We present iMapping, a diagrammatic zooming and nesting based approach for visually structuring information objects on the desktop with a special focus on personal knowledge management. It was designed based on a set of requirements gathered from the analysis of existing knowledge mapping techniques from a cognitive science point of view. We also briefly introduce a prototypical implementation.
Based on an analysis of existing tools and approaches and literature from the areas of design and cognitive science, we identify a set of functional requirements to be met by diagrammatic knowledge mapping techniques and tools in order to be cognitively adequate for extensive personal knowledge management. This collection of requirements can be used to evaluate existing tools or as a guideline for the design of novel knowledge mapping approaches and tools.
Knowledge Management software is software that integrates. Existing Data sources, process flows, application features from office appliances have to be brought together. There are different standards, consisting of data formats and communication protocols, that address this issue. The WWW and Semantic Web are designed to work on a worldwide scale and define those standards. We transfer the web standards to the desktop szenario, a vision we call Semantic Desktop – a Semantic Web enhanced desktop environment. Central is the idea of taking know-how from the SemanticWeb to tackle personal information management. Existing desktop applications (email client, browser, office applications) are integrated, the semantic glue between them expressed using ontologies. We also present the www.gnowsis.org open source project by the DFKI that realizes parts of this vision. It is based on a Semantic Web Server running as desktop service. It was used in experiments and research projects and allows others to experiment. Knowledge management applications can be built on top of it, reducing the implementation cost.