The personal information assistance side of our work has concentrated on managing small bits of information that are interconnected. The idea is that people need help remembering the important parts of the vast information that overwhelms them each day. The problem is that current filing and retrieval methods are inadequate. The approach is to allow the user to save information without explicit regard to how it relates to other information. When the information is needed, multiple paths are provided to the user, increasing the likelihood that one will be successful.
Visualization is used to allow the user to review, edit, and reorganize the information model.
This is generally a background activity by the user in anticipation of later need for the information. We use 2D and 3D representations of the user's information as a semantic net . By allowing the user to visualize and manipulate models of personal information, the information store is made both more understandable and more useful. In our work on Information Visualization we have acquired some convictions about the future of visualization which are guiding our work. Our perspective, which comes from working in what is otherwise a multimedia laboratory, may provide a counterpoint to more traditional views.