MEHopper / Cosma
Cosmos : Greek kosmos (masculine) an orderly harmonious systematic universe – M. Webster
Cosma : Greek kosma (feminine) an orderly harmonious systematic description of the universe — M. E. Hopper
Cosma is an initiative to compile an inventory of the best knowledge resources in the world and to also provide a variety of ways to navigate and explore them.1
Content is King
Cosma provides structured access to a systematic, top-down inventory of some of the world’s most valuable, interesting and entertaining Knowledge Resources. There are hundreds of pages, and each one features many hand picked links to subject specific resources. There are also customized links to database driven resources that can be accessed with URLs that use consistent search strings (e.g. Webster, Roget’s, Britannica, WorldCat, Open Courseware etc.). All of the links on the pages are organized by a unique classification scheme named Knowledge Forms that was developed exclusively for Cosma.
Knowledge Navigation
Cosma has a number of 3D interfaces called Worlds that are designed to enable truly spatial Knowledge Navigation and invite exploration of the Knowledge Resources inventory hosted on the Cosma Web site.
Toy Worlds are a fun approach to making 3D interfaces. They are literally “Toy Worlds” because they are dioramas created with dollhouse furniture and miniature toys that are photographed with a RICOH THETA S 360° Camera. The resulting 360° photos are posted on the Kuula 360° photo sharing service in order to overlay links to Cosma and other Web sites.
Here is the first in a series of Toy Worlds that serve as an interface to Cosma. There are many other Toy Worlds distributed across the site. You can read about them and their fun backstory on this post.
Touch the 360° image to explore it, touch objects to find out about them, and touch door knobs to visit other Toy worlds.
If you can’t see it, you can also explore it on Kuula.
Find out more about Toy Worlds at Cosma here.
Toy Worlds@Cosma (Post@Cosma)
Toy Worlds (Page@Cosma)
Here are links to the many Toy Worlds on the Web site, and notice that there are also often links to parallel locations that still exist in SecondLife.
Cosma Welcome Area Toy World@Kuula
Cosma Welcome Area in Alston@SecondLife
Solar Extremes Toy World@Kuula
Solar Extremes in Alston@SecondLife
Gaia’s Menagerie Toy World@Kuula
Gaia’s Greenhouse Toy World@Kuula
Gaia’s Greenhouse in Alston@SecondLife
Magic Fishbowl Toy World@Kuula
World Travel Lounge Toy World@Kuula
World Travel Lounge in Alston@SecondLife
Walk-in-Art Gallery Toy World@Kuula
Walk-in-Art Gallery in Alston@SecondLife
Muse’s Playroom Toy World@Kuula
Muse’s Playroom in Alston@SecondLife
Athena’s Office Toy World@Kuula
Athena’s Office in Alston@SecondLife
Cosma also features Web Worlds. They are made by creating spaces in the virtual world SecondLife, capturing 360° photos of those spaces and uploading them to the 360° image sharing service Kuula to overlay links to Cosma pages and great 360° and 3D immersive experiences on the Web.
They are currently the main type of 3D interface that you will find on Cosma.
This is Cosma’s Welcome Area were you can start your journey into knowledge!
Touch posters and objects to find out about them or visit other worlds.
You can also explore it on Kuula.
If you click on the (not very well hidden) trap door, you will find yourself in this Web World that is an exhibit about Cosma’s history.
You can also explore it on Kuula.
There are many Web Worlds on the Cosma Web site, and this is a special one with links to the others. Click on objects to see sample experiences, and click doorways to go to other Web Worlds which also have objects and doorways that link to experiences on other sites.
If you can’t see it, you can also explore it on Kuula.
Find out more about Web Worlds at Cosma here.
Hike, Wander & Walk-in the Web! (Post@Cosma)
Here are links to the many Web Worlds and posts about them on Cosma.
