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When approached with a question, librarians create context for understanding using communication skills and their ability to navigate available resources. IAs can do a similar thing for co-workers inside an organization. Using my ongoing experience in Special Projects, we’ll look at how IA tools, processes, and thinking can be used to solve support and maintenance issues in an organization. I’ve worked with people in different product groups and roles, including those with direct customer interaction, developers, testers, and various levels of management. I’ve helped them see connections between existing products and technologies, design a complex future product as part of a “task force”, and generally answer (and be able to ask!) all sorts of questions. Along the way, I’ve discovered and added various tools to my bag of tricks. We’ll take a look at these unexpected tools and how they can be used to explore certain types of information problems.
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@adcockm #FringeIA #IAS13
Understanding complex organizational, data, & technical issues
Michael Adcock
IA Summit 2013Baltimore, MD
Related themes from #ReframeIA
“Architect” vs. “Builder”
“Meaning” (Do we discover it, create it, or both?)
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IA as Scientific Discovery
Discovery should come as an adventure rather than as the result of a logical process of thought. - Theobald Smith
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http://archive.org/details/artofscientifici00beve
IA as Scientific Discovery
"...intuitions always appear at the fringe of consciousness, not at the focus.“
"...the great scientist must be regarded as a creative artist and it is quite false to think of the scientist as a man who merely follows rules of logic and experiment."
@adcockm #FringeIA #IAS13
http://archive.org/details/artofscientifici00beve
IA as Scientific Discovery
“the most difficult mental act of all is to re-arrange a familiar bundle of data, to look at it differently and escape from the prevailing doctrine.” - Professor H. Butterfield
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http://archive.org/details/artofscientifici00beve
Tools and Structures
Tools for discovering Meaning
vs.
Structures to create Context
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A quick example…
As some of you may know, I’m a mashup fanboy.
I commissioned Titus Jones to produce a mashup for this “Fringe IA” session.
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“This was awesome... I love when you do shit like this... something I would have never thought of. That's a very powerful tool for audio collaboration. It would be cool if different people/users could add comments (almost like soundcloud lets you select a time in the track, and add your comment?) Regardless though... I really liked being able to read your feedback at each point in the song. Very cool. ”
- Titus Jones
A quick example: feedback
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Ok, but what do I do at work?
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I’m here:
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Company Background
• SaaS solutions for libraries
• Electronic Resource Management
• Bibliographic & publisher metadata
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Technical Support Analyst
Global Customer
Experience & Service
My Role
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Titles? Bullcorn!
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Fine, but what do I do at work?
Here’s an example:
Given nearly 1000 client configurations stored in multiple XML and JSON files, “migrate” the information over from an old technology to a new implementation.
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RTA Migration
Oh, and by the way:
Some files are for legacy/inactive clients.
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RTA Migration
Oh, and by the way:
Some files are for legacy/inactive clients.Some files are for trial/demo clients.
@adcockm #FringeIA #IAS13
RTA Migration
Oh, and by the way:
Some files are for legacy/inactive clients.Some files are for trial/demo clients.Not sure how many clients must be migrated.
@adcockm #FringeIA #IAS13
RTA Migration
Oh, and by the way:
Some files are for legacy/inactive clients.Some files are for trial/demo clients.Not sure how many clients must be migrated.It’s NOT a matter of “mapping” or “copying”.
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RTA Migration
So, um… yeah. Can we do that?
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RTA Migration: Approach
We needed a tool to help us understand.Something that could put all this stuff in a meaningful context.I decided to use aTiddlyWiki at the core,and build onto it.
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RTA Migration: Resulting Tool
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RTA Migration: Resulting Tool
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RTA Migration: Resulting Tool
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RTA Migration: Resulting Tool
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Under the hood:
RTA Migration: Resulting Tool
@adcockm #FringeIA #IAS13
RTA Migration: Resulting Tool
@adcockm #FringeIA #IAS13
RTA Migration: Resulting Tool
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RTA Migration: Resulting Tool
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Other tools: Gephi
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Other tools: Gephi
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Other tools: Gource
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Other tools: Google Refine
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Summary Thoughts
Freedom to experiment and play is needed.
Sometimes we need to be tool builders to solve certain problems.
We could learn some things from the realm of scientific discovery.
@adcockm #FringeIA #IAS13
Thanks!
"What you must understand, is that as scientists we must embrace every possibility. No limitations, no boundaries, there is no reason for them.“
- Walter BishopU.S. Army ResearchHeadquarters, 1986
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