|  | | | Search engines and search technologies. Search tools and technologies to find news and information online. Offline search engines and search software. In this category you find all of the search tools and technologies for information seeking. | |
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| | Wed, 01 Sep 2010 06:10:00 PDT | | Can information architecture principles be easily put to good use when trying to help your readers find relevant content on your site? When your web site is so full of content that a simple search box won't do the trick anymore, what can you do to structure and make all of your content more easily accessible?
Photo credit: Ndul
By employing sound information architecture principles you can develop a content organization and navigation strategy that allows your readers to easily locate what they are looking for while having a rich and enjoyable user-experience.
For example visual site maps and visually grouped search results are much better approaches to help a user find what he is looking for than traditional linear text-based search engine result pages.
The information provided is exactly the same, but it's the way the information itself is presented, organized and connected to your navigation system which provides two very different user experiences.
And these type of challenges were the ones encountered by Stefano De Caro, Nicoletta Di Blas and Luigi Spagnolo a team of content and information architects, when asked to design an interface and content navigation system capable of handling a huge amount of data belonging to the Italian cultural heritage archives.
Following their successful work, the team decided to prepare an in-depth report where they explain and illustrate their fascinating research and content design journey. Their goal is to help more people understand how information architecture principles can be effectively utilized to structure the content of a web site and how these same principles can help you repurpose information in ways that make it more easily discoverable and visually-intriguing for your readers.
While Part 1 of this report dealt more with the theory and the challenges behind the design of a large cultural web site, Part 2 explains what are the actual steps you need to take to organize and present information in simple and engaging ways without overwhelming your final readers.
Here is Part 2 - Information Architecture: How To Help Users Find Relevant Content (Part 1)
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| | Tue, 24 Aug 2010 09:20:00 PDT | | How can you leverage information architecture to improve content findability and facilitate online content exploration on your web site? Making all the bits of your content you have published easily findable to your readers is not an easy task, especially when you have a large amount of content items that needs to be indexed and made searchable.
Photo credit: Ndul
A team of Italian information architects tried to address this exact problem as it tried to define and plan the content structure and information-finding solutions needed to empower the new web portal from the Directorate General of Antiquity of the Italian Ministry for Culture Heritage, which is planned to go public in Autumn of 2010.
The challenge for Stefano De Caro, Nicoletta Di Blas and Luigi Spagnolo was to cope with the huge amount of data that belongs to the Italian cultural heritage and to present this data in the clearest, most immediate and visually-compelling way possible, while meeting simultaneously the diverse needs of normal website visitors, the Italian Ministry and stakeholders.
After a thorough research, their research analysis made it clear that a standard web search functionality would be unsatisfactory when a very large amount of data content to be indexed and made searchable, because the search function requires that users' requests (carried out using keywords) match precisely the keywords that the website originally utilized to define its content articles. If no such match is established, information tends obviously to remain unfound.
What is needed instead, is a way to aggregate similar and contextually-relevant results that users could be interested in. By looking at things from this perspective it appeared that the best way to achieve this goal was to seriously consider the adoption of some so-called Rich Internet Applications (RIAs), which are web applications that adapt in real-time to users' inputs, choices or past preferences.
The implementation of RIAs was employed also to leverage "serendipitous discovery", the act of stumbling upon unforeseen interesting pieces of content, and "faceted search", the ability to search for a customized group of relevant topics that is spontaneously generated upon user input.
As information overload remains a major concern for website owners and publishers, websites need to be organized in a way that leverages information architecture principles so that they help you, the website owner, make them become more accessible for your readers while providing information within a richer, more engaging experience.
This in-depth report, republished here on MasterNewMedia in two parts with permission from the authors, may serve as a good source of inspiration to develop an effective strategy to deal with large amounts of content needing to be made easily findable in an easy, intuitive and visually-engaging experience for the final user.
