[Sigia-l] Findability is dead, Long live ummm... Meaning?

[Jesse James Garrett]

Faith Peterson wrote:
> It's one thing to be an impartial creator of ways to
> enable people to find information. It's a whole other thing to participate
> in an effort to structure that information to create meaning for them on
> behalf of organizations who are paying us, but whose objectives at this
> level we may or may not support. What an terrible responsibility. It's the
> point where we can no longer imagine that our work is value-neutral.

It's a responsibility I think we have to accept. Recognizing that every
information structure carries an implicit viewpoint will require us to
adopt standards for ethical practice. It seems likely to me that we'll
have "white hat" and "black hat" IAs -- i.e., those using their powers
to help users, and those using their powers to manipulate or coerce
them. Pretending our work is value-neutral means the black hats win by
default.

Christina Wodtke wrote:
> http://www.eleganthack.com/conferences/Design%20for%20knowledge.ppt

Hey, you totally used my Harper's Index example!

<http://www.jjg.net/ia/jjg_everyday_031702.ppt>

Ah well, imitation, flattery, all that. ;)

________________________________________________________________________
Jesse James Garrett                                   Now in bookstores:
jjg at jjg.net                            "The Elements of User Experience"
http://www.jjg.net/                         http://www.jjg.net/elements/