All posts from
December 2003

The humanism of media ecology: Keynote address delivered at the inaugural media ecology association convention

Added on 9 December 2003 Peter Bogaards
“As far as I can tell, the new media have made us into a nation of information junkies; that is to say, our 170-year efforts have turned information into a form of garbage. My own answer to the question concerning access to information is that, at least for now, the speed, volume, and variety of available information serve as a distraction and a moral deficit; we are deluded into thinking that the serious social problems of our time would be solved if only we had more information, and still more information.” (Neil Postman – Media Ecology Association) – courtesy of vanderwal

Stuart Weibel interviews Tim Berners-Lee

Added on 9 December 2003 Peter Bogaards
“The benefit of the Web is proportional to the number of connections – links – to related information. Just as the Web evolved rapidly as people recognized this and acted independently to launch Web servers, this same network effect will bring people together around common semantic standards as they come to realize the enhanced value of their data and information in the context of a truly Semantic Web.” (Online Computer Literacy Center) – courtesy of peter van dijck

The intranet gets serious: If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it – Part 4/4

Added on 7 December 2003 Peter Bogaards
“Intranets don’t self-organize. Without planned, centralized information architectures and clearly defined published processes, they become unproductive. Intranets often have applications that either don’t work properly, are too difficult to learn, or have no clear business benefit. Applications, like content, must be able to establish a clear return on investment.” (Gerry McGovern)

Humanity will survive information deluge

Added on 7 December 2003 Peter Bogaards
Q&A with Sir Arthur C. Clarke: “The Information Age offers much to mankind, and I would like to think that we will rise to the challenges it presents. But it is vital to remember that information ñ in the sense of raw data ñ is not knowledge; that knowledge is not wisdom; and that wisdom is not foresight. But information is the first essential step to all of these.” (Nalaka Gunawardene – OneWorld South Asia)

Expert forum for knowledge presentation: Resources for communication & Forum for discussion, planning, and collaboration

Added on 4 December 2003 Peter Bogaards
“Our goal is to provide a structured forum to define common goals, formulate strategies, and develop collaborative action leading to improving the performance of communications and developing an agreed upon knowledge base that serves and defines the field.” (International Institute for Information Design) – courtesy of karel van der waarde

When good design => bad product

Added on 3 December 2003 Peter Bogaards
“When you come up with improved designs, take it upon yourself to test how they work. Formulate your own test plan and try them out under a variety of conditions. If the engineering process is so badly broken that changing the old designs will almost certainly make things worse, back off on how much you want to change in each release and work with your engineers to do more informal QA testing before the release is assembled.” (Bruce Tognazzini – AskTog) – courtesy of vanderwal

Skip this rant and read Shirky

Added on 3 December 2003 Peter Bogaards
“If this all sounds like the Mother of all Migraines, you’re spot on. Probably too challenging for most of us, even if our content management systems suddenly sprouted new code to adequately support metadata management. And even if we could get everyone in our organizations – or, in the case of the Semantic Web, every web publisher on the planet – to share the same ‘world views’ as expressed by metadata.” (Louis Rosenfeld)

News page designer

Added on 3 December 2003 Peter Bogaards
“(…) there aren’t many places to see news design happening throughout the world. Many areas of the country don’t have easy access to newspapers from around the world or even the United States. Consequently many of us are working in somewhat of a vacuum. Your participation helps create a community for all news designers from all geographic areas and from all levels of experience.” (About NPD)

AIfIA sponsors first scandinavian conference on information architecture

Added on 1 December 2003 Peter Bogaards
“AIfIA will be an official sponsor of the Danish Research Library Association’s Forum for Information Architecture (DF-IA) conference. The conference will be held March 9th – 10th, 2004 in Korsoer, Denmark. While it will be the first information architecture (IA) conference held in Scandinavia, DF-IA is drawing international participation.” (AIfIA) – courtesy of peter morville

ODLIS: Online dictionary of library and information science

Added on 1 December 2003 Peter Bogaards
“(…) designed to be a hypertext reference resource for library and information science professionals, university students and faculty, and users of all types of libraries. The primary criterion for including a new term is whether a librarian or other information professional might reasonably be expected to encounter it at some point in his (or her) career, or be required to know its meaning in the course of executing his or her responsibilities as a librarian. The vocabulary of publishing, printing, book history, literature, and computer science has been included when, in the author’s judgment, a definition might prove helpful, not only to library and information professionals, but also to laypersons.” (Joan M. Reitz – Western Connecticut State University)