dervin sense making metaphor hakan yildiz
TRANSCRIPT
Brenda Dervin’s Sense-Making Metaphore
a major user-centered approach to information use
Hacettepe University- ANKARA-TURKEY Information Management Department November-2012
Sense Making Philosophical baseline
Basic Definitions
• Ding an sich =thing in itself
• Knowledge/Information
• Knowledge Management
• Information Designer
• Situational Awareness
Basic Definitions
• Ding an sich =thing in itself
- Reduction and Suspension
Basic Definitions
• Knowledge/Information A reconceptualized motion from noun to verb
Sense-making takes a critical stance towards the usual meaning of
the concept of information Dervin takes a critical stand on information that is conceived of as
something static, ordered, isomorphic, entity-like, and external, and which is imposed on individuals as one outcome. The concept of information perceived this way is seen to be problematic because it “freezes time-space and person and restricts information to that produced and used by one narrow set of sense-making strategies
Basic Definitions
• Knowledge/Information A reconceptualized motion from noun to verb
«The sense making and sense unmaking that is knowledge is a verb, always an activity, embedded in time and space, moving from a history toward a horizon, made at the juncture between self and culture, society, organization.» (Dervin, 1998)
Basic Definitions
Knowledge Management
a “new way to solve problems…a new strategic perspective influenced by a new appreciation to interrelationships, complexity, and context” (Clarke, 1998).
Basic Definitions
• Information Designer
It may be more productive to conceptualize human beings not as seekers and users of information but rather as information “designers”
Individual should be seen «as an entity behaving at a moment in time-space».
Ultimately, designing of information is based on the dialectical dance between nouns and verbs or between
“rigidities” and “fluidities”
Basic Definitions
Internal Resources: ideas, experiences, belief, emotions in a gappy situation… External Resources: Advice received from an expert, web pages, newspaper articles…
Basic Definitions
• Situational Awareness
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Situation_awareness
Situational Awareness
Brenda Dervin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=foyH6eoIseQ
Unquestionably the key theorist of sense-making
Sense-making was introduced
to information science by Brenda Dervin in 1972
to Human–computer interaction by PARC researchers Russell, Stefik, Pirolli and Card in 1993
to organizational studies by Karl Weick in 1995
Since the 1980s, sensemaking has significantly influenced the methodological viewpoints of information needs and seeking studies
The bounds of particular discourse communities
Primarily the field of library and information
science (where applications have focussed on the study of information needs and seeking and on the match between systems and users);
Various communication fields (where applications have focused on interpersonal, mass and cyberspaced communication in service, media, medical and other settings);
Education (where applications have focused on user-centered pedagogy).
Sense Making
According to Dervin, sense-making can be seen as behavior, both internal (cognitive) and external (procedural), which allows the individual to construct and design his or her movement through the time–space context.
Sense making, as an approach, is described as a methodology disciplining the cacophony of diversity and complexity without homogenizing it. (Dervin,1998)
The sense-making mandate has been focused primarily on the development of philosophical guidance for method
Knowledge is reconceptualized from noun to verb.
Purpose of the Methodology
The purpose of the project, in the broadest sense, from its inception has been to make possible better design of practices and systems for communicating, whether in person or mediated, whether by voice or pen or computer.
In general, sense-making may be characterized as a theoretic net, a set of assumptions and propositions, and a set of methods that have been developed to study the making of sense that people do in their everyday experiences
Sense-making aims at freeing research from the implicit assumption that there is one right way to produce knowledge or to use information
The bottom-line goal of Sense making from its inception has been to find out what users – audiences, customers, patients, clients, patrons, employees – ”really” think, feel, want, dream !
Purpose of the Methodology
REDUCING UNCERTAINITY • Problem Solving - Identifying Issues - Setting goals - Designing suitable courses of action • Decision Making - Evaluating - Choosing among alternatives
What is sense-making ? IB Related Concept
Looking to the gap
gap gap facing gap-defining gap-bridging step-taking
When you look long into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you. Nietzsche
Gap-bridging
Gap-bridging: • Always purposive
and goal-oriented
• Occurs in a myriad ways
• Entirely capricious
Metaphorical triangle of situation-gap-uses
HCI/MMI/HMI
A sample from Defense Industry
A sample from Ethics
A Theory of Justice, John Rawls
1971
Veil of Ignorance
References
Dervin, B. (1995, March). Chaos, Order and sense-Making: A Proposed Theory for Information Design Dervin, B. (1998, December). Sense-making theory and practice: an overview of user interests in knowledge seeking and use Savolainen, R. (1999, May). Information use, gap-bridging and Sense-Making Savolainen, R. (2006, July). Information Use a Gap Bridging: The Viewpoint of Sense-Making Methodology Uçak, N.Ö. (1997). Bilgi Gereksinimi ve Bilgi Arama Davranışı
