Posts from — December 2006

Whither Information Architecture?:
Peter Morville (author of Ambient Findability) wonders out loud about the future of Information Architecture as a discipline, as well as about the role of IAs. Then a bunch of smart people comment… [Tags: information_architecture peter_morville librarians taxonomy folksonomy everything_is_miscellaneous]
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is information architecture dead? I think that the plurality of practices centered on organizing web-based information and making it interactive is under severe threat as a profession… primarily because of the binary of quite a few very high skilled people with 100x more less skilled people in the same field. that creates tensions and it will only be a matter of time before the higher skilled people figure out ways to keep the lesser skilled people out.

Under Surveillance (Flag) Mini Sticker:

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There are many great stickers here.

Thailand Nixes One Laptop Per Child:
A September coup effectively ended the career of Thaksin Shinawatra, the Thai prime minister whose cabinet had pledged to buy 250,000 of Mr. Negroponte’s $100 laptops, according to The Nation, a Bangkok newspaper. Thailand’s new administration now says it has no interest in the project, which would have provided all of the nation’s primary-school students with the low-cost machines.

“We will not focus too much on technology and materials,” said Wijit Srisaarn, Thailand’s education minister, this week. “We will focus on substance.”

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Personally, I think they need some technology and materials too. Substance is a problem because it is almost always political. Access to knowledge, at least cosmopolitan knowledge, requires some infrastructure and materials. It does not require OLPC though.

Spotlight News – Carnegie Mellon University:
Despite the portability of laptops, only a minority of students used them off campus, accounting for only 2 percent of the overall time spent on assignments. The exception was the strong tendency to work at home. Students reported preferring the comfort of working at home even though they recognized the greater educational value of working with other students on campus.

Working at home was also associated with negative social and psychological effects, such as loneliness and the erosion of a sense of community. Even when students did get help from peers, it was often online rather than face-to-face. This is something for educators to consider when designing optimal workspaces for learning, which should include features that provide physical comfort, such as comfortable furniture, access to food and lighting control. Researchers say comfortable, functional learning spaces can foster the sense of community that students reported they lost when using their laptops.

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well there is more to it than that, but i’m not sure if their findings are actually representative of laptop use of subcultural differences amongst students.

The IFLA Internet Manifesto:
The IFLA Internet Manifesto

Unhindered access to information is essential to freedom, equality, global understanding and peace. Therefore, the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) asserts that:

Intellectual freedom is the right of every individual both to hold and express opinions and to seek and receive information; it is the basis of democracy; and it is at the core of library service.

Freedom of access to information, regardless of medium and frontiers, is a central responsibility of the library and information profession.

The provision of unhindered access to the Internet by libraries and information services supports communities and individuals to attain freedom, prosperity and development.
Barriers to the flow of information should be removed, especially those that promote inequality, poverty, and despair.

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Oh there’s more, but this is a start.