Codex, Memex, Genex: The Pursuit of Transformational Technologies

Project description:

This page is for Ben Shneiderman's Opening Plenary Address "Codex, Memex, Genex: The Pursuit of Transformational Technologies" at CHI98, Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Los Angeles, CA, April 1998.

Genex is a framework for an integrated set of software tools that support creativity in science, medicine, the arts, and beyond. It's four phases are:

collect information from an existing domain of knowledge,
create innovations using advanced tools,
consult with peers or mentors in the field, and then
disseminate the results widely.

A medical scenario shows how a physician might treat a patient by collecting information from databases using information visualization tools, exploring innovative treatment plans, consulting with specialists, and disseminating the refined treatment plan to relevant people. The playful scenario begins when Dorothy Gale returns from the Emerald City in the Land of Oz with a mysterious ruby red rash.

Resources:

Due to popular demand, we are making the following resources related to the keynote talk and presentation tools available.

[GenexPad] The zooming user interface for the talk was Pad++ which is available free, and you can download Ben Shneiderman's presentation (runs on linux/unix/Windows NT). The presentation was built by Ben Bederson (with help from Allison Druin) using the innovative Pad++ zooming user interface to show an overview of the talk and then zoom in on the sections.

The Genex medical scenario with Dorothy Gale was done in Macromedia Director and a runnable version of the scenario is available (runs on Windows 95/NT, 1024x768, HiColor), and the script describing the scenario is here. Click on the images for a couple of screen dumps. The scenario made use of elements from several of our other projects, including Lifelines, Tightly Coupled Windows, Simple, and Elastic Windows. The scenario was created by Ben Shneiderman, Catherine Plaisant, and Chris North.

The patient database was explored using Spotfire, which is the commercial version of our starfield display and dynamic queries. A free demo version with demo databases is available.

The short paper on "Codex, Memex, Genex: The Pursuit of Transformational Technologies" is in the CHI98 Summary (pages 98-99) and the full paper will appear in the June issue of the International Journal of Human Computer Interaction. Meanwhile the technical report (number 97-21) is on our lab website.

A version of the talk will be included in two segments on the HCIL 1998 Video Report, which will be released and can be purchased after our 15th Anniversary Symposium, May 29th. Symposium attendees will be given a free copy!

Participants:

Ben Shneiderman, Professor Computer Science
Catherine Plaisant, Assistant Research Scientist
Ben Bederson, Assistant Professor Computer Science
Allison Druin, Faculty at College of Education
Chris North, Graduate Student Computer Science