Blog 7: Organization Information

Organizing Info:

1. Ambiguity. The idea that words in languages can often be ambiguous, and refer to several meanings. By allowing more than meanings to be acquired in one word can sometimes cause confusion to the readers. Objects classification is important in order for users/readers to find the exact, specified object they are looking for. Therefore comes the labeling systems to make it easier to distinguish them into classes

2. Heterogeneity. It refers to the objects that comprise a lot of different things which do not necessarily relate to one another. For instance, library would be a heterogeneity where catalogs, videos, books, magazines, etc. Whereas in web sites, access to various kinds of documents is available. Multiple elements can also be made to be interactive.

Organization Schemes

* Exact organization schemes: It divides information into mutually cohesive and navigational sections. Very easy to use for all users/readers. The divisions of it would be: 1. alphabetical (Ex: Phone book). 2. Chronological (Magazines & TV guide). 3. Geographical (States border, etc)
* Ambiguous organization schemes: It divides information into categories that defy exact definition. Somehow the information is portrayed through ambiguous way of language & organization. Can be difficult to use. Why some people use it? Because "they do not always know what exactly they are looking for".1. Topical. 2. Task-oriented. 3. Audience- Specific. 4. Metaphor-driven. 5. Hybrid Schemes ==> [A mental model made with a purpose of understanding any other schemes (Topical, Task-oriented, Audience-specific, Metaphor-driven). Its examples are commonly found on the Web]

Organization Structures

1. Top-Down Approach. Should be a well-designed architectural hierarchy. To make a simple yet mutually exclusive subdivisions like parent-child hiearchies with parents (more general) placed higher than the children (more specific). A good example would be the family tree.
Designing Hierarchies:
Do tomatoes belong in the fruit categories or vegetables? A lot of objects in this world would be considered ambiguous and to make it clear, we should place them not only in one category, but more (as needed). In order to design the hierarchies, we need to take into account the breadth (be sensitive to the cognitive limits of human mind) and depth (be more conservative). 2 types of hiearchy:
* Broad & shallow hiearchy ==> giving numerous options at the beginning, then one depth on each one. effective for new websites & intranets.
* Narrow & deep hiearchy ==> allowing users to click to 6 times to get into more in-depth of each link.
The hierarchy should not be everything, it is just a component for making a cohesive organization system.
Hypertext
It is the highly non-linear way of structuring information. Two key components: Items or Chunks of information to be linked and the links that connect those chunks. It is very flexible, however it may induce confusion to readers. It allows a useful relationship within the area of hierarchy.
2. Bottom-Up Approach [The relational database model]
The use of database which contains most of general information, even about us too (Ex:names, addresses, etc). A powerful field-specific searching is an advantage of a database model (like ZIP code). But database has limitation as well. It requires all data to be matched under the same field, or else it won't work.

Blog 6: Concluding Weinberger, Jenkins, & Lessig

Overall, the cycle of media in our global society has affected us and been affected by us at the same time, perpetually. Every action we take on dealing with media will influence the outcome, whether it benefits either or both parties (consumers, producers). As part of human nature, a balance to satisfy all human need is needed. This applies to how the media world works where both producers and consumers should be able to interact with one another and benefits from one another in mutual ways. In order to address the main points of it, Weinberger, Jenkins, & Lessig has come to reason how & why the cycle of media works in certain ways.

Weinberger:

He argues that the world is full of an infinite range of knowledge/data in which they are too spread out and unorganized, yet in order to generate a better/successful world, we ought to be able to obtain the information we need easily without going through confusions. He also uses the term *Essentialism* which is defined as idea that everything is defined by clear and knowledable traits (116). But there is a catch. He does not intend to have all those data completely organized because in fact, it won't happen! While certain data are being organized, we subconsciously eliminate the other routes of data that other people might look for. It is the same idea as tagging, where we tag things using one category, resulting in excluding other possibilities of categories to be found by users. People sometimes do not look for the explicit only, but also the implicit. In purpose of taking care of the messiness of data, metadata is strongly needed so things can be well-organized. Metadata is represented as smart leaves, which entail the direction towards a more general or specific leaf under the tree of knowledge/data.

