i202 Fall 2010 School of Information, UC Berkeley

Maps. Most people think of them as a means of a getting us from Point A to Point B, but this article discusses how they have become more than a tool that keeps us from getting lost. In the not so distant past, we relied on paper maps that, for the most part, provided the user with a consistent visual vocabulary to determine exactly how to get from Point A to Point B.

While it is highly unlikely that there will ever be a need to classify cow sculptures as animals instead of artwork, there are some current real world classification dilemmas occurring. 

As someone who has formal training in graphic design and experience working in the field with an eclectic mix of clients, I strongly believe in the importance of content, structure AND presentation. While I agree that there are times when presentation gets in the way of being able to understand the content, I have seen cases where the opposite is also true, and I believe that they must work together in order to communicate effectively and assist in information retrieval. 

NPR recently featured a story on religiously-specific search engines. These search engines filter all results based on specific religious beliefs. There are currently separate search engines for Muslims, Christians and Jews. Besides the controversy over it being considered censorship, these search engines raise questions on how the returned results are being selected; particularly who is doing the filtering and what criteria is being used.