Cosma / Communication / Knowledge / Navigation

A key goal of Cosma is to have a 3D interface to enable truly spatial “Knowledge Navigation”of the Knowledge Resources hosted on the Cosma Web site. It would be impossible to overstate the centrality of the concept of Knowledge Navigation to Cosma. The project is founded upon the premise that when knowledge is intuitively (re)organized, and then presented in a spatial format, everyone can easily master it. This premise has driven the development of Cosma, and that is why this site features Worlds for you to use to explore this Web site and others. You can find out a lot more about the history of the ongoing quest to provide a 3D interface to Cosma on the Worlds Challenge page. ¹

These are organized by a classification scheme developed exclusively for Cosma. More…

General

Dictionary

knowledge : the sum of what is known : the body of truth, information, and principles acquired by humankind — Webster See also OneLook, Free Dictionary, Wiktionary

navigation : to steer a course through a medium — Webster See also OneLook, Free Dictionary, Wiktionary

knowledge navigation : : to steer a course through the body of truth, information, and principles acquired by humankind — M. E. Hopper

Preservation

History

The Technical Evolution of Vannevar Bush’s Memex (Belinda Barnet, Digital Humanities Quarterly)
As We May Think (Vannevar Bush, The Atlantic)
Memex (Wikipedia)

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Museum

Knowledge Navigation Exhibit (New Computer Museum)
New Media Museum (Knowledge Navigation, Trailblazers, Service, Hypermedia, World)

Library

WorldCat, Library of Congress, UPenn Online Books, Open Library

Participation

Education

Crash Course Navigating Digital Information

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MIT IAP 2000 Knowledge Systems 101: From Alexandria to Hitchhiker’s Guide (Hopper)

1. One stop in the saga of Mary E. Hopper’s mission to enable truly spatial knowledge navigation took her to MIT where she developed content for a presentation and a short course during her Post Doc in Comparative Media Studies.
Hopper, M. E. (1998, October). Hypertext in historical context: Vannevar Bush and Ted Nelson revisited. Media-in-Transition Project / Communications Forum, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA.
Hopper, M. E. (2000, January). Knowledge systems 101: From Alexandria to Hitchhiker’s Guide [Short Course]. Independent Activity Period (IAP), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA.

Hopper’s obsession with Knowledge Navigation has gone so far as to lead to making up a significant percentage of her New Media Museum! In actuality, that museum is truly a sister project to Cosma at the deepest level. Here are links to the part of the collection related to Knowledge Navigation (Navigation, Trailblazers, Service, Hypermedia, World).

Knowledge Navigation

Spotlight

Resources