Circles
August 3rd, 2009
In every meaningful relationship often there is important information that both wish to share and record. This could be phone numbers, facts (such as birthdays or food allergies), or simply notes. Circles is a wiki based knowledge management system where users (elements of a set) share wiki pages with other users in form of a Venn Diagram.
As the diagram illustrates, User A and User B have the option of choosing how their wiki pages are to be shared if at all. The mechanism for sharing is simple enough to encourge users to take an active role is deciding what pieces of knowledge should be shared and with whom. This is important because once a page is shared with other users this page can be edited by all users who can see the page allowing for it to organically grown with the combined knowledge of all.
This very light weight application was implemented using PHP and MySQL over the span of a weekend. Because Circles is designed for the sharing of many different kinds of data it was important to create a strong system of meta-annotations. Although the wiki pages are open for any content special preformatted templates for addresses, calendar dates and lists are encouraged to be used. The meta-annotations not only create a more pleasurable experience but also extends the the very important search mechanism.