From Cartography to Card Catalogs [Infographic]: History of Information Organization
Mindjet has posted an infographic and blog post about the history of information organization. I have embedded the graphic below.
Let me preface my remarks by saying I have known people at Mindjet and it is a fairly remarkable organization. And to be fair, the history of information organization is of interest to me, although I am far from being a specialist in the field.
However, when a graphic jumps from “850 CE The First Byzantine Encyclopedia,” to “1276 CE Oldest Continuously Functioning Library” and informs the reader on the edge in between that was “3,000 years ago,” it seems to be lacking in precision or proofing, perhaps both.
Although information has to be summarized for such a presentation, I thought the rise of writing in Egypt/Sumeria would have merited a note, perhaps the library of Ashurbanipal (first library of the ancient Middle East) or the Library of Alexandria, just to name two. Noting you would have to go before Ashurbanipal to get 3,000 years ago. And there were written texts and collections of such texts for anywhere from 2,000 to 3,000 years before that.
I do appreciate that Mindjet doesn’t think information issues arose with the digital computer. I am hopeful that they will encourage a re-examination of older methods and solutions in hopes of finding clues to new solutions.
Patrick,
I handle PR and Communications here at Mindjet and wanted to thank you for the considered critique. We strive for 100% clarity and accuracy so thanks for keeping us on our toes!
We updated the graphic accordingly. Here’s a link: http://info.mindjet.com/FromCartographytoCardCatalogsTheHistoryofInformationOrganizationInfographic.html
We considered including the Library of Alexandria but wanted the graphic to focus on the latter developments so unfortunately it got left on the cutting room floor. Next time we’ll look include!
Regards,
Parker Trewin
Mindjet
Comment by parker_trewin — March 12, 2012 @ 6:43 pm
Parker,
Thanks for the pointer to the updated graphic!
Understand about “latter developments,” sorta. 😉
There are technological differences in how we solve information problems but the underlying nature of most such problems, I would argue, isn’t new.
Appreciate all the hard work at Mindjet!
Patrick
Comment by Patrick Durusau — March 13, 2012 @ 10:02 am