Out of the Blue (beta) --- experimental portfolio __________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

>>>>>>>>> run applet >>out of the blue<<

Note: after starting the applet you will be ask if you trust this applet, you need to press trust otherwise the applet will not be able to grab the data from google.

This applet was build in Processing

__________________________________________________________________________________

>>>>>>>>> about

>>out of the blue<< functions as my online portfolio by gathering together information about me and my work from the internet.

I did not edit the displayed content (found links) used in this application, but I may have been involved in creating the content you find while following the links. On the other hand, the links may have nothing to do with me at all.

This Java Applet does several Google search requests with previously determined topics (for example >k3<, or >fh-potsdam< in combination with my name). A new Google search request will be initiated every time you start the application or press the redraw button, so you will always get fresh results.

With this applet, I am able to find and display my own digital footprint. Information about every one of us is readily available on the internet. Photos are tagged with our names, we create user profiles, people quote our existing work in their own projects (as is common in open source projects) or write about us in their blogs. We are all part of and creators of the >>long tail<<.

>>out of the blue<<  allows me to gather this information and display it in an alternative way, as a visualization of the relationships between different hits and topics.

__________________________________________________________________________________

>>>>>>>>> how It works

The application reads the search topics from an xml file and starts a request with the Google search engine. It grabs the first few hits of every request and searches for connections between several search topics and hits. The application also compares the hits to an xml file with a list of well-known links.

• The well-known links are displayed in green; other links are white.
• The links are positioned in relation to the search topics under which they where found, and connections are drawn to these search topics.
• If different search topics bring up the same link (hit) a connection is drawn between these search topics.
• Hits and search topics are further from each other if one has more hits than the other.
• A hit changes size according to the number of search topics under which it was found.

__________________________________________________________________________________

>>>>>>>>> acknowledgment

• Dah Yee (for the idea to do a web page)
• Burak and Ariel (for some advise)
• Sam (for the spelling correction)

__________________________________________________________________________________

Note for FireFox-2.0 users: If you use FireFox 2.0 you need to change your settings to allow popup windows to come up in new Windows (preference >> tab >> set >new page should be open in new window<)

Please report bugs to: bug[at]tomekness.de

__________________________________________________________________________________

tomek ness (sep 2008) - info[at]tomekness.de - work samples