The Discipline of Organizing: Professional Edition, 3rd Edition

The Discipline of Organizing: Professional Edition, 3rd Edition

by Robert J. Glushko
Released August 2015
Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ISBN: 9781491938720

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Book description

Note about this ebook: This ebook exploits many advanced capabilities with images, hypertext, and interactivity and is optimized for EPUB3-compliant book readers, especially Apple's iBooks and browser plugins. These features may not work on all ebook readers.

We organize things. We organize information, information about things, and information about information. Organizing is a fundamental issue in many professional fields, but these fields have only limited agreement in how they approach problems of organizing and in what they seek as their solutions.

The Discipline of Organizing synthesizes insights from library science, information science, computer science, cognitive science, systems analysis, business, and other disciplines to create an Organizing System for understanding organizing. This framework is robust and forward-looking, enabling effective sharing of insights and design patterns between disciplines that weren't possible before.

The Discipline of Organizing (Professional Edition) is enhanced by nearly 100 pictures and illustrations, with scores of sidebars that extend the discussion from the main text. The book is highly interactive, with links to cross-references, glossary definitions, and external citations. It contains 700 tagged endnotes that connect to one or more of the contributing disciplines, adding depth without distraction.

The Discipline of Organizing was named an "Information Science Book of the Year" by the Association of Information Science and Technology in 2014, and as of mid-2015 was being used in nearly 60 schools--three times as many as the year before. The Professional Edition is ideal for practitioners and as a primary or supplemental text for graduate courses on information organization, content and knowledge management, information architecture, and digital collections.

The third edition adds thousands of words of new content:

  • Introducing values and ethics into discussions of why we organize
  • Expanding treatment of information architecture, accessibility, and behavioral economics in interaction design
  • Expanding treatment of "where we organize" to consider city planning, built environments, and wayfinding
  • Addressing the unique challenges of organizing people, both in organizational contexts such as businesses, and as individuals via predictive analytics and other computational techniques
  • Incorporating five new reader-contributed case studies that apply the Organizing System framework to earth-orbiting satellites, the Art Genome Project, the lunchbox-delivering dabbawalas of Mumbai, an entomology museum, and a nonprofit book publisher

FOR INSTRUCTORS: Supplemental materials (lecture notes, assignments, exams, etc.) are available at http://disciplineoforganizing.org.

