Authority in Information Spaces
October 12, 2005 at 9:52 AM
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Peter Morville has published what is already being described as one of the most important articles in information architecture in years. The article is entitled simply Authority and touches on the subjects of Wikipedia, folksonomy, tag clouds, and social facts. It brings into account several factors of accuracy, objectivity, currency, and of course the judgment of authority. To me, this also correlates to issues such as journalistic credibility, proper crediting of sources, and accountability both online and offline.
Comments
(sorry to post comments here, but Peter forces Typekey accounts) When Peter suggests that Wikipedia and Google succeed by being highly findable, what exactly is he saying? That the sites themselves are highly findable, or that the content they index and store is highly findable? Or something else? It wasn't clear to me from the article. Any ideas?
Both Google and the Wikipedia play significant and growing roles in defining what people find. Additionally, Wikipedia content is growing more and more findable. Try a Google search on Herbert Simon, and the Wikipedia article is hit # 5 (at least until Google tweaks their algorithms which happens very often).
Thanks for the clarification, Peter. Got it.
