Information Management
Managing information needs to be quick and easy. Books and paper are referred to as atom based and electronic content and digital formats are referred to as bit based.
Bits: Pro's - very flexible, very cheap and easy to manipulate. Con's - privacy protection, authenticity, unsolicited broadcast.
Atoms: Pro's - easy to see, locate, conceal and protect. Difficult to change and copy. Con's - bulky, expensive, inflexible, difficult to edit and distribute.
Tips on managing your bits: be familiar with file extensions, use metadata for more in depth search options, keep file names relevant to function rather than content and employ the use of a desktop search engine.
Workshop Summary
Create folders in MS IE favourites - three folders containing at least two websites marked
Write a review of 'The DNA of Information' in about 250 words
The chapter titled ‘The DNA of Information’ from Nicholas Negroponte’s Being Digital is a look at the comparisons and contrasts between Bits versus Atoms and some of the issues associated with accessing and using these formats.
Negroponte compares that the cost associated with using bit based information is considerably less and that delivery is instantaneous and essentially cost free. Where as with atom based most of the cost associated with buying books is due to shipping and returns. He uses the example of a failed delivery of atom based material compared to the hassle free, instantaneously delivery of bit based information.
Another contrast is the weight and useability of each form. Bit based is weightless to view and store, whereby atom is costly to store in size and weight and information can be hard to locate.
Negroponte promotes that atom based material such as books are ‘easy to thumb through’, have a ‘high contrast display’ and that bits are not likely to replace all atom based businesses as food and clothes are still essential items to the consumer.
While there is a sense that Negroponte preferrs bit based information, he has given a fairly weighted argument in expressing the pro’s and con’s for each side. The information contained in this chapter is informative as looking at the different areas where these two formats co-exist it’s easy to see why they are in such competition.
Week 5 Reading
Information Management and Electronic Environments - This article outlines the need for the organisation of electronic material. It suggest the use of a hierarchical structure, the employment of sub folders, bookmarks and the use of EndNote. It also favours bits over atoms but reminds that the pitfalls of bits can be an overload of information and the risk of plagiarism.
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