Web Directions » information architecture http://www.webdirections.org Just another WordPress weblog Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:02:10 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Closing keynote: Hilary Mason — Machine Learning for Web Datahttp://www.webdirections.org/resources/closing-keynote-hilary-mason-machine-learning-for-web-data/ http://www.webdirections.org/resources/closing-keynote-hilary-mason-machine-learning-for-web-data/#comments Wed, 17 Nov 2010 05:49:04 +0000 Guy Leech http://www.webdirections.org/?p=2978 Hilary Mason PortraitMany of us create and work with data that lives on the web. This kind of data has similar characteristics that makes it possible to learn successful techniques and avoid ‘reinventing the wheel’ for analysis.

]]> Web Directions USA 2010, Loews Atlanta Hotel, September 24 3.15pm.

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Session description

Many of us create and work with data that lives on the web. This kind of data has similar characteristics that makes it possible to learn successful techniques and avoid ‘reinventing the wheel’ for analysis.

In this talk, I’ll give a brief history of the field with a focus on the fundamental math and algorithmic tools that we use to address these kinds of problems, then walk through several descriptive and predictive scenarios. We’ll also discuss the likely future evolution of this type of data and the active research problems that are currently fascinating.

About Hilary Mason

Hilary Mason PortraitHilary is the lead scientist at bit.ly, where she is finding sense in vast data sets. She is a former computer science professor with a background in machine learning and data mining, has published numerous academic papers, and regularly releases code on her personal site, hilarymason.com. She has discovered two new species, loves to bake cookies, and asks way too many questions.

Follow Hilary on Twitter: @hmason

]]> http://www.webdirections.org/resources/closing-keynote-hilary-mason-machine-learning-for-web-data/feed/ 0 Gordon Grace — More than raw: government data onlinehttp://www.webdirections.org/resources/gordon-grace-more-than-raw-government-data-online/ http://www.webdirections.org/resources/gordon-grace-more-than-raw-government-data-online/#comments Mon, 15 Nov 2010 23:26:43 +0000 Guy Leech http://www.webdirections.org/?p=2944 Gordon Grace PortraitLearn about the path to the first release of data​.gov​.au; a draft roadmap to future releases; the barriers to linked data and open public sector information (PSI); and the real-​​world questions this technology aims to solve.

]]> Web Directions South 2010, Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre, October 15 2.40pm.

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Session description

The USA and UK governments have made significant progress with linked, open data in recent months. Several fundamental datasets from the Australian Government are on the cusp of being exposed as meaningful, reusable, machine-​​readable assets, further driving the adoption of linked data within and around government.

Making better use of online data offerings using a combination of top-​​down policy and guidance, together with bottom-​​up development efforts from agency web teams, would seem to describe a sustainable, organic growth in linked government data.

Learn about the path to the first release of data​.gov​.au; a draft roadmap to future releases; the barriers to linked data and open public sector information (PSI); and the real-​​world questions this technology aims to solve.

About Gordon Grace

Gordon Grace PortraitBased in the Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO), Gordon has been working on whole-​​of-​​government websites and Australian Government web policies since early 2006.

Gordon likes making attractive, useful things that matter to people. He’s some thing of a ‘plate spinner’, and likes to punish himself by taking on too many projects at once. Gordon can often be found prodding and lifting dirty great big IT systems over usability, accessibility and standards-​​compliance hurdles, gently preparing them for the hostile, unforgiving and unpredictable web.

Gordon lives in Canberra with his wife and two young children, who are rarely hostile, frequently forgiving, and always unpredictable.