Jenkins:

3 Main Points of his book: Media Convergence, Participatory Culture, & Collective Intelligence. Convergence media is understood as the flow of content across multiple media platforms including the changing behavior of media audiences who will search for different types of entertainment experience throughout media. The media convergence can be exemplified using a popular technology such as iPhone, where all features (games, phone, internet, camera) are mashed up into one technology. Media convergence is when all types of media come together to create a brand new, fresh media that will be accepted by society as the development of the old media. He explains the collective intelligence through the example of "spoilers" in a TV show, where people need to collaborate to dig on the truth that happened behind the scene, etc. People with different expertises may come up with a better idea on dealing with media. Understanding that media is strongly propped up by the foundation of marketing products through commercials and advertisement. Nowadays, the new media will always be dependent on the consumers need; however it does not mean consumers have all the rights to gain all the benefits. They ought to pay the producers sector for updating their products, making them fit the consumers need. This follows the idea of "User-generated Content", as a principle of Web 2.0. Participatory Culture is also important in setting up a mutual community in the world of digitial-technology where every individual is encouraged to participate in the Web avenue, so that the 'truth' can be achieved through collective collaborations from people. Construction of opinions and facts from majority of people who participate can be said to be more reliable than theirs of few experts only. Wikipedia would be a nice example.

Lessig:

Remix has been a crucial part in our community. Mixing a work with others' works is just becoming more common. It is a way to respect the past artists and their past works, while also to generate new stuff through the inclusion of new elements depending on the trend. The term 'Remix' usually affiliates with music in general. He claims that there are two groups that divide culture. RO (Read-Only) & RW (Read-Write). RO uses the system where ideas and contents are generated, disseminated to public to be consumed, without the need to revise. This tends to support the economic situation. However, to establish RW culture it requires "Hybrid Economy", which is the combination of both Commercial & Sharing Economy. Commercial Economy is the term for exchange that uses and is measured by money. Sharing Economy is the opposite; it rejects the use of money, instead it uses the friendship/relationship with others as measurement. Copyright laws are enacted to protect the right to own and label one's own works also gaining profits that the artists deserve; but mostly they are intended to keep the authenticity of the artists so that all profits can only be gained by the artists themselves, while consumers just need to enjoy their works. But throughout the years, people have got tired of the laws and begun to fight for their rights to make a change. Some started to copy using CD-burner, downloading songs online for free using Limewire etc, others use past songs to create a remix mash-up that sounds different or new, suiting the trend of new era. The best method to is yet to find, however it is apparent that the most beneficial way to benefit both parties (producers & consumers) is by continuing the laws yet not making them too strict or hands on.


All aspects of W, J, L are interconnected in a way that the world is filled with people that will never be satisfied with what they have. When their satisfaction is fulfilled, a utopia of digital world can be achieved (although this won't happen in a short period of time). People tend to want more, causing the demand to rise. Supply will have troubles dealing with the picky consumers who expect things to . Therefore, they need to negotiate with them in producing works or media that can benefit both. To help consumers find what they want, things have to be organized yet left miscellaneous, depending on the types of things (explicit, implicit). Collective intelligence will fully help the improvement of products through the participation of individuals who care about consumers need; while producers can incorporate their ideas into the products, making them better and more profitable. Read-Only and Read-Write culture play an important role on how producers and consumers can get what they want (more profits, more fitting features on products, etc). Copyright laws protects the artists/producers; but also reduce the satisfaction because they are refrained from using the works and improvise. Creativity sometimes can be found by taking on old stuffs, updating them, and generating a brand-new product/work that seem different yet original.


Understanding these ideas will help me in the making of final project because in order to make an interactive website, one is acquired to know and understand well how to organize materials to generate meaning, how the media work, and how the society respond to those media while inflicting couple changes that can be tolerated, and adaptable. It also becomes easier to establish a two-way interaction between media producers and consumers if we know the way to balance out the cycle of media where all parties can benefit from.

