[Sigia-l] "meta-"navigation

[Listera]

Patrick Grizzard:

> but without defining terms, how do we know that we're referring to the same
> thing (or the complete opposite)?

We don't. We never do, really.

If you peruse, say, the archives of this list you'll see people discussing
various interpretations of even (what appears to be) the most basic
definitions/terms.

Simply creating ever-more differentiated (or highfalutin, depending on how
you look at it) nomenclature does not necessarily bring better/deeper
understanding. Often, contexts are very different (i.e. my "Contact"
example) leading to different expectations.

We all "know" what metadata is, right? Data about data. Everybody knows
that! :-) Yet even a shallow plunge into, say, Apple's new Spotlight and how
metadata is generated, stored, accessed and maintained, and just what
metadata actually is in this context would confuse most non-technical people
here.

So if metadata is data about data, is meta-navigation navigation about
navigation? And what on earth would that be?

I'm, of course, not saying that we don't ever need clarification. What we
don't need is the land-grab mentality of various persons and companies
churning out terminology in hopes capitalizing on their traction.

You think IA can survive without using such choice verbiage as
"meta-navigation" or "user engineering"? :-)

Ziya
Nullius in Verba