Hi friends–


Help me grow this idea.

I'm sketching a web app that allows people to comment on a text, assembling
a visual web of their commentaries, comprised of links to: the text, each
other's notes, other texts, websites, etc.

Comments don't modify the text (like a wiki). Comments are localized within
the text (like post-it notes or margin scribbles; not like bulletin boards).
In other words, text as a graffiti wall, or a community book with infinitely
large margins (though unlike these or a wiki, you can't change the work of
others). Think Microsoft OneNote meets Google Docs.

But I want to do more than that, specifically in the visualization of text
and commentary links. Think Google Earth for texts.

What

projects
ideas
people
art
writings

are relevant or similar to this–to any degree on any vector–that you could
recommend? (maybe exactly what I want's been done already..?)

What are some creative ways to do this beyond just frames (clunky for richly
commented text) or hyperlink tree visualizations (see below)?

For starters, I wonder about "mounting" one text onto another. That is, at
many points in my reading of a text, all the commentary I feel is necessary
is to simply juxtapose the current text with a snippet from another text,
whether to revel in the translation(s), the contrast, the similarity, or
even the raw orthogonality of the annexed text! For the "loveliness of the
assemblages," as Simon Winchester put it.

The beauty of the hyperlink, one might respond. But a hyperlink distracts
where I want just a footnote. Can I juxtapose texts without getting ADDled
with all the redirection?

The beauty of tabbed browsing, one might respond. But notes and references
shouldn't be buried in a post-(current text)-to-do-list. Reading ain't
computing; the process of criticism is not a program stack. The
inspirational strength of juxtaposition is lost when the items are not
literally (or at least easily) juxtaposed.

Hence the Google Earth metaphor–to have horizons for a text, leading to
contiguous commentaries and references that retain the impact of them having
been DJ'ed together by the community.

This may sound grand or romantic, but I'm starting small, and many of you do
or come up with this kind of stuff in your sleep, so I'm looking forward to
your input!

Thanks.

–Vijay

P.S. Feel free to forward this to anyone you think would be knowledgable or
interested in this.

–
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