Re: "To everything a purpose ..."

I don't agree that drinking instant coffee is a reasonable choice - I'd
go without :) before I'd drink instant but that's a topic for another
list (coffeegeek.com anyone?)...
It is always the right thing to do to go beyond user expectations ....
but you have to really work hard to understand their needs and
expectations in order to go beyond them.  People asked for a faster
horse because they couldn't imagine a motorized vehicle.  People accept
millions of hits, many of them irrelevant, from Google 'cause that's
what they always get.... surely we can take the best of Google and the
best of OPACS (is that an oxymoron?) and create a superior product???

Cynthia Williamson
Collection Management Librarian
Library @ Mohawk


----- Original Message -----
From: Alexander Johannesen <alexander.johannesen_at_GMAIL.COM>
Date: Thursday, September 6, 2007 4:45 pm
Subject: Re: [NGC4LIB] "To everything a purpose ..."

> On 9/6/07, Jacobs, Jane W <Jane.W.Jacobs_at_queenslibrary.org> wrote:
> > The point here is that just
> > because sometimes we make the (quite reasonable) choice to drink
> instant> coffee, doesn't mean that we should throw out the coffee
> maker!  Don't
> > blunt all the machine tools just because you've decided it's
> reasonable> to carry add a cheaper line of widgets!
>
> Look, I know that you blacksmiths are good people, and that your
> profession is an important part of humanity with a long and proud
> history (albeit you haven't got much imagination in the names
> department). You've shoed our horses to make them more efficient, made
> our swords and armour to fight the unintelligent barbarians, and
> created fantastic tools which has helped us become prosperous with
> less effort and pain.
>
> (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blacksmith , and be sure to read the
> last section about "history and the present.")
>
> "If I asked my customers what they wanted, they would have asked
> for a
> faster horse." -- Henry Ford.
>
> Google is just like a modern day Henry Ford. I'd like to point out
> that "good enough" is the mother of all straw men ; easy to point out,
> and easy to dismiss. And, in reality, doesn't mean a thing.
>
> It's easy to underestimate Google now several years later, but in the
> beginning they were amongst the first to actually find you what you
> were after. Now we've got infoglut (overload), but who here thinks
> that Google is going to do worse in the future than what they're doing
> now? Seriously? We already see glimpses of what's coming, and little
> by little Google adds contextuality, so when we do ;
>
>   http://www.google.com/search?q=paracetamol
> ... we get refinements because it's a medical thing. If we do ;
>
> http://www.google.com/search?q=the+origin+of+species
> ... we get contextual book results. If we do ;
>
> http://www.google.com/search?q=jaroslav+pelikan
> ... we get that authors Google book results. If we do ;
>
> http://www.google.com/search?q=library+of+congress
> ... we get the first link what we're after, with contextual links.
> If we do ;
>
> http://www.google.com/search?q=Luciano+Pavarotti
> ... we get Google music, Youtube, and news items about him.
>
> Ok, that's somewhat generic topics. What about these ;
>
> - We want : Yves Kodratoff, Ryszard S. Michalski (1990), Machine
> Learning: An Artificial Intelligence Approach, Volume III, Morgan
> Kaufmann, ISBN 1-55860-119-8. (Picked from the reference list of
> Machine Learning from WikiPedia)
> - We do :
>
http://www.google.com/search?q=Machine+Learning%3A+An+Artificial+Intelligence+Approach
- We get : first result is the right book, with the full-text (!!!)
> and all sorts of info.
>
> How about ; "singing practices in the 17th century northern italy"?
> Let's try ;
>
http://www.google.com/search?q=singing+practices+in+the+17th+century+northern+italy
> First result is way off, but second is spot on. Maybe that is the very
> definition of "good enough"? Now, who wants to compare this to any
> OPAC? I dare you. :)
>
>
> Alex
> --
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
> Project Wrangler, SOA, Information Alchemist, UX, RESTafarian,
> Topic Maps
> ------------------------------------------ http://shelter.nu/blog/ -
> -------
>


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