Reading: Everything Is Miscellaneous by David Weinberger
Right now I am plowing my way through a rather intimitading pile of books searching for great ideas. Today’s pensum was »Everything Is Miscellaneous«, a book aspiring to change our thinking about the possibility of sorting information in a digital world. As an example book of miscellanous historical, philosophical and taxonomical events, it is great. Quite interesting and with examples from a wide array of areas. Some of the examples are more of quantity than of quality, but the basic message is clear. Trying to put »everything« into one hierarchial system has usually failed so far, and will continue to do so, especially considering the growth rate of data on the internet. Weinberger argues the virtues of having the user sort the information in her own way, or using peers’ judgement as a prolonguement of ones own. Great reading for anyone wanting a boost their conviction that digital is powerful. So far so good. But the book doesn’t aim high enough to pass as a book of great ideas for the internet age. The tough questions remain unanswered. How to extract meaningful content out of a big pile of »anything«? The relevant answer is that the quest for meaningful content on the web has just begun. Algorithm helps us find things on Google.com and Amazon.com, but they also generate immense quantums of nonsense. Still, a book well worth reading. Buy it at Amazon.