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Table of contents

  1. Foreword to the First Edition
  2. Preface to the Second Edition
  3. Preface to the Third Edition
  4. Abstract
  5. 1. Foundations for Organizing Systems
    1. 1.1. The Discipline of Organizing
    2. 1.2. The “Organizing System” Concept
      1. 1.2.1. The Concept of “Resource”
      2. 1.2.2. The Concept of “Collection”
      3. 1.2.3. The Concept of “Intentional Arrangement”
        1. 1.2.3.1. The Concept of “Organizing Principle”
        2. 1.2.3.2. The Concept of “Agent”
      4. 1.2.4. The Concept of “Interactions”
    3. 1.3. Design Decisions in Organizing Systems
      1. 1.3.1. Organizing Systems in a “Design Space”
        1. 1.3.1.1. Conventional Ways to Classify Organizing Systems
        2. 1.3.1.2. A Multifaceted or Multidimensional View
      2. 1.3.2. What Is Being Organized?
      3. 1.3.3. Why Is It Being Organized?
      4. 1.3.4. How Much Is It Being Organized?
      5. 1.3.5. When Is It Being Organized?
      6. 1.3.6. How (or by Whom) Is It Organized?
      7. 1.3.7. Where is it being Organized?
    4. 1.4. Organizing This Book
  6. 2. Activities in Organizing Systems
    1. 2.1. Introduction
    2. 2.2. Selecting Resources
      1. 2.2.1. Selecting {and, or, vs.} Organizing
      2. 2.2.2. Selection Principles
      3. 2.2.3. Selection of Digital and Web-based Resources
    3. 2.3. Organizing Resources
      1. 2.3.1. Organizing Physical Resources
        1. 2.3.1.1. Organizing with Properties of Physical Resources
        2. 2.3.1.2. Organizing with Descriptions of Physical Resources
      2. 2.3.2. Organizing Places
        1. 2.3.2.1. Organizing the Land
        2. 2.3.2.2. Organizing Built Environments
        3. 2.3.2.3. Orientation and Wayfinding Mechanisms
      3. 2.3.3. Organizing Digital Resources
        1. 2.3.3.1. Organizing Web-based Resources
        2. 2.3.3.2. “Information Architecture” and Organizing Systems
      4. 2.3.4. Organizing with Multiple Resource Properties
    4. 2.4. Designing Resource-based Interactions
      1. 2.4.1. Affordance and Capability
      2. 2.4.2. Interaction and Value Creation
        1. 2.4.2.1. Value Creation with Physical Resources
        2. 2.4.2.2. Value Creation with Digital Resources
        3. 2.4.2.3. Accessibility
      3. 2.4.3. Access Policies
    5. 2.5. Maintaining Resources
      1. 2.5.1. Motivations for Maintaining Resources
      2. 2.5.2. Preservation
        1. 2.5.2.1. Digitization and Preserving Resources
        2. 2.5.2.2. Preserving the Web
        3. 2.5.2.3. Preserving Resource Instances
        4. 2.5.2.4. Preserving Resource Types
        5. 2.5.2.5. Preserving Resource Collections
      3. 2.5.3. Curation
        1. 2.5.3.1. Institutional Curation
        2. 2.5.3.2. Individual Curation
        3. 2.5.3.3. Social and Web Curation
        4. 2.5.3.4. Computational Curation
        5. 2.5.3.5. Discarding, Removing, and Not Keeping
      4. 2.5.4. Governance
        1. 2.5.4.1. Governance in Business Organizing Systems
        2. 2.5.4.2. Governance in Scientific Organizing Systems
    6. 2.6. Key Points in Chapter Two
  7. 3. Resources in Organizing Systems
    1. 3.1. Introduction
      1. 3.1.1. What Is a Resource?
        1. 3.1.1.1. Resources with Parts
        2. 3.1.1.2. Bibliographic Resources, Information Components, and “Smart Things” as Resources
      2. 3.1.2. Identity, Identifiers, and Names
    2. 3.2. Four Distinctions about Resources
      1. 3.2.1. Resource Domain
      2. 3.2.2. Resource Format
      3. 3.2.3. Resource Agency
        1. 3.2.3.1. Passive or Operand Resources
        2. 3.2.3.2. Active or Operant Resources
      4. 3.2.4. Resource Focus
      5. 3.2.5. Resource Format x Focus
        1. 3.2.5.1. Physical Description of a Primary Physical Resource
        2. 3.2.5.2. Digital Description of a Primary Physical Resource
        3. 3.2.5.3. Digital Description of a Primary Digital Resource
        4. 3.2.5.4. Physical Description of a Primary Digital Resource
    3. 3.3. Resource Identity
      1. 3.3.1. Identity and Physical Resources
      2. 3.3.2. Identity and Bibliographic Resources
      3. 3.3.3. Identity and Information Components
      4. 3.3.4. Identity and Active Resources
    4. 3.4. Naming Resources
      1. 3.4.1. What’s in a Name?
      2. 3.4.2. The Problems of Naming
