ambient findability

n.

The ability to find anyone or anything from anywhere at anytime.

Example Citations:

"Ambient findability is the future," Wodtke insists. "Do you recall before the internet, when you'd be at a party and you'd be arguing if Winona Ryder was in Alien, or if there was any difference between a pachyderm and an elephant? It doesn't happen any more - with the net almost all questions can be answered. The next day you get online and then you e-mail your friend to say that you were right, Winona was in Alien: Resurrection, and they owe you five bucks. Next you're going to want that knowledge at the party, and with web-enabled phones, there is no reason why you shouldn't have it.

— Angus Batey, "Connected, or confused?." The Times (London), June 24, 2004

First, as to blogging. Alan references my recent Are We Blogging Each Other to Death?: http://jeremy.linuxworld.com/are_we_blogging_each_other_to_death.htm posting and says that he detects in it an undertone of, as he puts it, "What's it all about? This whole blogging nonsense?" Well I have a startling revelation for Alan: this is called critical thought. Blame one of the finest educational systems on earth if you like, but I am proud to say that it's the "undertone" of everything I have done, written, or published for the past 25 years: "What's it all about? This whole BlackBerry nonsense?" -- "What's it all about? This whole 'social software' nonsense?" -- "What's it all about? This whole ' ambient findability: http://www.alistapart.com/articles/ambientfindability' nonsense?" Yes, yes, yes. Until proven otherwise, all emperors are naked.

— Jeremy Geelan, " Can Blogging Change the World?: http://jeremy.linuxworld.com/can_blogging_change_the_world.htm," LinuxWorld Magazine, November 27, 2005

Earliest Citation:

Having achieved this network nirvana, the question is inevitable: what's next? For an information architect with library roots, the answer is obvious: ambient findability.

I want to be able to find anything, anywhere, anytime.

What's surprising is how close we are to making this impossibly strange dream a reality. Ambient interfaces, sensors and small tech are about to intertwingle the physical and virtual worlds in shocking ways that will make history of the Diamond Age.

— Peter Morville, " Ambient Findability: http://semanticstudios.com/publications/semantics/000008.php," Semantic Studios, August 28, 2002

Notes:

This phrase was invented and popularized by the writer, consultant, and information architect Peter Morville, who recently published the book Ambient Findability: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0596007655/ to much acclaim.

Related Words:

breadcrumbing

cybrarian

information fatigue syndrome

information foraging

information scent

knowledge engineer

ubicomp

wayfinding

Webrarian

Categories:

Data

Internet

Wireless