The open nature of the Commons [i.e., the content repository - ed] leads to a natural question about quality control and help for readers in finding, navigating, and utilizing high-quality material... (from Lenses: Proposed functional description and high level design)
Lenses can be configured to select collections of content, evaluate quality through endorsements from authorities and organizations, and provide detailed metadata. A lens is a standalone object in a repository. A lens can be contributed by third party editorial entities, professional societies, and individuals. Lenses provide different kinds of content: endorsements; vocabularies, ontologies and notations used by communities of practice. In lenses, collections of content modules are displayed in context. There are also automated lenses indicating popularity and user ratings. The developers of Connexions have published a document describing the design of lenses.
Lenses make so much sense for Connexions. Do they also make sense as a more general tool for you and I, that is, should there be web-based lensing services? Social bookmarking services like del.icio.us have always stood out as a singular tool for increasing the intelligence of the Web community. Could bookmarking be extended to collections? Could collections be organized and annotated, providing much the same functionality as document trails (an idea taking form with the trailfire service)?
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