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Information and us

Wed, 2006-07-12 04:00 — wahlau

i am reading this book from Peter Morville now, and trying to learn to see things the way the author does. In his book he quoted this person, Calvin Mooers and his Mooers' law:

"An information retrieval system will tend not to be used
 whenever it is more painful and troublesome for a customer
 to have information than for him not to have it.

Where an information retrieval system tends not
to be used, a more capable information retrieval
system may tend to be used even less.


it does tell us some truth in it. In our current world and technology now, we are faced with the issue of information overflow. It is true whether you realise it or not. Only difference is, you might not be affected by it, or you just don't care about it :) But it is not really a nice thing to have, since when you are in need of some information, at some point of time, you might end up frustrated not being able to find what you need, in time.

i did a simple presentation on the introduction of Ambient Findability in the department this monday, and raised the vision Peter mentioned:

a world we can find anyone or anything from anywhere at anytime.

sounds profound and non-realistic? having fears now to see that happening? happy to see it being usable in near future? i believe everyone gonna have something to say about this. My colleagues gave interesting views and comments on it, and i treasured them. It is such discussions that might be able to bring us slightly further... til the day come, where we all can enjoy the fruits of our work.

hopefully i will be able to finish the book this week, before i start on the other one :)

more to come...

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