Innovation Architecture (January 22, 2002)
http://www.semanticstudios.com/publications/semantics/innovation.html

In the future of ideas, Lawrence Lessig warns us of the grave threat
to innovation posed by mostly unseen changes to the legal and
technical frameworks of cyberspace.

As the original end-to-end architecture of the Internet is
increasingly compromised, and as copyright and patent law expand
their reach, the commons of code, content and creativity that
launched the World Wide Web is being quietly smothered.

While Lessig focuses on technology and the law, his dark prophecies
are relevant to the practice of information architecture.

The Portal and the Pendulum

The design of corporate web sites and intranets is riddled with
tensions between central control and distributed freedom.

As a vocal proponent of hierarchical classification schemes and
controlled vocabularies, I've been accused of favoring structure over
flexibility. And indeed, I do believe most sites have much to gain
from the ordered approaches of library and information science.

However, I'm afraid that as companies rush to adopt enterprise
portals, content management systems and corporate taxonomies, the
pendulum is swinging too far towards centralization.

We should learn from the software community by embracing both the
Cathedral and the Bazaar. We need to remember that control is not the
goal.

We can't tap the distributed creativity of our customers, employees
and partners without building some trust and freedom into our online
communities and marketplaces.

Perhaps what we need is a new model for thinking about the practice
of information architecture and the systems that we design.

Complex Adaptive Systems

In Out of Control, Kevin Kelly defines persistent disequilibrium
as "a continuous state of surfing forever on the edge between never
stopping and never falling."

It is this characteristic that enables complex adaptive systems to
evolve and survive within a rapidly changing environment.

He argues convincingly that this balancing act between chaos and
control is inherent, not only in all living organisms and ecosystems,
but increasingly in the social, economic and technological systems of
the modern world.

And he proposes some design principles, including:

Distribute being. "All the mysteries we find most interesting - life,
intelligence, evolution - are found in the soil of large, distributed
systems."

Control from the bottom up. "A mob can steer itself, and in the
territory of rapid, massive, and heterogeneous change, only a mob can
steer."

Cultivate increasing returns. "Each time you use an idea, a language,
or a skill you strengthen it, reinforce it, and make it more likely
to be used again. That's known as positive feedback or snowballing."

As information architects, it's worth exploring how we can apply
these principles to the design of those complex adaptive systems
currently known as web sites and intranets.

Post-Modern IA

For the past decade, most of us have practiced classical information
architecture. Our centralized teams and top-down methods have been
aimed at the creation of stable structures.

As we embrace the lessons of complex adaptive systems, we must
explore the territory of post-modern innovation architecture, using
bottom-up methods to incubate online ecologies and economies that
exhibit the capacity to learn and evolve over time.

Sound like science fiction? Well, as William Gibson himself once
said, "The future is already here. It's just unevenly distributed."

Artifacts from the Future

As I've said before, information architecture is nearly invisible.
You have to look very closely (and sometimes behind the scenes) to
understand what's really going on. But seek and ye shall find. Here
are just a few examples of innovation architecture today.

Collaborative Filtering. Drawing upon the collective navigation and
purchasing behavior of users creates a highly distributed, adaptive
solution. Amazon is the reigning champion, featuring People who
bought this item also bought and Purchase Circles. Other examples
include Microsoft's Top Downloads and mp3.com's Weekly Bottom 40.

Reputation Management. If you want useful contributions from a
distributed community, you must establish the right incentives and
promote trust. Epinions, Ebay, Slashdot and Amazon all foster trust
through double reputation managers (review the products AND review
the reviewers). And they motivate contributors with Top Reviewer
Lists and Personal Profiles. Rule #1 of the Attention Economy? We all
want some!

Citation Analysis. For decades, researchers in library science have
mined the wealth of information residing in the citations (or links)
between one academic paper and another. With their PageRank
technology, Google has demonstrated this approach can be hugely
valuable in the Web environment.

Cooperative Cataloging. For over 30 years, organizations like OCLC
have tapped the distributed intelligence of thousands of librarians
through cooperative cataloging. Yahoo has made this work on the
public Web. Many companies are now implementing this model on their
corporate web sites and intranets by using Content Management Systems
to enable distributed metadata tagging.

CMS. Companies are increasingly using Content Management Systems to
strike a balance between centralized standards and distributed
content authorship. Some online communities are experimenting with
the extreme decentralization of Wiki (e.g., IAwiki).

As far as examples of innovation architecture go, this is indubitably
just the tip of the iceberg. Let me know what I've missed.

Emergent IA

Kevin Kelly explains, "the only way to make a complex system that
works is to begin with a simple system that works."

A flock of birds, a school of fish and the Game of Life all show how
systems composed of many elements following simple rules can exhibit
emergence or spontaneous self-organization.

Can we combine simple elements of innovation architecture to create
self-organizing web sites and intranets? Perhaps. But only if we
relax control and encourage experimentation.

Bob Metcalfe says "Invention is a flower, innovation is a weed." As
we cultivate our field of information architecture, let's leave room
for a few weeds. You never know. Something wonderful may emerge.