A journey for the 21st century

Navigating the world and the world of information

Imagine stepping from the dark, dank Seattle winter into a city on the sunny side of the globe. Imagine stepping from your home into the streets of Sydney or Singapore or Helsinki.

In the current state of affairs, you can take this step across the Internet. You could even make arrangements to book a flight, get a hotel room, see what is available for arts, events or food. But you'll spend hours doing it - sorting painfully, slowly through 100,000 hyperlinks to find 60 that relate to your interests.

Now, imagine that in taking this journey, you are able to do all these things, and also take in real-time views of the places, make 3-D journeys with connections to points of interest, and interact in real time with information, and, more importantly, with people. Imagine doing it easily, smoothly, using visual cues, without the trouble of all the weird hits on your search engine - all in less than a couple of hours.

The difference between these two experiences seems fairly straight-forward, perhaps as simple as better organization and careful removal of electronic trash. In truth, it is a bit more complex than that.

From flatland to information space

The Internet is a form of electronic natural selection, having developed from its early state in fits and starts to its current state. Hypertext is a common way of organizing (or, some would say, disorganizing) information on the Internet, and the results can be very hit and miss. As a result, it has a rather chaotic nature.

The current state of the Internet is well described by Edward Tufte, writing in "Envisioning Information," as "flatland"-a poor, two-dimensional representation of data. The Internet can provide a pathway to information, but the availability of that information, the way in which it is organized and retrievable is more in keeping with the way in which documents are handled: paged, text-based, and flat.

This is hardly satisfying. Human beings are three-dimensional, spatially-oriented, experiential beings. We have evolved physically, mentally, and emotionally to a tangible world. Presentation of information in "flatland" form, as raw data, two-dimensional figures, or screen displays on a computer eliminates a very rich and meaningful portion of our sensory systems. Yet we see many attempts to get around these limitations. An architect designing a building is likely to present the structure as a model, either real or in 3-D rendering on a computer. It makes sense, it allows you to "see" clearly.

This same idea, of three dimensions in virtual space, is a potentially powerful tool for our navigation of what we are now calling "information space."

Information space isn't just about using more 3-D rendering software, or making use of virtual reality. Virtual reality, as 3-D capable software, with real-time navigation, is most often associated with games or high-end science and research. Information space, on the other hand, is an organizational method applied to a usually related collection of information. Wayfinding and 3-D navigation are only two of many possible methods of using it.

Designing information space means building a logical set of connections, making order of the chaos in the Internet and cyberspace. It is possible to impose an order, spatially, on information the same way we impose order on places and real things, such that we establish a sense of relationships and connections using the same kinds of ideas.

As an example, in Helsinki, the local telephone company is building a 3-D model of the city that can be navigated as though you were walking or flying through it. It will contain a real representation of place as well as an electronic connection through the Internet. It is also supported by search tools and other devices, but it allows one to explore and access the things, goods, and services a place has to offer in a manner that makes more logical sense to human beings.

As the project is completed, you should be able to step into a tour of the city, look for information, places, shops, hotels, parks, etc., establishing an informational connection as you develop a physical sense.

This is the kind of journey you will soon be able to take as we enter the 21st century.

Revolutions in communication

Web sites, Internet connectivity, and e-mail are as much essentials today as the fax machine was 10 years ago or the telegraph was a century ago. We have managed to make progress in the first challenge, making the technological steps forward to extend the Net. Now we, like Morse, must arrive at a better way of presenting the content.

Finding the onramp

The connection points along the Internet should be on-ramps and off-ramps to information, connected in a sensible and logical manner, with more clarity and ease of comprehension. Instead, a vast percentage of the Internet is more like the bulletin boards and advertisements that line the road: catchy, glossy, full of small, digestible bites that tease us without allowing us to relate to a greater whole. Often they are seen as one way-paths, a route people come into a site on, rather than a path that allows a more give and take. As networks are completed with the help of fiber optics and other means to a broad-band pathway, the last mile in the telecommunications network will open.

The next step in the evolution of information space is to develop destinations that are less concerned with appearance and more concerned with navigation and the nature of human learning and understanding.

The example of Helsinki might be applied, for example, to the new Seattle Central Library and the development of information technologies across the library system or school system. Instead of accessing lists or flatland information, the library development offers an opportunity to present the library, its contents, and the physical and relational experience of using these resources as an extension of the library to the user, or a means of access to the facility for the visitor. This could mean a physical model of the library linked to a model of the information, such that a visitor accessing the library by either electronic or physical means will have a sense of the layout of the place and the location of resources.

Or, if you want to access Singapore, Sydney, and Helsinki, the library may offer a space not connected to its physical presence that supports the trip, allowing access to information, real-time views and even connections to people.

Between the two aspects of information space, the network and the information, it is hardest to define what "information" means. While we can develop networks to support it, the understanding of how they are used is still in flux. As we explore systems and applications and try to understand how information and networks are used in information space, we will see the Internet and the electronic world continue to grow as a sort of virtual urban sprawl. We may sometime face the crisis of rebuilding millions of Internet sites, a monumental task that will make Y2K look like a walk in the park. Some, in fact, would oppose the organization, since the Internet in particular has offered an opportunity for expression with few restraints.

In the meantime, we must look beyond the technologies to the ways we make use of them. Designing information space is one way to make those decisions. As a society, we are traveling down the highway of discovery-this time on the Internet.

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