Tag: Knowledge Navigation

Cosma’s Golden Jubilee!

~ mehopper ~ 1 Comment

It’s Cosma’s Birthday!

Cosma came into being through an accident of confluence fifty years ago.

I happened to be working in a library, and I got deeply enamored with the power of using the Dewey Decimal System to navigate it.

Then I was also exposed to the spatial game Empire on the PLATO system.

Viola!

It struck me that it would be SO cool to make a game where “knowledge is a place” that you can navigate with addresses like you can in “planned cities” like Indianapolis where I grew up.

It would be a fictional city using Dewey Decimal for addresses so that everyone could navigate knowledge as naturally as they do planned cities.

Making knowledge a place would democratize it!

I’ve been working on making “knowledge a place” ever since. The concept has evolved a LOT over the years, but this was the original spark. Of course, I also found out along the way that I am not the only one with an idea like this — there’s a very, very long history of such things.

I noticed that the anniversary of my “big idea” was approaching while I was working on Cosma’s new Welcome Area that I dubbed Knowledge Lobby.

I got nostalgic and played around with what a “real life” exhibit about Cosma might look like. Then that thought experiment snowballed into an exercise in visualization.

Note that most objects are visual links to the Web!


You can also explore it on Kuula.

This week I got even more nostalgic and decided to write a post to share a bit more information about the history and evolution of Cosma.

Oooops, I did it, again — it snowballed, too 🙂

Check out the results on the new Timeline page!

So, how will we celebrate this Jubilee?

Take a short break and get back to expanding and posting on Cosma!

Happy Birthday to Cosma & Cheers to You!

Cosma is not a funded project — money is neither requested nor accepted, so there is no budget for publicity.

The only request is that you please tell other people about it.

Thank you!

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© M. E. Hopper

Cosma’s Knowledge Lobby!

~ mehopper

Check out Cosma’s brand new Knowledge Lobby!


You can also explore it on Kuula.

Here’s a quick backstory about it.

I’ve been “making knowledge a place” for a long time, so at this point Cosma features MANY 3D worlds that enable spatial navigation of the Cosma site and other content on the Web.

Recently I’ve been upgrading my old Toy Worlds to somewhat parallel Web Worlds.

For example, here’s the “Walk in Art” Toy World.


You can also explore it on Kuula.

It was cute for what it was, but limited.

Here is the newer, expanded “Walk in Art & Museums” Web World.


You can also explore it on Kuula.

You get the idea.

This Welcome Area is one of the few Toy Worlds that I hadn’t upgraded to a Web World.


You can also explore it on Kuula.

It is essentially a 3D version of Cosma’s 2D Showcase page that has links to sample pages, and it has been the primary interface to Cosma since 2018. It was overdue for an overhaul.

Again, here’s the same new Web World as above for comparison.


You can also explore it on Kuula.

Notice that there is a (not very well hidden) trap door that leads to another new Web World.

Next year marks a major milestone in Cosma’s development, so I was playing around with what a real life exhibit about it would look like. Then my simple thought experiment snowballed into this elaborate exercise in visualization.


You can also explore it on Kuula.

Of course, every object is a visual link to something on the Web.

What better place to put such a thing than below the new Welcome Area, right?

It serves as an extended, visual “About” page.

So that’s the story behind Cosma’s new “Knowledge Lobby” and the cellar beneath it.

Now the majority of my Toy Worlds have been upgraded to Web Worlds.

Although, there are still a few more to go …

Stay Tuned!