Information Architecture

Today we are faced with the question, What Role does Information Architecture play in Website Development?

First up, what is Information Architecture? Before this subject, Information and Content Management, I had never heard of this concept but could have made a  reasonably accurate description of it. It's name suggests that it is the collection or representation of certain information. I know now that it is much more complex than this. In fact, the book 'Information Architecture' by Morville, on page 4, suggests that there are 4 definitions-

The structural design of shared information environments.

The combination of organization, labeling, search and navigation systems within web sites and intranets.

The art and science of shaping information products and experiences to support usability and findability.

An emerging discipline and community of practice focused on bringing principles of design and architecture to the digital landscape.

This is all relevant to planning, designing and building a website which is all part of the development process. At first one might think of this development process as only requiring a user-centered focus to develop a successful website but it is very clear that the Information Architecture is just as, if not more important. This is because, a user must not just find the website appealing and easy to use but they must understand what they are seeing, where they can get the information but most importantly, they must be able to actually get the information they are after.

There are many downfalls and expensive costs to a website that handles its Information Architecture badly, including-

• Cost of time for employees, customers and general browsers looking for specific information. 5 mins per person per query can add up to hours if not days of wasted time. 
• Cost of not finding information can be even greater. If the information is there but the customer, employee or uniformed worker can't find it, this information may be reported as non-existent and the data may be re-entered causing duplicate data and wasted time inputting it. 
• Cost of extra training, maintenance, longer searching time and loss of customers through frustration are just some more problems.

Another downfall is that it is hard to measure well structured Information Architecture, as the best examples are often the ones where the user doesn't even consider Information Architecture as even existing. This means that a successful development can be measured by a lack of complaints and increased members.

After all of this, I can honestly say that an Information Architect plays a very important role in any successful website development. Any time devoted to improving this structure and representation of information early on can greatly improve the worthiness of the same information and therefore the overall website later down the track.

Until next time.

Riley Van Zeeland.

Google+ Privacy Policy

I have had a Google+ account since the 'invitation only' days in mid-2011. I was interested in Google+ because of Google's history of innovative, simplistic and wide range of products currently available for free. Joining Google+ meant that there would now be a real profile that I could frequently visit and use that would be a base for the data stored in relation to my other Google experiences. This did not happen straight away but slowly but surely Google is combing all of its data to make a profile about me, that could know me better than I know myself.

After reading the Privacy Policy and Terms of Service, I was not surprised by anything I had read. Google+ can pretty much do what it likes with my data it collects according to its Terms of Service but its Policy and its motto 'Don't be evil', prevents it from using your information immorally.

From an old but interesting article-
http://trueslant.com/michaelshermer/2010/03/24/don%E2%80%99t-be-evil-why-google-made-the-right-decision-about-china/

When one uploads data or information onto Google, Google has the right to do the following-

...Give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works... communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content. The rights you grant in this license are for the limited purpose of operating, promoting, and improving our Services, and to develop new ones. This license continues even if you stop using our Services...

That is a lot of rights to a lot of information. The good thing is that Google has a policy in place to guide as and help us understand what this means 'our' information will be used for, instead of just assuming the worst.

Google+ and therefor Google collects information about us at every and any point we interact we any service even remotely related to Google. Now the positive note here is what google says it will do with the data it collects, remember Don't be evil! The Privacy Policy says-

We use the information we collect from all of our services to provide, maintain, protect and improve them, to develop new ones, and to protect Google and our users. We also use this information to offer you tailored content – like giving you more relevant search results and ads.

Sure, Google collects a lot of data and is able to use any of this data as it wishes but from what I have gathered, it is all for our benefit! Why not have personalized ads, friend requests based on interests and mutual friends, Videos based previously +'d videos or mail marked as spam based on our history.

Since Google holds all of this information, there does seem to be an issue about its security. What if there is a breach and someone steals our identity? That would suck! Unfortunately, from what I could find, Google claims to hold no liability or responsibility for losses or damages in relation to data given to it via its services where it was not reasonably foreseeable to prevent. Google does however work very hard to ensure our information is safe and secure. This is for the benefit of every party involved in social networking. They claim to-

• We encrypt many of our services using SSL.

• We offer you two step verification when you access your Google Account, and a Safe Browsing feature in Google Chrome.

• We review our information collection, storage and processing practices, including physical security measures, to guard against unauthorized access to systems.

• We restrict access to personal information to Google employees, contractors and agents who need to know that information in order to process it for us, and who are subject to strict contractual confidentiality obligations and may be disciplined or terminated if they fail to meet these obligations.

As mentioned earlier, it is in the best interests of every party to ensure all data is safe and secure. I also believe it is in the best interest of all parties that our data is combined and a valid profile about each of us is created. To move towards a Semantic Web, this is essential and also inevitable. I'm happy and more than willing to allow Google+ or Facebook or any well established Social Networking site to mine my behavior on their sites to create a profile to improve my experience, as long as everyone sticks by the one motto-
"Don't be evil"!!

