Congratulations to Gloria for kicking us off with the book review projects, her review of Everything is Miscellaneous by David Weinberger; here’s her video:
Congrats to Gloria for kicking us off here!
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Wow, Gloria, I am really impressed! And, unlike some of the people we saw in the Wesch video, you looked entirely relaxed and at home! The telephone rang twice while I was watching your video, so I am going to listen to it again for the content, but your delivery looks super! Congrats!
Nice job Gloria! I enjoyed the point that the internet is storing information for us, that it is serving as a kind of new DDC. On a somewhat related point, I do root for Google books! Alas, there are a lot of “real” copyright issues to work out; but, imo, they can just leave off any genre best sellers, such as Twilight, etc. and that’ll be just fine by me anyway.
Great job Gloria. You look and sounded wonderful! It wasn’t too wordy. You used great language to explain the concepts of organization and what is going on with the internet. Your tone actually made me feel like you had an experience and point of reference that could easily explain the content.
Thanks for the book review, Gloria! I was wondering what the book would be about with a title like that.
It sounds like Weinberger has a lot of opinions and good points about the Internet and its relation to data storage and retrieval. I especially like the point that the old way of doing things might have been fine at one point, but with this rapidly changing world it just isn’t possible to be so paperized today. My favorite thing about the Internet and all the new forms of communication/idea sharing is that it does empower the common man and it does allow us to get so much more information in a quicker span of time. I remember feeling limited when I could only search for information within a building. Now, with the Internet, you have the whole world! It’s very exciting and, I think, makes for better insight into topics.
I enjoyed your book review! I wonder though about the overwhelming flexibility in organization of material Online being a positive thing…since organization is based on logic, it seems like maybe we’re just replacing a more strict pattern of logic for something that’s organized based on very loose logic. I just wonder if that’s really very helpful for people in the sense that you don’t have to think as critically about where to find information (or how it’s categorized). For example, my students try to utilize more strictly organized systems (like research databases) the way that they use google, and, obviously, that doesn’t work. It’s really hard to get them to think critically and logically about the organization of information…
Just a thought!
I think you did a really good job here and I think i like what he says about organization. To comment on Andrea I think that makes ushave to be more critical of what we search for and find online. I mean most people if they seen it in a book they assume it is correct and it takes a lot ot make those changes when something is wrong. I do wish sometimes the internet was more organized but again it is new in a sense and so it will take time to get there.
Very nice Gloria. I think it’s really interesting because most young people today have probably never even seen a card catalogue. It’s interesting too how on the one hand, having all these different search criteria seems like it would make it easier to search for info, and to a certain degree it does. But, it also has this “miscelaneousizing” effect (yup, I like to make up words) on how we categorize info. When something has a hundred different tags on it, you would think that it would make searching more concise, but it can actually have the opposite effect. It almost seems to make it so that we have to wade through more irrelevance in order to get to the relevant… kind of along the idea of what Andrea was getting at.
First off, I think that Gloria did a good job too. Way to go! And see, it’s easy!
The card catalog thing makes me think because I think I just saw an article in annabor.com about how they just now got rid of the last of the card catalog at U of M…. Doh, I should have read Carrie’s response!
Great job Gloria! I have no idea how you just talked right through it all, no way I can do that! I liked the point that our information is growing so fast that it’s outdated within months. That’s really overwhelming to think about. By the time one thing hits the shelf, it’s nearly time for something new. I also liked how you linked the need for organization to personal experience and how we use it in our own lives. We’re definitely a culture that like access, organization, and getting rid of clutter!
Let me join the chorus and say that this review is very well done, Gloria! I’m super impressed that you did the whole thing in one take. I know I’m going to have to do a million takes and edit them all together.
It sounds like you picked a really interesting book! I definitely agree that we all have unique experiences and perspectives that influence the way we complete tasks and organize information. The book I’m reviewing is also about information infrastructures, and the author — Jeffrey Grabill — talks about the importance of studying mundane things, much like the Dewey Decimal System. It’s actually really interesting and important stuff! I never thought about the Dewey Decimal System reflecting the organization preferences of one man. It’s become so integrated into the way we use libraries, it seems like a neutral entity, but that’s totally not the case. Of course everyone would have different ways of (re)searching, so no wonder some students have difficulty navigating the libraries and their vast resources: because they’re approaches to (re)searching don’t necessarily jive with the way the information is organized — it makes so much sense! Tagging — like on Flickr — is user-generated organization, which is more democratic, for sure, and reflects different ways of categorizing information so people can search and find what they’re looking for in different ways.
On a related note: UM is currently getting rid of their card catalog: http://www.ur.umich.edu/update/archives/100224/catalog. I find it sad but inevitable.
I like the note that they are going to keep one of the cases just to make sure that future generations understand how it worked!
I’ve read much of this book before, and two things that Weinberger brings up about the Dewey Decimal system that I thought I’d mention that I’ve always found interesting. First, it has different amounts of numbers and spaces for different things; I don’t remember the exact details (maybe Gloria does and can chime in) but there is way more space allowed for entries on Judo-Christian religions than there is for Hinduism, or something like that. Second, conceptually and philosophically, there are some interesting questions and problems about the idea of categorizing “everything” the way these early systems attempted to do.