Review: The Hidden History of Information Management

What strategies has society employed to collect, manage, and store information, even with the constant threat of oversupply, and still make this information accessible and meaningful to people over time?

Goodman, Bob. Boxes and Arrows (2007). Articles>Reviews>Information Design>History

An History of Outlining (and STOP)

The STOP teams brilliant practical approach to outlining also looks forward to a number of activities that have become more convenient thanks to electronic outlining software--collaborative work on organization, visual display of a verbal structure, an iterative process of research, outlining, and drafting focused on the same document, and the large organizations need for standard templates defining the structure of generic modules. In these ways, the STOP team are forerunners for practices that even today are avant garde.

Price, Jonathan R. DITA Users (1999). Articles>Information Design>Methods>History

Information Architecture: From Craft to Profession

Teaching information architecture as a profession in the process of being born, author and educator, Earl Morrogh, in his new book, 'Information Architecture: An Emerging 21st Century Profession' places information architecture in an historical context analogous to the history of architecture.

Morrogh, Earl. Boxes and Arrows (2002). Articles>Information Design>History

Keeping Tabs

The original tab signaled an information storage revolution and helped enable everything from management consulting to electronic data processing.

Tenner, Ed. Technology Review (2005). Articles>User Interface>Information Design>History

The Myth of 'Seven, Plus or Minus 2'

This article proposes that the optimal number of menu items cannot be reduced to the generalized 'Magic Seven, Plus or Minus Two' (7±2). The author proposes that instead, when planning a site information architecture, the two most important considerations are breadth versus depth and the display of information.

Kalbach, James. Dr. Dobb's (2002). Articles>Information Design>History>Cognitive Psychology

Ranganathan for Information Architects

S.R. Ranganathan was the greatest librarian of the 20th Century. His ideas influenced every aspect of library science, yet, as impressive as his accomplishments were, Ranganathan didn't start out with the intention of becoming a librarian at all.

Steckel, Mike. Boxes and Arrows (2002). Articles>Information Design>History

The Roots of SGML: A Personal Recollection    

One of the inventors of the markup language that evolved into Standard Generalized Markup Language describes the origins of SGML and provides an anecdotal history of markup language development from the late 1960s to the 1980s.

Goldfarb, Charles F. Technical Communication Online (1999). Articles>Information Design>SGML>History

Two Approaches to Modularity: Comparing the STOP Approach with Structured Writing  

The first time I heard of the STOP paper was sometime in the mid 80's when the historian of technical writing, John Brockman, phoned me to ask if my Information Mapping method of structured writing derived from the STOP method. At the time I told Brockman that there was no direct relationship between our two approaches since I'd never read the paper. When the editor of this journal sent me the STOP document in preparation for writing this paper, I read it with delight. Although our two innovations date from the same period, the STOP authors and I were working in two completely different disciplines, cultures, organizations, and locations. These two approaches resulted in modularity - albeit of quite different kinds. The main purpose of this project is to compare and contrast these two approaches to modularity. I should note here that I approach this article principally as an exercise in historical comparison, rather than as an exposition of my current views, about which I will say a bit at the end of this article.

Horn, Robert E. Journal of Computer Documentation (1999). Articles>Information Design>Technical Writing>History

Undoing the Industrial Revolution

The last 200 years have driven centralization and changed the human experience in ways that conflict with evolution. The Internet will reestablish a more balanced, decentralized lifestyle.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2004). Articles>Information Design>History

Information Policies: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow    

This article presents a brief history of the development of ideas about national and organizational information policies, from the first establishment of a UK Ministry of Information in the First World War to the present day. The issues and tensions that have characterized attempts to develop and implement policies on the national and organizational scale are discussed, with particular reference to: the power relations between the parties to them; the relative significance accorded to information technology and information content; the transition from formulating policy to acting on it; and the threats to the survival of those policies that get as far as implementation. In conclusion, the contribution to date of information science to the theory and practice of information policies is assessed, and suggestions are offered on directions for future efforts, in the light of the past of this interesting field.

Orna, Elizabeth. Journal of Information Science (2008). Articles>Information Design>Policies and Procedures>History

Plugging into the Pervasive XML Infrastructure

In 1998 the industry got behind a common vision of interoperability for systems and data using XML. The web (HTTP/HTML) connected millions of users to each other as well by presenting information they needed - both at work and from home. The next logical step is to connect systems together and break down the stove pipes of information and business logic that exist to unleash an entirely new wave of productivity gains. In this talk I will trace the march of computing that has led to incredible productivity gains over several decades; draw parallels to the invention of electrical generation facilities and the subsequent building of the electric grid that provided power for all to harness and call out the challenges that still lie ahead of us.

Campbell, Dave and Soumitra Sengupta. IDEAlliance (2005). Articles>Information Design>XML>History