how websites learn: information architecture that adapts to use peter merholz work: ://epinions.com...
TRANSCRIPT
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How Websites Learn:Information Architecture
that Adapts to Use
Peter Merholz
Work: http://epinions.com
Play: http://peterme.com/ http://peterme.com/ia2000/
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Little Architects
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A problem:
Increasingly, websites corral massive amounts of information
In fact, a strength of the Web is access to unlimited information
But how to present the information meaningfully?
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A problem:
Providing a singular, top-down editorial structure isn’t feasible
But nor can you allow a morass like USENET or an unstructured Web
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Another problem
Web sites don’t respond to use
They’re static, and assume all information is of equal importance
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Case in point
Productopia, R.I.P.
Dozens or hundreds of employed people are costly
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A potential solution
Adaptive information architectures
Bottom-up organization based on qualities of the information and how the information is used
Information spaces that metamorphose based on use
Rich information spaces are complex systems, the study of which can inform our designs
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Structure based on the qualities of the information
Linguistic processing and categorization schemes like Autonomy and Northern Light
Display systems like Self-Organizing Maps (http://websom.hut.fi/websom/), Thinkmap (http://www.thinkmap.com/), Cartia (http://www.cartia.com/)
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The use is more important than inherent qualities
While the Thing qua Thing is important,
It’s more important how people relate to and interact with that thing
Cognitive scientists have found that people categorize the world not on the inherent qualities of things, but on how they interact with those things. (Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things, Lakoff)
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So, what does all this mean?
What is an information space that adapts to use?
An obvious and popular example: The Bestseller List
- People are interested in what’s popular
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Models for social effects
Self-policing
Word of mouth
Footpaths
The Agora
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Self-policing – Epinions.com
Nearly 700,000 opinions—no editing
Community can
- Rate content
- Trust each other
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Self-policing—Epinions.com
Generic
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Word of mouth – Information structured through people
You tell people about a movie you saw, a book you read, a car you drive
Known experts are sought out for their input
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Word of mouth – aligning yourself with others’ tastes
Epinions.com – Other products written about, other opinions worth reading
Launch.com – Collaborative filtering
Napster – Hot lists
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Word of Mouth—Epinions.com
Generic Personalized
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Word of Mouth – Google.com
That HREF tag carries a lot of meaning
PageRank – measures importance through linking
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Footpaths
How is the information traversed and used?
Take advantage of what people do
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Footpaths
Designers begin with a form…
http://fury.com/berkeleypaths
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Footpaths
But people will make it their own…
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Footpaths – Swiki : Icons representing use
http://swiki.sics.se/
Footprints and Dinosaurs
Explicates what’s there, doesn’t make new connections
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The King – Amazon.com
People who bought X also bought…Creates meaningful relationships that can break
typical taxonomic bounds
Purchase CirclesLocalized Bestseller lists
The Page You MadePersonalized clickstream analysis
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Amazon’s biggest lesson
Track use passively—don’t expect people will do the work for you
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The Agora
People in the same place at the same time likely have something in common
Purple-moon.com
H2G2.com
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A Meta-Web – Everything2.com
A bottom-up network of thought connected by
Hard links – explicitSoft links – implicit
Ranked by voting
Tiered community
‘Who’s online’
….They’ve got it all!
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Except a sense of purpose, structure, meaning…
Difficult to figure out
Community is double-edged
In an email from Will Sargent:The downfall of Everything2 (the site, not the architecture) is sadly linked into its quality control. Editors
are picked from users who have made significant contributions to the site and have been there for a while. These editors/gods have free license to downvote and nuke as they see fit. So far so good.
The problem is that the editors are not impartial observers. They have been known to downvote nodes which use language which they don't like, political opinions they don't agree with, and nuke any nodes critical of E2 editorial policy itself. In one case, they outright banned a user who had extreme right wing opinions nobody liked very much. Of course, the guy who writes thestileproject.com got banned in seconds flat. There is no appeal, and if a node gets nuked there's no way for the writer to retrieve that content.
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So, should you fire your IA’s and let your users structure your content?
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Yes!
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I mean, No!
Obviously, there must be an initial organization
Create an organization that is flexible, not rigid
But make sure what changes are the connections, not the addresses
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Those %$&$#! Three Circles
BusinessContext
Content Users
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Further Concerns
Data analysis – sooper-dooper important
Make sure your project has a real mission
Close watch—site structures based on use require a community… And online communities require gardeners to nurture them
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A Quick and Dirty Algorithm
http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/INFOJB.html
Frequency—reinforce a link (AB) that a person traverses
Symmetry – reinforce reverse link (BA), a little less
Transivity – If a person goes AB and BC, reinforce AC
This is what leads to true restructuring
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Future Uses
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Peer to peer
Think beyond music
Think of an ever-shifting stream of information
“Architect” that
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Personal Categorization
If I’m involved in SO/HO, I’m not interested in ‘electronics’ or ‘computers,’ ’I’m interested in what can help me
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Evolutionary Model
Again and again it’s been shown that attempts at God-like ‘organized’ top-down design typically fail
Too many contingencies, too chaotic
Bottom-up, rules-based structures adopt, adapt, and improve
Organization without explicit design is very powerful
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From http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/papers/namurart.
html “We believe the laws of evolution, in which natural selection
guarantees the survival of the fit and the extinction of the unfit, apply in all cases whether living beings, dead matter or knowledge is concerned. Ideas, chunks of knowledge, can be considered specific entities that rely on human or other carriers to multiply, mutate, adapt and survive. The human population and the technology devoted to communication can likewise be regarded as a huge ecology populated by ideas, theories or knowledge in general. The Internet has in the most recent years been becoming an integral part of this so-called ecology of knowledge…”
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Sites need to evolve structures
Evolution requiresAn EnvironmentIn which elements areSelectedBased on their Fitness--Natural Selection
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Natural selection
White and black moths
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Sites need to evolve structures
Structures requirePrinciplesIn which Meaningful organizationArises from a Significantly complex system--Self organization
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Self organization
Astronomical phenomena, crystal structures
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Resources
Principia Cybernetica Web - http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/SUPORGLI.html
Self-Organizing Systems FAQ - http://www.calresco.org/sos/sosfaq.htm
The Symbiotic Intelligence Project - http://ishi.lanl.gov/symintel.html
Cosma Shalizi’s Notebooks on Self-Organization - http://www.santafe.edu/~shalizi/notebooks/self-organization.html
Social Computing Program - http://www.sics.se/humle/socialcomputing/
ReferralWeb - http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/kautz/referralweb/index.html
The Origins of Order and At Home in the Universe, Stuart Kauffman
Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things, George Lakoff
How Buildings Learn, Stewart Brand