Here is Part 1 of this in-depth report: (Part 2 here)
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| | Thu, 24 Jun 2010 05:50:00 PDT | | A nice, gorgeous-looking web site which has no design or navigation intelligence is a like handsome man with no brains. It may be nice to look at him but anyone would rapidly get bored with such a partner. Same thing happens on the web. While many strive to build super-good-looking web sites, only few really understand the strategic value of building highly navigable and easy to understand web sites. Why? Because we have not yet learned to think with the eyes and heart of our future readers and fans, and we unconsciously keep pushing things, as if such readers could be molded to appreciate, like and read what we want.
Photo credit: Stockphoto4u
Happily for us, as me and you are also readers and users of other people's sites, this is a good thing. A web site is not like a television channel and you, the web publisher, cannot shove down your readers' throat whatever you think is great. I, the reader, am now the one in control. One stupid move from you, the web publisher, and in a fraction of a second I can be out of your site.
In this user-centered light, how can you build a website that really meets your readers where they are and allows them to easily and rapidly discover all of the value you have to offer?
It goes without saying that the number one key strategy to make your web site communicate effectively its focus and key offerings, is to make its home and internal pages strategically designed to offer such unobstructed access with the minimum effort.
Achieving this goal involves two basic steps:
- Navigation: Designing content navigation in a way that allows readers to navigate and discover your high-value content in the easiest way possible, by always having relevant key content suggestions options available in front of their eyes.
- Search: Making the ability to search and FIND specific content a key requirement on your site. This involves a correct use of tags and categories, a savvy placement, a bit of SEO and an intelligent use of search engines.
In the in-depth analysis that follows, Stijn Debrouwere explores in great detail how to leverage the content search and navigation potential to best serve the needs of your audience. Though this report was originally conceived with news sites in mind, the points it makes and the strategies it suggest are applicable to most any web site wanting to provide high value to its readers.
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| | Fri, 21 May 2010 10:48:00 PDT | | A new type of web content war has just begun. On one side "apps", like those you can download on your iPhone, which deliver enhanced web content and specific tools / services, and on the other, search engines, still the preferred venue to discover information, news and data. Who is going to win this race? Only time will tell, but if you had never thought such a conflict existed, you are in for some interesting surprise, as this handy analyst report from media expert John Blossom unveils the potential opportunities that this emerging trend could provide to online content providers and distributors.
Photo credit: Madbuster75, Icons etc. and Plastic Mobile Agency's iPhone Corner
Let's try to make some sense of the key story first.
a) Web apps are becoming increasingly important both for publishers and developers who find intriguing to enhance their content with extended features.
b) App fever is poisoning both the web and the mobile world. And if you think this is just hype or exaggeration, just consider these simple facts:
Apps are undoubtedly booming and their consumption is not to halt anytime soon, but the real question is: are apps really an alternative to the web?
Or, in other words, should publisher bet big time on apps or should they leverage the potential opportunities of their web content?
According to John Blossom, notwithstanding the success of web apps, web content is here to stay.
As a matter of fact, while web publishers might look to apps as an alternative strategy to supercharge and distribute their content, the web itself is becoming increasingly functional and extensible with the adoption of new standards (like HTML5) and technologies that can leverage the new input abilities of last-gen devices.
Moreover, it is not rare that apps are built specifically as a way to interact more easily and quickly with content that is already existing on the web, which devalues de facto the innovation of apps as self-standing “cans” of content,
But that’s not the worst part either.
As Blossom suggests, the worst drawback of apps is findability.
Web content is findable thanks to queries made through search engines and hyperlinks, but this is not true for web apps and content inside web apps.
If you need to find the NYT app to read the online version of the newspaper on your iPad, you are forced to access Apple's App Store and go look over there. You won't find any matching result on Google.
"Already we get video clips, images and widgets delivered up via search engines that match particular queries or metadata clusterings; why not apps also?"
Apps are indeed a great opportunity, but to understand how to best match the existing web content distribution strategies and the opportunities offered by this new value-added content distribution channel is not easy. To start making better sense of it, I suggest you read on through John Blossom fascinating analysis.