        1. 3.4.2.1. The Vocabulary Problem
        2. 3.4.2.2. Homonymy, Polysemy, and False Cognates
        3. 3.4.2.3. Names with Undesirable Associations
        4. 3.4.2.4. Names that Assume Impermanent Attributes
        5. 3.4.2.5. The Semantic Gap
      3. 3.4.3. Choosing Good Names and Identifiers
        1. 3.4.3.1. Make Names Informative
        2. 3.4.3.2. Use Controlled Vocabularies
        3. 3.4.3.3. Allow Aliasing
        4. 3.4.3.4. Make Identifiers Unique or Qualified
        5. 3.4.3.5. Distinguish Identifying and Resolving
    5. 3.5. Resources over Time
      1. 3.5.1. Persistence
        1. 3.5.1.1. Persistent Identifiers
        2. 3.5.1.2. Persistent Resources
      2. 3.5.2. Effectivity
      3. 3.5.3. Authenticity
      4. 3.5.4. Provenance
    6. 3.6. Key Points in Chapter Three
  8. 4. Resource Description and Metadata
    1. 4.1. Introduction
    2. 4.2. An Overview of Resource Description
      1. 4.2.1. Naming {and, or, vs.} Describing
      2. 4.2.2. “Description” as an Inclusive Term
        1. 4.2.2.1. Bibliographic Descriptions
        2. 4.2.2.2. Metadata
        3. 4.2.2.3. Tagging of Web-based Resources
        4. 4.2.2.4. Resource Description Framework (RDF)
        5. 4.2.2.5. Aggregated Information Objects
      3. 4.2.3. Frameworks for Resource Description
    3. 4.3. The Process of Describing Resources
      1. 4.3.1. Determining the Scope and Focus
        1. 4.3.1.1. Describing Instances or Describing Collections
        2. 4.3.1.2. Abstraction in Resource Description
        3. 4.3.1.3. Scope, Scale, and Resource Description
      2. 4.3.2. Determining the Purposes
        1. 4.3.2.1. Resource Description to Support Selection
        2. 4.3.2.2. Resource Description to Support Organizing
        3. 4.3.2.3. Resource Description to Support Interactions
        4. 4.3.2.4. Resource Description to Support Maintenance
      3. 4.3.3. Identifying Properties
        1. 4.3.3.1. Intrinsic Static Properties
        2. 4.3.3.2. Extrinsic Static Properties
        3. 4.3.3.3. Intrinsic Dynamic Properties
        4. 4.3.3.4. Extrinsic Dynamic Properties
      4. 4.3.4. Designing the Description Vocabulary
        1. 4.3.4.1. Principles of Good Description
        2. 4.3.4.2. Who Uses the Descriptions?
        3. 4.3.4.3. Controlled Vocabularies and Content Rules
        4. 4.3.4.4. Vocabulary Control as Dimensionality Reduction
      5. 4.3.5. Designing the Description Form
      6. 4.3.6. Creating Resource Descriptions
        1. 4.3.6.1. Resource Description by Professionals
        2. 4.3.6.2. Resource Description by Authors or Creators
        3. 4.3.6.3. Resource Description by Users
        4. 4.3.6.4. Computational and Automated Resource Description
      7. 4.3.7. Evaluating Resource Descriptions
        1. 4.3.7.1. Evaluating the Creation of Resource Descriptions
        2. 4.3.7.2. Evaluating the Use of Resource Descriptions
        3. 4.3.7.3. The Importance of Iterative Evaluation
    4. 4.4. Describing Non-text Resources
      1. 4.4.1. Describing Museum and Artistic Resources
      2. 4.4.2. Describing Images
      3. 4.4.3. Describing Music
      4. 4.4.4. Describing Video
      5. 4.4.5. Describing Resource Context
    5. 4.5. Key Points in Chapter Four
  9. 5. Describing Relationships and Structures
    1. 5.1. Introduction
    2. 5.2. Describing Relationships: An Overview
    3. 5.3. The Semantic Perspective
      1. 5.3.1. Types of Semantic Relationships
        1. 5.3.1.1. Inclusion
        2. 5.3.1.2. Attribution
        3. 5.3.1.3. Possession
      2. 5.3.2. Properties of Semantic Relationships
        1. 5.3.2.1. Symmetry
        2. 5.3.2.2. Transitivity
        3. 5.3.2.3. Equivalence
        4. 5.3.2.4. Inverse
      3. 5.3.3. Ontologies
    4. 5.4. The Lexical Perspective
      1. 5.4.1. Relationships among Word Meanings
        1. 5.4.1.1. Hyponymy and Hyperonymy
        2. 5.4.1.2. Metonymy
        3. 5.4.1.3. Synonymy
        4. 5.4.1.4. Polysemy
        5. 5.4.1.5. Antonymy
      2. 5.4.2. Thesauri
      3. 5.4.3. Relationships among Word Forms
        1. 5.4.3.1. Derivational Morphology
        2. 5.4.3.2. Inflectional Morphology
    5. 5.5. The Structural Perspective
      1. 5.5.1. Intentional, Implicit, and Explicit Structure
      2. 5.5.2. Structural Relationships within a Resource
      3. 5.5.3. Structural Relationships between Resources
