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probably to human culture as a whole - by revealing the varied focus of collective human consciousness in very
fine detail.
However the technical details evolve, large personal archives of these suggested links would naturally form,
both of inward (enabling searches of 'back issues', even for material that was initially passed over) and also of
outward suggestions (as a track on one's own media experience and personal networking). These personal
archives would be "large" only in the sense of the number of entries, the digital storage space required for such
hypermedia references is relatively modest. It will be nearly essential, however, for the overall environment to
continue upgrading toward an interconnection protocol that uses bidirectional links - in order to avoid having
many of those archived recommendations become useless because the suggested destination has moved or been
updated in the interim [Fenn 1994].
Interface Design
All of the patterns of interaction described above will require an effective graphical interface with extensive
potential for customisation by end-users. A critical function to optimise in the course of developing this is the
means by which any particular media resource can be graded and recommended to any chosen set of recipients.
The way in which one’s recipient lists are managed is also crucial (and may eventually require a 3-D interface
to adequately deal with the complexities of relationship that many people could generate).
One essential component of an interface that may come to provide a user’s primary media access is adequate
provision for ‘social priority’ input. This would facilitate the throughput of material that has been narrowcast
to anyone for whom it might be relevant, along with a suggested classification as to its priority. Any socially
sound arrangement would still allow the individual user to selectively ‘temper’ the precedence of different
classes of such notification from different sources - even if this might not generally be seen as being in their
own “best interests”. The full ramifications of such questions about the right to personal isolation are beyond
the scope of this paper, other than to note that they are likely to become a source of controversy in some
societies.
In any case, the technical implementation of any such priority community-service access must be as reliable as
possible; this being a feature which replaces one of the most critical functions of the mass media at present. For
example, an emergency alarm that might contain notice about some local geographic event of interest - such
as, “There’s fire raging towards your house!” - would naturally be given a high priority by almost anyone
(‘class one’); whereas a reminder about some legal requirement such as filling in a census form might come
through as medium priority (‘class two’); and a general notice about rubbish collection could end up relegated
to a background resource collection (‘class three’).
Initial Development Sequence
At the proof-of-concept and initial user-testing stage, an interface supporting the basic ‘recommendation’
functionality would be be constructed, along with a means for users to grade any media with which they're
presented. Those taking part in this research could then intensively exchange recommendations with each
other, being particularly diligent in searching out a wide range of material to suggest, since they'll be serving
as the surrogate for future activity on the part of much larger and more diverse communities. At this first stage
the processing of the recommendations themselves could be overseen by human 'agents', managing the
functionality of an off-the-shelf database, and the final presentation layout might involve a graphic designer.
By far the most effective context in which to first implement an effective recommendation and valuation
system for eventual use on the Web is probably within a large subscriber network. (Organisational intranets are
generally too goal-directed and the wider Internet itself is too diffuse to readily develop a quorum of
coordinated participation.) Within a context like a value-added IP service, however, development costs could
potentially be offset through subscription charges; authentication of users is relatively simple; and all
participants can readily be supplied with any required software updates.
Conclusion
It is imperative that we develop a cohesive conceptual framework for empowering users into self-structured