Accessing hyperdocuments through interactive dynamic maps

We propose a new navigation paradigm based on a spatial metaphor to help users access and navigate within large sets of documents. This metaphor is implemented by a computer artifact called an Interactive Dynamic Map (IDM). An IDM plays a role similar to the role of a real map with respect to physical space. Two types of IDMs are computed from the documents: Topic IDMs represent the semantic contents of a set of documents while Document IDMs visualize a subset of documents such as those resulting from a query. IDMs can be used for navigating, browsing, and querying. They can be made active, they can be customized and they can be shared among users. The article presents the SHADOCS document retrieval system and describes the role, use and generation of IDMs in SHADOCS.