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| | Fri, 22 Jan 2010 23:00:00 PST | | If you are interested in learning about new media trends, communication technologies and about the changes that are shaping our future, in this issue of Media Literacy Digest, open education advocate George Siemens, explores and reports on new fascinating stories and insights and on the impact that these new tools have on the way we learn and work.
Photo credit: Zothen
Inside this Media Literacy Digest:
- Stages of Social Media Integration - Anytime someone provides a list of steps to achieve complex tasks, my reaction is to turn and run. Lists are generally only useful for the people who make them. Situations and contexts change rapidly. What works now in one organization will likely not work in the future in another organization.
- Networks - Mathematic and Social - Alberto-Laszlo Barabasi and James Fowler are prominent researchers in networks. Get the two together, and you get an interesting discussion.
- Neighborhood - It is still early enough in the new year to declare 2010 the year of "whatever you think is important". To this end, have a look at 2010 - The Year of the Neighborhood.
- Those Crazy Kids and Their Media - Kaiser Family Foundation has a new report available on youth and technology. Overall, it is not a surprising report - basically, if they are awake, they are online.
- Internet Freedom - Take a few minutes (ok, maybe about 30). Read this transcript of Hillary Clinton's presentation on Internet freedom. Leave the politics out of it. It is, I think, an important speech that has the prospect of serving as a touch point for advancing the freedom online discussion - delivered by a senior government official who recognizes that the Internet is more than an add on to our daily lives. It has become a "new nervous system for our planet".
- Age of External Knowledge - I have stated (many) times that the most significant impact of the Internet is the externalization (capturing and recording... and then making available for future analysis) of all aspects of our lives. How much do we need to commit to memory when we can search Google? What does it mean to "know" something today?
- New York Times To Charge For Content? - Publishers (such as Rupert Murdoch and now New York Times) are once again experimenting with paid content models. I personally do not care. I am sure some people will pay. I would likely subscribe to an exceptionally informative newspaper or magazine online.
- Learning: Extracting Order From Chaos - Chaos theory can provide a useful model for learning: A limited range of inputs can provide a significant variety of outputs. Because the output range is so diverse, it is easy to assume that the process itself must be astonishingly complex. It is not.
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| | Sat, 16 Jan 2010 17:22:00 PST | | In this weekly Media Literacy Digest, open education and connectivism advocate George Siemens, explores and reports about emergent media, technology and learning, helping you make good sense of the many changes taking place around you and their possible impact on how we work, learn and communicate together.
Photo credit Vasyl Yakobchuk
Inside this Media Literacy Digest
- Facebook Connect - Would not it be easier to manage an online identity if all this "stuff" was in one place? Enter Facebook Connect. Instead of creating a profile with each new service, one set login tied to your Facebook profile, makes life simpler.
- Horizon Report - 2010 - The 2010 edition of the Horizon Report is now available. I will not comment on the content of the report - I am sure others will critique / approve the specific trends addressed. Instead, I want to discuss the process of putting the report together.
- Hybrid Education - Systems are created to serve the needs of an era. When eras change, systems do not... at least not until they encounter a disruptive force (in education - the financial climate looks like it may serve this role) that causes individuals to question the value of the assumptions underlying the existing systems.
- Privacy - Privacy is difficult. Our purchases, searches, and actions are recorded to varying degrees. Facebook and networking sites are pushing the boundaries of what we have in the past viewed as privacy.
- Bionics - National Geographic is one of the few publications that I think I would miss if it was only available online. Not sure why. Most magazines can be read in bits and pieces, flipping through until I discover something of relevance.
- Google and China - Whether for good motives or ill, censorship issues in China have surfaced with at least one organization adopting a "non-compliance" approach to filtering. In the larger scheme of China, privacy, rights, and openness, it is a small step (potential) step forward.
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| | Sun, 10 Jan 2010 00:00:00 PST | | In this weekly Media Literacy Digest, open education and connectivism advocate George Siemens, takes you to news and stories about his new media technologies discoveries and their possible impact on how we work, learn and communicate together.
Photo credit Andrea Danti
Inside this Media Literacy Digest
- How Is The Internet Changing The Way You Think? - Every year, the Edge asks a few hundred people a provocative question. This year, the question is How is the internet changing the way you think? (if you are interested in topics from previous years, they are available here).
