Prologue
The prologue begins with a detailed description of a Staples store layout. Weinberger is trying to explain why it is that Staples or any other physical store would create a layout the way that they do. When people walk in to a physical store they are hoping that there will be some sort of sign to point them in the direction that they need. Once aimed in the correct direction it is important to have everything organized in a fashion that is easily accessible to the customers. Weinberger also descirbes the difficulty in organization as many items fall into more than one category, and belong in more than one place. This past Christmas I had an interesting shopping experience as I was trying to find things for my two sisters at Toys 'R' us. I noticed that I had been walking around in a circle forever and that I had past some of the same merchandise more than once, making me think I had been around the circle again. In all actuality they had placed the same stock in more than one place so that consumers had a higher chance of finding the toy.
"Having to come back: the victory of space and time over the human ability to remember what goes with what. Many of us find it unreasonably irritating to have to make a second trip to pick up what we forgot the first time—what we forgot because the store-as-information failed to help us remember. Information is easy. Space, time, and atoms are hard."
Chapter 1
Chapter one begins to dive into how humans like to have a certain order to everything. Each persons ordering methods might be different but there is always a rhyme or a reason for the method. Everything has a place. Weinberger also discusses the three orders of order, a very important concept in organizational strategy. Three orders of order are:
The First Order of Order: In the first order of order, we organize things themselves—we put silverware into drawers, books on shelves, photos into albums.
The Second Order of Order: separates information about the first order of order from itself. Keeps a more information catalog of the things themselves.
Third Order of Order: The third order removes the limitations we’ve assumed were inevitable in how we organize information.. "For example, the digital order ignores the paper order’s requirement that labels be smaller than the things they’re labeling. An online “catalog card” listing a book for sale can contain—or link to—as much information as the seller wants, including user ratings, the author’s biography, and the full text of reviews. You can even let users search for a book by typing in any phrase they remember from it."
I often am trying to remember the name of a song, but forget the title, the album, and the artist. In these instances I most generally remember a small fraction of the song. I use the third order of order to find what I am looking for by typing into my web browser the small fraction of lyrics I know. The third order has allowed me to find what I am looking for by organizing the data in a way that can be easily shuffled through.
"The digital revolution in organization sweeps beyond how we find odd photos and beyond how we organize our businesses’ information assets. In fact, the third-order practices that make a company’s existing assets more profitable, increase customer loyalty, and seriously reduce costs are the Trojan horse of the information age. As we all get used to them, third-order practices undermine some of our most deeply ingrained ways of thinking about the world and our knowledge of it."
Chapter 2
Weinberger discusses organizing by alphabetization. This method is commonly used but unfortunately not always completely effective. In school people are organized this way, but stores would never properly function if organized in this manner. I know that when I was in school I had a love hate relationship with alphabetical order. I loved it when I did not have to go first in presenting in front of the class, and I hated it when I was last to go to recess.
I also know that a store or website would not make sense to be organized this way. People need order that is logical based on need, and that is by corresponding items.
“The great joke is, of course, that Adler’s projects already feel hopelessly outdated. From the selection of the Great Books to the 102 Great Ideas to the confident way the Propaedia divides and links topics, it all seems so clearly rooted in one man’s vision of knowledge”
Monday, April 26, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Blog Post 7: Organization Structures
we organize to understand, to explain, and to control. The internet is forcing users to become librarians and organize information. Doing the work of the librarians we have to learn their language, and have thus come up with classification systems in order to help in solving organization problems.
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE- Organizing information
Ambiguity: the use of language in our classification systems. When we use words we are risking that users will not understand the meaning. Words as a classifier are sometimes overly ambiguous. So we need to agree on wordage for labels so that they are universally understood. After selecting the classifying label, we need to come to a common understanding to what will go in each label.
Organizational schemes:
Exact organizational schemes-
alphabetical: generally used for dictionaries, encyclopedias , directories, phone books, indexes. Provides a structure for other organizational schemes.
chronological: organized using numbers 1-?. Generally archives, diaries, television guides, or history books. Would use chronological classification maybe when knowing the exact order is crucial to the content. easy to design and use.
geographical: By place. People care about the location of an event, or the order in which traveling will be done. The weather, political/social/economic issues, and local news fall under the umbrella of geographical classification.
