This week I was able to get a sneak peek of Lila, a web application that uses a completely new approach to Internet navigation and collaboration. Instead of pages, it uses spaces. It’s a hard concept to get at first. As I watched the demonstration from the Danish creators, I was a bit confused and slightly frustrated at first. But by the end of the presentation, I was completely into it. Here’s my best explanation:
When you go to a Lila space on your web browser, you see a large white canvas with a few objects on it. There is a control bar that allows you to zoom in and out, manipulate, and navigate the space. If you have worked with Adobe Illustrator, Lila is somewhat similar to that. Except that the objects on the workspace can be videos (even walls of videos) or clouds of pictures with descriptions and connections to other related areas on the space.
Rasmus Groth, the CEO, described moving between the areas of content as a “walk,” instead of a click. Compared to a normal website, Lila feels completely chaotic and a little overwhelming. Once you get used to the idea, however, it is an intuitive and exciting way to explore information. To help recent initiates, the creator of a Lila page can select scenes, or camera angles, that he wants a visitor to see. The Scenes can be ordered and a visitor can navigate through them using the control bar. The effect is something like a PowerPoint presentation, but at any moment you can zoom out and get a bird’s eye view of the whole shebang.
Sometime in 2009, Lila should be open to the public. For a small monthly fee, a user could set up spaces and upload content, which Lila hosts. Groth admits freely that he’s not trying to change the world all at once, but this is a good first step. Lila will not likely take over the market for content management systems and website building software, but it has some specific applications that are exciting.
At Advent Creative, we’re particularly interested in using it to collaborate with clients on creative proofs. For instance, we could set up a space for each of our clients. Then, when we want to get feedback on some website mockups, we just send them the URL. The client could draw on the proofs, upload examples of what they want, and give final approval. We’re based in Utah, but we have clients in Bangkok and Hong Kong, so this could be perfect for us.
Groth, an architect by trade, started thinking of Lila because of similar problems he had with blueprints and working with groups in Poland. Lila is also very well adapted to museums, art displays, and high interactive web ventures. I can’t imagine it would ever be used for e-commerce, but maybe one day. There is a thrilling feeling when you go to somebody’s Lila space that’s akin to voyeurism. It feels like you snuck into somebody’s office and you’re riffling through their desk.
After the demonstration, Groth navigated us back to a normal web page. It felt so stale and static that it started to give me claustrophobia. Lila is an exciting application that if used correctly could significantly change the way we interact on the world wide web. We’ll be giving it a test run in February, and we’ll keep you posted on how it goes.
