In the mid-90's, we built PLUM, the Peace, Love, and Understanding Machine. As with the Popular Photography example we utilized local context in order to engage the reader in the content and facilitate its use. In this case we took the Reuter news wire and built an automated augmentation. The facts are all present in a Reuter's article, but they are impenetrable. Then we taught PLUM to identify the actors and actions being described in the article.
News becomes tangible.
The Internet consumer now expects efficiency, access, and utility. Tools of information description, collaboration, and design are facilitating this change. The expectations of the I-Community are that its members will be more engaged, not just as consumers, but as active producers of content. Leveraging this expectation of engagement is the new challenge and opportunity on the Internet. It has been suggested that the reason for the rapid growth of the Internet was due to the fact that it is transparent.