- Data Is All - The explicification (it is not a real word, but it should be) of our activities is a somewhat recent development. A few decades ago, I could go to the library, buy my sandwich with cash, have a conversation with a colleague... and I would not leave an explicit data trail that could be analyzed and dissected.
- Nexus One - Google, in its humble goal of organizing the people information of the world, has released Nexus One. Reviews are generally positive and the Nexus vs. iPhone comparisons are already beginning (in the technology field, you are cool based on how quickly you can declare something that is currently popular "obsolete" and list a new tool / software that will "kill product X").
- That Old College Lie - For the average student, college is not nearly as good a deal as colleges would have us believe... Colleges are often lumped in with other non-profit entities like charities and hospitals in the public mind. But they actually most resemble the institution from which many of the oldest and most renowned colleges sprang organized religion.
- The Year Ahead In Higher Education IT - Not too many universities and colleges have an optimistic view of 2010. It is shaping up to be a year (and more) of budget cuts and frugality. Unlike businesses - which are immediately impacted by financial downturns - governments feel financial pain when tax revenue drops (usually six+ months after downturns).
- How I Spend My Time As An Analyst and Researcher and How That Has Changed In Four Years - Work is changing in most fields... and Janet Clarey addresses how technology and information influence how she spends her time as an analyst and researcher and how that is changed in four years
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| | Fri, 08 Jan 2010 07:01:00 PST | | If you are interested in finding out what I think 2010 and beyond have in store for you, when it comes to new media, communication, marketing, learning, collaboration and new technologies, you have landed in the right place. This is Part 2 of MasterNewMedia yearly report on new media trends and anticipations for the new year.
 Photo credit: Robin Good
In this second part I am covering:
- Curation
- Online collaboration and web conferencing
- Events
- Learning and education
- P2P
- Visual communication
- Mobile
- Video publishing
- SEO search
- Usability Testing
- Online Music
Here is Part 2 (here Part 1):
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| | Wed, 06 Jan 2010 02:15:00 PST | | Every end of the year I stop to write down my thoughts about what's coming up next, when it comes to communication, collaboration, learning, marketing, media and technology, as this is the busy and fast-changing crossroad where I hang out most frequently. This time it has taken me a little more but here it is finally: what a professional new media publisher needs to know about what is coming what's coming up next, in 2010 and beyond.
Photo credit: Robin Good
As a matter of fact, I have now realized that I am not attempting to "predict" the future or to speculate specific industry announcements during the upcoming 12 months. What I am trying to do here is to stop and highlight the key trends and transformations happening around my above-listed focus areas (communication, marketing, media, learning and technology).
This end of the year writing celebration is for me just an opportunity to step down from my daily running train of technology-media-communication thinking and to look with a bit more perspective at the journey I am making spiced up by the curiosity of the passenger who wants to find out early what are the upcoming stops and "vista points".
In fact, if you want to look to the more speculative type of 2010 predictions and technology anticipations I think you would be better served by the likes of Mashable, ReadWriteWeb, TechCrunch and the many others out there who do a fantastic job of bringing you back the best and latest on new media technology breakthroughs. For this purpose I have also just published a two-part roundup of what I think are some of the most interesting 2010 anticipations that have surfaced from the web recently. Give it a look:
Top Internet Trends 2010: A Guide To The Best Predictions From The Web - Part 1 and Part 2
My look at future trends on these fronts is a personal one. I don't like to be called an "expert" in these fields, but rather an "explorer", a business researcher as I enjoy much experimenting and testing out new solutions until I find out which are the ones that really suck, and which are the ones that, at least in my case, do work.
Before you dive yourself into experimenting and investing more time in your next web design, content production, online class or upcoming social media marketing strategy, stop for a while and reset yourself around these key, revolutionary trends.
If you don't, someone else will before you.
Here the new media areas I am looking at, in this two-part 2010 trends and predictions report.
