Real World Search Engines

I was interviewed by the Wall Street Journal about Real World Search Engines and how gadgets like the Loc8tor do (and don't) help you find lost possessions:

It won't surprise you that this idea -- that you should be able easily to find stuff around you -- has a name: ambient findability. The man who coined it, Michigan-based information architecture consultant and writer Peter Morville, has focused mainly on the idea of being able to find information, but believes we're only a few years away from being able to tag and track all objects so that, as he says, "it gets harder to lose anything."

The author, Jeremy Wagstaff of Loose Wire, concludes we're not there yet, but still, it's nice to see ambient findability swimming deeper into the mainstream.

What Will Be

I love hearing from readers, especially when they're teachers. Here's my very favorite message of today, reprinted with permission.

Mr. Morville:

Thanks so much for your book. I'm reading it for a second time...and will no doubt read it a third.

I teach a seminar (soon to be a webinar) on research skills for high school seniors who are bound for college. I open every seminar with this question: "What could you be, what could you do, what could your life be like, if you knew that you could find the answer to any question you might ever have, about anything - and not just about what is, or what has been, but what will be?"

Once I kick out a few examples of such "any questions", I have to be very careful not to let this introductory discussion overwhelm the entire time for the seminar!

Now you know why I thank you for your book.

Brian Taylor
Marysville, WA

Makes me want to go back to school. Thanks Brian!

Strange Connections

I had lunch with Superpatron this week (ten ways to build better libraries).

Thanks to a name change, I'm now on the advisory board of Global Findability.

I'm reading too much. The Black Swan. Fascinating, disturbing, and addictive. The Art of Forgetting. Not sure I agree. Is Relevance Relevant? Less and less. Open Source Search Analytics. User-defined best bets? Happy Friday!

A Garden of Forking Paths

Stacy Surla recently reminded me of an article I wrote almost a year ago entitled A Garden of Forking Paths. It's one of my strangest literary creations, right up there with UFOs. It's also one of my favorites. It sure was fun to let the metaphors run wild. Anyway, today I noticed my article makes the Top 10 on a Google search for garden of forking paths. I love the idea of Jorge Luis Borges scholars and students serendipitously searching their way into my little garden.

Finding Lost Things

Timo just posted Ambient Findability in Practice which features the Loc8tor, a nifty gadget for keeping found things found.

And, if you lose the handheld, your panic tag will locate the Loc8tor. They've thought of everything. Anyone know of similar products available in the U.S.?

Mobile Findable Objects

Bronson Healthcare in Kalamazoo, Michigan is using what Bruce Sterling calls the Cisco Spime Tracker to solve the wheelchair location problem:

A quick glance at the screen shows exactly where the tagged wheelchairs are located...Patients wait no more than a few minutes for a wheelchair, and we save $28,000 a month by eliminating searches.

Cisco explains that "hospitals are unable to find between 10 and 15 percent of the devices they own...devices are mostly misplaced rather than stolen."

Strange Connections

Johns Hopkins University enables wireless Internet access on their campus shuttle buses, while simultaneously providing real-time shuttle bus tracking in Google Earth. I recommend watching the buses with your kids while singing the wheels on the bus. It's probably even cooler when you're actually on the bus.

Everyware

I just pre-ordered my copy of Everyware by Adam Greenfield. This is one book I can't wait to read. When I was writing Ambient Findability, All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace was truly a source of inspiration.

I haven't found many others who are writing intelligently about the intersection of user experience and ubiquitous computing. I read Mike Kuniavsky's Orange Cone and everything Bruce Sterling writes about blobjects and spime.

So, while we're waiting for Everyware, what else should we be reading?