Monday, January 31, 2011

Blog Post 4

Describe the connections you see between Weinberger's ideas thus far and the "What is Web 2.0" and "Web Squared" articles from weeks1&2.

Weinberger has laid down some pretty interesting ideas so far, with a lot of evidence backing up many of his claims. If I was to take anything away from the book right now it would be his focus on...

The three orders of order (Physicality, order through meta data, and the digital order)
Organization in the past is generally arbitrary, a way for people to hold power
Lumping and splitting and all its reasons and outcomes
The inventive new ways people are organizing in the digital order

Obviously these ideas all revolve around the way we are organizing data online and how it is affecting the way we perceive data in our daily lives. Weinberger is looking at the how the internet is allowing people world wide to now organize whatever they do online in a more natural and human way than before. No longer are we restricted in the physical world. The ideas brought up like filtering information when being picked up versus gathered, depending on the masses to organize rather than yourself, and the usefulness of tagging tie into the articles we read in weeks 1 and 2 on the future of the web.

One of the more powerful connections between Weinberger and these articles is the article's idea of harnessing collective intelligence. O'Reilly in "What is Web 2.0" states that "Network effects from user contributions are the key to market dominance in the Web 2.0 era". This is a general idea brought up in "Everything is Miscellaneous". New ways of organizing data would not have been discovered had the users of the net not contributed to these ways, such as the delicious example brought up in chapter 5. It is up to the users of the web to discover these new natural ways of organizing.

Another similarity was O'Reilly's focus on tagging photos or maps and how that job has been taken over by gadgets we use on a daily basis (i.e. phones and cameras). It is interesting how Weinberger spends so much explaining how tagging is an important step forward for our methods of organizing, yet with O'Reilly it seems like we have already harnessed ways for machines to do the work for us.

If sensors are already tagging things for us and we no longer have to input the data for them, what other ways are we going to organize what we do digitally? Will building off of this tagging method of organization produce something wholly different? I am excited to see what comes next.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Blog Post 3

Weinberger says, "Reality is multifaceted. There are a lot of ways to slice it. How we choose to slice it up depends on why we're slicing it up." Go back to the thing you described organizing on Tuedsay's blog. How might someone else organize this item? What does how YOU organize it say about what you value and who you are?

In my last blog entry I talked about how I like to "organize" my netflix. I do this by paying close attention to my ratings of movies. Should this particular movie get the red carpet treatment and be a 5 star, or is it just really good and a 4 star? Should I list this movie as "not interested" or leave it open, as it might sway future recommendations that I might miss out on?

I guess others would use it in a similar way. While the algorithms that Netflix uses are super complicated, the rating system is not. 1-5 stars and an option for "not interested".

The way I order my netflix probably does say something about me. I think that would be that I am trying to refine my movie tastes. I still love my old favorite (dumb and dumber of course), but I am trying to branch out into other genres. I watch a lot of foreign films, as well as indy and documentaries.

Monday, January 24, 2011

Blog Post 2

First off I need to put it out there that I work in the Holland Terrell libraries on campus. This book is a little too meta for me, especially when I read it while at work... studying about library duties in the library while working for the library....

Anyhoo, Everything is Miscellaneous is a book that focuses on the way we order and perceive information. Weinberger begins this adventure into information cataloging in the logical place: a Staples. The prologue talks about how a particular Staples (this one being a mock store for analysis purposes)focuses on how people move and observe items in front of them as well as actually counting steps and length in store. All this is done to demonstrate how people look for items to purchase and how we use directions. This is a great start to the book because it focuses on an everyday occurrence the reader might have experience with. The prologue ends on the idea of our movement away from physical restrictions in cataloging and onto the freedom of the web.

Chapter 1 and two focus on the history and rules that Weinberger plays to.Chapter 1 looks at everything that has to do with order. How we order things in our lives. He also brings up his three rules of order: 1) We order things ourselves 2)We have used physical means of ordering our information i.e. a card catalog 3)We are shedding the limitations of atoms and moving towards digital information. In chapter 2 we learn about the apparent atrocity that is alphabetization and how it limits our search functions as well as what a nut that Dewey decimal guy was. I actually enjoyed the bits on the classification of Pluto, really showed that not everything is certain and that a lot plays towards the petty politics of scientists.

Something I spend keeping organized in my life is my Netflix account. This sounds a little weird but I love movies and am really into how Netflix is able to recommend me movies based on my past ratings. I keep these ratings rather organized, i.e. I really ask myself if it is a 3 star or 4 star movie for me lol. It seems to work well, my nitpicky...ness, because I have been really enjoying the films that have been recommended to me.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Blog Post 1

Reading on Web 2.0 and favorite web apps...

The most important idea from this article, in my opinion and in relation to my future career goals would have to be this idea of Photosynth and Infinite images. I am a huge fan of film and storytelling and am always interested in the future of such things. After reading about these platforms that can use sensory data and images to culminate into this new form of interaction, I immediately thought how it could be used to tell a story or entertain. It is exciting, the places we are going with all of this data. It is all there for the taking, all it requires is people with the drive, creativity, and/or ambition to use it in new and fun ways.

My favorite web app at the moment, and for quite some time actually is last.fm and all of the perks that come from using it. Music streaming to my tastes, scrobbling, a huge database of obscure music artists... I dj at KZUU here on campus and this thing is also really fun to use when searching for new bands to enjoy.