RECEPTION TO NEWCOMERS |
| The first page (first screen seen):
There should be a button for newcomers to hit. It should be small, modest but distinctive, say a rounded rectangle in the top center, or else one of several buttons 40% up the page but below the ideonomy (site) icon. Perhaps a red button, but the type should be bold, very simple and plain and not hurt by red being near. Perhaps it could flash once on arrival, along with a distinctive sound or tune (like the opening chords of Beethoven's fifth symphony - or something great from my huge library that NO ONE will know). That icon I designed for ideonomy in 1984 could be used: a torch burning
over the infinity symbol 8, horizontal. It could always appear first when
anyone steps into the Site. It could be large on the screen; perhaps the
flames could even be crudely animated!
The opening map of ideonomy's key divisions, whether a globe or flat,
could be clickable on the points or countries representing the small set
of most prominent divisions, to cause the rest of the divisions, of increasingly
minor nature, to appear at finer 'scales'.
There should be a button for newcomers to hit. It should be small, modest but distinctive, say a rounded rectangle in the top center, or else one of several buttons 40% up the page but below the ideonomy (site) icon. Perhaps a red button, but the type should be bold, very simple and plain and not hurt by red being near. Perhaps it could flash once on arrival, along with a distinctive sound or tune (like the opening chords of Beethoven's fifth symphony - or something great from my huge library that NO ONE will know). That icon I designed for ideonomy in 1984 could be used: a torch burning
over the infinity symbol 8, horizontal. It could always appear first when
anyone steps into the Site. It could be large on the screen; perhaps the
flames could even be crudely animated!
The opening map of ideonomy's key divisions, whether a globe or flat, could be clickable on the points or countries representing the small set of most prominent divisions, to cause the rest of the divisions, of increasingly minor nature, to appear at finer 'scales'. The necessary data for this already exist. In fact, the option of instantly remapping sets of ideas by choosing arbitrary sizes or 'types' of subsets of the ideas from the common NMDS data set, could be employed to allow the globe or map to shift CONTINUOUSLY either over the entire hierarchy of divisions or over the countless thousands of combinations of divisions representing sets of specialized interest or of all possible specializations! The whole thing is perfect, and no new data need to be created to do this, although of course the Web software will have to be such as to permit these computationally demanding and specialized graphical maneuvers. (Perhaps at some future time?) I could also use my old pyramidal or dendritic hierarchy in which over five or so different levels the full set of 200-300 ideonomic divisions is successively reduced until an ultimate, smallest but most inclusive, set of perhaps 8 divisions remains. In effect, there is the sequence 250 -> 100 -> 50 -> 25 -> 8. This Tree of Ideonomy (or the Ideocosm) could also be employed; certainly it should always be present as an alternative option for the Site Visitor. Countless other things exist, or should or might be created, for the Newcomer Front Page or Newcomer sequence, and perhaps also for the Oldtimer Front Page or general Site program as well. It is too soon to even begin to make definite decisions about what should and should not be used. What is appropriate right now is to try to think of all of the neatest, most suitable, or simply most diverse options one can. Thus it would make sense if upon entering the Site for the first time one were immediately presented with a set of options representing different ways of being introduced to the Site or to ideonomy itself, or perhaps to both or either. The options would represent courses or tours so different and yet encompassing that one could speak of them as a complete set of canonical variations. This is also a case where it might make sense to offer regular Site callers something quite similar. The set of options I am going to discuss are also like the alternative kinds of talks I am able to give when telling people about ideonomy for the first time. I can begin my talk by focusing on the STRUCTURE of the subject, by mentioning the divisions, their subdivisions, themes, definitions, classification, relationships to one another, contrasts, relative importances. Then I can go on to describe their elements, organons, history, methods, pertinences to different fields and things, and what has resulted from their application to date. In the end I am free to speak of anything. It makes for a very satisfying talk. Or I can initiate someone into ideonomy by first chronicling the HISTORICAL antecedents and PRECURSORS of ideonomy, the various persons, undertakings, methods, and accomplishments which over centuries or even millennia have led to my field in a halting, roundabout way. Then