Polyptique
Frederic Madre & Veronique Muller

a sort of image only mute wiki
where one can add images and pages
away, a social software experiment

there are 3 main elements to polyptique
pages, images and users all are stored in a mysql db, polyptique being
developed in php

at first we had to create one seed page, it's here
http://polyptique.maisonpop.fr/images.php?Page=1
there was only the bonnie and clyde picture there and the red soldier on the
side, plus the attributes of the page which are its title "la page de
jules", background color, number of lines and number of images per line
part of the experiment is that if we decided to have another instance of
polyptique somewhere else we would have another seed page and the whole site
would grow very differently from this one...

from that page people have added images within it OR added new pages by
using one of the images in there as a starting point (when you mouse over an
image it tells you that you can add an image or add a page, please try it:
the form that appears over the page to achieve this has been translated, use
the EN link) ; this is why we claim it is wiki inspired, the site grows
constantly by associations created by the users reacting to others
contributions, they are all building a huge association of pages and images
which appears to be nonsensical and is browsable without inputing; it is
when you actually participate that you really understand what is happening
in there

when you add an image or page you can give your user name (or remain
anonymous) which is stored as a cookie on your computer; whenever you log
back your username is displayed (for instance on the opening page) as a
color code and all users are represented by their color codes. we tried to
have the less text possible in there, there are no directions, no help:
people should "get it"; the only text are the page titles and in the form
(and also the location bar, of course)

when adding a page from another page you use one image as, let's say, a
joint which goes both ways
to the new page and the original one
here http://polyptique.maisonpop.fr/images.php?Page=85#663 the big japanese
cake (image 663) was used from page 85 (title "expressionlibre") to create
page 115 http://polyptique.maisonpop.fr/images.php?Page=115#663 ("favorite
fruits for favorite foot") the user who did this had to add another image
(664)
http://polyptique.maisonpop.fr/images.php?Page=115#664
etc

when a page is "completed" or "full" (like here:
http://polyptique.maisonpop.fr/images.php?Page=50 ), which means that number
of lines multiplied by number of images per line equals number of images in
the database attached to that "page", the color codes of all users having
added images on that page are all displayed one above the other and link to
the respective users' pages. The user's (example:
http://polyptique.maisonpop.fr/user.php?User=1 ) page displays all the
images added by that user and also lists the color codes of the most recent
activity of other users (the background shows the last three images added to
the db)

the front page displays your color code and the last image added and leads
you to the homepage
http://polyptique.maisonpop.fr/homepage.php
if you are coming there for the first time, or chose to remain anonymous,
you will see the 3 background images that never change (they are also some
sort of seed for this instance of polyptique) as well as links to the last
30 pages to which images have been added (the images are used for the links)
and color codes of all users leading to their user pages, mmm

if your cookie shows that you have a user name, the homepage has an added
layer of your last 30 images leading to their respective pages; by clicking
on your color code you can have this layer go on front or behind the other
one described above...

last (phew) if you click on the animated gif of a person breaking into a
computer screen you go to a page which displays all pages created in
chronological order with their joint image used as a link
it's here http://polyptique.maisonpop.fr/pages.php

have fun


project homepage: http://polyptique.maisonpop.fr
keywords: passionate-intuitive-patterns-PHP-active-
educational-political-feedback-filesharing-folk-
found_object-marxist-metaphorical-chaos-community-
conceptual-multiuser-constraints-copyright-visual-
semantic-obfuscated-database-instructive-sharing
category: social software
uploaded by frederic, 29 Nov 2004




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