07/07/97 FLYING INTO THOSE CLOUDS OF DATA

FLYING INTO THOSE CLOUDS OF DATA

THE AMOUNT OF INFORMAtion online doubles every 12 months, market researchers figure, overwhelming our ability to make sense of it all. The latest effort to better organize the contents of vast Internet databases comes from Perspecta Inc. The San Francisco-based startup uses spatial maps to cluster data in relevant groupings that users can zoom in on using a mouse. Searching for documents with Perspecta's SmartContent system is akin to flying through space, with new subcategories popping up on screen as users move deeper into their area of interest. Clicking on a document reveals a web of thin lines linking it to related documents and topics.
The system is from Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab's Millennium Project, which set out to present all the day's news at once in 3-D on a single screen. Perspecta's founders trimmed SmartContent to 2-D so it could run on standard PCs. Xerox Corp. and Apple Computer Inc. have been working on similar ways to display large amounts of data at a glance. While they have used tree structures to organize information, ''our approach is nonlinear,'' says Steve Holtzman, Perspecta's president and CEO. Early users of SmartContent include Reel.com, an online movie store, and AllTheNews, a Web-based news service. Investors include Informix Corp. and Nicholas Negroponte, director of the Media Lab.
EDITED BY AMY CORTESE
Paul C. Judge