Finding a way through thousands of spaces

Trying to visualise a people space with 12 million different possible meeting places might seem impossibly complex. How, for instance, would people find the best areas to establish a presence, i.e., find the virtual meeting places where they could make just the right kind of contacts? Surprisingly, it is very easy: it involves nothing more complicated than answering a few multi choice questions: one for each level (Note: the levels correspond to the different dimensions of a multi dimensional space as described in the last chapter).

In the hypothetical example described in the last chapter, rag merchants could establish a presence at meeting places in a people space – where customers would be looking for the garments they were sorting – by answering the following five multi choice questions (selecting by clicking on a single line in each of five given lists – with each click bringing up the list for the next question):

1) What items do you sort? (12 items listed - A to L)

2) What is your geographical location? (12 items listed - A to L)

4) What is the type of locality you draw stock from? (12 items listed - A to L)

3) What languages do you speak? (10 items listed - A to J)

4) How many sorters do you use? (9 items listed - A to I)

The answers to these questions (requiring only five clicks) would automatically create a unique address at one of the possible 155,520 places in the people space. By repeating this simple procedure, a rag merchant can establish a presence at every meeting place where there are customers looking for someone like them and wanting to buy the products they are sorting.

In an identical way, buyers can establish their presence in the most suitable places to meet the right kind of rag merchants who are sorting out the garments they need– simply by answering five similar multi choice questions (again by clicking on lines in lists):

1) Select the type of garments you are interested in (12 items listed - A to L)

2) Select the geographic areas you can travel to? (12 items listed - A to L)

3) Select the type of locality do you want the garments to come from? (12 items listed - A to L)

4) Select the languages you speak? (10 items listed - A to J)

5) Select the size of company you want to deal with (number of sorters) (9 items listed - A to I)

Again, each meeting place chosen would require no more than five clicks, each click bringing up the next set of lists. This could be repeated for as many meeting places that the buyers wishes to go to meet appropriate rag dealers.

There will be no sense of the complexity of the formatted space; the users probably won't even realise it exists. They will simply be answering the questions and as a result find themselves automatically connected to the people they need to know.

This system matches suppliers to customers. As it is a virtual space, both suppliers and customers can go into as many spaces as they like, so, a rag merchant can appear simultaneously in several different places if they sort several different kinds of garment, or, speak several different languages.

Similarly, a customer can appear in many different areas if they need a number of different garments, speak several languages, be prepared to travel to several different geographic areas and don't care how many sorters the rag merchant employs. This exploits the unique property of the Internet to allow people to be in multiple virtual places at the same time.

Although this is a hypothetical and probably not a very practical example, it illustrates the essence of the general idea. It is not hard to adapt the conceptual framework to all manner of subject areas where it is useful for people to meet others. This will apply particularly where people need to meet others to be able to share information and knowledge.