Part 1, the one you are reading now, is devoted to:
- General Trends
- Innovation
- Online advertising
- Social media
- Community building
- Social analytics
- Online business models
- Personal branding
- Blogging - Web publishing
- Communication formats
Part 2 will cover:
- Curation
- Online collaboration and web conferencing
- Events
- Learning and education
- P2P
- Visual communication
- Mobile
- Video publishing
- SEO search
- Usability and more
So, without further introductions, here are my "2010 and beyond" new media trends and predictions (see my 2009 predictions Part 1 and Part 2):
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| | Sun, 03 Jan 2010 00:53:00 PST | | In this week issue of Media Literacy Digest, open education and connectivism advocate George Siemens, explores and reports about emerging media, communication technologies and education-related trends. His goal is one of helping you make good sense of the many changes taking place around you and their possible impact on how we work, learn and communicate together.
Photo credit: argus456
Inside this Media Literacy Digest:
- Measurement of Openness In Education Systems - I am not a fan of measurement - largely because it forces technique and structure onto systems often better served by acknowledgment interdependence between entities. But, we need a way to measure openness in universities. Why? Largely to raise awareness of the multi-faceted nature of openness.
- Innovation & Mobiles - Value network analysis provides insight into how systemic structure influences innovation potential. Consider the iPhone vs. Google phone value propositions.
- Openness Is Not So Open Anymore - I have posted a rant / whine on the current state of thinking in openness: Openness is not so open anymore.
- Google, Rome, Empire - History is worth studying (duh). But I fear that even when we do study it, humanity is wired in such a manner as to relive its errors. Ironically, the lessons of history seem to have more merit when they are history.
- Spreading Ideas and Innovation - While in Brisbane a few weeks ago, I met Tim Kastelle. In addition to his faculty role at Queensland University, he is an active blogger / twitter / social media-er. His focus is on innovation and leadership - important topics for the education system as a whole.
- #Movemeon - A network of individuals knows more than a single individual. That is somewhat obvious. Sure, "wisdom of the crowds" (Wikipedia) can quickly become "idiocy of the crowds" (YouTube comments)... and experts do know more than novices (though a network of experts knows more than an individual expert).
- IRRODL: New Issue - I have heard the International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning described as the most cited journal in the educational technology field. It helps that it is an open journal. Openness, after all, increases the prospect of impact and influence as barriers of interaction are reduced.
- State of Elearning 2009 - Tony Bates reflects on 2009, noting positive developments and disappointments. I think there is too much focus on trying to innovate within the system rather than innovating the system itself. The latter requires vision, leadership, and experimentation / failure.
- Publish / Subscribe Matrix Could Explode Into Glass-Smooth Platform - The concepts expressed here are important for software use in education - Publish / Subscribe Matrix Could Explode Into Glass-Smooth Platform. As educators, we think students need to come to us, to our space of learning. It is a holdover from physical class spaces. We have just applied it to software. But it is not necessary.
- Future of Education: Deschooling Society? - Earlier this year, while in Rome, I was interviewed by Robin Good on a wide range of topics. He is been posting the interview in small (5-10 min) recordings. The most recent recording is on the future of education - i.e. is deschooling society possible?
- Technology As Philosophy - We are currently in a process of translating (and renegotiating) principles democracy, individualism, identity, authority, liberty, equality, and power for a digital world. Most disconcerting is the lack of big thinkers - where is the digital realm's Cleisthenes, Locke, or Voltaire? - on this front.
- Social Media Policies - Social media (that term that now means everything and as a consequence, nothing) has caught the attention of most organizations. Companies have faced the impact of criticism by social networks (United Breaks Guitars, Dell Hell, etc.)... as have celebrities (do I really have to list names?).
- Engaging Students With Engaging Tools - Ed Webb provides a clear summary of how he re-created his conceptual and technological approach to teaching a course at Dickinson College: Engaging Students with Engaging Tools.
- Tyranny of Technique - Technique has a way of forcing standardization on systems, minimizing innovation in the process. We need technique at some levels, but with rapid change, it (technique) becomes a hindrance.
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managing editor