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| KnownSpace KnownSpace is a smart, visual, autonomous, and interactive information manager of all of your information, whether that information is data or programs, and whether it originates on the web, via mail, news, ftp, an editor, or any other application. It is not a search engine, browser, desktop, or operating system, although it shares elements of all four programs. It is an attempt to wrest control of the desktop away from the major software manufacturers and put its future into the hands of the world's independent software developers. We hope that massive changes in user interfaces and desktop artificial intelligence will follow. The project has been in design since Spring 1996, and under development since Spring 1998. It is the product of 61 people, most of them students, spread over 4 terms. At the end of last term, you may have seen the first prototype. We now have an alpha. The alpha will show off five (possibly six) interfaces to the same kernel program. These interfaces are quite crude, but we hope to demonstrate the power and flexibility of the program using them. KnownSpace is written in Java, and it can run on any sufficiently fast machine (300MHz and up) that supports Java 1.2 (also known as Java 2). As experimental software, it is not yet fit for normal users, but it is an Open-Source project so all sources are included on the web site, free for use or modification. We will be releasing a beta at the end of Fall 1999 in time to greet the new Millennium. We hope that our work will bring personal choice to the desktop. | ||
