The Pattern Which Connects

Added on 27 September 2004 Peter Bogaards
“How we perceive our experiences, indeed how we learn to think, are significantly shaped by years of education. These patterns of perceiving and thinking are deeply influenced by the underlying structure of education, or the assumptions embedded in the design of curriculum, instruction and evaluation. And this underlying structure originates largely in analysis, or the breaking down of information into a variety of parts we refer to as subjects, disciplines, courses and the like.” (Brian Alger – Experience Designer Network)

Culture and Websites

Added on 26 September 2004 Peter Bogaards
“Internationalization has become a very popular topic around web design. Designers are becoming more aware of the global scale of websites and are taking into account different language character sets, date formats and currencies. The more subtle effects of culture, however, are less evident. In an attempt to study these factors, Aaron Marcus and Emilie W. Gould discuss how Hofstede’s cultural dimensions of power-distance (PD), individual vs. collectivism (IC), masculinity vs. femininity (MAS) and uncertainty avoidance (UA) and long term vs. short term orientation (LTO) may apply to global web sites. As an exercise, I looked at several corporate and consumer websites that might illustrate – or perhaps contradict – the patterns Marcus and Gould described.” (Kevin Cheng – OK/Cancel) – courtesy of chris mcevoy

What is a document?

Added on 26 September 2004 Peter Bogaards
“Ordinarily the word ‘document’ denotes a textual record. Increasingly sophisticated attempts to provide access to the rapidly growing quantity of available documents raised questions about which should be considered a ‘document’. The answer is important for any definition of the scope of Information Science. Paul Otlet and others developed a functional view of ‘document’ and discussed whether, for example, sculpture, museum objects, and live animals, could be considered ‘documents’. (…) New digital technology renews old questions and also old confusions between medium, message, and meaning.” (Michael K. Buckland)

Information as thing

Added on 26 September 2004 Peter Bogaards
“Three meanings of ‘information’ are distinguished: ‘Information-as-process’; ‘information-as-knowledge’; and ‘information-as-thing’, the attributive use of ‘information’ to denote things regarded as informative. The nature and characteristics of ‘information-as-thing’ are discussed, using an indirect approach (‘What things are informative?’). Varieties of ‘information-as-thing’ include data, text, documents, objects, and events. On this view ‘information’ includes but extends beyond communication. Whatever information storage and retrieval systems store and retrieve is necessarily ‘information-as-thing’.” (Michael K. Buckland)

Digital Libraries and User Needs: Negotiating the Future

Added on 24 September 2004 Peter Bogaards
“The purpose of this special issue is to consider the spectrum of approaches being used by different libraries and service providers as they negotiate the future with their user communities. At a time when a digital information future is increasingly certain, this timely and much needed collection of articles explores, documents and reflects on the theories, practices, and experiments focusing on digital library users.” (Anita Coleman et al. – Journal of Digital Information 5.3)

Splitting Books Open: Trends in Traditional and Online Technical Documentation

Added on 24 September 2004 Peter Bogaards
“While technical publishers strive to adapt to new online media and formats, online efforts at self-education by computer users are becoming a form of true grassroots documentation. This talk discusses the strengths and weaknesses of each side — traditional books and user self-education — and suggests how they may converge. It offers suggestions for improving the educational effects of mailing lists, computing project web sites, and other community documentation.” (Andy Oram – O’Reilly Open Source)

Twin Media: Hypertext Structure Under Pressure

Added on 23 September 2004 Peter Bogaards
“This essay explores issues that arise in composing a long argumentative hypertext that is connected with a book on the same subject. (…) Although the situation of the hypertext being discussed is somewhat unique, in fact hypertext structure is always under pressure from print habits of reading and writing, especially in scholarly writing, so the issues discussed here are widely relevant.” (David Kolb)

The Cost of Frustration

Added on 21 September 2004 Peter Bogaards
“It’s difficult to find someone who doesn’t believe it’s beneficial to make a more usable design. However, in today’s design environment, it’s often difficult to justify the expense of usability work against other business priorities.” (Jared Spool – webpronews.com) – courtesy of john rhodes

CM Pros

Added on 20 September 2004 Peter Bogaards
“(…) content management is essential to organizations of every type. It harvests and promotes both financial and human value for the companies and organizations that can tap its potential. CM Pros is a membership organization that fosters the sharing of content management information, practices, and strategies.” (About CM Pros)