Ambiguous organizational schemes- will divide information into different categories that defy exact definition, and have to do a lot of the definition of ambiguity I listed above because they are difficult to describe. they are more important than exact themes. people do not always know what they are looking for so the ambiguous theme is more useful.
topical: the yellow pages, newspaper, academic courses and departments. Organized by subject rather than alphabetical, geographic or numerical. topical schemes help organize a site into broad categories where people can get an idea of where to look for more specific information.
task-oriented: organize into a collection of processes, functions, or tasks. To guide users to where they need to go in order to perform a specific task. word processors, photoshop. Not often seen on the internet.
audience-specific: can be open or closed. open means that anyone in any audience can access information intended for a specific audience. Closed implies that a single audience is intended, fees and membership may be required to access information.
metaphor-driven: users are helped to understand the new by relating information to the familiar. Folders, files, and trash can are examples.
hybrid schemes: blending of multiple schemes. involves elements of audience-specific, topical, metaphor-based, and task-oriented organization schemes. Hybrid schemes are common on the web because it is difficult to decide upon one scheme.
Web Style Guide- Information Architecture
Aim in organizing for the web:
Sequences in site structure. The map follows a certain procedure, or route. This is the structure of books, magazines, and all other print matter. Sequential ordering may be chronological, a logical series of topics progressing from the general to the specific, or alphabetical, as in indexes, encyclopedias, and glossaries.
Web- link site. The most complex type of site. Weblike organizational structures pose few restrictions on the pattern of information use. In this structure the goal is often to mimic associative thought and the free flow of ideas, allowing users to follow their interests in a unique, heuristic, idiosyncratic pattern.
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE- Organizing information
Ambiguity: the use of language in our classification systems. When we use words we are risking that users will not understand the meaning. Words as a classifier are sometimes overly ambiguous. So we need to agree on wordage for labels so that they are universally understood. After selecting the classifying label, we need to come to a common understanding to what will go in each label.
Organizational schemes:
Exact organizational schemes-
alphabetical: generally used for dictionaries, encyclopedias , directories, phone books, indexes. Provides a structure for other organizational schemes.
chronological: organized using numbers 1-?. Generally archives, diaries, television guides, or history books. Would use chronological classification maybe when knowing the exact order is crucial to the content. easy to design and use.
geographical: By place. People care about the location of an event, or the order in which traveling will be done. The weather, political/social/economic issues, and local news fall under the umbrella of geographical classification.
Ambiguous organizational schemes- will divide information into different categories that defy exact definition, and have to do a lot of the definition of ambiguity I listed above because they are difficult to describe. they are more important than exact themes. people do not always know what they are looking for so the ambiguous theme is more useful.
topical: the yellow pages, newspaper, academic courses and departments. Organized by subject rather than alphabetical, geographic or numerical. topical schemes help organize a site into broad categories where people can get an idea of where to look for more specific information.
task-oriented: organize into a collection of processes, functions, or tasks. To guide users to where they need to go in order to perform a specific task. word processors, photoshop. Not often seen on the internet.
audience-specific: can be open or closed. open means that anyone in any audience can access information intended for a specific audience. Closed implies that a single audience is intended, fees and membership may be required to access information.
metaphor-driven: users are helped to understand the new by relating information to the familiar. Folders, files, and trash can are examples.
hybrid schemes: blending of multiple schemes. involves elements of audience-specific, topical, metaphor-based, and task-oriented organization schemes. Hybrid schemes are common on the web because it is difficult to decide upon one scheme.
Web Style Guide- Information Architecture
Aim in organizing for the web:
- Organize the site content into taxonomies and hierarchies of information;
- Communicate conceptual overviews and the overall site organization to the design team and clients;
- Research and design the core site navigation concepts;
- Set standards and specifications for the handling of html semantic markup, and the format and handling of text content; and
- Design and implement search optimization standards and strategies.
Sequences in site structure. The map follows a certain procedure, or route. This is the structure of books, magazines, and all other print matter. Sequential ordering may be chronological, a logical series of topics progressing from the general to the specific, or alphabetical, as in indexes, encyclopedias, and glossaries.
