Ambient Findability 73
norburym writes "Peter Morville is an information architect, an advocate of expanding the boundaries of librarianship in an Internet age and the voice of ambient findability. In this new book from O'Reilly, Morville expands on a theme he's been discussing for several years: we live in an age where computers and the Internet are changing how we access information. Digital networks are available everywhere. As users, we have computers, PDAs, GPS units, smartphones, software and other network technologies that enable constant and mobile connectivity. As Morville writes, ambient findability is "a realm in which we can find anyone or anything from anywhere at anytime" and his book is a thought provoking chronicle of the advent of that goal." Read the rest of Mary's review.
| Ambient Findability | |
| author | Peter Morville |
| pages | 204 |
| publisher | O'Reilly Media |
| rating | 9 |
| reviewer | Mary Norbury-Glaser |
| ISBN | 0596007655 |
| summary | Information retrieval in an age of ubiquitous computing. |
Ambient Findability is divided into seven sections that track the journey from simply defining what the author means by findability through a history of man's search for location awareness in both the physical environment and in the cyber world; how we interact with information through documents, language, and systems of retrieval; intertwingularity and findable objects; the balance between push (advertising) and pull (information retrieval); being a Web designer and a user advocate; metadata and physical data in the context of findability; and the ability to make informed decisions based on open source and emerging technology.
A core definition offered by the author in Chapter 1 is for findability: "the quality of being locatable or navigable; the degree to which a particular object is easy to discover or locate; the degree to which a system or environment supports navigation and retrieval." Morville discusses how well various websites perform in providing information desired by the user and how successful sites cater to mass customization. Businesses and non-profits that aim to reduce search time and improve findability of their site contents will gain marketplace advantage.
Chapter 2 is an interesting and informative introduction to the history of wayfinding through lessons learned from various animal species (exocentric and egocentric navigation, echolocation, etc.) to how humans have adapted landmarks or created tools to aid in navigation and exploration (lighthouses, compasses, sextants, maps, etc.) and further how architects and urban planners can effectively design built environments. The logical extension of this discussion is how the wayfinding techniques developed in the physical world have translated to the digital realm. In this discussion, we see how we have translated our spatial metaphors to the web.
This leads directly to the next chapter, on how people interact with information. Morville tackles the difficult task of defining information and considers the concept of relevance in relationship to the information we seek to retrieve from the Internet and how the inherent ambiguity of language negatively impacts any system of information retrieval. To top this off, the author reminds us that users themselves introduce added complexity and complication to how people seek information. He cites several research studies and literature on the subject and suggests that there is value in integrating both push and pull in how we interact with information systems.
Chapter 4 deals with the topic of intertwingularity (a combination of "intertwined" and "mingled") or the idea that things are connected together in a complex and nonlinear way. In terms of the Internet and ubiquitous computing, this translates into our ability to connect to disparate bits of data not only from computers but also from mobile devices and other ambient devices (GPS, EZPass, pagers, RFIDs) that are truly pervasive throughout society. Morville takes us through part two of wayfinding with descriptions of GPS technology, interactive mapping and photographic confluence sites, tracking using GPS and cellular communication, RFID, webcams, and of course the convergence of technology as wearable computing (sunglasses that can be used with cell phones and MP3 devices, Bluetooth enabled garments, cameras embedded in glasses, etc.) becomes more common and affordable.
Morville then leads us neatly back to the idea of push and pull. In chapter 5, he discusses the necessary flow toward balance and uses the example of Google, which successfully intertwingles unobtrusive targeted ads with search results. Design and marketing, as the author notes, are not enemies. Yet finding the balance is tricky and not a simple task. Morville describes his "user experience honeycomb" model which combines the key issues that designers should consider when creating a website that optimizes findability and therefore enhances user experience: useful, usable, desirable, findable, accessible, credible, and valuable. He concludes the chapter with hacks that improve web findability: adopting search engine optimization techniques (avoid drop down menus, image maps, frames, etc.; use RSS feeds with backlinks; embrace web standards; determine and include keywords and phrases in visible body text, links, headers, tags, etc.), and personalization (examples include Yahoo! using individual profiles to customize sports scores and stock information, the Weather Channel using zip codes for local weather, and Google Alerts letting users track keywords in news and web sites).
