Instead of the flattened and passive PDF documents we have today which rarely contain useful metadata, when a document ‘knows what it is and how it connects’, in other words–when it has rich metadata attached–it becomes possible to do much more when you are reading & thinking.
Computer game designers have long known that in order to create richly interactive environments, the elements in the environment need to know what they are and to be able to communicate this. It is the same for knowledge work.
This is not just for today
Imagine interacting with your knowledge in the exciting, powerful and engaging ways you might have seen in TV or movies, maybe like in Minority Report or Iron Man. Outside these ‘for-show‘ interactions, something like this can only be done if sufficient metadata is available & accessible.
Visual-Meta is a statement of intent to both preserve and use our knowledge as richly and robustly as possible.
Above all, Visual-Meta is a promise.
It is a promise that if we put rich metadata into a document in a robust form, interactions we cannot even imagine now become possible for us today and for anyone in the future. Real interactions which are really useful.