recommended by/Mary Chitty


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At first, reductionism was healthy. As top-down redesigns became too large for one person, or even one team, managers broke large projects into smaller projects and assigned teams to tackle specific tasks. Initially, team members resisted any separation from the whole. They insisted on understanding how their work fit into the bigger picture. They insisted on interdisciplinary collaboration, and so we had teams of specialists working toward shared goals.

But sites keep growing and reductionism is a slippery slope. Increasingly, people are simply giving up on the big picture. They act locally but don't think globally. These individuals now design their parts in utter ignorance of the whole.

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A link-rich description of taxonomies and ontologies by Mary Chitty, a medical sciences librarian.

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Mary Chitty recommends Gladwells Tipping Point. I afraid it might amount to a collection of fun but not that new or exciting anecdotes (for me). Social networks, mavens, viral marketing, blah blah blah. That sort of feeling. But Gladwell does post some of his nice New Yorker articles on his site.

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A researcher on internet / political / social issues. Some interesting papers to look at when I'm bored.