Follow Gordon on Twitter: @gordongrace

]]> http://www.webdirections.org/resources/gordon-grace-more-than-raw-government-data-online/feed/ 0 Paul Hagon — Enriching large data setshttp://www.webdirections.org/resources/paul-hagon-enriching-large-data-sets/ http://www.webdirections.org/resources/paul-hagon-enriching-large-data-sets/#comments Fri, 29 Oct 2010 23:24:20 +0000 Guy Leech http://www.webdirections.org/?p=2890 Paul Hagon PortraitLibraries contain masses of beautifully structured data collected over many years. But these records may have their flaws and might now want to be used in ways, such as location based services, that weren't imagined 30 years ago. How can we use existing API's and web services to enrich this data to enable it to be used in a variety of ways. This data also needs to be exposed for others to use and build upon. With the recent release of the Government response to the Web 2.0 taskforce, how can institutions comply with these recommendations by providing their data in usable forms for the public. What's involved in building an API into our resources and how can our data be given more meaning through semantic linkages like RDFa?

]]> Web Directions South 2010, Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre, October 14 1.40pm.

Presentation slides

Session description

Libraries contain masses of beautifully structured data collected over many years. But these records may have their flaws and might now want to be used in ways, such as location based services, that weren’t imagined 30 years ago. How can we use existing API’s and web services to enrich this data to enable it to be used in a variety of ways. This data also needs to be exposed for others to use and build upon. With the recent release of the Government response to the Web 2.0 taskforce, how can institutions comply with these recommendations by providing their data in usable forms for the public. What’s involved in building an API into our resources and how can our data be given more meaning through semantic linkages like RDFa?

About Paul Hagon

Paul Hagon PortraitPaul is the Senior Web Designer at the National Library of Australia and has been working on the web in cultural institutions since 1999. His job entails a mix of design, coding, and accessibility. He is a thinker and "ideas" man. He finds cultural institutions fascinating because of what they bring to society, they are rich resources of information and provide vast potential for exploring hidden treasures. Paul enjoys making these items available and telling their stories in ways that may not be the most obvious. He likes to use technology in a relevant way to enrich the way we can interact with these resources.

In 2010 Paul was named a "Mover and Shaker" of the library world by Library Journal.

Follow Paul on Twitter: @paulhagon

]]> http://www.webdirections.org/resources/paul-hagon-enriching-large-data-sets/feed/ 1 Knud Möller — RDFa everywherehttp://www.webdirections.org/resources/knud-moller-rdfa-everywhere/ http://www.webdirections.org/resources/knud-moller-rdfa-everywhere/#comments Sat, 23 Oct 2010 03:33:26 +0000 Guy Leech http://www.webdirections.org/?p=2869 Knud Möller PortraitIn this talk, an overview will be given of the RDFa technology in general, followed by an outline of its latest developments, such as the RDFa API and the definition of RDFa Core.

]]> Web Directions South 2010, Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre, October 14 11.45am.

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Session description

RDFa is a W3C standard for embedding semantic metadata directly into HTML web pages. While early work on RDFa dates back to 2004, it recently gathered a lot of uptake and traction through the adoption by big players such as Google, Yahoo! and Facebook. This has put the Semantic Web into the attention of a much wider public, setting RDFa out the be the technology to finally bring the Semantic Web into the mainstream. The language gained the status of a W3C recommendation in late 2009 as RDFa 1.0. Since then, the RDFa working group has been established to improve and extend the standard. Eventually, this work will result in a new version of the language, which is set to be released as RDFa 1.1 in 2011. In this talk, an overview will be given of the RDFa technology in general, followed by an outline of its latest developments, such as the RDFa API, or the definition of RDFa Core, which prepares the standard to extend its scope beyond the context of web pages, by allowing it to be included into any other markup language than just HTML.

