i-Maps Department Number: 001 Date: 08 01 2002 Author: Intag Source: Intag  General Description We tried to assemble the activities of this Department as all the Intag's, a rather complex task because maps are a product, in fact the offspring of almost three years of research, that teach us too much about Internet use and about Information Retrieval. We have a whole collection of "white papers" that explain thoroughly what a map is we recommend to see our I-Maps White Paper 001, whence we extract the following definition: A map is a conform representation of a given reality, in our case a virtual reality: the knowledge hosted in the Web space. As in geographical maps, to each point in the map correspond a zone or an object in the reality, according to a certain "scale". The objects represented in the map are sites, authorities or hubs, belonging to a given Human discipline or "Major Subject". Most of these sites are big and complex objects. In number could have from 1.000 to 100.000 files and they were designed to be seen only one at a time through a small window, the screen of your monitor!. That is one of the reasons because you as a user need summaries describing the structure and content. To evaluate the usefulness of one of those sites for your purposes would take hours!. The size and the complexity of authorities and hubs is the reason because most of them have their own maps to guide the navigators. Knowhow and methodology Maps of the Human Knowledge and i-Databases (350KB) Infomaps The Future of Cyberspace Thesaurus Evolution Index of Activities  Semantic We may depict any reality on a map. The reality could be static such as describing objects or dynamic to describe processes. A process could be for instance Chat, the Stock Exchange, or auction matchmaking, see our Infomaps. Self Organizing Maps or SOM are in the line of the Honkela Doctoral Thesis from the University of Technology of Helsinki. It's one algorithm (Kohonen algorithm) to represent neural network algorithms applied to interrelated words. It facilitates the conversion of a documents collection into a map that makes easy the interactive browsing.  Web Our main product, Human Knowledge Maps, is described in our White Papers collection. Basically those maps allow general users to find what they need in few clicks, ideally in only one click. Once generated it could be cloned and distributed to associated sites to form a network. These nets have clones in different stages of evolution because the users population they interact. For instance a HKM serving academic people will have a cultural bias with a clone serving commercial users.... More  Strategic Intag could make strategic studies about the generation and use of the intelligence. There is no problem with information because most information of the world is "up there" in the Web space and what is not there could be easily obtained by fieldwork.... More  Industrial BOM, which stands for Bill of Materials is a classic application that could be solved with mapping technology. The material explosion is a graph and a semantic tree as well and could be studied as a continuous living process not as a "batch" process like living from steps. It's the core of the Supply Chain of manufacturing.... More  Byproducts and Targets Emerging from I-Maps Department and this Department there are a list of byproducts to attract investors. We are just entering into the realm of the Content Age, centered on Intelligence of Content, that is what comes out from a mass of information under the form of trends, behaviors and principles sustained. Those byproducts are extremely related to businesses targets specialized on those products: Head Quarter Strategy and Planning, Government Strategy Policies and Planning, Intelligence Services, Intelligence of marketing, Editorials, Press Media, National Intelligence Services. The "value" of intelligence is in part quantitative but essentially is a qualitative asset, the thing that enables an organization to accomplish something essential, strategically crucial.