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Welcome to the Meta Desktop Project
Briefly
The Meta Desktop Project proposes number of ideas about a backwards-compatible desktop file viewing system. Based on GNU/Linux it would utilise enhanced metadata and user-defined 'smartness' which could supplement or replace the traditional, hierarchical file viewing paradigm, thus enhancing the computing experience and making the desktop more usable. It would achieve this through a combination of machine-written faceted classification and user-written folksonomic labeling. Network interoperability and principles of machine readability will be considered too, creating something along the lines of a desktop version of the Semantic Web, though with the core principle based on enhanced human usability.
Read on for ...
- An overview of Meta Desktop or,
- Dive right in and see how the system works or,
- See early application interface designs.
This wiki can currently be read in a page-by-page manner as it is quite small. A full index to the pages on this site is available below.
Project information
Who is this documentation & wiki intended for?
This documentation is currently a high-level conceptual model for achieving the Meta Desktop project. It is written primarily with the intention to spark collaboration with people interested in the general or particular goals of such a project. It will be of particular interest to:
- Developers looking to involve themselves with a serious and potentially radical system-wide project
- Systems analysts and information designers interested in desktop user interaction
- Specialists in user interaction and ergonomics
- People who have been exploring similar ideas in other projects
- Online Information Architects who have an interest in metadata, faceted classification, the Semantic Web or folksonomy
- Advanced end-users with an interest in the project who might offer experience or opinion
The state of the project
Currently the project is at the conceptual stage. It is the brainchild of one person, Mark P. Russell, who works across multiple subject fields including art, design and technology. Professionally Mark is an Art Director , graphic designer and Information Architect in the commercial sector with a core interest in user interaction and usability. This project is born from a deep connection with those subjects and a conviction that things could be made better.
Meta Desktop is also an active project at sourceforge.net
A call for help
The Meta Desktop project needs talent of all sorts: People with a specialism in systems -- particularly but not necessarily GNU/Linux systems; in hard-core open-source development, especially with regard to filesystems and the X Window System; in information manipulation, categorisation, system ontology and folksonomy; in machine readability and the semantic web; and even just in picking apart the thinking already here and rationalising the author's dithery writing.
Please get in contact if you can help, or start adding to and editing these pages.
This wiki
There are two main sections in this wiki: Information and detail about the core Meta Desktop project and its requirements and some discussion of current desktop systems and technologies.
The Core Project
You'll notice, if you rummage around, that some sections are quite fleshed-out and others rather more minimal. Please feel free to add things as appropriate and firm-up what's not so solid. Reading the Core Principles section should arm you at least with the spirit of the project.
Core Principles
- A high-level overview of the Project
- A high-level look at the system
- The core principles of the Meta Desktop Project
- Some assumptions
- A brief set of examples using the shell
- Some good examples of other applications with similar goals
The Application(s) in detail
Some References and Links
Pinboard
Some Thoughts on Current Desktop Systems
This section, linked in spirit to the greater project, takes a brief (and opinionated) look at current desktop technology. It is highly likely that Meta Desktop could be implemented as software running within an existing desktop system but it is also possible that extended thinking, based on making a more usable UI as well as a more useful method of accessing data, could be applied to the whole UI and user experience.
Next: Overview