About Knud Möller

Knud Möller PortraitKnud Möller is a post-doctoral researcher at DERI at the National University of Ireland in Galway, where he received his PhD on "Lifecycle Support for Data on the Semantic Web". His work focusses on topics such as collaborative technologies, data lifecycles and networked knowledge, on which he has published and continues to publish in a range of papers. Knud is also a consultant on Semantic Web topics for socialbits.net, and has been involved in the organisation of a number of international conferences as the metadata and semantic technologies chair. He has been a member of the W3C RDFa Working Group since March 2010.
]]> http://www.webdirections.org/resources/knud-moller-rdfa-everywhere/feed/ 1 Donna Spencer — Information seeking behaviourshttp://www.webdirections.org/resources/donna-spencer-information-seeking-behaviours/ http://www.webdirections.org/resources/donna-spencer-information-seeking-behaviours/#comments Fri, 09 Oct 2009 04:34:41 +0000 Guy Leech http://www.webdirections.org/?p=2180 Donna Spencer PortraitEach information seeking behaviour needs very different approaches to information architecture, information design and page layout. During this presentation, Donna will talk about each information behaviour, its key attributes, key design needs, and show good and bad examples of each.

]]> Web Directions South 2009, Sydney Convention Centre, October 8 2.40pm.

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Session description

When people use websites and intranets they are doing more than just ‘finding’ information. They may be looking for something they know about or exploring something brand new; filtering through large volumes then comparing results; getting an overview of a topic or diving deep. They may even think they want to find one thing, but actually need something entirely different.

Each of these information behaviours needs very different approaches to information architecture, information design and page layout. During this presentation, Donna will talk about each information behaviour, its key attributes, key design needs, and show good and bad examples of each.

About Donna Spencer

Donna Spencer PortraitDonna’s a freelance information architect, interaction designer and writer. That’s a fancy way of saying she plans how to present the things you see on your computer screen, so that they’re easy to understand, engaging and compelling. Things like the navigation, forms, categories and words on intranets, websites, web applications and business systems.

She’s been doing this professionally since 2002, and she’s a regular speaker at Australian and international events.

Follow Donna on Twitter: @maadonna

]]> http://www.webdirections.org/resources/donna-spencer-information-seeking-behaviours/feed/ 0 Rashmi Sinha — The perils of popularityhttp://www.webdirections.org/resources/rashmi-sinha/ http://www.webdirections.org/resources/rashmi-sinha/#comments Sun, 30 Sep 2007 03:26:51 +0000 Maxine http://westciv.com/webdirections08/blog/rashmi-sinha/ A presentation given at Web Directions South, Sydney Australia, September 27 2007.

Rashmi Sinha PortraitCan web-based social systems with their wide reach, user-generated and user-filtered content harness the wisdom of crowds? Duncan Watts’ recent experiments reveal how popularity based web social systems can throw up fickle, random trends that are essentially unreplicable, and only tangentially related to quality. However, popularity as a way to filter information continues to rise in popularity - replacing hierarchical menus, overtaking tags, and even used in lieu of relevance. Rashmi will link decades of psychology research on group decision making and social influence to what is happening on the web today. She will discuss different models of popularity based filtering such as Digg and YouTube. What are ways to avoid the Watts dilemma - including Google’s model of sociality, tag-based social systems, and object-based social networks. She will present some principles for the design of web social systems and how there were used in the design of SlideShare and discuss how SlideShare as an evolving social system handles popularity.

]]> A presentation given at Web Directions South, Sydney Australia, September 27 2007.

Presentation slides

Session description

Can web-based social systems with their wide reach, user-generated and user-filtered content harness the wisdom of crowds? Duncan Watts’ recent experiments reveal how popularity based web social systems can throw up fickle, random trends that are essentially unreplicable, and only tangentially related to quality. However, popularity as a way to filter information continues to rise in popularity — replacing hierarchical menus, overtaking tags, and even used in lieu of relevance. Rashmi will link decades of psychology research on group decision making and social influence to what is happening on the web today. She will discuss different models of popularity based filtering such as Digg and YouTube. What are ways to avoid the Watts dilemma — including Google’s model of sociality, tag-based social systems, and object-based social networks. She will present some principles for the design of web social systems and how there were used in the design of SlideShare and discuss how SlideShare as an evolving social system handles popularity.

About Rashmi Sinha

http://www.rashmisinha.com/

Rashmi Sinha PortraitRashmi Sinha is a designer, researcher and entrepreneur. She is the CEO for SlideShare, a rapidly growing site for sharing slideshows. Rashmi writes a blog at rashmisinha.com.

