[Sigia-l] Less Spatiality, More Semantics?

[Peter Morville]

Of course, "semantic" is suggestive of "meaning in language," and
Amazon's collaborative filtering approach derives meaning from behavior.
Personally, I think it's a mistake to limit ourselves to a binary choice
of spatial and semantic.


Peter Morville
President, Semantic Studios
www.semanticstudios.com


-----Original Message-----
From: sigia-l-admin at asis.org [mailto:sigia-l-admin at asis.org] On Behalf
Of Peter Merholz
Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 2003 11:27 AM
To: sigia-l at mail.asis.org
Subject: Re: [Sigia-l] Less Spatiality, More Semantics?


> There are interesting approaches, does anyone have any examples that 
> we could talk about to further clarify and advance the topic?

Well, here's one way I understand it.

Amazon.com utilizes both spatial and semantic processing of information.

That which supports spatial processing includes the tabs, the
breadcrumbs, the "browse path", the set of topic links at the bottom of
a book page.

That which supports semantic processing are search, and, perhaps most
famously, "People Who Bought This Also Bought...". The latter is about
some understanding of the "meaning" of the product in view, and how its
"meaning" is illuminated through relationships with other products.

--peter