Ambient Findability

1. Information Architecture Designing and Organising Digital Information SpacesPart VII. Bleeding Edge IA

2. Ambient Findability surrounding, encircling, enveloping the ability to find anyone or anything from anywhere at anytime

4. Apophenia The spontaneous perception of connections and meaningfulness in unrelated things. Futurism doesn’t mean predicting an awesome wonder; rather it means recognizing and describing a small apparent oddity that is destined to become a great commonplace.

6. Flashmob A large group of people who gather in a usually pre-determined location, perform some brief action, and then quickly disperse.

7. Half the world -- nearly three billion people -- live on less than two dollars a day. A few hundred millionaires now own as much wealth as the world's poorest 2.5 billion people. Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names. The proportion of human kind living in poverty has fallen faster in the past 50 years than in the previous 500 years. The extension of basic immunisation over the past two decades has saved the lives of three million children.

8. Chained Libraries • In the Middle Ages there were few books, and those that did exist were usually kept locked in chests or cupboards, or chained to desks in a church. “This book belongs to the monastery of St. Mary of Robert's Bridge, whosoever shall steal it, sell it or in any way alienate it from this house, or mutilate it, let him be forever cursed.”

9. Print, film, magnetic, and optical storage media produced about 5 exabytes of new information in 2002. Ninety-two percent of the new information was stored on magnetic media, mostly in hard disks. How big is five exabytes? If digitized, the nineteen million books and other print collections in the Library of Congress would contain about ten terabytes of information; five exabytes of information is equivalent in size to the information contained in half a million new libraries the size of the Library of Congress print collections. Although the Internet is the newest medium for information flows, it is the fastest growing new medium of all time, becoming the information medium of first resort for its users. http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/research/projects/how-much-info-2003/

10. A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.Herbert Simon, Nobel Laureate Economist

11. This is Not the Bill of Rights… Amendment I Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. http://www.archives.gov

12. “Executives routinely rely on their intuitions to solve complex problems when logical methods (such as a cost-benefit analysis) simply won’t do.” “Your mind continuously processes information that you are not consciously aware of, not only when you’re asleep and dreaming but also when you’re awake. This helps explain the ‘aha’ sensation you experience when you learn something you actually already knew.” “When to Trust Your Gut” by Alden M. Hayashi Harvard Business Review, February 2001

13. David Rose ambientdevices.com

14. Convergent Architecture Swisshouse A new type of consulate for knowledge exchange…a 3,200 sq.ft. wired loft located in Cambridge, Massachusetts Jeffrey Huang Harvard University

15. An Austrian firm (Tholos Systems) is developing a giant video-conferencing system that will be deployed in public spaces in London and Vienna next year, allowing people in the two cities to meet and talk eye-to-eye. Wired News, Oct 22 2003

18. CNET News. Nov 25, 2003. Radio frequency identification tags aren't just for pallets of goods in supermarkets anymore. Applied Digital Solutions is hoping that Americans can be persuaded to implant RFID chips under their skin to identify themselves when going to a cash machine or in place of using a credit card. Automatic Locates Schedule an "automatic locate" to see where your child is at a given time. Breadcrumbing Feature This feature is great for identifying a specific route or series of destinations.

20. Reciprocal Transparency “In the information age to come, cameras and databases will sprout like poppies – or weeds – whether we like it or not. Over the long haul, we as a people must decide the following questions: Can we stand living exposed to scrutiny, our secrets laid open, if in return we get flashlights of our own that we can shine on anyone who might do us harm – even the arrogant and strong? Or is an illusion of privacy worth any price, even the cost of surrendering our own right to pierce the schemes of the powerful?”

21. tangible.media.mit.edu “At the seashore, between the land of atoms and the sea of bits, we are now facing the challenge of reconciling our dual citizenship in the physical and digital worlds.” - Hiroshi Ishii

22. With Netflix, you search a web site for movies that are delivered to your mailbox in DVD format via the U.S. Postal Service.

23. Amazon’s Search Inside the Book …a week after launching the new service, Amazon reported that sales for full-text searchable books outpaced books without the feature by 9 percent.

33. Please indicate the importance of each factor to the practice of information architecture over the next five years. Future of IA Survey, http://aifia.org/calendar/000053.php

34. In the next 5 years…

35. Scenario Planning • Scenarios are stories about the way the world might turn out tomorrow. • Scenarios are not predictions. It is simply not possible to predict the future with certainty. • An old Arab proverb says that “he who predicts the future lies even if he tells the truth.” • Scenario planning is about making choices today with an understanding of how they might turn out.

36. Scenario Planning Process • What is the Focal Issue or Decision? • What are the Key Factors (Local)? • What are the Driving Forces (Macro)? • Rank by Importance and Uncertainty. • Select Scenario Logics. • Flesh out the Scenarios. • Consider Implications. • Identify Leading Indicators and Signposts.

37. The Practice of Information Architecture Over the Next 5 to 10 Years

38. Tell A Story How Did We Get Here? Paint A Picture What’s This Future Like? Web-Centric IA Group 1 Group 2 IA = Luxury IA = Necessity Group 3 Group 4 Name Your Scenario Which Label Works Best? Consider Implications What Can We Do Today? Trans-Media IA

39. Books • Information Architecture for the World Wide Web • by Louis Rosenfeld & Peter Morville (1998, 2002) • Practical Information Architecture • by Eric Reiss (2000) • Information Architecture: An Emerging 21st Century Profession • by Earl Morrogh (2002) • Information Architecture: Blueprints for the Web • by Christina Wodtke (2002) • Information Architecture for Designers • by Peter Van Dijck (2003) • Information Architecture: Designing Information Environments • by Alan Gilchrist & Barry Mahon (2003)

40. Sites • Argus Center for Information Architecture • http://argus-acia.com/ • Bloug • http://louisrosenfeld.com/home/ • Boxes & Arrows • http://www.boxesandarrows.com/ • IAslash • http://www.iaslash.org/ • IAwiki • http://www.iawiki.net/IAwiki • Semantics • http://semanticstudios.com/publications/semantics/

41. Asilomar Institutefor Information Architecture • International non-profit organization • Launched in November 2002 • Advance practice and profession of information architecture • 500 members from 40 countries • http://aifia.org

42. IA Therefore I Am • Peter Morville • morville@semanticstudios.com • Semantic Studios • http://semanticstudios.com/ • Asilomar Institute for Information Architecture • http://aifia.org/ • Findability • http://findability.org/