I'll leave you with this video on the average consumer who is only scared of themselves.




Until next time.

Regards.

Web 3.0

The Web 3.0 is a very interesting yet somewhat scary concept. We all know that data is stored from, well, everything and anything but that's all it is, data. Data is nothing without a concept or understanding of it's relativity to the real world and everyday users. The Web 3.0 or Semantic Web is essentially The Internet that understands, a step towards an illusion of artificial intelligence.

Because the Web appears to be intelligent, it will know exactly what you want based on your entire history of interaction with Internet connected devices. What this means is users will spend less time finding out more about what they love. Widgets and news feeds will deliver personalized content straight to the user's device, whatever that might be (eg. watch, glasses, mobile or maybe straight to their brain). It will also allow users to communicate with technology through natural language. We can speak in our terms instead of the computer's! Another benefit to users is that we will receive specific niche advertising. I've already noticed this, when browsing while logged into Google, I'll often see ad's for products I've previously searched for and shown in interest in.

Everything will be connected to the internet and if all of the data coming from everything is stored and used, I can't imagine there being much privacy left in the developed world. Of course there will be privacy settings which can be changed to prevent the general public accessing your private data but the developers and software owners will no doubt have every right to use this data as they please because we'll accept their terms and conditions just to use it. This doesn't even take into consideration PRSIM!

As mentioned before, true Web 3.0 will be a real step towards an illusion of artificial intelligence. It will be very close to the equivalent to the Chinese Room experiment. So yes, I think the line will be blurred, but it won't disappear. When it comes down to the basics, programs, computers or The Semantic Web is broken down to bits but more importantly, code that forces them to be governed by a set of rules and the inability to think for themselves, even though it may seem as though they do. Not being an expert in neurology, I don't know exactly how and why we think, act and make decisions but I believe in the body, mind and soul and that we are more than just programmed pieces of flesh.

I'll leave you with a scene from 'Minority Report'. A future based movie with Tom Cruise about stop crime before it happens. This movie is big on knowing where everyone is all the time through retina scans. As you can see, this extremely intelligent spider like thing is identifying Tom Cruise by scanning his retina. Very interesting movie on how the government could behave if they know or believe they know everything... even the future.

Until next time.

Regards.

RSS Feed

To start off, I can say that I am very new to this feed reader stuff. In fact, I've always wanted to add some of my favorite feeds to a single feed that I can view in the one place but I never put aside the time to figure out how this reader thing worked. I guess I should have spent the 2 mins figuring out how to use it and add RSS feeds along time ago, as the name suggests, it is simple!

I didn't quite get a weeks worth in before writing this blog, in fact I only got 4 days worth of feeds. This was due to missing some key points when originally looking over the instructions. Anyway, I decided to use the feed reader on my Android phone, as all of my feeds are looked at when I have some spare time and rarely when I'm relaxing at the end of a day on my laptop or computer. Therefore, all observations were done via my HTC one X, which allows a decent amount of content to be displayed.

I subscribed to some general news sites, tech news sites, popular YouTube video feeds, BoyceAvenue (Artist on YouTube) and Torrentz.com.

I found that there were a few benefits to a feed reader (I used 'Feedly'). The first and most obvious being the main purpose of this technology, and that was to display all my RSS feeds in the one place which in turn saves me having 10 different tabs open on my browser and searching over and over again. Another is that I can mix different feeds into each other in the one place, such as different news websites. This made browsing that much easier and faster. Also, filtering different categories was very simple and effective when looking for a specific feed.

With all of the benefits, I guess there was a few drawbacks. Not very significant, but it was sometimes difficult to understand exactly where a feed was coming from, as they were often all in the one place. Filtering my feeds on the feed reader was also difficult to achieve. It was much more simple on my original websites.

All in all, I will definitely continue to use 'Feedly' and I believe that over time, through constant usage and familiarizing myself with the different settings, the experience will continue to improve and I will enjoy many hours 'reading'. Also, it could turn the other way and I could very well be at the maximum potential of 'Feedly' and it could be all downhill from here. I don't think this to be true, but you never know.

Until next time.

Riley.

About me

Greetings all.

My name is Riley Van Zeeland. I am completing my Bachelor of Information and Technology. I only have 20 credit points left to complete and am very eager to get these done. Information and Content Management has fallen into one of my two final subjects and I plan to do what I can to ensure a full understanding and completion of all assessments and readings in this given time.

I hope to gain a larger and more comprehensive understanding of this subject as the Semester goes on. After completion of this Semester, I have a  desire and good belief that I will be starting a graduate program for either the Australian Taxation Office or Department of Human Services.

After reading a few blogs, there are some interesting people here and it should be a pleasure getting to know people and hearing their opinions.


Until next time.
Riley Van Zeeland.