Little, Big, Old, Spooky Libraries (Post@Cosma)
The Great Libraries Antechamber@Kuula
Walk-in-Art & Museums (Post@Cosma)
Walk-in-Art & Museums@Kuula
Computer Museums Lobby (Post@New Media Museum)
Computer Museums Lobby@Kuula
Hike the Web (Post@Cosma)
Nature Center Welcome Area@Kuula
Hiking Trails Hall@Kuula
Botanical Gardens Orangery@Kuula
Natural History Museums@Kuula
Critter’s Hollow Refuge@Kuula
Enchanted Beach Houses (Post@Cosma)
Wanderlust Magic Travel Villa@Kuula
Americas@Kuula
Europe@Kuula
Africa@Kuula
Asia@Kuula
Oceania@Kuula
Antarctica@Kuula
There is also a 3D interface in Second Life. It is named Knowledge Park (K-Park) and it is all that remains of a more extensive project called Knowledge Places (K-Places). That project began in 2006, and at the height of it in 2010, there were many sites that covered more than a million square meters in Second Life. The sites were all made up of thematically organized spaces designed around inviting spatial metaphors (Parks, Palace, Paradise, etc.).
Here are links about the context and the long history of the worlds that Hopper made for Cosma in the virtual world SecondLife.
Knowledge Worlds
Knowledge Objects (K-Objects)
Knowledge Places@SecondLife (Page@Cosma)
Knowledge Gates@SecondLife (Page@Cosma)
Knowledge Palace@SecondLife (Page@Cosma)
Knowledge Paradise@SecondLife (Page@Cosma)
Knowledge Park in Maryport@SecondLife
Knowledge Park@SecondLife (YouTube Demo)
Finally, Hopper has experimented with using Unity 3D to make worlds to serve as 3D interfaces to Cosma. The experiments were deemed unsuccessful because they could not function well on the Web site, but here is a YouTube video demo of one of the worlds.
The above examples are just the latest of Hopper’s experiments with creating 3D interfaces to large bodies of content. The first prototype was created with Apple’s HyperCard that ran in color on an Apple IIGS with ProDOS in the 1980s. There have been many others using a variety of platforms since then. There’s an extensive description of these on the Worlds Challenge page.
More to see and do!
There are a number of other ways of exploring Cosma besides the 3D interfaces.
You can browse a Showcase of popular pages.
There are over a hundred Adventures which are “posts” that highlight timely resources and usually include 360° YouTube videos.
Of course, there are standard Contents, Index, About, FAQ and Credits pages.
Finally, Cosma uses a “embedded and distributed” Documentation approach. There are passages and footnotes about the project distributed across the pages on the site in the context where they are relevant. In addition, they are gathered together in one place on the Notes page, so that page is a cumulative and evolving collection of clippings about the history, theory and structure of Cosma.
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1. Cosma is only the most recent iteration of a project that has been evolving for decades. It is based upon over thirty years of research and development in information, knowledge and communication systems. It’s been a long road, and quite the journey! Here are just a few references to some stops along the way…
Hopper, M. E. (2009, April). Cosma: Constructing a Kingdom of Knowledge. Media in Transition 6 Conference: Stone and Papyrus, Storage and Transmission, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA.
Hopper, M. E. (2007, April). The Knowledge Gates to SecondLife. Media in Transition 5 Conference: Creativity, Ownership and Collaboration in the Digital Age, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA.
Hopper, M. E. (2000, January). Knowledge systems 101: From Alexandria to Hitchhiker’s Guide. Independent Activity Period, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA.
Hopper, M. E. (1999, October). A Project About Projects: Watching Academic E-Media Projects Evolve [Presentation]. Media in Transition: An International Conference, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA.
Hopper, M. E. (1998, October). Hypertext in historical context: Vannevar Bush and Ted Nelson revisited. Media-in-Transition Project / Communications Forum, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA.
Hopper, M. E. (1993). Expert’s views about courseware development in advanced computing environments [Abstract]. Proceedings of ED-MEDIA 93 – Conference on Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, 607.
Hopper, M. E. (1993). Educational courseware production in advanced computing environments. Doctoral dissertation. Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN.