By Peter Morville
First Edition
September 2005
Pages: 204
ISBN 10: 0-596-00765-5 |
ISBN 13: 9780596007652
A thought-provoking book that describes the future of information and connectivity, examining how the melding of innovations like GIS and the Internet will impact the global marketplace and society at large in the 21st century. Research, stories, examples, and illustrations add depth and color to this important subject. Written by best-selling author Peter Morville.
Full Description
Morville discusses the Internet, GIS, and other network technologies that are coming together to make unlimited findability possible. He explores how the melding of these innovations impacts society, since Web access is now a standard requirement for successful people and businesses. But before he does that, Morville looks back at the history of wayfinding and human evolution, suggesting that our fear of being lost has driven us to create maps, charts, and now, the mobile Internet.
The book's central thesis is that information literacy, information architecture, and usability are all critical components of this new world order. Hand in hand with that is the contention that only by planning and designing the best possible software, devices, and Internet, will we be able to maintain this connectivity in the future. Morville's book is highlighted with full color illustrations and rich examples that bring his prose to life.
Ambient Findability doesn't preach or pretend to know all the answers. Instead, it presents research, stories, and examples in support of its novel ideas. Are we truly at a critical point in our evolution where the quality of our digital networks will dictate how we behave as a species? Is findability indeed the primary key to a successful global marketplace in the 21st century and beyond. Peter Morville takes you on a thought-provoking tour of these memes and more -- ideas that will not only fascinate but will stir your creativity in practical ways that you can apply to your work immediately.
"A lively, enjoyable and informative tour of a topic that's only going to become more important."
--David Weinberger, Author, Small Pieces Loosely Joined and The Cluetrain Manifesto
"I envy the young scholar who finds this inventive book, by whatever strange means are necessary. The future isn't just unwritten--it's unsearched."
--Bruce Sterling, Writer, Futurist, and Co-Founder, The Electronic Frontier Foundation
"Search engine marketing is the hottest thing in Internet business, and deservedly so. Ambient Findability puts SEM into a broader context and provides deeper insights into human behavior. This book will help you grow your online business in a world where being found is not at all certain."
--Jakob Nielsen, Ph.D., Author, Designing Web Usability: The Practice of Simplicity
"Information that's hard to find will remain information that's hardly found--from one of the fathers of the discipline of information architecture, and one of its most experienced practitioners, come penetrating observations on why findability is elusive and how the act of seeking changes us."
--Steve Papa, Founder and Chairman, Endeca
"Whether it's a fact or a figure, a person or a place, Peter Morville knows how to make it findable. Morville explores the possibilities of a world where everything can always be found--and the challenges in getting there--in this wide-ranging, thought-provoking book."
--Jesse James Garrett, Author, The Elements of User Experience
"It is easy to assume that current searching of the World Wide Web is the last word in finding and using information. Peter Morville shows us that search engines are just the beginning. Skillfully weaving together information science research with his own extensive experience, he develops for the reader a feeling for the near future when information is truly findable all around us. There are immense implications, and Morville's lively and humorous writing brings them home."
--Marcia J. Bates, Ph.D., University of California Los Angeles
"I've always known that Peter Morville was smart. After reading Ambient Findability, I now know he's (as we say in Boston) wicked smart. This is a timely book that will have lasting effects on how we create our future.
--Jared Spool, Founding Principal, User Interface Engineering
"In Ambient Findability, Peter Morville has put his mind and keyboard on the pulse of the electronic noosphere. With tangible examples and lively writing, he lays out the challenges and wonders of finding our way in cyberspace, and explains the mutually dependent evolution of our changing world and selves. This is a must read for everyone and a practical guide for designers."
--Gary Marchionini, Ph.D., University of North Carolina
"Find this book! Anyone interested in making information easier to find, or understanding how finding and being found is changing, will find this thoroughly researched, engagingly written, literate, insightful and very, very cool book well worth their time. Myriad examples from rich and varied domains and a valuable idea on nearly every page. Fun to read, too!
--Joseph Janes, Ph.D., Founder, Internet Public Library
Cover | Table of Contents | Colophon
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Media reviews
"Search engine marketing is the hottest thing in Internet business, and deservedly so. Ambient Findability puts SEM into a broader context and provides deeper insights into human behavior. This book will help you grow your online business in a world where being found is not at all certain."
-- Jakob Nielsen, Ph.D.
"Filled with engaging descriptions of how new technology is making everything,--including physical objects and people, as well as content--more findable, and lavished with dozens of color illustrations (O'Reilly's first color book in some time), Ambient Findability is a must read to learn how our world is changing and how we must ourselves change along with it."
-- Bob Doyle, EContent
"...if you know somebody intelligent who doesn’t understand why the Web really, really matters, this book should get the point across."
-- Elizabeth Zwicky, ;login:
"Read Ambient Findability if: you are interested in expanding your business or nonprofit through its presence on the Internet; you are a librarian and want to grow into the nontraditional environment of the Web; you are a Web designer and want to optimize the findability of your sites on the Internet; you are a user and want to enhance your searching experience. Read this book if you are a teacher, a student, a writer, a parent...in short, if you use a computer or a handheld or a GPS or a smartphone or any type of technology that connects you to the world, then you should read this book. Peter Morville's Ambient Findability will amaze and delight you. It will give you new insight into how ubiquitous computing is affecting how we find and use information and how we, as users, can and will shape the future of how data is stored and retrieved. "
-- Mary Norbury-Glaser, Slashdot.org, January 2006
"I read an amazing book recently that's a f***ing manifesto for my philosophies on information on the web and through other connected technologies. The book is Ambient Findability, and it's a short read, but dense with inspiration. It talks about everything from defining a document (animal in wild != document, animal in zoo = document, but what about animal in wild with RFID tag?) to person-tracking to folksonomy to the long tail to ambient information to wearable computing."
--StephtheGeek, March 2006
"This is an interesting book and not one that fits into any tidy category: yes, it is about searching, and about the relationship between technology and people, and about classification, and hypertext, and social information behaviour, and lots of other things. Whatever your interests in the information world, I think you'll find something to intrique you and, perhaps, the occasional item to surprise you."
-- Professor T.D. Wilson, Information Research, January 2006
