Last week I was pondering about the iPad and I had to think about a book I read back in 1995 : Being Digital, Nicholas Negroponte. I looked up the book and browsing it. Suddenly I found the page I was looking for : Personal filters. The following paragraph was really striking:
“Imagine an electronic news delivered to your home as bits. Assume it is sent to a magical, paper-thin, flexible, waterproof, wireless, lightweight, bright display. The interface solution is likely to call upon’s years of experience with headlining and layout, typographic landmarks, images, and a host of techniques to assist browsing. Done well, this is likely to be a magnificent news medium.”
Sounds like a iPad….
Further in the chapter Nicholas Negroponte is describing a new kind of electronic newspaper. News filtered by your own interests. For example your reading behaviour on a sunday is different than on a monday. So you are also interested in different kinds of news.
Linked Data, a term used to describe a recommended best practice for exposing, sharing, and connecting pieces of data, information, and knowledge on the Semantic Web using URIs and RDF. Such exposed data and computers like an iPad will give Personal Filters a bright future.
Resources
Being Digital, Nicholas Negroponte, 1995
