[Sigia-l] Self organising Information (Was Data as Information)

Tue Jun 28 12:30:20 EDT 2005

Thanks for that,

To answer two posts at once - I'm well read complex systems and complexity 
and occasionaly have a shot at using that knowledge in my IA work. 
Unfortunatly my day to day job is very very top down so until I get a .com 
off the ground it looks like my eperimental side will be grounded.

The idea of tags alone (such as folksonomies - as Flickr uses) for some 
reason doesnt quite work for me. A system of information linking based upon 
language rather than the underlyng concepts will, in my view, always be 
limted.

Back to Reinouds post - yep, adaptive links is what I was thinking about 
(and have been since university) but I've yet to see it implimented in a 
clear and usable way. The newsmap site looks like it takes a good idea and 
kills it dead by confusing visual noise with communicating information.  Use 
a combination that kind of system and google like simplicity and we might 
get somewhere.

This is the problem - making a system that shows how it works from a users 
perspective but keeps things simple with the minimum to learn.

If anyone has any other examples I'd love to see them.

Cheers

Stewart Dean
User Experience Chap

>From: Reinoud Bosman <Reinoud.Bosman at mediacatalyst.com>
>To: "'sigia-l at asis.org'" <SIGIA-L at asis.org>
>Subject: Re: [Sigia-l] Self organising Information (Was Data as 
>Information)
>Date: Tue, 28 Jun 2005 17:41:07 +0200
>
>The brain/nervous system in its early growing stages works in a way that 
>can
>be very easily adapted to hyperlinked information.
>
>When a neural path grows it initially creates a lot of connections with
>other cells. Over time the connections that are used most will grow
>stronger. The others die off. This is (very simplified) the 'hardware' part
>of memories being stored in our nervous system. A very Darwinian process:
>the fittest connections survive.
>
>The same principle can be applied to hyperlinks. The server keeps track of
>the amount of page views that lead from certain links. Links that are not
>followed are eventually removed.
>
>A site that has implemented this adaptive linking is newsmap
>(http://www.marumushi.com/apps/newsmap/newsmap.cfm)
>
>The font-size of the headlines of articles that are popular increases.
>Headlines that aren't being followed decrease in size (until they are so
>small nobody can see them anymore - *pop* goes the evolutionary web ;)
>
>r.
>
>
>
>On 6/28/05 2:33 PM, "Stewart Dean" <stew8dean at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Hi Jan,
> >
> > I read your message and it's reminded me of a theory I'm still fleshing 
>out.
> > This gets a bit nebulous so forgive me if it appears a bit, well, 
>strange.
> >
> > In many ways information and energy are related which comes over in 
>Shannons
> > work. Life, for example, is governed by what is best described as 'rate 
>of
> > change' - something that is covered by the area of artificial life - or
> > complex systems / complexity / self organising systems, pick the term 
>you're
> > happiest with.
> >
> > Life requires the right amount of change to work, and it needs a 
>particular
> > form of organisation, one where it can organise energy (and information)
> > using existing energy/information. To low a rate of change leads to 
>either a
> > static or cyclical system, like sailing a ship with no wind or tide, to 
>high
> > and things just break down into chaos, like trying to sail a ship in a
> > extreme storm.
> >
> > Computers are mostly static and cyclical - they require being poked with 
>a
> > stick to do anything, like the web sites most of build (updating prices 
>isnt
> > really dynamic, it's just a simple reaction from a feed).
> >
> > You brought up entropy. Yep we're fighting entropy - fighting things 
>getting
> > too static or too chaotic. The reason why we're all in a job is that 
>this is
> > a never ending fight - as long as things change, regardless of the rate 
>of
> > change, things need to be updated.
> >
> > So comes my theory - how about self organising sites?  I'm not really
> > talking about personalisation, or collaborative filtering (you have to 
>admit
> > it doesnt work that well for the effort users have to put into it) nor 
>am I
> > talking about Wikis - which start getting close. I'm talking about
> > information that feeds of the energy of user interaction to organise 
>it's
> > self and remains usable. In essence a library that needs no librarians, 
>only
> > readers.  I think it's possible but am time poor, so to speak.
> >
> > I've heard people use the term bottom up IA but these come short of true
> > bottom up systems (the BBCs approach, for example,  is fundamentally top
> > down due to their use of an evolved dublin core).
> >
> > I can't help think someone has tried to do this before but can anyone 
>think
> > of examples?  Or do you feel I still have some explaining to do?
> >
> > Cheers
> >
> > Stewart Dean
> >
> >
> >
> >> From: "Jursa, Jan (init)" <Jan.Jursa at init.de>
> >> To: "sigia l" <sigia-l at asis.org>
> >> Subject: [Sigia-l] data as information?
> >> Date: Tue, 28 Jun 2005 09:29:37 +0200
> >>
> >>
> >> Though nullius in verba seems to be the motto of this list :-) - there
> >> is nothing wrong to familiarise oneself with elementary theories, 
>before
> >> renaming given terms.
> >>
> >> See for example "The Mathematical Theory of Communication", published 
>in
> >> 1948, by Shannon/Weaver (the fathers of information theory).
> >>
> >> Some statement from Shannon and Weaver (how I learned them):
> >> "information turns out to be exactly that which is known in
> >> thermodynamics as entropy"
> >> "In particular, information must not be confused with meaning"
> >>
> >> so, as I understand it. data holds three kinds of things: Information,
> >> Redundancy and Noise.
> >>
> >> Regarding the fundamental definition of "information" in the 
>information
> >> theory, I'd like to think of an IA as of someone who tries to remove 
>the
> >> amount on Entropy in a given environment...
> >>
> >> What do you think?
> >>
> >> Cheers,
> >> Jan
> >
> >
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