Design of Information Spaces and Retrieval of Information Using Electrostatics in Virtual Spaces

Humans have a rich awareness of locations and situations that directs how we interpret and interact with our surroundings. The principle aim of this paper is to create ‘Information Spaces’ where people will use their awareness to search, browse and learn. In the same way that they navigate in a physical environment, they will navigate through knowledge. An information space is a type of design in which representations of information objects are situated in a principled space. In this chapter we present an architecture based on the principles of electrostatistics, which presents a model for design of information spaces. Our model gives an easy conceptual framework to reason about how information can be represented as well as secure ways of extracting and storing information leading to a design which are easily scalable in virtual team environments.