic maps as XML/SVG/PDF
They need not install software on their computers.
Everyone
Everyone can become a registered user at http://www.deepamehta.de to establish communities for a variety of topics.
Multimedial semantic networks for your personal interests.
I would start with
- An Music application "Ocean of Sounds" could talk about artists, groups, tracks, discographies, biographies, labels, ... The epitonic database could be queried online
- An application about computer history could talk about inventors, machines, companies, ...
All applications are easily crosslinked.
DeepaMehta is a distributed environment.
You can download and install DeepaMehta on your machine.
You can create dynamic websites.
Develop
You can develop applications.
The DeepaMehta software architecture is designed as a complete framework for application developers.
For developers DeepaMehta provides an object oriented application framework.
DeepaMehta is a programming environment for application programmers.
- DeepaMehta is a research and development project.
- DeepaMehta is a software architecture.
- DeepaMehta is a develpment platform.
DeepaMehta is an engineering achievement of computing science.
DeepaMehta is universal, alterable, and grows along requirements.
Software developers can reuse the DeepaMehta architecture for building custom applications.
How does the programmer experience DeepaMehta?
(Rests of former Intro Text > What is DeepaMehta?)
- In DeepaMehta, Topics are "living": besides declarative knowledge they represent also procedural knowledge in form of code.
- Each Topic type can be assigned to a Java class.
- Procedural knowledge is inherited to subtypes.
- In DeepaMehta, an application is a collection of types.
- DeepaMehta applications run server-sided.
3 Questions
- How would a software have to be structured to be adaptable to new conditions while the deployment is running?
- How could a user interface look like that matches thinking processes better than today's "desktop" metaphor of programs, windows, folders, and files?
- How would economy and culture have to be re-thought, regarding the nature of software:
- The value of software does not arise from producing a copy. Copying of bits and bytes is done automatically, and it is downright the nature of all things digital.
- Software is less of a product, rather, it is more of a service delivery. It always needs a "translator", an intermediator between the real space and the digital space.
- Same as society, software is in a perpetual beta test.
- Software is a cultural good, like cooking recipes: you happily pass them on to friends. Each cook modulates the recipe to fit their own taste, and if the friends like it, too, there will soon be a new mutation of the recipe circulating. Or else, maybe you are a publisher and release a cookbook. Everything works.
Goals
(Which need should DeepaMehta development fill?)
(My goals)
- Make DeepaMehta known
- Establish interdisciplinary interest groups (e. g. from teaching and research or from the social sector) who put DeepaMehta to the test in practical scenarios and develop it further.
"It is the simple that is so hard to produce" ("Es ist das einfache, das so schwer herzustellen ist") - Bertolt Brecht
"Simple does not mean vanilla. ("Einfach ist nicht gleich simple.) Simplicity means clarity in thinking, to get to the bottom of things" (Einfachheit bedeutet Klarheit im Denken, den Dingen auf den Grund gehen")
- Paul Klee
Mies van der Rohe
Wolfgang Schmidtbauer: "The simple things" ("Die einfachen Dinge")
Plan
Thank you zoula for your input. I like to use the opportunity to tell you what my plan with DeepaMehta is and how you and others could benefit from DeepaMehta or even contribute to it.
How does the user experience DeepaMehta? and What is DeepaMehta? (End user aspects): see above.
Where does DeepaMehta want to go?
DeepaMehta is beta software and I like to test it in real-world scenarios###.
Because DeepaMehta is an open platform anyone can use the DeepaMehta website to start a community for a certain topic. The contents are mainted collaboratively and because of the semantic network nature of DeepaMehta the communities can be interconnected.
As a contract software developer I like to prove the DeepaMehta software in real-world projects like the "Kiez-Atlas" project. DeepaMehta is beta software. The application framework is quite developed but surely not complete. According to extreme programming extensions will be made in the scope of real-world projects.
Software Developers
In DeepaMehta an application is a collection of topic types and association types. Software developers can provide an custom implementation in form of a Java class, e.g. the type "Email" provides the behavior for sending an email. DeepaMehta provides an application framework. If there is no custom implementation the type will derive the core commands: "What's related", "Hide", "Retype", "Delete", "Google Search" and "Help".
Societal Impact
".. learn to think together by building shared structures of meaning" (NMR p. 11)
Some of us have computer experience of 30 years or even more. The omnipresent mouse and windows based user interfaces is there for more than 20 years. Since 10 years we have the WWW. People who followed this process have a reasonable feeling about what machines actually to us.
"Computers rarely improve the efficiency of the information work they are designed for because they are too hard to use and do too little that is sufficiently useful. Their many features, designed to make them more marketable, merely increase cost and complexity."
The Open Source phanomena and high resonance for user centered design are signs for changes to come.
The next big wave is about to upset the relations between humans, machines and the society.
"Modularized software and networked computing will require a re-engineering of the entire economy and of a substantial part of our culture."
DeepaMehta provides a shared conceptual framework
DeepaMehta
- As a user interface
- As a development environment
DeepaMehta is a long-term effort to re-design the relations between humans, machines and the society.
The comprehensive DeepaMehta vision is to re-design the relations between humans, machines and the society. User interfaces and Open Source play an important role here. It is a concrete goal of DeepaMehta to better utilize the digital power for cognitive processes. A fundamental re-design of the user interface requires a re-design of the entire system architecture. (Collins: "The Interface is the system"). As "shared conceptual framework", DeepaMehta represents a shared environment of thinking and acting for this redesign process.
DeepaMehta is a long-term effort acting on the interface between humans and computer.
DeepaMehta provides a crucial benefit for 1) individuals 2) workgroups and 3) society.
The utility of computers is often overrated. At the same time, their potential is far from depleted.
It is a danger to believe that the goal had been reached yet.
We have not yet succeeded in harnessing the "digital power" in the same manner as, say, electrical or mechanical powers.
The development of computers is still in its infancy. Indeed, hardware and software innovations happen in very short intervals. However, fundamental developments rather happen in intervals of several decades (paradigm shifts). The personal computer (PC) has its origin in the 70s. Of the same age is also the customary handling via mouse, windows, and icons. The next paradigm shift is imminent.
The old computing is about what computers can do; The new computing is about what people can do. - Ben Shneiderman
- Productivity
- Efficiency
- familiar
- simple
- intuitive
"let the human think -- that's where their are best of let the machine do the work -- that's where their are best of"
Balance of Power and Control
Technical progress brings new device to our desktop that, 10 or 20 years ago, we could only dream of. Ultra-fast processors, huge storage, huge display with millions of colours. For any imaginable purpose a suitable software program. Broadband access to worldwide information and communication services. Everything easy to be operated using mouse and graphical user interface. By means of wireless, the electronic helpers are at our disposal even in the car or while jogging. Not only tech freaks are enthused. Media competency resounds throughout the land. The perfect precondition for the information society.
Also politicians, managers, pedagogues, and artists discuss the relevance and the affordances of the society that is impacted.
Don't be seduced by the allurement of new features and the next system generation. "The next hot thing".
Where is a societal benefit perceptible?
Where is a economic benefit perceptible?
What means "easy to operate"?
What means "productivity"?