The knowledge garden

The knowledge garden, a collaborative 3-D information visualisation tool, i s described in this paper. Since humans are instinctively attuned to a 3-D world, 3-D interactive multimedia information sources offer the possibility of an intuitive and natural way to explore complex ideas, concepts and inf ormation. The knowledge garden aims to provide an environment where people can meet colleagues and share relevant information among a community of int erest Information is seen as an organic resource that changes over time, an d is represented as plants in a shared three-dimensional knowledge garden. Plants are grown from the results of an automatic clustering process whereb y Internet resources containing related information are grouped together. A lso described are proposed extensions to the garden which would support and encourage the creation of communities of interest and the sharing of tacit knowledge.