Archive for the ‘nomenclature’ tag
The difference between synthesis and aggregation
Synthesis: “The combining of the constituent elements of separate material or abstract entities into a single or unified entity.”
Aggregation: “A group or mass of distinct or varied things, persons, etc. Collection into an unorganized whole.”
We’ve spent many long years urging news sites to do more aggregation. Battle won. The new motto should be: “Don’t just aggregate, synthesize.”
What is Wikipedia?
Or: The 1991 problem
As I sort-of argue in my research proposal, Wikipedia isn’t an encyclopedia, but that’s the best word we’ve got. (Actually I called it a “useful shorthand,” but I meant that to be backhanded.) Given its unbound, dynamic, hyperlinked nature, we just don’t have the vocabulary to really describe what Wikipedia is, so we use the word encyclopedia as a familiar point of reference.
Call it the 1991 Problem. We’re still stuck with the language of 1991 while discussing the technologies of 2008.
Imagine yourself trying to describe an iPhone to an average Joe from 1991. By calling it a phone, you instantly constrain the fellow’s sense of what you’re describing. “Well, yes, it’s a telephone. But it doesn’t have any wires and you can use it from anywhere. Also, the whole thing is a computer that you operate by touching the screen. And it’s sort of a hyper-charged Walkman, too. Oh, and it can tell you where you are on a map, and which of your friends are nearby, and where the nearest pizza place is. And don’t get me started on visual voicemail …”
The iPhone is to the telephone what Wikipedia is to the encyclopedia.
en · cy · clo · pe · di · a [en-sahy-kluh-pee-dee-uh] – noun – 1) a book or set of books containing articles on various topics, usually in alphabetical arrangement, covering all branches of knowledge or, less commonly, all aspects of one subject.
When we say “encyclopedia,” that’s (^) what’s running through the head of Joe from 1991. Wikipedia encompasses a compendium of fantastically diverse pages, some of which are merely collections of links to other pages, each of which features a thoughtful conversation about the material included or excluded from the page. It’s a set of procedures for organizing vast and diverse subsets of information. It’s a sizeable and devoted community. It’s a Web application. “Encyclopedia” doesn’t even begin to cover it.
I want there to be a 1991 problem for news. I want to make a news site so novel and amazing Joe wouldn’t even know what hit him.
