Content Clouds... What are they?

• A content cloud provides an alternative means of web content classification to the usual human generated 'tags'.
• A content cloud is created automatically, based entirely on the content of a page or site.
• The words that appear are those that are calculated as significantly above the 'average' frequency as found in the British National Corpus.
• For a more detailed explanation visit the following website: www.webguruguide.com and search for 'content clouds'.

Content Cloud Visualisation

I'm interested not in how we generate this content cloud... but how we can visualise it to make it more significant in human computer interaction. This page explores ways to view and display Content Clouds - from linear to interactive 3D. Enjoy!

Using HTML & CSS:

Content Cloud Randomised Text-Block - with frequency visualisation

1. prepared
2. attendees
3. barcamp
4. people
5. server
6. posting
7. conversation
8. deviate
9. hosting
10. ideas
11. imparting
12. laptops
13. network
14. onboard
15. presentations
16. connect
17. selects
18. start
19. streaming
20. topics
21. unstructured



Dynamic Content Cloud using CSS

1. prepared
2. attendees
3. barcamp
4. people
5. server
6. posting
7. conversation
8. deviate
9. hosting
10. ideas
11. imparting
12. laptops
13. network
14. onboard
15. presentations
16. connect
17. selects
18. start
19. streaming
20. topics
21. unstructured



Using Flash and XML data.

HTML and CSS only allow a limited amount of options when it comes to displaying text. Flash is a great web technology that allows for richer graphics and animation.
The only problem - how to get the content cloud keywords into a flash app?
This is where XML comes in. XML data can be imported into flash on loading.... so first we need to create the XML data file.In all the following examples the text and links are all imported from as XML data which is the the following format and saved as contentcloud.xml


Just copy, change the data to your own keywords and links and save as contentcloud.xml
<contentcloud_item rank="8" link="http://tobyonline.co.uk/index.php">tobsblog </contentcloud_item><contentcloud_item rank="8" link="http://tobyonline.co.uk/quals.php">certified</contentcloud_item><contentcloud_item rank="8" link="http://tobyonline.co.uk/quals.php">microsoft</contentcloud_item><contentcloud_item rank="8" link="http://tobyonline.co.uk/quals.php">university</contentcloud_item><contentcloud_item rank="7" link="http://tobyonline.co.uk">tobyonline</contentcloud_item><contentcloud_item rank="7" link="http://tobyonline.co.uk/elearn.php">e-learning</contentcloud_item><contentcloud_item rank="7" link="http://tobyonline.co.uk/sitemap.php">sitemap</contentcloud_item><contentcloud_item rank="6" link="http://tobyonline.co.uk/quals.php">systems</contentcloud_item><contentcloud_item rank="5" link="http://tobyonline.co.uk">technology</contentcloud_item><contentcloud_item rank="4" link="http://tobyonline.co.uk/quals.php">trainer</contentcloud_item><contentcloud_item rank="4" link="http://tobyonline.co.uk/teach.php">experience</contentcloud_item><contentcloud_item rank="4" link="http://tobyonline.co.uk/quals.php">instructor</contentcloud_item><contentcloud_item rank="4" link="http://tobyonline.co.uk/teach.php">teaching</contentcloud_item><contentcloud_item rank="3" link="http://tobyonline.co.uk/quals.php">lecturer</contentcloud_item><contentcloud_item rank="3" link="http://tobyonline.co.uk/teach.php">networking</contentcloud_item><contentcloud_item rank="2" link="http://tobyonline.co.uk/quals.php">MCSE-MCT</contentcloud_item><contentcloud_item rank="2" link="http://tobyonline.co.uk/quals.php">certification</contentcloud_item><contentcloud_item rank="1" link="http://tobyonline.co.uk/quals.php">corporate</contentcloud_item><contentcloud_item rank="1" link="http://tobyonline.co.uk/teach.php">communications</contentcloud_item><contentcloud_item rank="1" link="http://tobyonline.co.uk/quals.php">corporate</contentcloud_item>

Content Cloud: Flash-based scrolling list

Download the .swf file here download link




Content Cloud: Flash-based target area

Download the .swf file here download link




Content Cloud: Flash-based 3D fly through cloud

Download the .swf file here download link




Content Cloud: 3D cloud - colour coded frequency visualisation

Download the .swf file here download link