I was told by a
I was told by a librarian (a real one!) that research has repeatedly shown that when indexing information - even with a controlled vocabulary and trained indexers - the maximum rate of agreement hovers around 25%. So for 75% of items, the indexers don't agree on which terms to use to describe them. Anyone want to (dis)confirm this?
I also recently discovered the existence of language geeks. Compared with the language geeks, your basic Slashdot-type technology geek is nothing but an amateur in geekness, a pathetic wannabe. A friend of mine is cataloging the different words used in New York state legal texts to describe places, and their meaning - as a hobby. He was also translating 18 century German texts into English, learning German to do it. German is harder than Perl, believe me. No debuggers available. Wordnet looks like a typical language geek hangout.
Finally, I was reading Information Anxiety 2 (at amazon.com), and thus learned that Richard Saul Wurman coined the term "information architect" back in 1975. What he meant leans more towards what today we would call an "information designer" though - many information architects wouldn't meet his definition.
That's all folks. I'm off to Belgium for a few weeks. Updates will be rare and probably not worth reading.