WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE

Matt Moore

Use Your Illusion I:Information Ecologies

http://www.flickr.com/photos/benchilada/2467379649/

Information Ecology

Information Ecology● Information Strategy● Information Politics

● Federal, Feudal, Monarchy, Anarchy● Information Behaviour● Information Staff● Information Processes● Information Architecture

Your New Usability Lab

http://www.flickr.com/photos/scottdavies/3067194897

Usability

UsabilitySociability

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Terracotta_tragic_actor_Louvre_CA1784.jpg

Information Architectsvs

Online Community Managers

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffwerner/537297103/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/grahamb/2571040783/

If our applications are social and changeable then where is the “action”?

Cynefin

“How do I settle the long-standing dispute between Web site designers and data/information modelers, where Web site designers declare that IA is their purview and is defined as the structure of our organization’s Web site as opposed to what IA really is, which is the structure of information across the enterprise? IA has been hijacked by the Web weenies.” (Enterprise architect, financial services firm)

Forrester Topic Overview: Information Architecture (21 Jan 2010)

How is your work getting more social (or not)?

In what ways do you think our methods need to change (or not)?

Use Your Illusion II:Taxonomies & Cyborg Metadata

Why does taxonomy matter?

• 000 – Computer science, information & general works • 100 – Philosophy and psychology • 200 – Religion • 300 – Social sciences • 500 – Science • 600 – Technology • 700 – Arts and recreation • 800 – Literature • 900 – History, geography, and biography

• 000 – Computer science, information & general works • 100 – Philosophy and psychology • 200 – Religion • 300 – Social sciences • 500 – Science • 600 – Technology • 700 – Arts and recreation • 800 – Literature • 900 – History, geography, and biography

– 930 History of ancient world – 940 General history of Europe – 950 General history of Asia; Far East – 960 General history of Africa – 970 General history of North America – 980 General history of South America – 990 General history of other areas

• 000 – Computer science, information & general works • 100 – Philosophy and psychology • 200 – Religion • 300 – Social sciences • 500 – Science • 600 – Technology • 700 – Arts and recreation • 800 – Literature • 900 – History, geography, and biography

– 930 History of ancient world – 940 General history of Europe – 950 General history of Asia; Far East – 960 General history of Africa – 970 General history of North America – 980 General history of South America – 990 General history of other areas

• 993 General history of other areas; New Zealand • 994 General history of other areas; Australia • 995 General history of other areas; Melanesia; New Guinea • 996 General history of other areas; Other parts of Pacific Polynesia • 997 General history of other areas; Atlantic Ocean islands • 998 General history of other areas; Arctic islands & Antarctica • 999 Extraterrestrial worlds

Experts

http://www.flickr.com/photos/raster/3380860520/

Experts

Machines

http://www.flickr.com/photos/raster/3380860520/http://www.flickr.com/photos/brewbooks/3315685906/

Experts

Machines

Users

http://www.flickr.com/photos/raster/3380860520/http://www.flickr.com/photos/brewbooks/3315685906/http://www.flickr.com/photos/ntr23/730371240/

Advantages Disadvantages

Experts High-quality & consistent outputs

Can handle ambiguity

ExpensiveTime-consuming

May not understand user perspective

Machines ScalableQuick

Poor at ambiguityCosts may vary

Users CheapScalable (ish)

Rarely consistentOften Uninterested

http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/dmsblog/index.php/2008/03/31/opac20-opencalais-meets-our-museum-collection-auto-tagging-and-semantic-parsing-of-collection-data/

Source: Eric Tsui, Hong Kong Polytechnic University

TaxoFolk

1. Building

• Buy off the shelf externally (…and tweak it a bit)

• Machine analysis• Existing organisational vocabularies & data

models• Input from users (workshops, tagging)

This will be an ongoing process.

2. Applying

• Auto-categorisation• User-based tagging (either free or based on

taxonomy)• Expert tagging and/or editing in workflow

It all depends on scale & risk.

3. Consuming

• Users like pictures (maps, trees, tags clouds)• Linked to other apps (e.g. Search) or via

workflow

Taxonomies should not be run for experts!

Building Applying Consuming

ExpertsBuy off the shelf

ORBuild based on

analysis

Manual Tagging against Taxonomy

-

Machines Semantic and/or Concept Analysis

Automated Categorisation

Ontology-based Processes

Users Tagging & Folksonomies

Manual Tagging(whatever)

Tag Clouds &Visualisation

Search

How are taxonomies important to our work?

What is the optimal balance of experts, machines and users for our

situation?

Some Links● Me: http://innotecture.com.au/● Survey:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/oztaxom● Workshop: http://innotecture.com.au/taxonomy/● Ambient Collaboration Cafe:

http://nswkmoct10.eventbrite.com/