Choose a type of information you would like to work with this semester.
Start a page on the wiki for managing, communicating about, and presenting your project work and results.
Document type
We will talk about information and documents in more depth on Wednesday. For now, think about this component as choosing the kind of "stuff" you will work with this semester.
It should be something of interest to you, professionally and/or personally.
It should be something complex enough to be interesting to work on in this class.
Bear in mind that your next task will be to start building a collection of these items–not literally. You'll need to be able to gather enough information about them to know how to treat them in terms of organization. Alternately, if you are working in a somewhat familiar domain, you may know enough to fabricate interesting examples/items to play with concepts we will discuss.
It will be best if it is an information type you can imagine different groups of people wanting to get at for different reasons (books example: Scholars have one approach. Publishers have other needs in organizing books. Children use libraries differently from scholars. What about interior decorators who want to buy books based on binding type, size, and color?)
So far this is quite vague, so here are some ideas to get you going:
Journal articles
Occur in print, digitally. Occur in author's versions, pre-prints, e-prints, canonical versions. Managed by individuals (creators of said articles and users of articles), institutions (publishers, indexing agencies, libraries).
Music
This one is far too broad on its own, but you could design your own interest area.
Occurs in multiple forms: sheet music, recorded music on various media or in electronic format, etc. Complex issues of composer, authors, performers, owners, and so on. Managed by as many or more actors/organizations than are articles. Versions of songs exist.
Art
Also too broad on its own, but you can carve out a piece.
Photographs, art or otherwise
Art photos, documentary photos, personal photos now in archives. Further, scientific imaging is also a big area of interest.
Movies/films
Scientific data sets, specimens, records
Maps/geographic data
Some kinds of merchandise/inventories
Definitely consult with me about what you're thinking, so I can think about whether it'll work well for the class
Health records
Books
Libraries are not the only institutions that deal with organizing books.
Educational materials/learning objects
Zines
Ephemera/rich domains of collector items.
You might find less already done in these areas to start with, but you may be surprised.
etc. Choose any of these or suggest your own. However, I'm claiming recipes to use in class examples.
Step-by-step
Choose an information type.
If it is very broad, consider ways to narrow the scope without overly reducing the complexities of the domain. Discuss with me if you are unsure!
Create your group wiki page.
I have added an example of one way to do this to the wiki. You do not have to do it that way, however.
Note that each wiki page has a "talk" page, which I will use to give you feedback. It may also be useful for managing your group efforts. I envision this project as possible to complete using online tools, asynchronously.
On the wiki, briefly describe the information type you have chosen
Give a few examples of the kind of information you are talking about.
Why have you chosen it?
What makes it seem like an interesting information type, in terms of organizing info?
Think about physical formats, digital vs. meatspace, multiple stakeholders, things with versions, things that can be broken down into smaller things or combined into larger things (Books of poetry need to be organized. But poems inside the book are also information that needs organizing. And some poems from this book and some from that book can be combined in a new book. That sort of thing. Think in analogies…)
This writeup can, over the semester, become the framework for tying together the themes and challenges you run into in this project.
Evaluation
Weight: 1
Rubric
Follows instructions (Weight: 1)
3 To a tee
2 Yes, with a confusion or oversight or two
1 Poorly. Made it a pain to evaluate because it was not completed
0 Did not complete component.
Initial analysis of information types (Weight: 2)
3 Gives reasons why they think this is a good type of information to study this semester, with reference to considerations laid out in instructions. Gives examples of different forms of the information, how versions of the information manifest, etc.
2 Attempts to reach level of (3), but something is amiss. Perhaps I'm not completely clear what kind of information they are talking about. Perhaps they give examples of versions that are not actually versions. A valiant try, but not quite on the mark. Expected this early in the semester. There's time to go back and refine…
1 In written segment of component, did not reference the considerations I spelled out in the instructions.