16. Cybertools - Similarity with CYBERMAP
"Not only is it easy to lie with maps, it's essential. To portray meaningful relationships for a complex, three-dimensional world on a flat sheet of paper or a video screen, a map must distort reality".
--Mark Monmonier [Mon91]In chapters 5-13 we have given a survey of existing tools for the navigation in cyberspace. Unfortunately, these tools, in particular the more sophisticated and powerful ones, need a substantial amount of manual preprocessing in order to transform the document structure into machine-readable format. In our own system - CYBERMAP - to be described in this and the following chapters, it has been one of our main design goals to eliminate the manual preprocessing phase. CYBERMAP automatically generates overview maps for textual documents. By integrating dynamic linking and automatic link generation into the automatic generation of an overview map, we get a unique tool for navigation in hyperspace. CYBERMAP creates a tree-shaped graphical layout for a collection of nodes by clustering related nodes by content. The resulting overview map can be used for quick access to information and data filtering in large information spaces. CYBERMAP incorporates the concept of hyperdrawers to get a means for the partitioning of nodes into ordered sequences. CYBERMAP either complements existing navigational aids for hyperdocuments or provides a self sufficient navigation tool for browsing in a document. In addition, CYBERMAP offers the capability of horizontal growth and easy hypertextualization of non-hypertextual documents without restricting the use of already installed browsing mechanisms.