William C. Janssen

Aquanet: a hypertext tool to hold your knowledge in place

Hypertext systems have traditionally focused on information management and presentation. In contrast, the Aquanet hypertext system described in this paper is designed to support knowledge structuring tasks. Aquanet is a browser-based tool that allows users to graphically represent information in order to explore its structure. In this paper, we discuss our motivations for developing Aquanet. We then describe the basic concepts underlying the tool and give an overview of the user interface. We close with some brief comments about our initial experiences with the tool in use and some of the directions we see the Aquanet research moving in the near future.

A fluid interface for personal digital libraries

An advanced interface is presented for fluid interaction in a personal digital library system. The system employs a zoomable planar representation of a collection using hybrid continuous/quantum treemap visualizations to facilitate navigation while minimizing cognitive load. The system is particularly well suited to user tasks which, in the physical world, are normally carried out by laying out a set of related documents on a physical desk — namely, those tasks that require frequent and rapid transfer of attention from one document in the collection to another. Discussed are the design and implementation of the system as well as its relationship to previous work.

A fluid treemap interface for personal digital libraries

The UC system employs hybrid quantum/continuous treemaps for fluidly interacting with documents in a personal digital library. By incorporating a document reader application within the visualization workspace, UC supports multi-document reading tasks that have been traditionally accomplished by laying out documents on a physical desk. One of the overall goals of the system is to eliminate the boundary between acquiring and using documents

Document icons and page thumbnails: Issues in construction of document thumbnails for page-image digital libraries

Digital libraries are increasingly based on digital page images, but techniques for constructing usable versions of these page images are largely folklore. This paper documents some issues encountered in creating various kinds of renderings of page images for the UpLib digital library system, and suggests approaches for each, based on both problem analysis and user feedback. Several factors important in determining useful sizes for small visual representations of the documents, called document icons, are discussed; one algorithm, called log-area, seems most effective.

Collaborative extensions for the UpLib system

The UpLib personal digital library system is specifically designed for secure use by a single individual. However, collaborative operation of multiple UpLib repositories is still possible. This paper describes two mechanisms that have been added to UpLib to facilitate community building around individual document collections.

The UpLib personal digital library system

The UpLib personal digital library system provides a secure long-term storage and retrieval system for a wide variety of personal documents such as papers, photographs, bills, books, and email. It is suitable for collections comprising tens of thousands of documents, and provides for ease of document entry and access as well as high levels of security and privacy. It is highly extensible through user scripting. We demonstrate the operation of UpLib

A "next generation" architecture for HTTP

The paper discusses HTTP-NG, a comprehensive rethinking of the Webs underlying protocol. It provides a framework for defining new Web applications, a powerful messaging system, and a multiplexing transport layer.

ReadUp: a widget for reading

User interfaces for digital library systems must support a wide range of user activities. They include search, browsing, and curation, but perhaps the most important is actual reading of the items in the library. Support for reading, however, is usually relegated to applications which are only loosely integrated with the digital library system. One reason for this is the absence of toolkit widget support for the activity of reading. Most user interface toolkits instead provide support for either text editing or text presentation, making it difficult to write applications which support reading well. In this paper we describe the origins, design, and implementation of a new Java Swing toolkit widget called ReadUp, which provides support for reading page images in a digital library application, and discuss briefly how it is being used.