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Tech Primer
Personal Info Clouds
 A
Personal Info Cloud refers to a user’s information repository that helps
him organise and control information, and thereby ensure easy access to information.
Info clouds save time in seeking information at the last minute. A Local Info
Cloud refers to the information stored or accessed from a physical location
such as an intranet, local or membership-based network, interaction with people,
networks and applications. It is not necessary for the information to be physically
close, but it must be near in terms of being accessible. Some more examples
of Local Info Clouds are communities, e-mail lists and forums. The Internet
on the whole is referred to as the Global Info Cloud. Another branch of Info
Clouds are External Info Clouds that include information which isn’t searchable
through search engines—these include intranets of organisations other than
the user’s own, and extranets.
Folksonomies
A folksonomy is a system that relies upon many individuals applying personalised
tags to a categorised item. It's a mechanism that helps in the creation of Info
Clouds. The term folksonomy was coined by Thomas Vander Wal. There are two types
of folksonomy—broad and narrow. Broad folksonomy refers to one item being
categorised by different people using their own vocabulary or term. For example,
Del.icio.us allows users to assign tags as one word descriptors for their search
or piece of information. In this manner, one piece of information may be used
by numerous people, but all of them use different tags or words to refer to
it. Narrow folksonomy refers to tagging or labelling objects that are not easily
searchable and where there is no other mechanism for locating the object. For
example, in Flickr, tags are applied to objects but the objects aren’t
searchable using search or other related tools. Folksonomy refers to the way
people tag information, videos, music files, podcasts etc using their own terms.
This helps in searching or navigating through the Net.
Components of Personal Info Clouds
Some of the components of Personal Info Clouds may be exclusive, while some
may consist of more than one component. Some components are location, acquaintances,
affiliation, organisation, work and portals. Location is one of most important
components as it determines the physical place. Tools equipped by location are
GPS (Global Positioning System), kiosks, and the language translation tools
that are required in a location. The physical location of information can ease
or censor access to information. Acquaintances like family members and friends
are a source of knowledge. They can be referred to for information, using any
medium be it chat, e-mail or the phone. The strong attributes are access and
familiarity. Association with organisations allows us to be a part of a group
or groups. Interaction with numerous people facilitates greater interaction
with those who share similar interests or needs.
Attributes of Personal Info Clouds
The attributes of Personal Info Clouds are access, familiarity, known actions,
structure and consistency. Access refers to easy availability and reliable resources.
Familiarity refers to the awareness of vocabulary and terminology used to discuss
or describe the information one is referring to. Known actions refer to the
repeated actions of an individual to get information. Basically, the idea is
that people know the tactics to connect to a page if the regular link isn’t
working.
For more information visit www.personalinfocloud.com
or www.vanderwal.net/essays/moa/040608/040608.pdf
— Garima Grover
grover_garima@hotmail.com
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