1. User IA: Blogs, WIKIs & RSS feeds
By: Daniel Tse

3. Presentation Agenda Defining Blogs, Wikis, and RSS
Current State of the Internet
Relation to Information Architecture

4. Blogs What is a Blog? Definition:
Blog = Web log
A user-maintained website that displays content in reverse chronological order (like reading an online diary, backwards)
Often provides news content or commentary on a subject matter
Users utilize GUI editting tools and simple HTML to create, design, and publish their blog content
Considered a social media because of the ability to share content (videos, photos, audio etc.), create tags, and read/write comments in response to an entry
The Bottom Line: Users given a platform to design, create, publish, and share content at their own discretion.

5. There are different types of Blogs…

6. Blogs – GUI and HTML Editors
GUI Editting Tools

7. WIKIs FAST (in Hawaiian) What is a WIKI? Definition:
A collaborative share-authoring tool (usually in the form of a website) that can have its content edited simply and freely by its users.
A wiki is comprised of a large index or collection of individual wiki pages that are interconnected based on tags (user-defined, embedded hyperlinks)
Good for collaborative work, and capturing the collective knowledge of many
Trivia: What does “wiki” mean?
The Bottom Line: Wikis are highly collaborative and provide users the freedom to edit and share content
FAST (in Hawaiian)

8. WIKI Examples

9. WIKIs
Corporate wikis
Simple GUI text editor

10. RSS Feeds What is an RSS Feed? Definition:
RSS = Real Simple Syndication (AKA Atom Feeds)
News-feeds to websites that users can subscribe to in order to stay informed with updates to a site’s content.
Aggregating tools (RSS Readers) automatically collect all RSS feeds that a user subscribes to and displays them in one location for the user to read
The process is highly dynamic, automated, and even instantaneous
The Bottom Line: Users decide what content they want to aggregate and the content is automatically and dynamically retrieved—being presented in a single location

11. RSS Examples Subscribed content feeds all on 1 page RSS Readers
RSS Scrolling Tickers
Subscribed content feeds all on 1 page
RSS Readers
Feeds (Headlines)
Subscribed Content
RSS Feeds loaded into your browser

12. The Current State of the Internet
Most Popular websites (based on traffic):
MySpace (#3)
YouTube (#4)
FaceBook (#5)
Wikipedia (#9)
Blogger (#12)
Digg (#23)
* Source: Alexa US Top 100 (ranked based on web traffic)
What is a common trait shared by these sites?
Let’s step back a bit first and see what is going on with the big picture…
The internet is changing…
It is part of a trend called…Web 2.0
USER PARTICIPATION

13. Web 2.0
“a second generation of web services that differ from the first generation in their utilization and reliance on participation and collaboration” – Tim O’Reilly
Borrows from open-source philosophy, giving control of content creation to the entire web community

14. What do these have to do with Information Architecture?
The everyday user is playing a bigger role in information architecture

15. User IA...in Blogs, Wikis & RSS
Users can now decide—and to a certain extent— control how information is organized
Tags (user-defined labeling and hyperlinks)
Folksonomic (bottom-up) instead of taxonomic (top-down) organizational structures
Tagging has huge implications on search, browsing, and contextual linking
Publishers only create the bare bones structure for these sites, it is the duty of the users to populate them with content, and even organize them
Information retrieval (i.e. RSS) is now a dynamic and passive process. Based on user-defined choices (content subscriptions)

16. User IA in action…

17. Is there any room left for Professional IAs?
Of Course!
Who will design the overarching navigation system?
Who will design the user interface?
Who is responsible for the wireframes and blueprints?
Who will define the metadata and organization scheme?
Who will perform the research to understand user behavior in order to create the bare bones platform for them to use?
The role of content creation may be changing hands but users are not responsible for ALL the IA tasks

18. …So where do we go from here?
It’s up to YOU!

19. Thank You!

20. References
Grossman, Lev. (2006, Dec 13). “Time’s Person of the Year: You”. TIME Magazine.
Johnson, Steven. (2006, Dec 16). “It’s All About Us”. TIME Magazine.
Morville, Peter and Louis Rosenfeld. (2007). Information Architecture for the World Wide Web. 3 ed. 3. O’Reilly Media, California.
O’Reilly, Tim. (2006, December 10). “Web 2.0 Compact Definition: Trying Again.” O’Reilly Media.
O'Reilly, Tim. (2005, September 30). “What is Web 2.0: Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software.” O’Reilly Media.