Blog 2: Talking about Information Architect, Sorting List and Navigation Labels

Role of an Information Architect

Information Architect (IA) plays a very crucial role in planning where the information and services will be located in the website so as to make the user as comfortable and the process of navigating and accessing the information as simple as it can be for the user. Information Architect also explores the needs and requirements of the customers for the information deliverables. Information architect is a person or a group of persons who works under the paradigm of information architecture which in turn is a part of information systems. IA also has the authority to decide over the preferences of the author and the business requirements. The key roles of IA also include structuring, organizing and labeling.

Sorting List

#!%&: Creating Comic Books

$35 a Day Through Europe

.38 Special

The 1-2-3 of Magic

1001 Arabian Nights

Albany, New York

H20: The Beauty of Water

The Hague, Netherlands

T he Lord of the Rings

New York, New York

Newark, New Jersey

El Paso, Texas

Plzen, Czech Republic

Saint Nicholas, Belgium

St. Louis, Missouri

XVllme Siecle

Did you put the The Hague under T or H?

Under T.

   

Did you put El Paso under E or P?

Under P.

Which came first in your list , Newark or New York?

New York.

Does St. Louis came before or after Saint Nicholas?

After.

How did you handle numbers, punctuation and special characters? 

I put special characters first, then punctuation then numbers.

Assuming the italicized terms are book title, what might be more useful way to organize this list?

According to genre of the books.

If the cities represent the places you've visited and the book titles are the one you've read. how could chronology be used to order the list in more meaningful way?

They could be demarcated according to books i have read and the cities i have visited or may be into two columns of books and cities.

Navigation Labels

For this blog the site which i have selected is www.mzhiphop.com

Top Page Navigation

Label	Destination’s Heading Label	Destination’s <title> label
mzhiphop.com	mzhiphop.com	mzhiphop
HOME	HOME	Homepage
SONGS	LIVE SONGS	LATEST SONGS | Popular | MZTOP 100
VIDEOS	VIDEOS	LATEST VIDEOS | MZTOP 100
TOP 100	TOP 100	TOP 100 songs | Week |Month |All Time |Videos |News
SPECIAL	SPECIAL	SPECIAL PACKS |Popular |MZTOP 100
OLD BUT GOLD	OLD BUT GOLD	OLD BUT GOLD |All Time | 2010 |2009 |2008 |2007 – 1995 |MZTOP 100
REMIXIES	REMIXIES	LATEST REMIXIES | Popular | MZTOP 100
NEWS	NEWS	LATEST NEWS | Popular | MZTOP 100
CONTACT	CONTACT	CONTACT US

Bottom Page Navigation

Label	Destination’s Heading Label	Destination’s <title> label
mzhiphop.com	mzhiphop.com	mzhiphop
Home	Home	Homepage
Songs	Live Songs	LATEST SONGS | Popular | MZTOP 100
Videos	Videos	LATEST VIDEOS | MZTOP 100
News	News	LATEST NEWS | Popular | MZTOP 100
Top 100	Top 100	TOP 100 songs | Week |Month |All Time |Videos |News
All Updates	All Updates	LATEST UPDATES | Popular | MZTOP 100
Contact	Contact	CONTACT US
Terms	Terms	TERMS OF SERVICE
Privacy	Privacy	PRIVACY STATEMENT
DMCA	DMCA	DMCA | MZHIPHOP

• All labels are linked to their appropriate destination but i did not liked the bottom labels as they take too much space and many of them are repetitive. Other than that everything seems fine.

• There is one another site similar to mzhiphop.com and that is emp3world.com and mp3fresh.net but later is more complex to navigate and nor user friendly for the user. One of this site (emp3world.com) not even have labels and too awful interface and the other mentioned website (mp3fresh.net)  is too complex and not interactive and very simple and bad designed site.

• While, mzhiphop.com has every news, songs, videos updates and even old hits also. A perfect place for music lovers.

