Diigo @ DEMOfall 07 - A True 3D Information App?

Posted by Phil Butler on September 24th, 2007

Diigo.com announced their re-launch today with an information network unlike any we have seen in  scope or capability. The new Diigo network being unveiled at DEMOfall 07 creates global communities around data, information, interests and knowledge. These new communities engage and connect people around the content they collect and use. Diigo is already one of the most useful bookmarking and research sites on the Web. The integration of Webslides and the power of “writing the Web” makes Diigo perhaps the Web's first truly 3 dimensional tool.

I spoke with Diigo Co-Founder Maggie Tsai on Friday about their deep and groundbreaking vison. I covered Webslides a couple of weeks ago, but honestly did not envision the depth or scope of Diigo's potential. Maggie demonstrated the capability of a development nearly as complex and difficult to encapsulate as the semantic search engine's technology. The simple truth of Diigo combined with Webslides is that with continued refinements Diigo could well be the mega site imagined by many for Web 3.0.

Diigo Plus Webslides

Diigo users can create groups, lists, collaborative forums, do research, annotate or comment on pages and essentially build layers of data and knowledge atop any Web page. The concept of a multi-layered Web is difficult to grasp, but Maggie's team have begun to capture the power of what content-centric (their word my understanding) collaboration can do. “Writing” to the Web via sticky notes, annotations and highlighted elements combined with various collaborative elements is power for more than doing a research project.

With the addition of Webslides - essentially an interactive, selective browser/player within a browser - Diigo provides a multifaceted platform for unbelievable collaboration and monetization potential. Diigo also unveiled another crucial element for “directing” data at users with their Webslides embeddable widget. This tool allows users to embed Webslides bookmark or RSS shows inside pages and blogs. These shows can be customized to express any number of topical or thematic blog posts, topical articles, product reviews, real estate offerings or just about anything one can imagine.

One of my diigo lists

A Tall Order

Diigo is certainly a fantastic individual or collaborative research tool, but inserting a platform like this into what we might call “the hub” (the center of what people do) of the Web has deeper implications. Bookmarking and social networking has seen massive appeal. The idea of wrapping users up in this core of data and knowledge has been touched upon by sites like Wikia, Digg, Stumble Upon, Facebook and many others in the various venues. All of these great sites gather content that is acted on and sometimes enhanced by users, but the data remains rather static or 2 dimensional for the user. Stumbled Upon comes closest to letting users “filter” the Web and its data but even there the great volume of information is lost or scattered with time. Diigo's methodology effectively turns Diigo into a Web within a Web of filtered, searchable and dynamic information.

Summary

Most of my readers are probably saying: “Phil has tested way too many betas!” Summing some of these developments up is rather like holding water in a net. For once I can defer this task to someone more capable than myself: “Diigo combines the best of social networking, bookmarking, highlighting, and annotating to let people discover, save, and share the information that is important to them personally or professionally,” said Wade Ren, CEO of Diigo. “Not only can people find a collective repository of searchable and relevant information, but they can mark-up and save information along the way - all while connecting with like-minded people for future collaboration.”

Conclusion

As Chris Shipley, DEMO's executive producer says: “It would be easy to dismiss Diigo as yet-another social bookmarking tool, but that would be a big mistake.” In this instance Chris has not overstated a development's capability. Webslides embedded and noted inside a blog can spotlight any series of posts and topics with “live” pages and advertisements. If we think just slightly outside the box here it is not difficult to imagine video and audio annotation following highlighted text from several pages for an on-the-fly sales pitch or dissertation on any subject. Information, knowledge and interests gathered around people rather than people running to find fragments of data. This is Web 3.0 (if there is such a thing) in the development stages.

Illustration of one version of Webslides on my personal blog 

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