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Model of Attraction and Personal InfoCloud Presentation

This evening I presented Understanding the Personal Info Cloud: Using the Model of Attraction to Vera Rhoads User Interaction with Information Systems class (INFM 702) in the University of Maryland, Master of Information Management program.

This was a great opportunity to present the Model of Attraction and the Personal InfoCloud information in one sitting. I have realized there is a lot of information in combining the two, but also some areas I could trim. I think the presentation could use a couple clear examples. It was also good to be back in a classroom, although slightly different from the presenting side.

Now I can focus on finishing the drafts of the articles on these subjects.

Sinking side note

October 1987 was a wild time. It was my last semester at St. Mary's (I took my last courses abroad at Oxford to finish out my undergrad career), the Giants were in the playoffs, and the stock market crashed like nobody's business. I thought to myself and brought it up to friends that it was a good thing to watch happen as it would be a moment in history that I though would cause a great change. It did to some degree, the job market tightened and the well paying jobs my friend had landed the year before after their graduation were no longer there. But, we got through. Some even created a fantasy world in the late 90s, but having watched the what happend to so many after the euphoria I saw similar signs and was risk adverse and pulled what money I had in the market out fearing a crash. The highs got much higher than I expected would ever happen, but the crash is equally much worse than I expected too. The same greed that landed many behind bars, that drove the 80s boom, seems to be behind this current crash. The first dive started when the companies run by young adults not really old enough to know better blew up their companies (but also sparked, or were involved party in the change in mindset that still is standing), but the current problems seem not only to be caused by greed and lying by people who should have known better we trusted them to know better. Some of these elders are still in the driver seat and now have more power, which is giving many less trust in the systems we rely upon.

Improving information retrieval

Lou points to Improving Web Retrieval After the Dot-Bomb then provides a guide to information retrieval that augments the Marcia Bates article. This provides a very good combination for understanding classification systems.