Exploring Growing Information Spaces

Growing information spaces bring not only informational challenges, but also new opportunities for exploration. Drawing from maps as an analogy, we conceptualize information seekers as explorers of expanding information landscapes. While text has been the dominant frame of reference for information-seeking interfaces, visualization has the potential to expose faceted overviews and provide many ways of seeing information. Considering recent technological trends on the Web, many new forms of information seeking are feasible that utilize rich semantics and interactive graphics. With these developments on our side, we advocate a shift from information needs and relevance to more open-ended exploration and discovery of growing information spaces.