Intertwingled is intertwingled

Information isn't singular. Boundaries are artificial, and not particularly helpful. Understanding comes through withstanding inputs crashing from all directions. This is the premise that Morville beautifully illustrates in Intertwingled. The book rambles from personal memoir to philosophy to information management treatise. Chapter markers are artificial. Understanding comes through assimilating Morville's varied inputs. It's a worthy effort. ( )

This is a book that will make you think twice. Or even more. It discusses the relationships between us humans and that of structures. We create meanings as humans to make sense of the things that surrounds us but do we fall short of the possibilities that lie outside of the frameworks we create?

There are many examples and Peter Morville eloquently weaves together information from several fields, drafting in well-established authorities from many fields.

His most important contribution is his questioning of established practices. He tries to place the user and the employee at the heart of the user experience. We need to consider what is the culture of a company because to create lasting change within an organisation we "need to look for the levers" as he suggests but if you go against the system, the system will push back. The notion that everything is intertwingled means there are relationships to be fostered. It is not me against you. It us working together moving forward.

Staying true to Peter's principles evident throughout this book I will not try to impose my meaning on you with regards to the book.

I can only recommend that you read it.

F. ( )

Morville's thinking and its evolution chronicled with numerous references to business, philosophy and systems work. At the core are insightful observations about types of change, organizational culture and their relationship to categories and linkages. I'd recommend reading it together with Everything is Miscellaneous by David Weinberger. ( )

This is a deeply personal book, based on Morville's reading and experience, that elevates information architecture away from the practical towards the reflective and thoughtful by way of this elliptical and eclectic meditation on the skeins of information that surround us.

It sketches information in broad strokes, taking in the natural world and the invisible constraints of culture in order to expose the categories and limitations that inhibit thinking and the connections and levers that change thinking. An attempt, perhaps, at a more holistic epistemology of information systems that inspires, but doesn’t always succeed (in places it is a bit too gnomic).

Given how much of the book is informed by influential texts Morville has encountered it is also surprising their isn’t a bibliography to accompany the provided notes (which aren’t always well referenced). Morville also has a tendancy to drop references into the text that aren’t well noted, for example infoscent, and assume a higher level of cogniscence with terms than I have. For a book about connectedness this displays a surprising lack of context and linking.

There was much in here that resonated but overall it works best at creating an overall mindset about information, architecture and systems thinking. It is better than the sum of its sometimes vague parts and introduced me to a whole host of new thinkers, texts and ideas to explore by suggesting an interesting bibliographic path to wander by following up many of the quoted sources (that’s why I was so disappointed there wasn’t a full bibliography). For example Systemantics by John Gall, Thinking in Systems by Donella Meadows and Bruce Sterling’s concept of 'spime', are all new to me and look interesting. ( )