Peter Morville publishes “Ambient Findability”

How do you find your way in an age of information overload? How can you filter streams of complex information to pull out only what you want? Why does it matter how information is structured when Google seems to magically bring up the right answer to your questions? What does it mean to be “findable” in this day and age?

In his new book “Ambient Findability” Peter Morville, the president and founder of Semantic Studios and the author of Information Architecture for the World Wide Web, examines the convergence of information and connectivity that have made our current age one of unlimited findability. In other words, anyone can find anything at any time. Complete navigability.

Morville discusses the Internet, GIS, and other network technologies that are coming together to make unlimited findability possible. He explores how the melding of these innovations impacts society, since web access is now a standard requirement for successful people and businesses. But before he does that, Morville looks back at the history of wayfinding and human evolution, suggesting that our fear of being lost has driven us to create maps, charts, and now, the mobile internet.

The book’s central thesis is that information literacy, information architecture, and usability are all critical components of this new world order. Hand in hand with that is the contention that only by planning and designing the best possible software, devices and internet, will we be able to maintain this connectivity in the future.

Buy book (amazon.com)
Download first chapter (pdf)
Visit findability blog
Interview in Infonomia