
WikiGalaxy: Explore Wikipedia in 3D - impostervt
http://wiki.polyfra.me/
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dracolytch
On one hand the interface is interesting and novel, but I'm not sure it really
has a lot to offer initially. It's much easier to visualize the relationships
between pieces of data with how the linking works, but the individual dots are
spread enough that it doesn't provide quite the context that it has the
potential to provide.

I'm impressed that it works in Chrome on Linux with no additional plugins or
craziness. Their interface is clumsy though, and could learn a lot about user
interaction in 3d space from video games.

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ansible
_Their interface is clumsy though, and could learn a lot about user
interaction in 3d space from video games._

Yes. I was trying different things with the mouse to help me navigate and
orient myself, but aside from zoom, it is just for selection. I'd like to see
controls like with the Homeworld series of RTS games, where you can easily
rotate around a selected item.

In general, I'm just seeing a sea of topics, without much sense for where I am
in the information space. More could be done by varying the size and shape of
the nodes to indicate relevance, popularity, or category. I don't think color
is enough.

Interesting project!

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jozan
Looks nice but navigating around feels clumsy, I can't look up or down or move
in those directions easily.

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superobserver
I agree. I can't turn left or right. Feels very restricting - opposite of what
you'd expect.

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anigbrowl
Also found it a bit tricky to navigate, and found myself wanting some sort of
dynamic reclustering. I searched on 'Film' and got to a nexus very obviously,
but then things seemed spread out in very random directions. I'm guessing it
is only using unidirectional links? Maybe some sort of Pagerank approach would
help - links seemed to float off to essentailly random destiantions like
individual film titles, the Wiki article on Celebrity and so on. I didn't get
any sense o structure deriving from the internal links of the Wiki page
either.

But having thrown out all those criticisms, it's still a great start. I want
to browse things like this all the time. I want to see my browser bookmarks
organized this way, and many other things. Please keep working on it!

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kissickas
It's a shame you can't click on the inline links between articles. It would be
cool to see how the subjects are connected that way; I still have no idea how
the articles are organized (although I didn't look very hard).

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nsxwolf
The absolute highest point I could reach in the visualization was "World
Without End" by Ken Follet. I thought that was neat, but then I refreshed and
it appeared in a new random location.

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razzaj
I think that before we can judge on the utility on such a presentation, we
need the right visualization tool. My hunch is that viewing this with an
Oculus would be an entirely different experience.

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isaacremuant
That's a good point. One 2d screen doesn't seem to benefit from the 3
dimensions.

Having it all around, visible and linked might change everything. Very much
like whiteboards or other 3 dimensional physical representations (think like
in Cop TV shows) help us to see the big picture.

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hawleyal
WHy can't I click-drag after selecting an article?

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benmcnelly
This would be a lot of fun in the Oculus Rift...

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matt_morgan
Cool, fun, but I would do it with click & hold & drag to pan, rather than
requiring keyboard control, if you can.

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davidjhall
Interesting -- does anyone know what the moving dots are? Are they other
viewers or is that data being updated?

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techaddict009
This is Fun. Please Add Proper Navigation options. Rest looks Good in Chrome.

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daveloyall
It's beautiful. It's our world. Let's keep going!

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meenie
It instantly crashes the browser tab in Chrome on Windows 8.1

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widowlark
and oddly works fine in IE

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johntaitorg
I like Heavy Metal Island, that pink cashew on the left