Concluding Weinberger, Jenkins, & Lessig

#dtc356 ~ Blog #5 [Introduction of Jenkins]

#dtc356 [Blog #5 (Introduction of Jenkins)]

This book has a full focus on how the convergence culture affect the roles of media that are spreading and growing on us, society. There are 3 key basic concepts of convergence culture: media convergence, participatory culture, and collective intelligence. Media convergence is what things are changing the old ways to the new ways, through the modification or upgrade of media. This influences people everywhere to follow because somehow it has become the new trend. We gotta leave trivial old ways behind and start embracing the new world that contain various ideas with a wide range of thoughtfulness from people. Participatory culture is the idea that both producers and consumers share ideas and collaboratively develop and create something that can satisfy both parties, inherently exemplified by the societal consumption and the profits earned by manufacturers for listening to the customers and making their dream products come true. Collective intelligence simply collectively accumulates intelligence from everyone who participated in the development of an idea, turns them into sources to improvement, and foundationalize them as the basis of the making of a product or media, with of course, fulfilling the necessities and what the consumers want. For instance, in the new product from Apple called iPad, has the features that are always owned by old cellphones, included with music and videos compilation library also Mac laptop features, etc. One device has the abilities to provide satisfaction to the user through the availability of other devices in it.

My favorite quotes:

* None of us know everything; each of us knows something, and we can put the pieces together if we pool our resources and combine our skills. (4)

* Thanks to the proliferation of channels and the portability of new computing and telecommunications technologies, we are entering an era when media will be everywhere. (16)

* Convergence, as we can see, is both a top-down corporate driven process and a bottom-up consumer-driven process. (18)

* You are now entering convergence culture. It is not a surprise that we are not yet ready to cope with its complexities and contradictions. We need to find ways to negotiate the changes taking place. No one group can set the terms. No one group can control access and participation. (23)

This is very important to me as in life, things keep changing over years and generations. What my parents understand often times are very unusual and unreasonable to me, although I am sure it was reasonable to everyone during their youth years. My parents do not like to use the new types of technology, not necessarily recent like iPhone, but phones or computers. Even the stoves are using oil instead of electricity. It is not that they don't have money to purchase them or are not capable of using them, but they decided not to follow the convergence of technology as they think those stuffs are meant for younger generations. But as times passed by, they realized how important it is to have a mobile phone and access to internet at least in everyday's life. Another thing is as a DTC student, understanding and discerning media well is the key to successful way to better culture. Since the way people think keep changing, media keep converging as well. The only way to through years would be to follow the trend and being up to date to the new things. also I need to be in the front line of understanding those so that I can keep track of how people' thoughts in the world change and affect the evolution of media.

The relation of this main idea of the book to the Weinberger's would be that convergence acts the same way as the leaves of the information/knowledge tree become smarter. All kinds of media are being converted into something new in different pace of progress. This is based on the demand of consumers who think life should be more enjoyable if things/tools/ideas they use are becoming practical, instant, multi-functional, and interesting. However, to develop such goal, they ought to realize that collective intelligence which is crucial to the growth of participatory culture is much needed in order to generate smarter leaves, which eventually lead to a more intellectual life and better way of living. Unfortunately, those people who cannot keep up to the convergence process will slowly turn into incompetent individuals and may become the victims of societal values for not being up to date.

#dtc356 ~ Blog #3: Chapter 10

Chapter 10 (The Work of Knowledge)

Kowledge is power, while truth is a form of accuracy. In the third order of order, the focus is mostly towards the truth, therefore only few who have to knowledge. For instance, Wikipedia provides information in an exaggerated way or sometimes incorrect, whereas The Britannicas give enough information without unnecessary additional things, even so they provide them at the bottom of every article without mingling them in the article itself. Knowledge is too broad and general, in order to narrow it down, we ought to rely on the media and all metadata that is available in the digital world then obtain the information based on the way it is interpreted. What they give to us is merely truth, not knowledge. By acquiring knowledge, we are capable of controlling things around the world and that is again, pure power. It is true that one individual can only be expert far as a book shelf in a libary, however by having many experts in one field, truths can be achieved through filtering out their thoughts based on consensus or percentage. Sometimes, miscellaneous things shall be left miscellaneous so that people have the choices of what to believe in, also it is allowing them to have access to getting the facts the if they are smart enough to figure out.

This is critical to me as a DTC student because often times, society just simply fall into what the media told or taught them. Some journals/articles publishers tend to take easy way out to jot down what needed to say in a simple manner, or even too much. Although critics are there to give out their inner opinions and thoughts on them, we still need to filter out their responses and simplify the big, overall idea of the topic then decide which are truths and facts. Highly trusted and well-renowned books or dictionaries are obviously the best media that provide the best metadata as well. They are the solutions we need to count on in purpose of getting the facts. But in the end, it is not the published articles or metadata that matter. It all comes down to us on how we decide to accept or reject the truths, while bring them back to knowledge; then we can be powerful individuals with powerful asset, that is knowledge.

