Structural analysis for the knowledge management domain

Abstract

Structural computing represents a form of hypertext, in which structure is foregrounded in the analysis, design and implementation of systems. Until now, the vast majority of structural computing work has focused on the implementation of frameworks. The applications implemented in these environments are often reimplementations of existing hypertext applications, intended to show the utility of the provided environments in terms of implementation, interoperability, or other metrics. Often, spatial hypertext applications are reimplemented, since they are seen as particularly good tests of structural computing infrastructures. This is because the demonds they pose are quite different from many other types of hypertext applications. However, structural computing researchers have failed to reanalyse and redesign these applications in a structurally-aware way. There are substantial improvements that result from rethinking such applications from a structure-first perspective. In this paper, we present such a reanalysis, and describe its implications for spatial hypertext within structural computing environments.