Book Review: Ambient Findability
Ralf Haller
September 23rd, 2006
It took me a really long time to finish reading this book. Now I have managed it, I am still unclear what this book is really about and what it was telling me. Maybe my expectations were wrong? I thought the book would give me some ideas on the big problem of finding information and also how to be found in cyberspace, sort of provide me with some hot to-do lists and practical scenarios. It clearly did not do that. Now what is this book actually about? It tries to give a - mostly historical - overview on everything that has in some way to do with finding information online including location information (e.g. via GPS). But it completely avoids digging into any subject it touches (location-based information, Internet search, mobile communications) in enough detail to give real value to readers. I would not buy this book again, that is clear, and waste my time on an often over-theoretical writing style too. Here two examples:
“So, what’s this book about? That’s a tough one. I could tell you it’s about information interaction at the crossroads of mobile computing and the Internet, or claim it opens a window onto the singular cultural revolution of our time. I could invite you to look up its Library of Congress subject headings or its Statistically Improbable Phrases in Amazon. But I won’t. Instead, I’ll ask you to read it, for aboutness lies in the eye of the beholder.”
“Have you heard of the hippocampus? It’s one of the most ancient parts of the brain, located deep within the temporal lobes and adjacent to the amygdala. This horseshoe-shaped structure plays a central role in learning, memory, and wayfinding. We know rats rely on the hippocampus for maze navigation.”
In short. A book that has no clear target readers in mind and no clear topic to talk about will most likely end up talking about everything and finally nothing really…