Haven't we been here before?
A map is, of course, a quite popular means of organizing information. So popular,
that when the web was young, and we really didn't know how to clearly and logically
make the information on our web site available to visitors (not that we know how
to do this today), maps of the site were among the more popular solutions.
There we were, seeking out metaphors that might help us understand what a web
site was. It clearly wasn't a book, even though text and graphics were our primary
tools. Many site builders were distressed with the lack of a visual metaphor,
as though our inability to visualize the site made us unable to understand it.
So sites were often compared to territories, and we'd be shown, via a map, what
that territory looked like, what it entailed. Maps as entrance pages to web sites
flourished, and there were numerous attempts to "map the web" in order
to perhaps give us a picture of the relationships between the seemingly unconnected
pieces of information that we encountered. Both of these seem to belong to the
rather long ago past, suggesting that this particular metaphor either didn't help
us, or was simply unnecessary.
Go to: It's all just data, or
Go to: Taking to the streets