Rashmi received a PhD in cognitive psychology from Brown University in 1998. After moving to UC Berkeley for a PostDoc, she fell in love with the web, and realized that many issues that web technologists think about are problems of human psychology. She switched departments and worked on search interfaces & recommender systems at the Information School, UC Berkeley. Deciding that she enjoyed practical problems more, she co-founded Uzanto, a user experience consulting company. Lately Uzanto has focused on products — their first product MindCanvas (released Nov 2005) — reshapes traditional research techniques like card-sorting, and divide-the-dollar into game-like experiences for remote research. In Oct 2006, Uzanto released its second product — Slideshare, a website for sharing presentations. Now, Rashmi is focused on the business side of things but is still intimately involved with design for both products.

]]> http://www.webdirections.org/resources/rashmi-sinha/feed/ 0 Andy Clarke — Creating Inspired Designhttp://www.webdirections.org/resources/andy-clarke-1/ http://www.webdirections.org/resources/andy-clarke-1/#comments Sun, 01 Oct 2006 00:34:42 +0000 Guy Leech http://westciv.com/webdirections08/blog/andy-clarke-creating-inspired-design/ Designers are more than mere pixel pushers. The role of the creative designer working on the web has changed and will continue to change faster than ever before. In this session, Andy Clarke will discuss how designers should now play the pivotal part in the creation of engaging user experiences, binding together the roles of information architects, content authors and technical developers. It's time to put designers in the hot seat.]]> A presentation given at Web Directions South, Sydney Australia, September 29 2006.

Session description

Designers are more than mere pixel pushers. The role of the creative designer working on the web has changed and will continue to change faster than ever before. In this session, Andy Clarke will discuss how designers should now play the pivotal part in the creation of engaging user experiences, binding together the roles of information architects, content authors and technical developers. It’s time to put designers in the hot seat.

About Andy Clarke

Andy Clarke PortraitAndy Clarke is a sought-after speaker, designer and consultant focusing on creative, accessible web development. Andy is passionate about design and passionate about web standards, often bridging the gap between design and code. He regularly trains designers and developers in the creative applications of web standards and writes about aspects of design and popular culture on his personal web site, And All That Malarkey.

]]> http://www.webdirections.org/resources/andy-clarke-1/feed/ 0 Thomas Vander Wal — IA for the “Come to Me Web”http://www.webdirections.org/resources/thomas-vander-wal-2/ http://www.webdirections.org/resources/thomas-vander-wal-2/#comments Sat, 30 Sep 2006 23:07:46 +0000 Guy Leech http://westciv.com/webdirections08/blog/thomas-vander-wal-ia-for-the-come-to-me-web/ In this specialised session Thomas gets us up to speed with his "Come to Me Web" framework for structuring information and web sites. This framework includes the "Model of Attraction", Personal InfoCloud, and Folksonomy. This ads the focus of designing and developing for information use across devices and context. With this framework we can consider mobile, broadband, web storage and personal off-line storage of information and its implications as we structure our information and sites.]]> A presentation given at Web Directions South, Sydney Australia, September 29 2006.

Session description

In this specialised session Thomas gets us up to speed with his “Come to Me Web” framework for structuring information and web sites. This framework includes the “Model of Attraction”, Personal InfoCloud, and Folksonomy. This ads the focus of designing and developing for information use across devices and context. With this framework we can consider mobile, broadband, web storage and personal off-line storage of information and its implications as we structure our information and sites.

About Thomas Vander Wal

Thomas Vander Wal PortraitThomas Vander Wal has a broad background in information management, which encompasses information architecture, interaction design, web development and information design. Thomas has 18 years of professional experience in the web and technology sector. He has spoken on information architecture, interaction design, accessibility, web standards, and user-centered design at IA Summit, STC, SXSW, Design Engaged, WebVisions, BayCHI, and various workshops. Thomas helped found Boxes and Arrows and the Information Architecture Institute (Asilomar Institute for Information Architecture), and is currently on the Steering Committee for the Web Standards Project. In 2004 he coined the term Folksonomy and is researching, advising, and developing tagging systems and services. He is the founder and principal of InfoCloud Solutions, Inc., a web consulting and product development firm.

