[Sigia-l] Information-centered Design

[Listera]

"Matthew Rehkopf" wrote:
 
> This is great, Daniel, and exactly my point.

That's *not* what you were saying. You were arguing for a site that
collected all (known) info about a subject matter in one place. That's quite
different than multiple sites/apps aggregating, analyzing and presenting
info from all/many sites. The former is a nutty idea, the latter is a grand
idea with many actual examples that have been around for a few years now.
 
> Wouldn't it be great if on JCrew's site anyone could freely post comments
> about each article of clothing!

It may or may not be great, but it won't happen any time soon.
 
> Now some will argue that such review sites exist and you *can* find them if
> you *look*. My argument is, why should I have to look.

For the same reason that you turn on the water before taking a shower.

> We are participating in the construction of the largest library in history,
> but the info is spread out all over the place.

The minute you stop confusing info being aggregated in one (physical) site
vs. a site/app aggregating info from many sites into one coherent
presentation, you will stop being bothered by the inherently distributed
nature of the Internet.

> Should we start thinking about others as we build our sites?

This is an old argument that was fought during the emerging days of portals.
The issue then was, "Should portals allow/encourage links to other
(potentially competing) sites?"

Ziya
Nullius in Verba