Ah, catch up posts! Hopefully, I’ve learned enough from my inexperience to be able to pull off decent post-surgery blogging. Here we go!
Weinberger makes some very good points about the Web 2.0 that, after I read them, opened my eyes to the broad world of the miscellaneous. In the chapter “The New Order of Order,” Weinberger makes the reference to the traditional photograph depository, the Bettmann Archive. This is a place where 11 million priceless photographs are stored and archived. These, Weinberger points, are stored with a first order organization (that is, the physical object is organized according to categorical standards i.e. color, size, function, etc.). The Second order in which they are organized is by card catalog (in this order, information is taken and then stored separately). This is where Weinberger points to the digital world. For a third order of organization, a digital era needs to take place. Bits of information (tags, labels, keywords) are added to the object itself that allows it to be stored and recalled miscellaneously.
Finally understanding what that entry box meant, I went straight to work uncovering it’s power. Granted, though the rhetoric Weinberger uses does make the old systems seem like sprawling tombs, the new third order does really provide the freedom and release to the storer of things to let it all be miscellaneous. How empowering. Needless to say, this writer has started using all sorts of miscellaneous. How empowering!
