Forming information in the digital age
Craig Mod's piece Books in the age of the iPad contains some really important ideas. First, Mod frames the concept of printed content into two groups: formless content and definite content. Then he talks about how the iPad enables definite content – content where the relation of elements on the page conveys meaning – to exist in the digital world, and suggests that new forms of information presentation may emerge to take advantage of the new class of tools that the iPad represents.
Mod is using the iPad as an example, but don't get caught up in the fact that he's writing about a specific device; think instead about the broad implications of what he's suggesting, because I think he's hitting on something that's critical for those of us in the information management field to understand. In my opinion, we've got to be part of developing forms that take advantage of the new display appliances that will come online in the next decade. The limitations of print that Edward Tufte wrote about at length are already almost a moot point. When the canvas expands infinitely in any direction, when text and images are no longer only static, then isn't the potential for conveying meaning enhanced dramatically? And yet, the graphic language for representing information in the new digital world is still in its infancy.
We need to be a part of figuring out how to create meaningful content on devices like the iPad. Not because it's the latest shiny new toy, but because the advantages of digital content are significant, and because our ultimate goal should be use whatever tools are available to provide information in a way that makes people's lives better.
Posted by Stuart Maxwell