        1. 5.5.3.1. Hypertext Links
        2. 5.5.3.2. Analyzing Link Structures
        3. 5.5.3.3. Bibliometrics, Shepardizing, and Social Network Analysis
    6. 5.6. The Architectural Perspective
      1. 5.6.1. Degree
      2. 5.6.2. Cardinality
      3. 5.6.3. Directionality
    7. 5.7. The Implementation Perspective
      1. 5.7.1. Choice of Implementation
      2. 5.7.2. Syntax and Grammar
      3. 5.7.3. Requirements for Implementation Syntax
    8. 5.8. Relationships in Organizing Systems
      1. 5.8.1. The Semantic Web and Linked Data
      2. 5.8.2. Bibliographic Organizing Systems
        1. 5.8.2.1. Tillett’s Taxonomy
        2. 5.8.2.2. Resource Description and Access (RDA)
        3. 5.8.2.3. RDA and the Semantic Web
      3. 5.8.3. Integration and Interoperability
    9. 5.9. Key Points in Chapter Five
  10. 6. Categorization: Describing Resource Classes and Types
    1. 6.1. Introduction
    2. 6.2. The What and Why of Categories
      1. 6.2.1. Cultural Categories
      2. 6.2.2. Individual Categories
      3. 6.2.3. Institutional Categories
      4. 6.2.4. A “Categorization Continuum”
    3. 6.3. Principles for Creating Categories
      1. 6.3.1. Enumeration
      2. 6.3.2. Single Properties
      3. 6.3.3. Multiple Properties
        1. 6.3.3.1. Multi-Level or Hierarchical Categories
        2. 6.3.3.2. Different Properties for Subsets of Resources
        3. 6.3.3.3. Necessary and Sufficient Properties
      4. 6.3.4. The Limits of Property-Based Categorization
      5. 6.3.5. Family Resemblance
      6. 6.3.6. Similarity
      7. 6.3.7. Theory-Based Categories
      8. 6.3.8. Goal-Derived Categories
    4. 6.4. Category Design Issues and Implications
      1. 6.4.1. Category Abstraction and Granularity
      2. 6.4.2. Basic or Natural Categories
      3. 6.4.3. The Recall / Precision Tradeoff
      4. 6.4.4. Category Audience and Purpose
    5. 6.5. Implementing Categories
      1. 6.5.1. Implementing Classical Categories
      2. 6.5.2. Implementing Categories That Do Not Conform to the Classical Theory
    6. 6.6. Key Points in Chapter Six
  11. 7. Classification: Assigning Resources to Categories
    1. 7.1. Introduction
      1. 7.1.1. Classification vs. Categorization
      2. 7.1.2. Classification vs. Tagging
      3. 7.1.3. Classification vs. Physical Arrangement
      4. 7.1.4. Classification Schemes
      5. 7.1.5. Classification and Standardization
        1. 7.1.5.1. Institutional Taxonomies
        2. 7.1.5.2. Institutional Semantics
        3. 7.1.5.3. Specifications vs. Standards
        4. 7.1.5.4. Mandated Classifications
    2. 7.2. Understanding Classification
      1. 7.2.1. Classification Is Purposeful
        1. 7.2.1.1. Classifications Are Reference Models
        2. 7.2.1.2. Classifications Support Interactions
      2. 7.2.2. Classification Is Principled
        1. 7.2.2.1. Principles Embodied in the Classification Scheme
        2. 7.2.2.2. Principles for Assigning Resources to Categories
        3. 7.2.2.3. Principles for Maintaining the Classification over Time
      3. 7.2.3. Classification Is Biased
    3. 7.3. Bibliographic Classification
      1. 7.3.1. The Dewey Decimal Classification
      2. 7.3.2. The Library of Congress Classification
      3. 7.3.3. The BISAC Classification
    4. 7.4. Faceted Classification
      1. 7.4.1. Foundations for Faceted Classification
      2. 7.4.2. Faceted Classification in Description
      3. 7.4.3. A Classification for Facets
      4. 7.4.4. Designing a Faceted Classification System
        1. 7.4.4.1. Design Process for Faceted Classification
        2. 7.4.4.2. Design Principles and Pragmatics
    5. 7.5. Classification by Activity Structure
    6. 7.6. Computational Classification
    7. 7.7. Key Points in Chapter Seven
  12. 8. The Forms of Resource Descriptions
    1. 8.1. Introduction
    2. 8.2. Structuring Descriptions
      1. 8.2.1. Kinds of Structures
        1. 8.2.1.1. Blobs
        2. 8.2.1.2. Sets
        3. 8.2.1.3. Lists
        4. 8.2.1.4. Dictionaries
        5. 8.2.1.5. Trees
        6. 8.2.1.6. Graphs
      2. 8.2.2. Comparing Metamodels: JSON, XML and RDF
        1. 8.2.2.1. JSON
        2. 8.2.2.2. XML Information Set
        3. 8.2.2.3. RDF
        4. 8.2.2.4. Choosing Your Constraints
      3. 8.2.3. Modeling within Constraints
