A fundamental disruption
Moving information architecture into
the hands of individual consumers
IA Summit 2009 • Memphis

Digital cameras were a disruptive technology
Photo from Flickr, by lnx.

Disruptive technologies underperform at first…
High-end market
demands
Performance Low-end market
demands
You are
here!
Time
Based upon The Innovator’s Dilemma by Clayton Christensen

…but they eventually catch up.
You are High-end market
here! demands
Performance Low-end market
demands
Time
Based upon The Innovator’s Dilemma by Clayton Christensen

Semantic technology is now catching up…
Semantic Technology
• Encodes meanings.
• Auto-recognition of topics and
concepts…
• Enables machines as well as
people to understand, share and
reason…

…and is poised to disrupt IA.
Semantic Technology Information Architecture
• Encodes meanings. • The art of expressing a model or
concept of information…
• Auto-recognition of topics and
concepts… • The art and science of organizing
and labeling…
• Enables machines as well as
people to understand, share and • The structural design of shared
reason… information environments.
Definitions from:

The fundamental disruption:
Rather than producers organizing
information in advance, consumers
will organize it on demand.

“Beware, the end is near!”
<Yawn />
Artist’s rendition from NASA

The pace of semantic innovation is accelerating
Web 2.0
semi-structured data
specialized semantic technologies
Semantic Web
structured data
cooperation

Demonstrations

Metaweb: Freebase
http://www.freebase.com

Zepheira: Remix
http://remix.zepheira.com/

Simile: Exhibit
http://www.simile-widgets.org/exhibit

Thomson Reuters: Calais: Semantic Proxy
http://semanticproxy.opencalais.com

Vivisimo: Clusty
http://clusty.com

Kosmix
http://www.kosmix.com

Primal Fusion: Thought networking
http://www.primalfusion.com

So what might this mean for IA?

Peter Sweeney |peter.sweeney@primalfusion.com
Robert Barlow-Busch |bbb@primalfusion.com
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