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Understanding complex organizational, data, & technical issues
Michael Adcock
IA Summit 2013Baltimore, MD
Related themes from #ReframeIA
“Architect” vs. “Builder”
“Meaning” (Do we discover it, create it, or both?)
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IA as Scientific Discovery
Discovery should come as an adventure rather than as the result of a logical process of thought. - Theobald Smith
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http://archive.org/details/artofscientifici00beve
IA as Scientific Discovery
"...intuitions always appear at the fringe of consciousness, not at the focus.“
"...the great scientist must be regarded as a creative artist and it is quite false to think of the scientist as a man who merely follows rules of logic and experiment."
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http://archive.org/details/artofscientifici00beve
IA as Scientific Discovery
“the most difficult mental act of all is to re-arrange a familiar bundle of data, to look at it differently and escape from the prevailing doctrine.” - Professor H. Butterfield
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http://archive.org/details/artofscientifici00beve
Tools and Structures
Tools for discovering Meaning
vs.
Structures to create Context
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A quick example…
As some of you may know, I’m a mashup fanboy.
I commissioned Titus Jones to produce a mashup for this “Fringe IA” session.
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“This was awesome... I love when you do shit like this... something I would have never thought of. That's a very powerful tool for audio collaboration. It would be cool if different people/users could add comments (almost like soundcloud lets you select a time in the track, and add your comment?) Regardless though... I really liked being able to read your feedback at each point in the song. Very cool. ”
- Titus Jones
A quick example: feedback
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Ok, but what do I do at work?
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I’m here:
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Company Background
• SaaS solutions for libraries
• Electronic Resource Management
• Bibliographic & publisher metadata
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Technical Support Analyst
Global Customer
Experience & Service
My Role
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Titles? Bullcorn!
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Fine, but what do I do at work?
Here’s an example:
Given nearly 1000 client configurations stored in multiple XML and JSON files, “migrate” the information over from an old technology to a new implementation.
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RTA Migration
Oh, and by the way:
Some files are for legacy/inactive clients.
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RTA Migration
Oh, and by the way:
Some files are for legacy/inactive clients.Some files are for trial/demo clients.
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RTA Migration
Oh, and by the way:
Some files are for legacy/inactive clients.Some files are for trial/demo clients.Not sure how many clients must be migrated.
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RTA Migration
Oh, and by the way:
Some files are for legacy/inactive clients.Some files are for trial/demo clients.Not sure how many clients must be migrated.It’s NOT a matter of “mapping” or “copying”.
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RTA Migration
So, um… yeah. Can we do that?
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RTA Migration: Approach
We needed a tool to help us understand.Something that could put all this stuff in a meaningful context.I decided to use aTiddlyWiki at the core,and build onto it.
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RTA Migration: Resulting Tool
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RTA Migration: Resulting Tool
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RTA Migration: Resulting Tool
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RTA Migration: Resulting Tool
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Under the hood:
RTA Migration: Resulting Tool
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RTA Migration: Resulting Tool
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RTA Migration: Resulting Tool
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RTA Migration: Resulting Tool
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Other tools: Gephi
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Other tools: Gephi
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Other tools: Gource
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Other tools: Google Refine
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Summary Thoughts
Freedom to experiment and play is needed.
Sometimes we need to be tool builders to solve certain problems.
We could learn some things from the realm of scientific discovery.
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Thanks!
"What you must understand, is that as scientists we must embrace every possibility. No limitations, no boundaries, there is no reason for them.“
- Walter BishopU.S. Army ResearchHeadquarters, 1986
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