In June - in the middle of a pandemic - I official retired from academia and cleaned out my office. (Retirement does not mean doing nothing, so I'm still quite busy! More about that in a future blog post.) Among the items I brought home were my work journals going back to fall 2011. I'm now going through them to see what I had taken notes on.
On Oct. 13, 2011 I wrote noted on the "nature of information access." Looking back in this blog, I see that these notes were in preparation for a guest lecture I did in November of that year. The blog posts are:
- The future of information access, part 1 - 11 areas I mentioned in my guest lecture.
- The future of information access, part 2 - Resource list.
Please note that I have not checked all of the links. If a URL has changed, use your favorite search engine to locate it OR use the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.
Game-like interfaces? Yes. Interesting uses of virtual reality? Yes, including some graduation ceremonies this year. Ability to interact in real-time with information? Yes. When I think of this, I think of data science. Data science is all around us and is delivering data to us that we take for granted (e.g., information on COVID-19).
The one that has come true and makes me a bit uneasy is information as entertainment. I noted in my blog post that Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart were doing this. This year, more late-night comedians have turned their shows into news shows that contain a bit of comedy. While the news media can give us good information, the comedians can also help us understand it, laugh a bit at it, and build some camaraderie. They have been able to interview people, who the news media may not have access to. Most importantly, they have been able to educate (thinking specifically of Kamau Bell and John Oliver).
Why does this make me uneasy? Because comedians are not journalists. Their training is different as are their standards. They generally do not have the same research staff that the news media has (or should have). The exception seems to be John Oliver, who has a very good research staff to help him deliver accurate information and stay out of litigation.
I'll also admit that I don't think the news should be entertaining, but that's me. Clearly the news programs have their entertainment aspects. I just hope that doesn't stop them from delivering the news we all need to understand.
Please go back and look at those two blog posts from 2011, and think about those ideas. Where have you seen them come true? What concerns do you have?
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