        1. 8.2.3.1. Specifying Vocabularies and Schemas
        2. 8.2.3.2. Controlling Values
    3. 8.3. Writing Descriptions
      1. 8.3.1. Notations
      2. 8.3.2. Writing Systems
      3. 8.3.3. Syntax
    4. 8.4. Worlds of Description
      1. 8.4.1. The Document Processing World
      2. 8.4.2. The Web World
      3. 8.4.3. The Semantic Web World
    5. 8.5. Key Points in Chapter Eight
  13. 9. Interactions with Resources
    1. 9.1. Introduction
    2. 9.2. Determining Interactions
      1. 9.2.1. User Requirements
      2. 9.2.2. Socio-Political and Organizational Constraints
    3. 9.3. Reorganizing Resources for Interactions
      1. 9.3.1. Identifying and Describing Resources for Interactions
      2. 9.3.2. Transforming Resources for Interactions
        1. 9.3.2.1. Transforming Resources from Multiple or Legacy Organizing Systems
        2. 9.3.2.2. Modes of Transformation
        3. 9.3.2.3. Granularity and Abstraction
        4. 9.3.2.4. Accuracy of Transformations
    4. 9.4. Implementing Interactions
      1. 9.4.1. Interactions Based on Instance Properties
        1. 9.4.1.1. Boolean Retrieval
        2. 9.4.1.2. Tag / Annotate
      2. 9.4.2. Interactions Based on Collection Properties
        1. 9.4.2.1. Ranked Retrieval with Vector Space or Probabilistic Models
        2. 9.4.2.2. Synonym Expansion with Latent Semantic Indexing
        3. 9.4.2.3. Structure-Based Retrieval
        4. 9.4.2.4. Clustering / Classification
      3. 9.4.3. Interactions Based on Derived Properties
        1. 9.4.3.1. Popularity-Based Retrieval
        2. 9.4.3.2. Citation-Based Retrieval
        3. 9.4.3.3. Translation
      4. 9.4.4. Interactions Based on Combining Resources
        1. 9.4.4.1. Mash-Ups
        2. 9.4.4.2. Linked Data Retrieval and Resource Discovery
    5. 9.5. Evaluating Interactions
      1. 9.5.1. Efficiency
      2. 9.5.2. Effectiveness
        1. 9.5.2.1. Relevance
        2. 9.5.2.2. The Recall / Precision Tradeoff
      3. 9.5.3. Satisfaction
    6. 9.6. Key Points in Chapter Nine
  14. 10. The Organizing System Roadmap
    1. 10.1. Introduction
    2. 10.2. The Organizing System Lifecycle
    3. 10.3. Defining and Scoping the Organizing System Domain
      1. 10.3.1. Scope and Scale of the Collection
      2. 10.3.2. Number and Nature of Users
      3. 10.3.3. Expected Lifetime
      4. 10.3.4. Physical or Technological Environment
      5. 10.3.5. Relationship to Other Organizing Systems
    4. 10.4. Identifying Requirements for an Organizing System
      1. 10.4.1. Requirements for Interactions
      2. 10.4.2. About the Nature and Extent of Resource Description
      3. 10.4.3. About Intentional Arrangement
      4. 10.4.4. Dealing with Conflicting Requirements
    5. 10.5. Designing and Implementing an Organizing System
      1. 10.5.1. Choosing Scope- and Scale-Appropriate Technology
      2. 10.5.2. Architectural Thinking
      3. 10.5.3. Distinguishing Access from Control
      4. 10.5.4. Standardization and Legacy Considerations
    6. 10.6. Operating and Maintaining an Organizing System
      1. 10.6.1. Resource Perspective
      2. 10.6.2. Properties, Principles and Technology Perspective
    7. 10.7. Key Points in Chapter Ten
  15. 11. Case Studies
    1. 11.1. A Multi-generational Photo Collection
    2. 11.2. Knowledge Management for a Small Consulting Firm
    3. 11.3. Smarter Farming in Japan
    4. 11.4. Single-Source Textbook Publishing
    5. 11.5. Organizing a Kitchen
    6. 11.6. Earth Orbiting Satellites
    7. 11.7. CalBug and its Search Interface Redesign
    8. 11.8. Weekly Newspaper
    9. 11.9. The CODIS DNA Database
    10. 11.10. Ikea
    11. 11.11. The Antikythera Mechanism
    12. 11.12. My Vegetable Garden
    13. 11.13. IP Addressing in the Global Internet
    14. 11.14. The Art Genome Project
    15. 11.15. Making a Documentary Film
    16. 11.16. The Dabbawalas of Mumbai
    17. 11.17. Managing Information About Data Center Resources
    18. 11.18. Neuroscience Lab
    19. 11.19. A Nonprofit Book Publisher
    20. 11.20. Your Own Case Study Goes Here
  16. Acknowledgments
  17. Bibliography
  18. Glossary
  19. Index

Product information

  • Title: The Discipline of Organizing: Professional Edition, 3rd Edition
  • Author(s): Robert J. Glushko
  • Release date: August 2015
  • Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
  • ISBN: 9781491938720