quality of information information 218 Paul Duguid duguid [at] ischool.berkeley.edu 203a South Hall 510 642 3159 Office Hours: Tuesday, 10-11
why quality? the quantitative revolution? I find Duguid's article perversely wrongheaded. Judging the potential of Google Books, or any mass digitization project, as a tool for the study of book history by singling out one public domain literary text ... out of millions and critiquing its "quality" as an object of study is just silly. ... ... Exercises in bibliographical fastidiousness of this kind are cheap, easy, and utterly pointless ... HofI Introduction - 2
fixing quality With the costs of scanning a book dropping so fast, it is trivial to re-scan problematic ones (discovered by careful readers). And usually the whole book does not need to be re-scanned, just certain pages. It is not hard to imagine readers (a la Wikipedia) re-scanning needed pages. ... If there is any true value in having the books perfect, there will be those who make it so, if they are free to do so. I can't imagine any cultural or technological impediment to re-scanning imperfect pages, nor can I recall any historical precedent of something like this that was done only once and never again. On the contrary, it is easier to imagine many MORE people scanning the same books again *because* Google proved that they had more value scanned that most had believed before. --Kevin Kelly, 2007 HofI Introduction - 3
quantity becomes quality Linus's Law "given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow" Graham's Law "the method of ensuring quality [through peer production] is Darwinian. People just produce whatever they want; the good stuff spreads, and the bad gets ignored" HofI Introduction - 4
information wants to be free "The external make-up of a book, its format and the personality of its author are unimportant provided that its substance, its sources of information and its conclusion are preserved and can be made an integral part of the organization of knowledge, an impersonal work, created by the efforts of all ... the ideal ... would be to strip each article or each chapter in a book of whatever is a matter of fine language or repetition or padding and to collect separately on cards whatever is new and adds to knowledge." --Paul Otlet HofI Introduction - 5
once free ... "It will be like a great cadastral of learning, in which all elements in knowledge will be reported and recorded day by day ... The old form of books will no longer be maintained." --Paul Otlet, 1934 "tree flakes encased in dead cow ... all that's solid melts to air." --Bill Mitchell, 1997 HofI Introduction - 6
unbounded information " ... anyone can transmit any amount of information ... to anyone or everyone, anywhere, at any time, instantaneously, without barriers of convenience or cost, the resulting transformation becomes a transfiguration. The powers it offers us bring us back to the paradigms of paradise. ...The systole of compression will launch a diastole of decentralized intelligence around the world." --George Gilder, 2002 HofI Introduction - 7
searching for quality HofI Introduction - 8
quality sneaks back in the wisdom of crowds "a group of people with different but good information and a way of aggregating their perspectives s" James Surowiecki HofI Introduction - 9
quality sneaks back in the wisdom of crowds "a group of people with different but good information and a way of aggregating their perspectives s" James Surowiecki HofI Introduction - 9
limits to autonomy unreliable testimony "All Cretans are liars." -- Epimenedes of Knossos questionable authenticity HofI Introduction - 10
authentic but rotten HofI Introduction - 11
rotten but true HofI Introduction - 12
institutional assurance Ken Arrow vs the Wife of Bath markets for expertise "Experience, though noone auctoritee Were in this world is , is right ynogh for me To speke of wo that is in mariage." --Geoffrey Chaucer, c 13490. HofI Introduction - 13
institutional problems HofI Introduction - 14
changing institutional landscape HofI Introduction - 15
changing institutional landscape "Will quality software be written ... What hobbyist can put three man years into programming, finding all bugs, documenting his product and distribute it for free?" --? 1976 HofI Introduction - 16
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