In chapter 6, "The Sociosemantic Web," Morville outlines the controversy surrounding an article, "The Semantic Web," that appeared in May 2001 in the Scientific American. The authors of the article propose an ambitious "road map for future Web design" that subsequently fueled a debate between W3C Semantic Web members and social software supporters. The debate leads to a discussion about how well metadata can be normalized in an environment such as the Web. Morville uses this debate as an introduction to a history and structural description of metadata. He describes the formulation of taxonomies and the use of controlled vocabularies to enable findability. Of course, web sites are not simply hierarchical; they are complexly grouped which brings us to the idea of folksonomies where users tag objects with one or more keywords that become shared. Folksonomies are obviously not great for findability since they fail at semantic relationships and hierarchy. However, all forms of structure (folksonomies, ontologies, and taxonomies) can co-exist on the Web to describe metadata and the differences between data and metadata are becoming less distinct. Amazon is a perfect example of this: traditional publication and topic details and concordance are documented along with customer reviews and rankings. Amazon also has the option to "search inside this book" which makes the pages and even the text itself become metadata.
The final chapter of the book delves into how we are ultimately capable of making informed decisions through the power of the Internet: the sheer volume and variety of sources available to us and the ease of access enable us to take charge of decisions we would normally trust to those professionals outside of our narrow realm of expertise. We decide which information to believe in. Morville considers information literacy and digital librarianship and proffers the idea that libraries and the Internet have common principles of maintaining free expression, privacy, free and equal access, and intellectual freedom.
Tim O'Reilly is well known for expanding the boundaries of technology in print and through conferences like the Emerging Technology Conference, the Web 2.0 Conference, and the Open Source Convention held in both the US and in Europe. His agenda has never been to fill convention halls with attendees who fit a lowest common denominator; his aim has been to bring together people who not only think smart but who also have the ability to think outside the normal boundaries of their particular field of interest (Robert J. Lang, Freeman Dyson, James Gosling, among others) and who therefore inspire innovation. With the publication of Ambient Findability, O'Reilly Media continues this tradition of giving readers an opportunity to experience the visionary writing of people like Peter Morville.
Read Ambient Findability if: you are interested in expanding your business or nonprofit through its presence on the Internet; you are a librarian and want to grow into the nontraditional environment of the Web; you are a Web designer and want to optimize the findability of your sites on the Internet; you are a user and want to enhance your searching experience. Read this book if you are a teacher, a student, a writer, a parent...in short, if you use a computer or a handheld or a GPS or a smartphone or any type of technology that connects you to the world, then you should read this book. Peter Morville's Ambient Findability will amaze and delight you. It will give you new insight into how ubiquitous computing is affecting how we find and use information and how we, as users, can and will shape the future of how data is stored and retrieved.
Mary Norbury-Glaser is IT Director at the Barbara Davis Center, an affiliate center at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver."
You can purchase Ambient Findability from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
Which market is most important to us? (Score:4, Insightful)
Nonetheless, as the Internet becomes more available in even the lives of the poorest (in the US at least), will the need for libraries and physical stores of information even be needed? I've been "connected" wirelessly to the web now for over 3 years, and last month I upgraded my wireless connection to T-Mobile's EDGE network (150kbps downloads practically everywhere I go).
With Google's ability to aggregate not just information but opinions, reviews and similar items/services into one easy-to-access page, there are many services we won't really need around. This weekend I saw the demo of the GPS+XM traffic-nav solution in helping me avoid traffic jams ahead and find quicker ways for me to get to my destination. WIth that device I won't need news radio at all (I already receive weather updates to my wireless PDA). A few weeks ago I met with a company that is working on RFID check-out lanes for a grocery store (fill up your cart, walk out) and it seems that they're less than 6 months away from being "ready" -- they're just waiting for manufacturers to include the RFID tags needed to get the system working.
