Citizenship and Knowledge: Virtual Learning Communities in the Future

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Cultural New Media DaysAn international Summit
hosted by the Government of Canada providing an
opportunity to share ideas, demonstrate
innovation, and examine the relationship among
art, culture, interactive digital content
production, and new technologies
Discovery-based InterfaceA Case Study from
Japanese Online Project

• Shinjiro Oono
• Internet Museum Office, Director
• http//www.museum.or.jp/
• oono_at_museum.or.jp

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• Interface for Digital Archives
• Case Study from Japanese Projects
• Wonder Okinawa
• http//www.wonder-okinawa.jp/

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• 1. Brief Introduction of Okinawa Digital Archive
  Project.

Okinawa Digital Archive Project The name of
this project is Wonder Okinawa. ? The site,
wonder-Okinawa, opened on June in 2003. The
project was leaded by Japanese government and
local government. The budget for this project
was about 14 million US dollars. The total
number of this site is about 10,000 pages and
it consists of 25 categories. About 500 people
participated for this project After opened for
public in 3 month, 2.5 million people visited
the site. Today, 22,000 people visit the site
every day. This site has 2 Searching interfaces.
http//www.wonder-okinawa.jp/
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• 2. Types of Interface for a digital archive

? Category-based linking pages You know the
field to reach. Your purpose is Studying a
field.
? Basic Data Search Interface You know the
keyword to search. Your purpose is SEARCH.
25 Categories Over 10,000 pages More than 50,000
images
? Visual Data Search Interface You do not need
keyword to search Your purpose is look around
Discovery.
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• 3. General Idea of the Concept of ALIVE and its
  Technical outline.

For creating a discovery-based interface ? We
find a hint from our everyday life. Which Noodle
shop do you want to go, one with a standing
line, or one without a single customer! - No
keyboard action. - Easy to understand. - Able to
walk around. - Visualization.
- Grasp an overview of an object world. -
Enjoyable - Encounter with new information -
Communication between the users while
searching the digital archive
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• 3. General Idea of the Concept of ALIVE and its
  Technical outline.

SAMPLE
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• 3. General Idea of the Concept of ALIVE and its
  Technical outline.

Wonder-Okinawa Web Servers
Load Balancer
RDB
APPLICATION SERVER
VRML PROVIDE SERVER
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• 3. Work of the Application Server.

Blank Galaxy coordinates
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Get Log files from Web servers Create a basic
data file Computation XYZ points shape
types Create 4 kinds of VRML files
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This process needs 5 10 min.
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• Page Catalog
• File address
• Image file address
• Category Information
• Outline of the page

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• 4. Ryukyu ALIVE demonstration movie. ( 4 minutes
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? View point changer ? Constellation Tool ?
Planet Tool ? Time Machine Tool ? Chat Tool ? Big
Bang WHAT IS RYUKYU ALIVE? Ryukyu ALIVE is an
Information Visualization System developed for
Okinawa Digital Archives called "Wonder Okinawa".
It renders the complete picture of contents of
the Digital Archives in a 3D space and visualizes
the latest usage status dynamically by analyzing
the user-access log. The "Information Galaxy",
which morphs over time, is shaped according to
the image of a lively "Ryukyu" (which means
"flowing ball" in Japanese). ALIVE  Access Log
Information Visualizing Engine.
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• 4. Ryukyu ALIVE demonstration

• POINTS
• Grasp an overview of an object world.
• Enjoyable
• Encounter with new information
• Communication between the users while searching
  the digital archive

Access to the http//alive.wonder-okinawa.jp/
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• Fumio Matsumoto
• Architect, Principal of Plannet Architectures
• Visiting faculty Hosei University
• Nihon University, Keio University
• Kuwasawa Design School
• Washington University in St. Louis
• FOR MORE INFORMATION,
• please visit the site below

http//www.plannet-arch.com/
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• Shinjiro Oono
• Internet Museum Office, Director
• oono_at_museum.or.jp