Web- link site. The most complex type of site. Weblike organizational structures pose few restrictions on the pattern of information use. In this structure the goal is often to mimic associative thought and the free flow of ideas, allowing users to follow their interests in a unique, heuristic, idiosyncratic pattern.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Blog #6
All three authors, Lessig, Weinberger, and Jenkins discussed various topics all surrounding the greater issue of the digital media culture.
Lessig, the author of Remix, discusses a lot of issues surrounding copyright and piracy. The convergence and participatory culture that we have today is making copyright a more blurry topic becuase media users are more willing to share work, and are wanted to remix other peoples work. Creative people are looking for new outlets; mashups have become the new outlet. Lessig brings up several questions that question copyright laws and there productivity in the sharing economy.
Weinberger, author of Everything is Miscellaneous discusses web 2.0 and the orders of the internet, first, second, and third. How disorder functions online, and ways to organize the miscellaneous mess on the web.
Jenkins, author of Convergence Culture, hits on some of the same topics as Lessig but mainly focuses on the convergence culture. How, we, as internet users are participating in the online culture through web 2.0, remixes, blogs, and spoiling groups.
Key terms: convergence culture, participatory culture, web 2.0, order of orders, collective intelligence, sharing/commercial/hybrid economies, remix, collective intelligence, metadata, and mash-ups.
Connections: I think that all three of the books touch on participatory culture. How users have used old technology to create new technology; adding to pre-existing ideas. I think that all issues surrounding technology can relate to the idea of the participatory culture. In order to survive there needs to be participants to add on to and make better resources for everyone. Weinberger touches on tags, sites like digg, delicious and flickr asks users to tag miscellaneous information and make those tags more accessible for future users. For users to build upon. Jenkins is all about participatory culture. He brings in so many real world examples and discusses how people are engaging in spoiling. Spoilers have created an online community where enthusiasts can come and engage to unravel tv show secrets. They are engaging and participating in this community. Lessig also hits a lot on participatory culture. He brings up remixes and people who are engaging in taking others work and building upon, participating in each others works.
Final Project: In order to complete the final project we are going to need to use elements of all of the authors. I think we are especially going to need to think about how viewers will engage, participate, and understand the information that we are putting forth. Properly organizing will be a major part of the project. We will also be building upon technologies of the past.
Lessig, the author of Remix, discusses a lot of issues surrounding copyright and piracy. The convergence and participatory culture that we have today is making copyright a more blurry topic becuase media users are more willing to share work, and are wanted to remix other peoples work. Creative people are looking for new outlets; mashups have become the new outlet. Lessig brings up several questions that question copyright laws and there productivity in the sharing economy.
Weinberger, author of Everything is Miscellaneous discusses web 2.0 and the orders of the internet, first, second, and third. How disorder functions online, and ways to organize the miscellaneous mess on the web.
Jenkins, author of Convergence Culture, hits on some of the same topics as Lessig but mainly focuses on the convergence culture. How, we, as internet users are participating in the online culture through web 2.0, remixes, blogs, and spoiling groups.
Key terms: convergence culture, participatory culture, web 2.0, order of orders, collective intelligence, sharing/commercial/hybrid economies, remix, collective intelligence, metadata, and mash-ups.
Connections: I think that all three of the books touch on participatory culture. How users have used old technology to create new technology; adding to pre-existing ideas. I think that all issues surrounding technology can relate to the idea of the participatory culture. In order to survive there needs to be participants to add on to and make better resources for everyone. Weinberger touches on tags, sites like digg, delicious and flickr asks users to tag miscellaneous information and make those tags more accessible for future users. For users to build upon. Jenkins is all about participatory culture. He brings in so many real world examples and discusses how people are engaging in spoiling. Spoilers have created an online community where enthusiasts can come and engage to unravel tv show secrets. They are engaging and participating in this community. Lessig also hits a lot on participatory culture. He brings up remixes and people who are engaging in taking others work and building upon, participating in each others works.
Final Project: In order to complete the final project we are going to need to use elements of all of the authors. I think we are especially going to need to think about how viewers will engage, participate, and understand the information that we are putting forth. Properly organizing will be a major part of the project. We will also be building upon technologies of the past.
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