#dtc356 Chapter 8 & 9

#dtc356
Chapter 8 [What Nothing Says]

The main idea of this article is that information cannot be understood in just one way or another. We humans sometimes try to make things simple yet we make it more complicated for the others. That's why the information is categorized into types, such as explicit, implicit, or unspoken (known publicly as a commonsense). The organization of information is in the form of clusters which are interpreted specificly or generally according to specific people and sometimes it is understandable in one perspective but not in another.

This is crucial to my understanding as a DTC student because we need to be able to distunguish the kinds of information and to whom it is directed to so we are not falling into the rhetorical 'tricks' laid out by the manufacturers, publishers, business advertisement, etc. Often people see only one side, but they just simply or subconsciously ignore the other important facts (sometimes hidden or implied) that might be useful for them. This goes to all generations since perspectives on each individual on earth vary.

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Chapter 9 [Messiness as a virtue]

Messiness on the web world is inevitable since it resembles the basic method of how humans think. An individual or user may think of a matter in one way, however no one else can think of it using exactly the same way. Sometimes organization of matters that are too tidy under only one variable can result in the disorderliness of information; whereas the dispersion of things on the same ground can give out amazingly organized system of information that could represent the actual work mechanism for individuals. hence, the messiness in many circumstances may act as a way to organize things or information if people know how to manage or use it in certain ways.

This is important due to the fact that there is no possible way for someone to rule the net and apply all rules to everything because knowledge or information is too global and general. In order to break them down, we need the help of users around the world to accumulate data and spread them out. It is true that it will turn messy; nevertheless if an individual has learnt to understand, select, filter the information/metadata among the chaotic disorderliness, they are able to obtain more information than just out of extremely organized matters in which may lead to even worse lunatic information distribution.

#dtc356 Blog 2 [Cptr. 5 & 6]

#dtc356

** Chapter 5: Welcome to the jungle baby

Main Point: The system of how the things in the world are divided is similar to the jungle ecosystem. All information necessary regarding each thing is branched from a more general attribute. However, the overly organized system of classifying things can cause irregularity, miscellany, and confusion which lead to inefficient interconnection among knowledge or information.

Interesting Quotes: "Likewise, in classification systems, an overstuffed miscellaneous category can be a sign that the system isn't using all the relevant information" (87)
"The basic fact that order often hides more than it reveals has sometimes itself been hidden within the art and science of organizing our world" (88)
"Everything is metadata and everything can be a label" (104)

Connection to my life: I consider the family from my mom's side as a very determined and goal-oriented family line. Therefore, the generations are needed to follow the trace of the older's steps and ought to be successful in business. But I have a different opinion on life and I would prefer studying and improving my art and linguistic skill rather than focusing on family business. So, although I am a new generation of my mom's family line, but my attribute seems to be detached and my characteristic falls under the category of other family lines. So in conclusion, the system of connecting in one way is causing limitation for the other ways. Everything is miscellaneous and rather hard to interrelate systematically and perfectly.

** Chapter 6: Smart Leaves

Main Point: The ultimate identifiers allow the leaves to be disseminated in an organized way, yet smart leaves can be obtained through the smart choice of words that can identify things well so the order of the miscellaneous will be smarter, and will not be delayed for unnecessary things or leaves.

Interesting Quotes: "Leaves imply entities that are well-defined and knowable, that have edges and a persistence sufficient that we can count them or at least point at them" (123)

"The range of relationships is as broad as the human imagination. As we mix computers and human intelligence to rake together all sorts of leaves about books and their relationship, those leaves will be associated in more and more ways, perpetually building our miscellaneous pile of leaves in fits and starts" (124)

"When it's possible to identify leaves clearly and cleanly, the unique identifiers can enable an extraordinary distributed development of related ideas, making the individual leaves smarter and smarter. In such cases, meaningless IDs do a better job of postponing the ordering of the miscellaneous" (127)

Connection to my life: The distinctive majors (leaves) in college education are inherently divided into clear, names/calls for more general majors (idenfifiers). This smart classification is to help the students really understand the majors well so they can decide what field they are interested in and they will choose wrong by accident.