Transcript here: http://abbytheia.com/2014/11/05/a-world-made-of-information/ Not too far into the distant future, everything from our current existence that can be digitized will have been. Every traditional organizational model will have been tested to the ends of its limits. Every business, organization and individual will be expected to keep up with the wave of change that information will have inflicted. No one will have escaped. Structures that make complex ecosystems more understandable will become even more necessary to combat dis/misinformation and create social momentum. We will slowly and methodically have to reinvent every single policy, process and tool across every community, industry and medium to deal with our new digital reality. To do this responsibly, we will learn and expand the use of an ever growing and changing set of concepts and principles called information architecture. We will use the practice of IA to cut through a minefield of change and consequence. We will use IA to pour understanding, clarity and consensus like concrete to be built upon. We will create a truly new world. A world made of information.

1. a world made
of information
by: @Abby_the_IA

2. Not too far into the distant future...
Elm Tree
Squirrel
Home
(.25 miles)
Pick Up eggs
at grocery in
.1 mile
Work
(.8 miles)
Next Train leaves in
5 minutes
from West 4th St.
11/5/2024
4:15 PM (Abby’s idea of hell)

3. Every traditional business model will
have been tested, broken and reimagined.

4. We will have new things and new silly words.
OMCheese, you
arent still using
fampage are you?
Derp. NO!
I moved to
ourpage ages ago

5. Information will be seen as the glue that binds us.

6. We will even consider information a basic freedom.
The 4 Human Freedoms
Freedom of Speech
Freedom of Worship
Freedom from Want
Freedom from Fear
Freedom from Nonsense
5

7. Information architects have laid awake waiting...

8. 5
Lessons
for Architecting
a World Made of
Information

9. 1
Reduce
Linguistic Insecurity

10. Dropping semantic bombs is bad for business.
But you just
______.

11. Linguistic insecurity is rampant.
Jargon

12. Controlled Vocabularies help reduce insecurity.
Familiar
Words

13. Lexicography is the practice
of compiling dictionaries. It is
the collection of different
meanings for words.

14. Ontology represents the
knowledge of terms and
concepts within a domain.
It is the act of choosing the
language you use.

15. Lesson Take Away
• Know what you mean when you say what you say.
• Ontology is a group sport, focused on the clarification
of meaning and the reduction of linguistic insecurity.
• Carefully choose the language you use, not just when
communicating with users, but also communicating
internally and with partners.

16. 2
Map
Ecosystems

17. Marketing
Campaign
Blog
eCommerce
Storefront
Silos! Silos! Silos!

18. Users are wandering between our silos.
Marketing
Campaign
Blog
eCommerce
Storefront

19. Placemaking is the art of
turning a space into a place
by arranging it so people
know what to do there.

20. http://names.911memorial.org/

22. Lesson Take Away
• Understand places you are making and the other
places in the ecosystem you may effect.
• Strengthen the connections between the places you
already have while looking for silos that may exist.
• Use your taxonomic mapping skills to map entire
ecosystems across physical and digital divides.
• Identify the spaces between your places and make
them into places by arranging them for use.

23. 3
Strengthen
Heterarchy

24. Patterns may, but hierarchy is never going to die.

25. Every hierarchy has a bottom.
“When groups, rank, categories or grades exist
to aid a user in making a choice.”
Hierarchy
a B C
Heterarchy
“When all content exists on a single level without further
grouping, rank, categorization or grading”

26. Social & search have a need for bottom up thinking.
Cooks
Top
Down
Cooks Cooks
Cooks
Cooks
Cooks
Bottom
Up

27. The barnacles are taking over.
Old Landing Pages
& Microsites
Forgotten social
Media Accounts
Old technology
Old websites
old content
What you
hope people
Experience
What social
and search
allow people
to experience

28. Lesson Take Away
• Question the scalability of your heterarchies as
much as your hierarchies
• Start identifying and dealing with the barnacles
on your ship before they start to hold you back
• Understand the length of life that your content
has and how your hierarchies and heterarchies
change over time as content matures

29. 4
Understand
Transclusion

30. Transclusion is suddenly everywhere.
Abby the IA
download
Slideshare
Transcluded
Linked

31. Social networks are at war over transclusion.
Does anyone Remember when
instagram posts were transcluded
into your twitter stream?
Well Not Anymore

32. Transclusion can go wrong (and be hilarious.)
this is
not me

33. Lesson Take Away
• Consider the role of transclusion and hypertext for
your context.
• Understand your user’s potential desires to take your
content with them
• Test how your content reacts to common social media
transclusion schemas

34. 5
Information
is not content

36. Data is facts, observations,
and questions about
something.
Content is whatever you’re
arranging or sequencing.
Information is is whatever
a user interprets from the
arrangement or sequence
of things they encounter.
The individual pieces of context,
knowledge, assumptions and
questions each viewer considers
during their judgement of the cookie
arrangement.
The cookies, the plate, the signage,
the crumbs, the smells in the air, the
other products in the case and items
on the menu et al...
Each viewer’s:
• Belief or non-belief that other
cookies were on that plate.
• Subjective reasoning for the
unequal amount of cookies.
Let’s dissect this scene.

37. Lack of content or data can be just as informing.
$3.99 $7.99 $5.75
Ask three customers the reason for this empty spot on the shelf
and what product might go there, and expect three answers.

38. Lesson Take Away
• Reduce your synonymous use of words like data,
information and content
• Reserve the word information to describe that mushy,
uncontrollable material our users make in their minds
• Teach everyone we work with that we can create and
arrange our content with the intent to communicate
information, but we can’t make information

39. Today’s Lessons in Review.
IA is good for... To get better, we need to...
Controlling Vocabularies 1. Reduce Linguistic Insecurity
Mapping Taxonomies 2. Map Ecosystems
Strengthening Hierarchy 3. Strengthen Heterarchies
Understanding Hypertextuality 4. Understand Transclusion
Thinking of information as material. 5. Remember information is not content

40. Remember
information is a
responsibility that
we all share.

41. More information at:
Q&A
http://abbytheia.com/makesense/