Presenting Information in a More Dynamic Way

[Greg Lambert]

I've been looking at the way different search engines return information, and I'm wondering if anyone has thought about exploring the possibility of changing the way we present information as librarians/researchers.

For example, instead of producing something that is "flat", such as an email, or pdf, or paper report, could we create something that is more visual, and perhaps more interactive?? I thought about this and began testing two different products to see if they would work well together.

1. iCyte -- This is still in beta, but is a good product for compiling information you've gathered off the Internet, and capturing it in a usable form.
2. SearchMe - Another beta product, but a pretty neat looking search engine. At least neat in the way it displays results... the search engine part needs a little work.

The goal here is to build a list of results (information), and produce a different approach to presenting the information.

This is a simple example, but I think you get the idea. (and be forewarned that this is still "beta" products, so it can be a little glitchy!)

Searchme

Maximize stack view

Is anyone attempting to create new approaches for presenting information?

[Susanna Leers]

Interesting. I'm always thinking about presenting information in better ways, because I think the "flat" way doesn't work all that well. Visually interesting presentations like the one above are better, or at least can be better. As are video/audio presentations. Engaging all the senses would probably be best, if only information always had a taste and smell!
I am currently experimenting with video/youtube.

[Greg Lambert]

I'm invisioning a day where we'll use tablet-PCs or some type of touch-interactive device that allows the "reader of a report" to no longer be just a "reader", but rather a "participant" in the report. Researchers will expand and also become "reporters" in a since and will present the information in ways that incompass text, image, video, and audio, along with additional abilities to tap internal and external data on the fly. Couple that with the ability to allow the participant to arrange the data in the way that best suits him or her, and allow for feedback from the participant.

So, in other words, I'm looking at an NING Meets Minority Report, Report....

[Greg Lambert]

Just discovered that you can save a MS Word doc as HTML, and then iCyte can read it and save it into your project. You can then take the link and upload it into the SearchMe Stack. This could be very helpful!!

Now, I'm going to see if I can get the beta version of 280 Slides (http://280slides.com) to upload an old AALL presentation I did, and if I can get it to work in my SearchMe Stack....

If so, then I'll need to try some audio to see if that will work...

[Susanna Leers]

I've been playing with iCyte & SearchMe a little, like 'em both at least conceptually. Alas, at the moment iCyte only works with IE which I detest... (Firefox in the works, though.) Search me doesn't seem to search very many sites, but I especially like how the results display when you search for "Images" and "video."

Greg Lambert said:

Just discovered that you can save a MS Word doc as HTML, and then iCyte can read it and save it into your project. You can then take the link and upload it into the SearchMe Stack. This could be very helpful!!

Now, I'm going to see if I can get the beta version of 280 Slides (http://280slides.com) to upload an old AALL presentation I did, and if I can get it to work in my SearchMe Stack....

If so, then I'll need to try some audio to see if that will work...