Everything Is Miscellaneous, by David Weinberger, 2007 (read 2007)
The title sounds like a joke. "Um, put it under F, for file." But the sub-title, The Power of the New Digital Disorder, puts everything in perspective.
Weinberger systematically describes what he calls the three orders of order, the three ways we humans try to keep things sorted. One is arranging physical objects. The second is arranging one-to-one records of objects, like index cards or file folders. The third is to assign tags or keywords to each object (or idea) but leave them loose without arranging them in any way. And it's the third method that gives digital disorder its power.
Miscellaneous reviews the history of alphabetization, the rise of the early encyclopedists, and the Dewey Decimal System. Weinberger draws an instructive comparison between two well-known photo archives, the paper-filed second-order Bettman Archive and the digitally-tagged third-order Corbis Archive.
If you've wondered what digital tagging is all about, here it is.
About Me
- Ted Knight
- I'm retired from careers in broadcasting and bookkeeping. I have great intelligence and endless cutiosity. I wiall thosethoueandsnds of books and songs and movies I remember could have left a trail of breadcrumbs. Then I'd have some idea why one thing led to another, but this virtual diary will have to do. Lately websites, blogs and podcasts are popping up along the way too. It's all about the new connections that are possible and indeed happening, an exc/iting time to be alive. I': m a widower and have survived three strokesforvcing me to retire from music. Now I'm clawing my way back.nmeanwhile I wonder about stuff, and read.
No comments:
Post a Comment