I'm taking an information architectures class this semester. The book we are currently reading (one of ten), is "A New Culture of Learning" by Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown. I'm struck by the fluidity of the 21st century learning process. Appeals to authority are down played in favor of collective learning. It reminds me of being a physics undergraduate. We used to teach ourselves the material when classes were large, 150 students, and the professor didn't have time to spend on individual questions.
What the internet has allowed us to do is create a constantly changing data base of knowledge. Much of it is, well, junk (the internet is largely adult themed space). But projects like Wikipedia, Kiva, etc, are civic goods that grow out of this space.
In terms of information architecture, I am reminded of Alain de Botton's book "The Architecture of Happiness". He has a passage in which he says "as we write, so we build; to keep a record of what matters to us". While information architecture is not physical architecture, we are creating a heirarchy of information. We are playing with the design of websites just as architects play with buildings. In what way, if any way, does information design reflect what is important to us? Just some thoughts for now. I'll expand on them later.
Interesting, I hope that you do expand on this eventually. I have been thinking recently about how form follows function, especially in regards to social networking. Twitter, Facebook, and, most recently, Google+ all have different cultures, or forms, because their functionality is different, and I think this is the other side of a cycle you are describing. How we store information may reflect something about us, but then it also affects what we do in the future when we use that information.
ReplyDeleteThat seems right. It's amusing how a form of stalking, Facebook stalking, is socially acceptable.
ReplyDeleteI'm interested in the perpetuation of these networks. I know a couple people who have died but their FB profile pages are still live. How will we look at our pictures ten years down the line? I know for me, Facebook has been a record of my senior year of high school till now. You can tell what I'm into based on pictures.
I'm not sure just how acceptable Facebook stalking is. True, we find the subject funny, but we find many tabooed things funny because humor is a way of dealing with the discomfort of such topics. However, it seems like one doesn't openly admit to FB stalking without a modicum of remorse in one's confession. While FB stalking doesn't carry the dangerous connotations that stalking does, it seems a reasonable question to ask if one escalates into the other, just as stalking can escalate into violence. I think that the phenomenon, like so many other aspects of virtual privacy, is too new to our society for us to have hard set mores about it, and I am looking forward to seeing what type of culture eventually develops.
ReplyDeleteIn regard to your second point, what is the protocol in "unfriending" dead friends?