A sceptical essay from Ian Bogost on the digital sleight of hand he sees in the hype around the Internet of Things: "It’s time to admit that the Internet of Things is really just the colonization of formerly non-computational devices for no other reason than to bring them into the fold of computation.... The Internet of Things exists to build a market around new data about your toasting and grilling and refrigeration habits, while duping you into thinking smart devices are making your lives better than you could have made them otherwise, with materials other than computers. Innovation and disruption are foils meant to distract you from the fact that the present is remarkably similar to the past, with you working even harder for it."

It's about colonisation of our data, not about improved functionality.

By Patrick Lambe

At the beginning of July I presented a paper at the ISKO UK Conference on the need for knowledge organisation professionals to build design competencies: "From Cataloguers to Designers: Paul Otlet, social impact and a more proactive role for knowledge organisation professionals". A slight accident prevented me from travelling to London, and so I prepared a video presentation. 
https://vimeo.com/133312790

Here is the accompanying paper: 
In the early 20th century, Paul Otlet carved out a role for bibliography and documentation as a force for positive social change. While his ideals appeared to be utopian to many of his contemporaries, his activism and vision foreshadowed the potential (for good and evil) of the World Wide Web. This paper discusses the role that knowledge organisation professionals could play in enhancing the positive social impact of the web of knowledge, and how our roles are shifting from the more passive role of descriptive cataloguers, to proactive designers of positive and productive knowledge environments.

revised version of paper 27 July 2015

The slides for the presentation are here

By Patrick Lambe

Here are some recent posts on the connections between records management and knowledge organisation:

• Our friends at PoolParty have written an article and created a video on "semantic records management based on controlled vocabularies"
  
• StepTwo Designs in Australia have a white paper on usability needs in records management
  
• CMS Wire reports on a study by Iron Mountain surveying the need for records managers "to place themselves at the heart of the business and join in the decision making around big data, analytics, customer relationship management, customer experience management, digital marketing and other key business roles."
  

By Patrick Lambe