[Sigia-l] Mapping

[karl fast]

> Another "visualization" tool to put on the scrap heap next to
> antarcti.ca, ThemeScape, kartoo, and lord knows what else.

You're suggesting that visualization is a bad idea, and I think that
is a bad idea.

While information visualization techniques are powerful, they've
been most successful in relatively narrow, vertical, applications
where the data is relatively homogenous. For example, the Table Lens
for spreadsheet data or the PhotoMesa & PhotoFinder tools for
images.

They have failed in broad, horizontal applications where the
information being visualized has a lot of "aboutness"
characteristics and is largely hetergeneous. The tools you cite and
this new Groxis tool all fall into this space.

I'm curious about Groxis, but not hopeful. This is not because I
think visualization is a bad idea, only because the problem area
Groxis is trying to solve is a notoriously difficult one for
visualization.




--karl