Practical Metadata

Jim Feagans just shot me a URL for a neat video on the evolution of "smart data" on the web. It is very cool that an Anthropology teacher gets this! He comes to the conclusion that it is right and good (and beneficial) to teach the computer.
Thanks Jim!

Here is a transcript of the video:
Text is linear
Text is unlinear
Text is said to be unlinear
Text is often said to be unlinear
Text is unlinear when written on paper
Digital text is different.

Digital text is more flexible.
Digital text is moveable.
Digital text is above all…hyper.
Digital hypertext is above all…
hypertext is above all…
hypertext can link
hypertext can link
here
here
or here…
virtually anywhere
anywhere virtually
anywhere virtual
The WayBack Machine
http://yahoo.com
Take Me Back
Oct 17, 1996
Yahoo
View Source
Most early websites were written in HTML
HTML
HTML was designed to define the structure of a web document.
p is a structural element referring to “paragraph”
LI
LI is also a structural element referring to “List Item”
As HTML expanded, more elements were added.
Including stylistic elements like B for bold and I for italics
Suck elements defined how content would be formatted.
In other words, form and content became inseparable in HTML
Digital Text can do better.
Form and content can be separated.
http://www.cnn.com
RSS XML
View Source
XML was designed to do just that.
http://www.cnn.com/?eref=rss_topstories
same with
CNN.com
and
and virtually all other elements in this document.
They describe the content, not the form.
So the data can be exported,
free of formatting constraints.
Latest News
Anthro Blogs (124)
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WORLD CHANGING ANOTHER WORLD IS HERE
Antrho Journals (124)
University of California Press
Journals Digital Publishing
Current Anthropology
AESonline.org
Google
With form separated from content, users did not need to know complicated code to upload content to the web,
I’m Feeling Lucky
Create Blog
Name Your Blog
Beyond Etext
http://beyondetext.blogspot.com
Choose a template
Your blog has been created!
Monday, January 29, 2007
Hello World!
POSTED BY PROFESSOR WESCH AT 8:14 PM 0 COMMENTS
There’s a blog born every half second
and it’s not just text…Search
YouTube
Broadcast Yourself
This is a video response to The Beauty of Being Human
flickr
Ahoy mwesch!
Upload Photos
Anthropology club
Created by you.
KSU Anthropology club
Club Photos
Google
XML facilitates automated data exchange
two sites can “mash” data together
flickr maps
I’m Feeling Lucky
Limelight
Fluffy and white
Brushy Creek
Tokyo Delve’s Sushi B..
Who will organize all of this data?
TAG
del.icio.us
digital ethnography hypermedia anthropology
save
Who will organize all of this data?
We will.
You will.
Google
XML + U & Me create a database-backed web
a database-backed web is different
the web is different
the web
we are the web
I’m Feeling Lucky
WIRED
We Are the Web
by Kevin Kelly
“When we post and then tag pictures
teaching the Machine to give names,
we are teaching the Machine.
Each time we forge a link,
we teach it an idea.
Think of the 100 billion times per day humans click on a Web page
teaching the Machine”
the Machine
Diigo
Highlight
Highlight and Sticky note
Mwesch’s private note
the machine is us
Digital text is no longer just linking information…
Hypertext is no longer just linking information…
The Web is no longer just linking information…
The Web is linking people…
Web 2.0 is linking people…
…people sharing, tracing, and collaborating…
Wikipedia
Web 2.0
edit this page
We’ll need to rethink a few things…
We’ll need to rethink copyright
We’ll need to rethink authorship
We’ll need to rethink identity
We’ll need to rethink ethics
We’ll need to rethink aesthetics
We’ll need to rethink rhetorics
We’ll need to rethink governance
We’ll need to rethink privacy
We’ll need to rethink commerce
We’ll need to rethink love
We’ll need to rethink family
We’ll need to rethink ourselves.
by Michael Wesch
Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology
Kansas State University