Blog 4

Blog 3

Weinberger says, "Reality is multifaceted. There are a lot of ways to slice it. How we choose to slice it up depends on why we're slicing it up." Go back to the thing you described organizing on Tuedsay's blog. How might someone else organize this item? What does how YOU organize it say about what you value and who you are?

The digital media libraries of students these days are becoming somewhat astronomical, compared to libraries 5 years ago. We are collecting so much information from all different sources, whether it be music blogs, video clips, or movies. So how do we go about storing this information?

I personally have over 500 GB of just random "stuff" on my external hard drive, some of which I don't believe I've touched in over 3 years. But I do seem to have a very odd way of organizing my materials. As I was scrolling through my collection, I notices that I have everything sorted out by genre. My movies, music, even class work seems to all fall into some general category. While this may work for me, it could prove to be a disaster for others looking for certain material.

Someone else might organize such a library to be a bit easier to use. For example, alphabetizing their music albums or artists, or by last item used or downloaded. My download folder is set to list items as they are downloaded just because I am able to remember it better mentally. I guess it is up to each indiviual about how they might go about organizing their libraries.

Blog 2

Summarize what you see as the key points from the chapters. Second, describe one thing in your life you spend time keeping organized. Describe why the order you choose works for you.

Everything is Miscellaneous by David Weinberger provides an unique look into the way we go about organizing our lives. The book begins by talking about how browsing for items in a library has changed over the years, mostly with the help of technology. iTunes is an example, he uses, of how the user has so much control over how their own libraries of music. Mixing and matching playlists to suit every mood or feeling has allowed for a more friendlier user experience.

Chapter 1 starts out with a look into how we organize every part of our life. Whether it be storage containers to books, we always have someway of organizing each item in a way that is familiar to us. Our digital photo collection is another good example of our organization routines. We choose certain photos to upload online, while others never leave their original folders. Our photo libraries have also become so huge that we don't remember photos for their pictures, rather their id number or tag. The chapter continues as Weinberger takes an in-depth look at how these changes have occurred over time. These changes of organization don't just apply to ourselves but to other aspects of life as well. The Library of Congress has had to change how they organize their documents to keep up with the times. He then looks at three orders of organization while comparing them with the Bettmann Archive. Each order looks at a different way of organizing things. For example, providing a description of a photo for each one in your library.

Chapter 2 looks at a part of organization: alphabetization. Weinberger takes a look at how the process of alphabetization started. The notion of alphabetizing things came at a very early time, where philosophers such as Adler came up the idea of a "encyclopedia", where everything was recorded. The book then looks at how the encyclopedia came about, emphasizing on how it was organized.

One aspect of my life that I find myself organizing all the time is my library of digital media. While I do have a extensive collection of music, I find myself organizing other medias I have stored on my computer as well. For example, my movie collection is sorted by genre, while many of my other friends have memorized their libraries by "last used" or alphabetical. My pictures are also organized in a interesting manner. Photos that I want others to see I have posted on Facebook, but there are some photos (family gathering, trips, old school photos), that I have stored in a completely separate folder. I guess everyone organizes things in a way that makes sense to themselves.

Blog 1

Describe what you see as the most important idea from this article given your own future professional goals--what can/should you take with you? What is the most exciting web application you've seen in the past year? What is exciting about it?

Before reading "Web Squared: Web 2.0 Five Years On" I had some understanding about how the "evolution" of Web 2.0 has had dramatic impact on our entire society, even world. I totally agree with Tim O'Reilly's statement that the web is the new platform and that the internet is rapidly changing at a global level. Looking at O'Reilly's newest article about Web 2.0, there were a few ideas and concepts that caught my attention. Wikitude's travel guide application was amazing. I never really thought that such apps were possible. The fact that you can look through your smartphone at a building or structure and have this app find all possible information about it is astounding.

After college, I would like to find a job in the film industry, mainly animation or special effects. The "new" internet has allowed artists from all over the world to collaborate and show off their works for companies to view. While reading this article related to my profession include sensor technology, how newer smartphones have been equipped with all kinds of senors, senors that serve all types of purposes from GPS to a bar code scanner, or how Microsoft Photosynth is using computer power to synthesize 3D images, which reveals parts of the image not visible on a 2D photo.

With the rise of smartphones, the use of apps has become a vital part of our society. One of the coolest and quite interesting apps I have come across would have to be an app called Talk to Me. This app allows users traveling in a foreign country to be able to communicate with others speaking the native language. For example, one might need to know where the hospital is. So they would ask their phone the question, in English, and the app is able to translate it back into any language and can be played aloud for others to hear. While this app is mainly used on smartphones, it can be used as a web app as well. In recent news, Talk-to-Me is also being used at the United Nations to help ambassadors from all over the world communicate.

References:

O'Reilly, Tim, and John Battelle. "Web Squared: Web 2.0 Five Years On - by Tim O'Reilly and John Battelle." Web 2.0 Summit 2010 - Co-produced by UBM TechWeb & O'Reilly Conferences, November 15 - 17, 2010, San Francisco, CA. Web. 17 Jan. 2011. .