[Sigia-l] Applying Information Foraging Models

[Tanya Rabourn]

On Thu, 26 Jun 2003, Thomas Vander Wal wrote:
<snip>
> None-the-less I have been digging through much of what the Xerox Parc folks
> have published and other information I can get my hands on.  The metaphor
> used can take some describing before applying it and having it grasped.  The
<snip>

I think it's important to keep in mind that it's _not_ a
metaphor, but an exaptation of food foraging mechanisms. That in
itself, I think, is a fascinating idea. The term was coined by
Stephen Jay Gould and Elisabeth Vrba. Previously it was called
pre-adaptation, but that term suggested that evolution could
foresee what was going to happen and prepare accordingly, so it
isn't used any longer.

Exaptation (change of function) "is a common pattern,
recognized in evolutionary biology, that a feature adapted for
one purpose in a species is used for another purpose when the
environment puts different demands on the species." (from "Toward
An Integrated Model Of Information Seeking And Searching" an
interesting talk by Marcia Bates
http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/bates/articles/info_SeekSearch-i-030329.html)

So, rather loosely put, as I can see three grocery stores from my
apartment window, finding food isn't much of a challenge.
Affording it is, and in an information economy, good skills for
information foraging will ensure that I survive and flourish.
Supposedly, our brains have adapted by using the same mechanisms
that worked well when foraging for food to forage for
information.

-Tanya
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Tanya Rabourn <rabourn at columbia.edu>
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