Retrieval + Use (was Re: [Sigia-l] Information Visualization)

[Johndan Johnson-Eilola]

On Tuesday, November 11, 2003, at 06:16 PM, Listera wrote:

> "Johndan Johnson-Eilola" wrote:
>
>> You're so witty. But you need to get beyond that: Beyond doesn't mean
>> "discard", it means follow and move past. The story doesn't end with
>> getting the information.
>
> Problem is you don't seem to understand that while the story "doesn't 
> end
> with getting the information" it certainly doesn't start at all 
> *unless* you
> get the info to begin with. All you're left with, and that's what 
> infoviz
> has so far been primarily showing, are the fancy demos that don't 
> connect to
> real data or reality, for that matter. So if you simply want to demo in
> vacuum for the next decade as well, be my guest.

But haven't we had enough proof of concept demos and working models of 
infoviz products to see how the
retrieval part works? From my perspective (and perhaps I'm not an 
average user), all the demos have illustrated to me has been that 
retrieval alone isn't enough to make me buy into the product. So 
perhaps we're arguing the same point. As you said in another post,

> What's intellectually *and* commercially interesting are the datasets 
> that
> are not only large but also difficult to make sense of using
> conventional/procedural means.

All of this starts to get into that distinction between usability and 
usefulness. I think many of the current infoviz apps (both the demos 
and the current commercial apps) are usable, but not very useful in a 
broader sense. I think we're already capable of the retrieval 
aspect--it's the useful aspect, which goes beyond retrieval, that I'm 
not seeing addressed in coherent and ambitious ways yet.

- Johndan