again I may start with the precursors or ROOTS of ideonomy IN MY own LIFE AND WORK, and branch from there to the other things. Or I can tell the story of ideonomy by narrating the course or progress of my IDEONOMY PROJECT from its surprising start in 1984. Sometimes I begin my first talk with the METHODS of ideonomy, either with the spectrum of methods - I may show a chart of these - or with a single illustrative technique. Often I will use the charming maps of ideas created by statistical NMDS as my sole point of reference; perhaps in this case I will let them illustrate the concept of 'idea spaces', and from there move logically out into the body of ideonomy, perhaps through the connecting corridor of other mathematical concepts and techniques it is able to make use of. In another type of talk I may lead my audience into ideonomy through the door of PHILOSOPHY, or by speaking of its FOUNDATIONS. Or I may start by DEFINING ideonomy, sometimes just in one way, sometimes in a great variety of ways. I may approach ideonomy AS A PROBLEM, by suggesting what its existence or creation would require, the assumptions that would have to be made, the risks, possible fallacies, the difficulties, all of the criticisms and objections to the whole idea of such a science. Then, either simultaneously or subsequently, I can answer these criticisms - defend, explain, and vindicate it. Just as I can introduce the subject through the window of just one of its techniques, I can use just a SINGLE DIVISION, or even a SINGLE ORGANON to illustrate the nature or point of the whole, or the extendibility of scientific method to the realm of pure or general ideas or to arbitrary things. A very different approach to igniting people's interest in the science is to start with its end products, by describing some of the best IDEAS IT HAS CREATED, and the means and methods by which it created them. I may illustrate ideonomy by dwelling on the BREADTH or universality OF its APPLICATIONS and RESULTS. Or on the contrary, by showing how it has treated, or can or could be made to treat, just ONE FIELD, or one TOPIC, or one THING, or one IDEA, or one immediate, circumscribed, casual, and personal NEED, or EVEN a thing chosen quite at RANDOM, or suggested by a member of my audience. In some cases I illustrate what is meant by ideonomy by speaking of its great relevance to EDUCATION and how it could transform the classroom or train or originate new modes of thought. Or I may speak of it in terms of things that interest or make sense to a small child, but which perhaps say something to the adult as well. At times I simply throw out diverse ANECDOTES for an hour, as these have the power to create rapport and give insight indirectly or in ways informal but more human, personal, intimate, everyday, commonsensical, universal, intuitive. Another way to initiate people to ideonomy is to get them to DO or use IT THEMSELVES. This can even be done in the space of an hour, starting from scratch, by having a person or group apply an ideonomic organon, method, principle, or insight - or even CREATE one. Sometimes I start with the SMALLEST THINGS in ideonomy and work up TO the BIGGEST. At times I do the reverse, by starting at the HIGHEST LEVEL or with the biggest things and moving DOWNWARDS. In other introductory talks I explain ideonomy by situating it among other FIELDS of a RELATED nature - such as cognitive science and A.I. - and discussing the similarities and differences, the givings and takings, the common roots and branches, the complementarities, the common means, methods, and opportunities. Sometimes I actually start with the FUTURE of ideonomy, speculating upon its possible and probable course and implications, its evolving character and consequences for the world, its proper program of development. At still other times I convey a picture of ideonomy through or in the context of COMPUTERS, computer science and industry, the nature and needs of software and computer networks, the catalytic and transforming role that ideonomy could play, and the ways in which ideonomy itself uses the computer. All of these and still other ways of introducing ideonomy in a lecture room or conversation, likewise suggest ways of introducing it to people at the Web Ideonomy Site. And many of them should be included somehow in the set of optional tours from which a newcomer to the site, either on his first or subsequent visits, would be free to choose, by way of specializing, personalizing, or varying his lessons and experiences. If he used a set of these tours to explore the Site and science in many different ways, his perception of everything would benefit from a multidimensional mental parallax, that would insure a much more rounded, deep, intuitive, and meaningful perspective. OTHER THINGS TO TALK ABOUT
Discussions of the ways in which Site users can on their own initiative explore and exploit combinations of ideonomy with methods and means outside of ideonomy - e.g. neural nets, genetic algorithms, A.I. techniques, or hypertext software - to benefit or illuminate either of them. |