]]> http://www.webdirections.org/resources/thomas-vander-wal-2/feed/ 1 Donna Maurer — IA: a “how to”http://www.webdirections.org/resources/donna-maurer/ http://www.webdirections.org/resources/donna-maurer/#comments Sat, 30 Sep 2006 21:53:11 +0000 Guy Leech http://westciv.com/webdirections08/blog/donna-maurer-ia-a-how-to/ There are 2 aspects to making IA work in a project - an understanding of the key principles of information architecture and a knowledge of activities to put them into practice. This presentation will examine the "how to's" of information architecture. We'll look at how to take a content inventory, analyse content, conduct card sorting, analyse user research, choose the right structure, create an information architecture and test it. These activities drive an informed design process so you can be confident in your decisions and communicate them to other people.]]> A presentation given at Web Directions South, Sydney Australia, September 29 2006.

Presentation slides

Session description

There are 2 aspects to making IA work in a project — an understanding of the key principles of information architecture and a knowledge of activities to put them into practice. This presentation will examine the “how to’s” of information architecture. We’ll look at how to take a content inventory, analyse content, conduct card sorting, analyse user research, choose the right structure, create an information architecture and test it. These activities drive an informed design process so you can be confident in your decisions and communicate them to other people.

About Donna Maurer

Donna Maurer PortraitDonna Maurer is a freelance interaction designer and information architect who specialises in making complex systems simple for people to use. She has loads of experience, with more than 6 years in senior consulting and in-house roles. She has designed intranets, websites, e-commerce sites, search systems, business applications and a content management system. She has conducted so much user research she can't count it but knows she has facilitated more than 200 usability tests. She continually surprises her colleagues by talking to people rather than computers, and using as many coloured markers as possible.

Donna is an experienced speaker and has presented sessions and workshops at many events, including the Information Architecture Summit. She is currently writing a book on card sorting.

]]> http://www.webdirections.org/resources/donna-maurer/feed/ 0 Thomas Vander Wal — IA for Web Developershttp://www.webdirections.org/resources/thomas-vander-wal-1/ http://www.webdirections.org/resources/thomas-vander-wal-1/#comments Sat, 30 Sep 2006 20:24:13 +0000 Guy Leech http://westciv.com/webdirections08/blog/thomas-vander-wal-ia-for-web-developers/ Thomas will provide an overview of information architecture for web designers and developers. He will cover the what and why, with a sprinkling of how. Knowing how to work with an information architect or how to build the skills into your role will be covered.]]> A presentation given at Web Directions South, Sydney Australia, September 28 2006.

Session description

Thomas will provide an overview of information architecture for web designers and developers. He will cover the what and why, with a sprinkling of how. Knowing how to work with an information architect or how to build the skills into your role will be covered.

About Thomas Vander Wal

Thomas Vander Wal PortraitThomas Vander Wal has a broad background in information management, which encompasses information architecture, interaction design, web development and information design. Thomas has 18 years of professional experience in the web and technology sector. He has spoken on information architecture, interaction design, accessibility, web standards, and user-centered design at IA Summit, STC, SXSW, Design Engaged, WebVisions, BayCHI, and various workshops. Thomas helped found Boxes and Arrows and the Information Architecture Institute (Asilomar Institute for Information Architecture), and is currently on the Steering Committee for the Web Standards Project. In 2004 he coined the term Folksonomy and is researching, advising, and developing tagging systems and services. He is the founder and principal of InfoCloud Solutions, Inc., a web consulting and product development firm.

]]> http://www.webdirections.org/resources/thomas-vander-wal-1/feed/ 1