Thinking About Information
Found this one through Robert Scoble’s Link Blog citing Jon Burg’s Future Visions site. It says a lot about how we think about information, especially in how we categorize it, and how we might be under-selling the way we make media on the web.
One point of finding and sharing YouTube videos is to share what’s IN the video. The other point, which some of you might have already caught, is showing how blogs and media and all these tools work together to communicate information without you having to go seek it.
Consider: Scoble reads all his blogs. He highlights ones he likes. I read his highlights. I select ones I want to re-highlight. Occasionally, I pull something out and post about it. You read it. You can then re-post, highlight, add, manipulate, or forget what you’ve just consumed.
Information, especially in the ways we use it on the web, is alive, movable, and if you’ve got it all set up right, comes to you without much heavy lifting.
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Comments
[…] Thinking About Information » This Summary is from an article posted at [chrisbrogan.com] on Wednesday, October 17, 2007 […]
That’s amazing…I’ve never thought what way…Hmm…
Yahoo maintained CATEGORIES on the web.
Then search engines came and people can search by keywords.
Now people themselves maintain CATEGORIES by tagging (tag = category).
So what?…
Hey Vlad, the point is that information is no longer presented in a shelved environment, it is organic and living. Think about your local supermarket. You see the items they want you to see. You’re far more likely to see items on display at the end of the aisle. You’re shopping in a controlled physical environment with access and awareness (to a more limited extent) being tightly controlled by the store manager.
Digital media however doesn’t live in a controlled or limited environment. The only structure it has is the structure we give it through artificial hierarchies, links and tags.
We access and discover information is a wholly different manner. And as our digital experience transitions into a semantic expereince that bridges our browser based, mobile, email, gaming and traditional media this meta-structure will continue to evolve. Sphere is already delivering the a limited semantic experience based on the content and not the tags. The next gen of RSS readers will incorporate APML, an OPML (RSS subscription aggregate file) format that includes recommendations based on the behaviors of others.
Our entire information ecosystem has changed.
And it will change again.
And as marketers, end users, advertisers, sales people, technologists and hobbyists, this will change our business and our lives.
I think that last part - information coming to you without much heavy lifting - is where there’s room for a lot of innovation. Right now, I have to go find the information I want initially, and then set it up to come to me. I want something to suggest information for me, know if I read it and enjoy it, and learn how to better find information for me.