LIS 4701 Information Representation
Week 2, Day 1, January 13, 2004
Week 2: Introduction to information representation and its context(s). During this week we will go over the syllabus carefully, introduce ourselves, get familiar with the course textbook and the concepts and terms to be used in the course.
January 13: Introduction and Chapter 1 of Visual Explanations book (Tufte)
Email. If you ask me something FTF, that is great--but it's also really helpful to me if you can follow up via email so I have a record of what we discussed.
Email. I will on occasion use the ACNS email list function to communicate with you all. Please make sure that you have a garnet account and that it's forwarded correctly to the account you actually use.
Email. Please include the course number in your subject line. Please use a meaningful subject line, one that succeeds in surrogating the information contained in the email. Please sign your email.
Introducing ourselves.
Getting familiar with the textbook. Problems with the table of contents?
Concept list. Representation. Surrogation. Aggregation. Information entities. Form. Content. Intellectual Attributes. Organization. Retrieval. User. Mental models. Schemas. Genres. Intermediaries/intermediation.
Information representation outside the surrogation/aggregation construct. Language. Writing.
Time, space, cause, and number: shared conceptions allow for contact between minds: communication and mutual understanding.
Mutually-comprehensible representations.
Other important points from the Introduction of Tufte.
Arranging images, words, and numbers in space and in time
Principles of depiction exist
Integrity of representation (implying integrity can be maintained or
destroyed)
Standards for evaluation exist
Representations can extend content and allow abstractions
This book is "about" pictures of verbs