bzs@XENNA.ENCORE.COM (Barry Shein) (12/20/88)
The attached note at the bottom is from USENET. Those of you in the Boston area might be interested in the following related event, I'll try and be there: > Wed 21 Dec 7:30 pm New England Hall, 225 Clarendon Street, Boston, Mass >Speaker: Scott Fisher, NASA "The Fantastic New World of Artificial Reality" >Host: BCS General Monthly Meeting >For Info: BCS audio-info at (617)-367-6751 or BCS Office at (617)-367-8080 -Barry Shein, ||Encore|| From: bonar@pitt.UUCP (Dr. Jeffrey Bonar) Newsgroups: comp.windows.misc,comp.sys.next,comp.sys.mac,comp.windows.ms,comp.windows.x,alt.cyberpunk,comp.lang.smalltalk Subject: replacing the desktop metaphor Keywords: desktop metaphor, graphical interfaces, computing environments Date: 18 Dec 88 20:18:28 GMT Organization: Computer Science Dept., Univ. of Pittsburgh I have an invitation for net readers - create a metaphor for computing systems that goes beyond the desktop cliche. Four years ago, Apple had something with the Macintosh desktop: a new way to think about computing. Now, everyone is copying the desktop: Microsoft, IBM, AT&T. Even the new NeXT machine provides little more than a desktop with some cute simulated depth. Marshall McLuhan said that a new medium always began by imitating the old medium: cow paths were paved to make roads for the "horseless carriage", film began by putting a camera in front of a play, and finally, computer screens now look like a desktop. What if we really let go into our new medium; what should a computer work space really look like? William Gibson described a cyberspace where computer cowboys shared a: "consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation, by children being taught mathematical concepts ... A graphic representation of data abstracted from the banks of every computer in the human system. Unthinkable complexity. Lines of light ranged in the nonspace of the mind, clusters and constellations of data. Like city lights, receding ..." (pg 51, Ace paperback edition of Neuromancer) What does your cyberspace, or whatever you would call it, look like. I'm interested in suggestions that are practical and serious, in particular, suggestions constrained by current technology in screens, keyboards, mice, etc. I'm also interested in suggestions that are fanciful and poetic. We get to create a medium from scratch - what should it look like. Note: please mail your suggestions to me directly. I will post a collection of the results. Send suggestions to: Internet: bonar@vax.cs.pittsburgh.edu or, using normal mail: Jeffrey Bonar 708 LRDC University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, PA 15260