{"id":2354,"date":"2019-10-31T09:16:04","date_gmt":"2019-10-31T16:16:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/?p=2354"},"modified":"2019-10-31T09:32:09","modified_gmt":"2019-10-31T16:32:09","slug":"more-things-to-think-about","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/?p=2354","title":{"rendered":"MORE THINGS TO THINK ABOUT"},"content":{"rendered":"

Information comes and goes.<\/strong>
\nThe how of it? Nobody knows.<\/strong>
\nI care.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is not a post for everyone, maybe not for anyone, but the post is true to its title.\u00a0 I have been thinking, again, about the flow of information: how; it moves, who changes it\u2019s flow or content, and who finds and chooses to use it. Think about<\/span>\u00a0the crazy information trails from obscurity to foolish action to widespread disbelief in the Bedbug Incident<\/a> or Pizzagate<\/a>, but not today.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Because, finally, the impeachment process has begun, and already people don\u2019t know how to choose a source that will give them credible, current, newsworthy information\u00a0 Already the impeachment inquiry is a lot of recorded information from a lot of sources, gathered by a lot of official bodies.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Where to look?\u00a0 Who to believe? Where to start?\u00a0 Who or what outlet(s) to follow?\u00a0 Oh yeah, I am so ready.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

How about beginning with the two official documents<\/a> that started it all: the whistle-blower\u2019s complaint and the President\u2019s summary of his phone call? Then add the pond ripples of official testifiers<\/a>, their testimony and documents and you have a useful information trail to follow, though the record of the Congressional hearings will only be made public later, and the distractions will be ever with us.<\/span><\/p>\n

Action Shot #8 Wondering. What makes beauty? Pause to consider. Color, texture, shape, growth, sunshine, and.., and…. Hard to pinpoint. Clearly, we need to keep going to the Botanical Gardens.<\/p><\/div>\n

Add the coming circus of seemingly endless other primary records, e.g. tape of the President\u2019s actual call, translator notes, notes from others listening in, other whistle-blowers chiming in, legal opinions, Congressional rulings, Judicial rulings, White House press interactions and walk-backs, etc.\u00a0 Then add the wanna-sayers,\u00a0 analysts and everyone else with an opinion and a bull horn. The problem is not in the number or variety or even the distribution of these records. No, the problem is figuring out what information you need and how to find it. Clearly, you need a map with routes built on\u00a0 a visual image of an organizing scheme.<\/span><\/p>\n

Scheme and image have to come together somehow.\u00a0 That\u2019s the fun of the challenge. Bibliographic chains used to work, and maps are always good, but two dimensional, although overlays help..\u00a0 A maze or web come to mind, but they are too inflexible. An opening peony blossom works for the expanding sources, but the inter-petal links apparently don\u2019t exist. Color could sort the political from the legal sources, but other variables, e.g. origin, authority, spread, influence, timing, point-of-view, need to be included, maybe.\u00a0 (Have I said I love the NYTimes’ online graphics?)\u00a0 Consider these three ways of thinking about the problem.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>The complex of bare branches of a living tree might work.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Carol Lee Chase\u2019s painting \u201dAn Order Shared\u201d<\/strong> at Groveland Gallery in Minneapolis<\/p>\n

Photographs of mathematicians\u2019 blackboards “[with]<\/span>\u00a0swirling gangs of symbols sketched in the heat of imagination, argument and speculation.\u201d\u00a0 are food for thinking about possible variables which, when somehow combined, might\u00a0 suggest a useful trail to follow.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Jessica Wynne, photographer, \u201cDo Not Erase.\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0 A collection of these images, will be published by Princeton University Press in the fall of 2020 some of which appeared in the NY Times<\/strong> (9\/23\/09).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, of course, a book, one of my favorites.\u00a0 Barbara Ann Kipfer’s The Order of Things: Hierarchies, Structures, Pecking Order<\/strong>s is an unusual, useful, charming effort to sort things out and give them a place.\u00a0 This was one of the hardest books I had to give up when I could no longer manage pages of a bound, paper book. And it is not available for Kindle readers, so I am remembering my years of pleasure in having it nearby.\u00a0 Edward Tufte’s<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0books are great graphic displays, especially, in this case,\u00a0Envisioning\u00a0<\/strong>Information,<\/strong> but they are data driven, and my information variables are not yet that established.<\/p>\n

Epilogue:\u00a0 Thinking about thoughts of a happy post-er:<\/strong><\/p>\n

I majored in philosophy, so now I\u00a0 see, frame, and ask questions.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 I became a\u00a0librarian, so now I search for the possibles.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 As a trained researcher, I apply rigor and imagination.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 With God’s grace and dad’s Irish tongue, I am still, ever an\u00a0 arguer\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 I am well-prepared for my life of little movement and much thought.\u00a0 Sigh.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Information comes and goes. The how of it? Nobody knows. I care. This is not a post for everyone, maybe not for anyone, but the post is true to its title.\u00a0 I have been thinking, again, about the flow of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2354"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2354"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2354\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2377,"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2354\/revisions\/2377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}