I'm ordering this book -- I had thought about writing something similar a few years ago. In one of my jobs as an IT consultant, I find myself providing more services regarding these new technologies, especially to CEOs and top level managers. It is an easy sell especially when you look at the time saved for people making the top tier incomes. The great part about the movement for cheaper goods is that we see all these products trickle down to even the lower class worker.
The last few paragraphs of the review are enlightening: TIm O'Reilly doesn't try to fill convention halls with the lowest common denominator. This is intriguing to me because I've always had a difficulty in figuring out which market I should attack the hardest: The rare (and wealthy) CEO wannabe-geek who wants to have all the toys first, even if it doesn't help him become more productive? The common CEO who sees that technology can help him become more productive, but he can't pay as much as the guy with the desire to have everything the earliest? The common user, who will eventually come to use technology when it is either forced on them, or when they finally get around to see the value that the technology brings to every-man? I'm not jealous of O'Reilly's ability to pack conventions with the top level geeks, but it is interesting that he even has a market. How many of his readers actually understand what he's saying though, and how correct has he been in previous years?
Lastly, how many geeks here have an intense amount of new technology knowledge, but find themselves unable to sell that knowledge for an income? Is the super-geek becoming more common, or less common? I find a lot of geeks just out of college aren't truly information whores, they're just ex-jocks with a tiny bit of tech know how.
My God, where do you find the time? (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:My God, where do you find the time? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:My God, where do you find the time? (Score:2)
You almost had me, until I got to that part.
Let us summarize and see how we can write the same content, with a bit less wind:
"Nonetheless, as the Internet becomes more available in even the lives of the poorest (in the US at least), will the need for libraries and physical stores of information even be needed?
Re:My God, where do you find the time? (Score:2)
It surw is, which is why this guy is stalled -- but this is his risky endeavor.
Some consultant...how about 'all of the above', since today, everyone is a 'geek', and the concept of a stand-alone figure has been laid aside years past.
If you believe that, you're missing some big opportunities.
BTW, you forgot to mention that being able to type with more than one finger means being able to post long-winded, er
Re:Which market is most important to us? (Score:2, Insightful)
There are many sub-issues. I'd like to point out just two:
The first issue is that when not all information is digitized, the an
Re:Which market is most important to us? (Score:2)
Yes, it's easy to destroy individual copies of digitally stored works. But I tend to think that this is more than counteracted b
Re:Which market is most important to us? (Score:3, Informative)
Ted Nelson remarked that "everything is deeply intertwingled" way back in the original Computer Lib / Dream Machines, so "intertwingularity" at least should look familiar.
Deeply Intertwingled with Ted Nelson (Score:3, Interesting)
On a more technical point, one of the unforeseen problems with Xanadu was privacy, which is also a major problem with Ambient Findability - in a worldwide information network with deep two-way linking, where quoting worke
Re:Which market is most important to us? (Score:2)
What needs to catch up are our legal and social systems. Copyright essentially makes most information not available on demand. What is available on demand generally must be done using proprietary and fragmented systems. Patents and DRM mean that many protocols and formats (such as DVDs and console video games) cannot be acce
Re:Which market is most important to us? (Score:2)
Yes, there are sme interesting nuggets, but so far it is too much fluff and padding.
I suggest reading some of this in your local bookstore, or grabbing a copy from the library, before plunking down any cash for it.
Animals in color (Score:5, Insightful)
Cant find me (Score:2)
Re:Cant find me (Score:1)
Ok, so guess my desk has Ambient Findability within 50 ft. or so.
. . . PDAs, GPS units, smartphones . .
The bloody hell we do. If I had that sort of shit I'd have Ambient Findability and I like to flat out fucking disappear from time to time, thank you very much.
