As we accumulate more and more information online, we’re inclined to add more and more metadata—so we can order it, manage it, and re-find it. This growing belt of metadata is referred to as the “navigation layer.“ It‘s the series of filters, categories, tags, and other devices that let us to interact with information so we can sift out the noise. What’s more, the navigation layer isn’t just about finding information—it can also help us make sense of the stuff we find. Sentiment analysis and entity extraction, for example, provide new insights into the information we come across. Ultimately, the navigation layer can point to high-order patterns that increase understanding.

1. Navigation Layer: Making Sense Of It All April 2010 Polish IA Summit, Warsaw

3. Metadata Structure Sense Making

4. P O P U L A R I T Y ITEMS Head = Hits Long Tail = Niche Markets

7. The solution to the overabundance of information is more information “ ”

8. Navigation Layer

12. No Frame of Reference

16. STRUCTURE M E T A D A T A Users Algorithms Experts Users Algorithms Experts GTN

18. http://www.flickr.com/photos/arimoore/3816335057/ Information Foraging

19. http://www.flickr.com/photos/lindenbaum/357980051/in/set-72157594481060620 Metadata Harvesting

20. http://www.flickr.com/photos/bitzi/178374312/ Sense Making

22. CONTENT News Research Blogs Twitter … Beyond Findability: Sense Making

25. http://www.aalab.net/projects/maps/

28. “ Clutter and confusion are failures of design, not attributes of information.” Edward Tufte

37. There is a cost to adding more and more Any and All Metadata and Structures Information Foraging Metadata Harvesting Findability Sense Making

38. Thank You [email_address] www.experiencinginformation.com