Information R/evolution
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4CV05HyAbM
I came across this very interesting short film by Michael Wesch titled Information R/evolution. Information R/evolution reflects Wesch’s views on information management isssues – everything from its creation and categorization, to presentation and retrieval. It shows that as information becomes increasingly digital, our assumptions about its traditional characteristics are no longer valid. The web has fundamentally changed the way we create, manage and use information and so, there is a need for us to “rethink information beyond material constraints.” The video draws on Weinberger and is optimistic about Web 2.0 as it allows knowledge and information to not only be free, but also be miscellaneous.
Laura Paajanen Said,
September 26, 2008 @ 7:34 pm
Interesting video – clever editing helps in the call to be responsible with data. The ending section says we all need to be responsible for what we do with so much data, and questions whether we’re ready for it. It made me think of Doctorow’s straw men from Metacrap, though it’s good to see this cautiously optimistic counterpart.
This video also included a screenshot of and link to the author I just posted about, Clay Shirky.
Sarah Van Wart Said,
September 27, 2008 @ 9:37 am
Very cool. I thought that his continual modification of font size (form) and text (content) to re-describe categorization concepts and mediums was a geat visualization — it really communicated how a particular piece of information could fit into many containers. In the video, we again see kudos being given to Google and Wikipedia (and even Weinberger’s “Everything is Miscellaneous” article) while Yahoo again gets the thumbs down for “adding the shelf back” to information — even when it has no material constraints.
The video also says, “There is no shelf…links alone are enough,” which is inline with Doctorow’s concept of implicit metadata being able to describe the information itself better than the ‘professional.’ Lots of great references in this video.