Digital networks are available everywhere.
Either this guy never leaves Ann Arbor or he walks around with an Al Franken satellite dish on his head.
KFG
I think I get it, but... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I think I get it, but... (Score:2)
Dictionary? Those words are perfectly cromulent.
I Very Nearly Went 'Scanners' Here...! (Score:3, Funny)
Jeeus-H-Christ-On-A-Crutch!! All that needed was one "paradigm shift" and my head would have exploded!!
Taco, time to start putting some warning labels on these reviews, whaddya think?
Re:I Very Nearly Went 'Scanners' Here...! (Score:2)
BTW, does anyone know where the 'H' came from as Jesus' middle initial?
I read somewhere that it stands for "Haploid".
WTF... (Score:4, Insightful)
"Ambient Findability is divided into seven sections that track the journey from simply defining what the author means by findability through a history of man's search for location awareness in both the physical environment and in the cyber world"
Again- "Huh?" So, I have to read the stupid book just to find out generally what it's about? Is it just me, or does that sound retarded?
And while we're at it- let's stop making up meaningless words and phrases. If it's truly a new concept, that's one thing. Otherwise, unless it's in a dictionary, I just wish peoplw would use words and phrases that *are*
Re:WTF... (Score:2, Funny)
And what? Put an end to all marketing departments around the world?!? Are you mad?! Think of the children of those marketeers!
Re:WTF... (Score:1)
If you can't dazzle 'em with brilliance. . .
Personally, it sounds to me like this guy drank Hubbard's past its expiration date Kool-Aid and I really don't want to become an Findabilityologist, ambient or otherwise.
KFG
Hiding information is more important than sharing (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Hiding information is more important than shari (Score:1)
Privacy doesn't appear to have been mentioned (Score:3, Insightful)
There's some information hiding that can happen by accident, but way too much of it requires explicit thought and planning, and doesn't happen if it's not plan
Re:Hiding information is more important than shari (Score:1)
I agree that inside knowledge can be a part of what makes cliques, but only a part. However, i
Respectfully, I Disagree (Score:2)
Well, hiding information is easy - you just don't publish it. Harder is restricting access to published information, although encryption seems to suffice for most purposes. The problem doesn't really get interesting until you need to hide the fact that the data exists at all. This is the Filesharer's Dilemma: ho
Library science? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Library science? (Score:3, Informative)
Another Review... (Score:2, Informative)
All of the People All of the Time (Score:5, Insightful)
Second being able to find everything about everything isn't a good thing. Bertrand Russell [wikipedia.org] pointed out that one is better served becoming intimately knowledgeable of a handfull of books on any given subject than to have a passing familiarity with all available material on the subject at hand.To know a subject one has to have a foundation from which to work. The hallmark of a journey workperson is a fundamental understanding of the principles that inform the work.
Ambient Findability seems to me to be yet another guide for the social gadfly, catchphrases abound, and, the ever aspiring social/corporate climber can jump on or off board any bandwagon by instanteously accessing the prevalent catchphrases served up in a pablum formula that allows for quick regurgitation.
The best thing that can be said for such approaches is that they draw off the pop culture adulators and papprazzi, allowing easier navigation for those who know their stuff and where they're going.
serendipity (Score:4, Insightful)
The Irony (Score:2)
Re:The Irony (Score:1)
Re:The Irony (Score:5, Insightful)
The irony is that it is becoming harder and harder to get your content found in a sea of content. Electronic academic journals are finding this phenomenon a bit hard to overcome. Content overload is as much a problem for the future as content obscurity was in the past.
Re:The Irony (Score:1)
Remember.... when everyone has a voice, you have to shout to be heard.
Re:The Irony (Score:1)
Re:The Irony (Score:1)
The signal to noise ratio may seem high, but that may just be because that over time the noise of yesterday dies down and the signal starts getting though.
