Organizational Structures

From both readings, all of the organizational structures;

Hierarchical - top down overview, larger and smaller portions are rated amongst importance. One large group, with smaller subgroups that cascade in order of significance.

Hypertext - text displayed with references to other text and a wider variety of information. Sometimes can contain tables, images, or other links with further knowledge.

Relational Database model - Database model based on the first piece of information, this describes all the prerequisites that must be satisfied for the next step to take place.

Bottom Up - Taking smaller pieces and brining them together to produce a database or system from smaller pieces, all the way to the top of the diagram.

Top Down - Involves breaking down the database or system in to smaller more manageable categories to look at the inner components individually.

Taxonomies - revolves around classification, and the manner in which it is conducted in. "taxa" are the units involved in the classification.

Site navigation terms and concepts - open/closed, heterogeneous/homogeneous, Sequences, topical, Chunking - should be easy to find and research information on the website, with a clear and concise goal and supporting facts and sources to back up contents of the web page.

Summarization of 3 books

After the completion of Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide, Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy, and Everything Is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder, it is clear how they all are intertwined and have their own meaning regarding web 2.0, digital technology and culture, and emerging advancements in technology.

The books all discuss how new media and data are organized, and how this information can be utilized in society today. This course so far has really made me think twice about the amount of raw data that exists in the world today, and how crucial it is to be organized into some sort of universal format. Finding and retrieving information efficiently is just as important as the validity of the information, because if you don't know where to look, the information is useless.

Utilization of information is so important especially when converging new and old media, because there is a fine line where you make the mark determining what is useful and what is outdated. There is no way that information retrieving can thrive without some sort of complete overhaul on the organization and management that currently exists. The amount of data out there today is exponentially multiplying, and this world needs to collaborate and work together to create some sort of system that organizes it as well as makes this easy to access.

Introduction to Jenkins

The introduction to convergence culture summed up the topic of the convergence that exists in media today, and how abundant it is and always will be. He also pointed out how uncertain all of these convergences are between media, technology, and culture. It will take and extended period of time for the population to get adjusted to some of the future advances that are being made in the digital world.

This is connected to me because I am in the younger generation of technology users, and all of this media and information is going to converge with me, and be utilized in my lifetime.

I thought there were a variety of connections between this and the previous book we read. They are each basically pointing out the same problem, and published it in a different way. The new data and information is so miscellaneous and it is converging with people and technologies of todays world. That is basically just the summary of both books in one sentence.

"media companies are not behaving in a monolithic fashion" 19

"when people take media into their own hands, the results can be wonderfully creative, they can also be bad news for all involved." 17

Blog Post 4 - Ch 10

Weinberger, what was the point? Additionally, so what?

This book was very important for a few different reasons. First of all, it brought about the attention of how the organization of knowledge has changed with the advancements in technology. The book also made me aware of the vast number of people that are affected by the organization of knowledge and data. Information management is only getting harder to categorize, and the more we know the better, knowledge is power.

Computers have changed the way we do everything these days, and if everything remains miscellaneous, it will be impossible to utilize.

The way that knowledge and information is organized has complete control over the way that it is accessed and used. This book has brought attention to the fact that the growing amount of information that exists needs to be classified for us to even be able to use it at all.

Ch 8 & 9 Weinberger

Ch 8

Main point - This chapter is about the labels and identifications that exists in todays world, and how it is hard to decipher what they all actually mean. Information that is viewed can often times be irrelevant, and useless.

So what - Labels on products and on digital information is inferred to mean something to the viewer, but it is really our job to delve deeper into the label and see what is actually there. Data on different public sharing websites can be aimed to a particular group, or target someone harmfully, and this is what people need to be aware of when they are just basically judging a book by its cover.

Ch 9

Main point - Chapter nine revolves around organization, and how the vast amounts of data and information are organized, in everyones own particular way. Different digital data these days is classified in so many different categories, and the organization of this is making it imperative so we have the ability to access correct facts and figures.

So what - If there is no organization in data and information, it will make it virtually impossible to find something quickly and easily. You could make a google search and a vast variety of information will show up, but if it is not classified, you will have to pick through it and find something from a reliable source that fits your guidelines.

Other 2 Blogs - (Tommy Wijaya and Tomi Zografors have not posted anything to reply to)

Ch 5 & 6 Post

Ch 5 - The laws of the jungle

The main point of chapter 5 was that there is such a large variety of data that exists in the world today, and it is most efficient to let the computers do the work of sorting it all out. There is essentially a jungle of information and meta data that exists on computers and in digital format, and they need to be organized properly because it is so vital to this world today.

"The new rules of the information jungle are in effect, transforming the landscape in which we work, buy, learn, vote, and play." pg. 106

"Put a leaf on as many branches as possible" pg. 103

My real world connection to this chapter was emptying the dishwasher, like the author had stated in the beginning of the chapter. I understood how he felt when he stated that all of the plates are similar and belong in a category, and how all of the utensils and silverware are miscellaneous.

Ch 6 - Smart Leaves

Chapter 6 was about identification, and how technology has created significant advancements in the identification of data, products, and the vast field of information that exists today. The chapter discussed the invention of UPCs, then the advancement to RFID micro chips, and then how personal devices can also be used as ways of identification.

"People keep pretending they can make things deeply hierarchical, categorizable, and sequential when they can't. Everything is deeply intertwingled." pg. 125

"Businesses suffer from the effects of essentialism, as well, when they assume they know what their products are for-are you sure your company's "energy bar" is being eaten to help with a workout and not as candy?" pg. 118

My personal experience that relates to this chapter was when I saw a show on RFID tags, and how they are used in airports. This show depicted how these RFID tags are used to track luggage much more quickly and efficiently, without as many of the usual mistakes.

Blog Post 1

Prologue:

a) the prologue was roughly a comparison of the physical store to an online or virtual store. The differences in the shopping environments, and attributes that go into each atmosphere. Electronic data can have its benefits, as it is not constrained by the same boundaries that the physical store typically has.

b) “We learn by watching our customers’ eyeballs,”

“With twenty-twenty vision, you have to be able to read it one and a half feet away,”

c) my real world connection is the comparison to shopping on amazon.com compared to shopping at a store like staples or best buy. I feel it is easier to just go online to one site and order them instead of going through all of the hassle and trouble to visit each store in person. It it is much more time efficient to do it all at your fingertips.

Ch 1:

a) The first chapter discussed largely the placement of products in stores, and how the advertising appeals to each other as an individual. For example, a certain product might be placed next to another product that it goes with, like blue tooth headsets and accessories next to cell phones. This can also very with height, as products intended to sell to taller people can be placed higher up, and products that are aimed at shorter children are placed lower and closer to the ground.

b) We invest so much time in making sure our world isn’t miscellaneous in part because disorder is inefficient—“Anybody see the gas bill?”

NASA says it maintains information about the environment that would “fill the Library of Congress 300 times”

c) my connection to the real world is the advertisements and impulse buys that they have at grocery stores and other physical stores. I noticed that there are so many magazines and quick items that are available to purchase at the last second just so the store can make a little more money.

Ch 2:

a) The 2nd chapter involved languages, and how alphabetizing is basically the most essential component of communication on the internet. The chapter goes on to state how a universal language would be very beneficial and helpful to the world.

b)"Species matters... the difference among species affect how well they survive."

“...alphabetical order remains the very model of an arbitrary order. It tells us exactly nothing about the real relationships about things.”

c) These new mega databases contain so much information, it would have taken so much time back before technology to research and find what you are looking for. Searching for something on google takes fractions of seconds where it used to take much longer to attain.