include it all. filter it afterward

Include it all. Filter it afterward.

Mark BakerAnalecta Communications Inc.

Copyright Analecta Communications Inc. 2012 2

David Weinberger

“We seem to be making a cultural choice---with our new infrastructure's thumb heavily on the scale---to prefer to start with abundance rather than curation. Include it all. Filter it afterward. Even then, the filters do not remove anything; they filter forward, not out.”

To Big to Know


Too Big to Know

"Traditional knowledge seemed like true content handed to us by competent experts. Networked knowledge seems like the work of humans who never quite get anything right."

David Weinberger summing up Too Big to Know


Knowledge developed in private

From 1836 to 1859, Darwin worked in private and alone before finally publishing.


Open Notebook Science


Climategate

“the climategate furore has galvanised the scientific information community to make data more open, transparent and accessible than ever” -- http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Data+without+the+doubts%3A+the+climategate+furore+has+galvanised+the...-a0257556897

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Data+without+the+doubts:+the+climategate+furore+has+galvanised+the...-a0257556897

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Data+without+the+doubts:+the+climategate+furore+has+galvanised+the...-a0257556897


Networked facts

“The new default is: If you are going to cite the data, you might as well link to it. Networked facts point to where they came from and, sometimes, where they lead to.”

To Big to Know


Something that we do together

“Links are the visible manifestation of the author giving up any claim to completeness or even sufficiency; links invite the reader to browse the network in which the work is enmeshed, and acknowledgement that thinking is something that we do together.”

Too Big to Know


Abundance

"We seem to be making a cultural choice---with our new infrastructure's thumb heavily on the scale---to prefer to start with abundance rather than curation. Include it all. Filter it afterward.”


Scarcity

We grew up in a culture of information scarcity. Though we didn’t think so at the

time.

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Not shaped like books

“To think that knowledge itself is shaped like books is to marvel that a rock fits so well in its hole in the ground.”

Too Big to Know


Selective publication


Rare and gem-like

“Because of the economics of paper, facts were relatively rare and gem-like because there wasn’t room for a whole lot of them.”

Too Big to Know


Time consuming to get


Hard to search


Hard to link


Nailed down

“Paper-based citations are like nails: If you wonder why the author made a particular claim, you can see that it’s nailed down by a footnote.”

Too Big To Know


Commitment

Getting books is expensive. You are committed to the ones you have.

Image courtesy of imagerymajestic / FreeDigitalPhotos.net


Trust

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Distrust

“Distrust is an expensive vice”

Too Big to Know


Authors

Authors provided an aggregation of the information and a conclusion.

Authors did the hard work of knowledge making.

The publisher did the hard work of vetting.

You paid them to do it for you because it was hard to do yourself.


The Web: Information is cheap

Abundance Comprehensive publication Easy to get Easy to search No investment in the content

No motive to trust Cheap content = access to diversity

Nicholas Carr not withstanding.


Experience vs. credentials

“Now the technology lets you find experienced people as easily as credentialed ones.”

Too Big To Know


The virtue of diversity

“The best problem solvers tend to be similar; therefore, a collection of the best problem solvers performs little better than any one of them individually. A collection of random, but intelligent, problem solvers tends to be diverse. This diversity allows them to be collectively better.”

Too Big to Know


What are we paying for

The conclusion? The validation? The stopping point? The aggregation of content?


Include it all

Our idea of knowledge has changed Everything is a debate We don’t want the filter We don’t trust the filter We want the data We want the experienced as well as

the credentialed And now it’s cheap!


Filter it afterward

We can aggregate it for ourselves We can filter it for ourselves And with our friends

Pinterest Reddit Twitter Etc.


Filter it socially


Authority is shifting

“If our social networks are our new filters, then authority is shifting from experts in faraway offices to the network of people we know, like, and respect.”

Too Big to Know


Websites are upside down

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Destination websites

Aggregators: Facebook, Twitter, Amazon Unfiltered aggregation and the tools to

create your own filters Monopolies: government Regular vendors: bank, etc Favorite authors (blogs, etc,)


Twitter

Twitter exemplifies include it all, filter it afterward Unfiltered tweet stream, to which you

can apply filters Or just dip in and rely on repetition to

surface relevance


Twitter vs. RSS

“On my smartphone, I used to have Google Reader as one of my four quicklinks on the bottom toolbar. I recently replaced it with Twitter Topic, an app that shows all tweets that meet a specific hashtag.”

Tom Johnson


LinkedIn

LinkedIn contains massive amounts of information from thousands of users, and give you the tools to filter what you see.


Dethroning the book

“Long-form writing is by no means unnecessary or ‘dead.’ But the fact that it is improved by being placed into the Net’s web of connections means it is being dethroned by that web as the single best way to assemble ideas.”

Too Big to Know


Content Strategy crossroads

Try to reclaim the order and certainty of the book world, or cooperate in the linked ecology of the web with its social approach to authority and its fuzzy edges?


Raucous market of ideas

“Expertise preferred to speak in a single voice. Books have authors and editors who ensure the content is self-consistent. … Networked expertise is more like a raucous market of ideas, knowledge, and authority.”

Too Big to Know


Pick your battle

Is it easier to win the battle against the raucous market of ideas…

or win your battles in the raucous market of ideas?


Can you command the tide?


A network is of many minds

“Because the multitude of people on the Internet are different in their interests and abilities, a network of experts is of many minds about just about everything. The value of a network of experts can be in opening thing up, not simply in coming to unshakable conclusions.”

Too Big to Know


What, therefore, must we do?

Do we attempt to make our web presence work like a book – to filter for the reader and lead them to our conclusion?

Or do we acknowledge that that is not what the reader wants, and that there is no way to force them into that mold?

And if so, what then?


Living within a web

“Readers are being trained by the linked Net to see any piece that develops an idea as living within a connected traversable web.”

Too Big to Know


Embrace the network

“The best way to move forward is to embrace the peculiar properties of this peculiar network.”

Too Big to Know


Every Page is Page One

Every page is page one is a fact of the web

People come to pages via search and links

Every page they land on is their page one

The question is, does every page of your content work as page one?


Include it all

Contribute to the content that the reader aggregates and filters for themself

Reader is more likely to visit one page from 10 sites than ten pages from your site

Make each page worth including in someone’s selection


Filter is afterward

Be easy to filter correctly. Clearly identify the subject and

context. Easy to consume as a unit. No point in being filtered in falsely.

Don’t get a reputation as a waste of time.


An EPPO topic

Self-contained Establishes its context Conforms to a type Links richly


Self contained

Works as the reader’s first page No order dependency No assumption about how the reader

got here


Establish Context

Establish the context in every topic Your website is not a context

Context is not determined by topic’s place in your site hierarchy

Next, previous, home, etc, do not establish context

Context means context in the world, and context in the network of ideas


Conforms to type

Many topic types are defined socially Recipes Car reviews API reference

Types help the user orient themselves Types help the user trust Types help the user filter content in


Links

Links are about more than SEO Links locate your topic in context Links let your topic stand alone

without repeating ancillary material Links guide readers to other topics

Preferably on your site! Links let readers get to the right topic

without having to go back to Google


The Walled Garden?


The Bazaar?



In the raucous market of ideas, knowledge, and authority, Every Page is Page One.

Readers can come from anywhere. Is your content ready to receive them?


Thank You

Mark Baker Analecta Communications Inc. [email protected] @mbakeranalecta analecta.com everypageispageone.com

mailto:[email protected]

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