To really find out whats worth finding today, wait a couple weeks and it will come though much clearer.
The benefits go to free and open societies (Score:2, Insightful)
Overdefining the obvious (Score:4, Insightful)
Or written clearly, "Findability: how easy or hard it is to locate what you need."
Judging by the review, this book is filled with overqualified obfuscated definitions of simple concepts that have never needed names before and don't now. I doubt I'll ever need to read this blinding glimpse of the obvious.
I loved the book (Score:5, Interesting)
Judging by the review, this book is filled with overqualified obfuscated definitions of simple concepts that have never needed names before and don't now. I doubt I'll ever need to read this blinding glimpse of the obvious.
I finished the book a few days ago. For me it was a difficult book to put down - I powered through it quickly because I was so absorbed by it. The review didn't really get to the heart of why the book is so good. In my opinion, Morville excels at explaining complex interactions and bringing important questions to light. He does this by starting out with clear definitions of the terms he is investigating. For example, the term *findability* is about more than finding what you're looking for; it's also about discovering information objects which you were not explicitly looking for, but that provide the information you need. Some of the concepts may not need names, but having terms to define concepts makes it easier to discuss them.
Morville's discussion of the marriage of the physical and virtual worlds through geocaching and tagging is particularly illuminating, as is his comparison of taxonomies, ontologies, and folksonomies. These are not just academic terms; they have great bearing on how information is organized and found. I also found the inquiry into what constitutes a document to be very thought-provoking.
Ambient Findability is not a book full of answers. It outlines how we find data, how technology is changing that process, and what opportunities and dangers await us in the future. The topics Morville raises affect much more than just commerce, and his plea for information literacy is an important warning. Technology is only half of the equation, and it can create new problems even as it solves old ones.
If you want a receipe book for SEO, this won't really help you very much. If you want to know how people find information and how human behavior affects information technology and vice-versa, you'll probably enjoy this book.
Bookwriting == Findability (Score:2)
The best way to increase the findability of something is to write a book about it:
Morville the obvious (Score:2)
Morville's book is another instance of people without an original idea trying to pass themselves off as innovators, complete with the obligatory buzzwords and neologisms.
Re:Morville the obvious (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Morville the obvious (Score:2)
<sarcasm>Wow, all the way back in the mid-90's. I mean, people had no idea before then how to organize information, and taxonomies and ontologies just didn't exist before then.</sarcasm>
Re:Morville the obvious (Score:3, Informative)
intertwingularity.com (Score:1)
ahhhh (Score:1)
Chapter One (PDF) (Score:1)
Interesting (Score:2)
Ambient Findability (Score:2, Funny)
give me a fucking break (Score:1)
I'll say what we're all thinking... (Score:2)
I'm all for it... as long as I'm not the "anyone" being found anywhere, anytime.
Personally, I'm too damn wired as it is, and this bozo wants to make my life worse by enabling anyone to interupt me at anywhere, anytime. No thank you.
-- Terry
I liked it (Score:2)
Plus which, having read it gives me a great excuse to work "ambient findability" into conversations. Nothing livens up a meeting like interjecting "hmm, but do we need to consider the principles of ambient findability here?"
Horse & Buggy makers, move over (Score:1, Flamebait)
Perhaps it's just me, but I find the attempts by librarians to stay 'relevant', while understandable, to be just a little bit pathetic.
Like the "crusade" by the librarians against the Patriot act (which, if you think about it sounded more like the result of some wierd Illuminati internal fight) a few years ago, librarians (like newspapers, and mass-media conglomerates) seem to think that they had so
Well, yes and no ... (Score:3, Insightful)
It's not you; that definitely comes across. But "librarian" isn't a monolithic borg-like population. Some of them have taken to the internet as a great new extension of their traditional role. The city library a mile from where I live has a room full of internet terminals; the "card catalog" has been electronic for 20 years and online for 10 years. And so on.
When's the la
"a realm in which we can find anyone or anything " (Score:1)