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July 19, 1999
SFU Licenses Innovative Web Navigation
Software
New worldwide web navigation software developed at Simon
Fraser University will soon be revolutionizing the way we use
and surf the web.
CZWeb was recently licensed to ThoughtShare
Communications Inc., a new spin-off company from DNA
Media Group of Vancouver headed by local new media
entrepreneur Steven Forth.
The deal, fostered by SFU's University/Industry Liaison
Office (UILO), is the culmination of five years of research by
engineering science professor John Dill, his colleagues and
students, who have created a novel, interactive web page
mapping program that applies cognitive science to computer
visualization. The result is a user-friendly, interactive `road
map' that appears alongside the browser window on the
computer screen. It graphically tracks and organizes
web-surfing sessions using icons to represent servers and web
pages. As well, it links the icons using coloured arrows that
yellow with age so that you can follow them backward to
where you have been before. The techniques are based on
two algorithms developed under PRECARN funding at Simon
Fraser University: the Continuous Zoom and the Continuous
Zoom+DOI (Degree of interest).
ThoughtShare plans to combine CZWeb visualization
technology with its own annotation technology, called
`waymarking', which lets you make notes about web sites as
you visit them. The result, says ThoughtShare CEO Michael
Lebowitz, will be the ability to create a web-surfing map
complete with notes that can be saved, published to the web
or shared. "We think this is a new way to live on the web,"
says Lebowitz. "It will appeal to everybody who searches the
web, whether for business or pleasure."
Dill and Lebowitz hope to have a prototype developed by
year-end and plan to introduce the product to market in the
first quarter of 2000.
"The market potential for CZWeb is very strong," notes SFU
UILO director Michael Volker. "We expect that corporate
Intranets will be one of the most significant applications,
although the technology can be used in a variety of other
ways such as for computer-aided manufacturing." The
University has an equity position in the company.
-30-
CONTACT: John Dill, phone: 291-3574, email:
dill@cs.sfu.ca
Teri Lydiard, SFU/UILO, phone: 291-5844,
email: lydiard@sfu.ca
Michael Lebowitz, ThoughtShare; 736-8783 x258
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