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Spatial Hypertext and the Practice of Information Triage

More and more we find ourselves having to make judgments about written information without fully reading that information. It's just part of life in a world where our own decisions, rather then the limits of the media, determine how much information comes our way. I have a fascination with how people make such decisions and what could empower them to do so more effectively. As a visual thinker myself, I enjoyed some of the insights in Spatial Hypertext and the Practice of Information Triage (10 page PDF), a paper written quite a few years ago by Catherine Marshall and Frank Shipman. Posted: 1/20/06; 2:05:41 PM #

Google Rebuffs Feds on Search Requests
	It's nice to see Google refusing to cooperate with yet another sweeping invasion of privacy of U.S citizens. The Bush administration evidently wants to search through who has been searching for what over a week long period. No probably cause. No limitation to specific people or even to foreigners. I wonder how long they will hold them off. Posted: 1/20/06; 1:50:57 PM #

The Futility of Boycotts

Boycotts, as you probably know, are rarely very effective at influencing corporate behavior. I believe that they can be valuable for consciousness raising, but I am very disappointed when people think that consumer actions will change the world. One of my favorite local columnists, Geov Parrish, wrote today about The Futility of Boycotts, and I hope his piece gets widely read. I particularly hope that organizations who use feel-good strategies such as boycotts (petitions being another) consider the integrity and impact of teaching people that this influences corporate behavior when most of the time, it doesn't. Now, if you have inside supporters or can influence government at the same time, that's another story. Then a boycott becomes a smokescreen for a more aggressive form of politics. Posted: 1/20/06; 1:48:00 PM #