Revised site note 2/1/10: This page is left--save this note, the font, and the HTML title, exactly as it was originally presented at the Xth World Sanskrit Conference in Bangalore in January 1997. I don't know if I can ever fully describe what that trip was like, the work and experiences that came before, during, and after. They are some of the most extreme, bizarre, and favorite stories of many years of travel and many different career paths. There are a few slides here, - reflecting the old internet days of slow loading so they're not very high quality, but somehow the look and feel works. I have yet to return to India since, but wish to do so.
Too often, the average surfing session becomes a mind-numbing blur of
re-load, where was I, and why didn't I bookmark . . .
Dr.'s Brian Gaines and Mildred Shaw, of the University of Calgary have worked
to implement K-map, a unique mapping/feedback/bookmarking utility. K-map
resides on your server and sends, upon request, a hot-linked gif of where
you've been on the server's webs. You can save and re-use it, or even edit
it online. Best of all, it's free . . . Intro Theory
This article describes the integration of concept mapping tools with World
Wide Web browsers and
servers, as client helpers on the one hand and gatewayed clickable image
servers on the other.
Abstractly, concept maps are sorted graphs visually represented as nodes
having a type, name and
content, some of which are linked by arcs. Each type of node has associated
visual attributes, such
as shape and color scheme, and the arcs may be non-directional, directional
or bidirectional. Links
between nodes may also be labeled and typed by constructing them from a
pair of arcs with an
intervening node whose name is the link name and whose type is the link
type. Figure 1 shows a
typical concept map from a knowledge-based system that solves a room allocation
problem (Gaines,
1994b). The map in Figure 1 is a semantic network (Sowa, 1991) with a formal
logical
interpretation that allows it to be automatically compiled for a KL-ONE
inference engine (Gaines,
1991b). This is typical of artificial intelligence, engineering and mathematical
applications of
concept maps. In these disciplines various forms of concept map are used
as formal knowledge
representation systems, for example: bond graphs in mechanical and electrical
engineering
(Karnopp, Rosenberg and van Dixhorn, 1989), Petri nets in communications
(Reisig, 1985), and
category graphs in mathematics (Mac Lane, 1971). More generally, concept
maps have been used in
education (Novak and Gowin, 1984; Lambiotte, Dansereau, Cross and Reynolds,
1989), policy
studies (Axelrod, 1976; Eden, Jones and Sims, 1979) and the philosophy of
science (Toulmin,
1958; Thadgard, 1992) to provide a visual representation of knowledge structures
and argument
forms. They provide visual languages as complementary alternatives to natural
languages as a
means of communicating knowledge. Up Up Up
