EPIC 2014
What's the logical conclusion of digitization of data and information? How might this impact how we acquire or value knowledge? What could that mean for human beings as social creatures?
The Museum of Media History has put together this fascinating, entertaining (and frankly, a bit disturbing) pre-history of what happens when Google beats the New York Times.
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3 comments:
Great blog, gang. Thanks for coming to MITH today. It seemed like we had a lot more to discuss. The ePIC flash presentation is both scary and inspiring to me. Scary in that it is unclear whether Google's business efforts will translate into an intellectual monopoly. Inspiring in that there's a huge set of technological and public policy questions Google's success raises. Let's talk more.
To speak quickly to your questions rather than summarizing my views from earlier, I think the consequences of Google to researchers now is often a reduction in time spent in cumbersome access interfaces that puts a new face on old questions of collection management (providing the research materials experts or other defined user communities require)and efficient formulation of research questions. The social backdrop to and the social forces driving all of these new tools (not just Google) suggest a changing value not only of research materials, but the roles people play who work with the materials (on either side of the computer, on either side of the reference desk). When you discuss role, you also discuss psychology, identity politics, and power. On top of that you have the question of what market or environment supports roles that are productive of a certain widget, abstract or concrete. My question is what is Google producing?
Indeed. By the way, I'd strongly recommend checking out Jeff Dean's lecture in "Streaming Lectures," below: (http://augmentation.blogspot.com/2005/04/streaming-lectures.html). Fascinating stuff.
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