• Following is the snapshots of the emp3world.com

Blog1 : Talking about RSS Feed, Terms of Service and privacy policy for a social network and Web 3.0

Introduction : 

Hi everyone i am back again with some of the information regarding the RSS feed reader,  Terms of Service and privacy policy for a social network and lastly about Web 3.0 for our next assignment (Blog 1). As i have introduced myself to you all in my previous post but still i want to tell you all about my degree and job perspective in the coming future. As i mentioned in my last post that i am not a good and creative writer please bear with me..
As you all know i am studying Bachelor of Information Technology (BIT). I did my Diploma in Computer Engineering in my home country. I am 2nd year student and my major is 'Informatics'. I will be graduating in July 2014. Working as a project manager for a company is my dream job and what i really want to get into.
As i have never handled blogs and all this stuff for me Information and Content Management is the way in which content is organised and displayed for the online user and managing the blogs. I’m hoping this subject teach me a deeper and fundamental knowledge of what Information and Content management really means.

RSS Feed Reader :

While surfing on Facebook, Yahoo, Twitter etc.. i usually use to see this symbol and was wondering that what that symbol/ logo means? but i was very lazy enough to get known of and explore about it. but now when i got the assignment i started exploring it. 
1st all of those who don't know what RSS means? i would tell them RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works such as blog, news headlines, audio, videos and documents etc.. RSS feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content automatically. A standardized XML file format allows the information to be published once and viewed by many different programs. They benefit readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from favorite websites.
After reading of RSS i was very interested and keen to use it and that's when i subscribed to RSS feed on yahoo news,facebook etc... So now every time any new news is flashing i got notification on my google reader in more organised way. that is so cool (Thumbs up). I was very angry of myself that why did i not explored it before. Now unlike  the old times going off my every single favorite website checking out for news, its now directly to my browser when it is updated making its more easy and simple. Now i  have subscribed to all of my favorite websites and i am very happy with the working of  RSS.  

Checkout this video: (RSS explained in a simple and interesting way) for those who still confused with actually what it is?

Advantages:

• RSS is spam free. RSS does not make use of your email address to send updates, thus your privacy is kept safe from spam mails.
• Unsubscribing is hassle-free. You are asked questions on why you no longer want to be subscribed.
• Once you have subscribed to a website, the publisher will keep you up-dated. Whether it's the weather, new music, software upgrades, local news, or a new posting from a rarely up-dated site.

Disadvantages:

• Graphics and photos do not appear in all RSS feeds.

• Confusing as name of URL does not appear. 

• Lack of report analytic.

Terms of Service and privacy policy for a social network :

Again this is the thing which none of us have read it ever and same with me. i was never interested in what the privacy policy and services stated. but again as part of assignment i have to read the boring Terms of Service and privacy policy for a social network. Today i am talking about a most popular mobile social network application name ' WhatsApp'.

  
After having a overlook on terms of service and privacy policy i was shocked with the information i came up with.There are many things and disadvantage that we all should know about. Here are some of them... 

First it states that Information provided by our users through the WhatsApp Service may contain links to third party websites that are not owned or controlled by WhatsApp. WhatsApp has no control over, and assumes no responsibility for, the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third party websites. In addition, WhatsApp will not and cannot censor or edit the content of any third-party site. By using the Service, you expressly acknowledge and agree that WhatsApp shall not be responsible for any damages, claims or other liability arising from or related to your use of any third-party website.
Second You cannot send huge amount of data like mp3 or video files. So sending of information is restricted. 
Third disadvantage is your contacts need whatsApp installed much like skype. if they do not have WhatsApp installed in their phone the message wil not be send.
Fourth WhatsApp reserves the right to terminate your account for any reason whatsoever – a provision I generally view as bad for users.WhatsApp clarifies that you use the service “at your sole risk.” Anything bad that happens as a result of using the app is not WhatsApp’s fault. And you can’t sue the company or its employees because of something bad that happens as a result of WhatsApp – including messages not being delivered, or only being partially delivered.

Fifth WhatsApp when choosing to participate in various uses of the WhatsApp Service, such as registering as a user, updating your status or requesting status for your contacts. In order to provide the WhatsApp Service, WhatsApp will periodically access your address book or contact list on your mobile phone to locate the mobile phone numbers of other WhatsApp users (“in-network” numbers), or otherwise categorize other mobile phone numbers as “out-network” numbers, which are stored as one-way irreversibly hashed values.
and the last The WhatsApp Site and Service are hosted in the United States and are intended for and directed to users in the United States. If you are a user accessing the WhatsApp Site and Service from the European Union, Asia, or any other region with laws or regulations governing personal data collection, use, and disclosure, that differ from United States laws, please be advised that through your continued use of the WhatsApp Site and Service, which are governed by California law, this Privacy Policy, and our Terms of Service, you are transferring your personal information to the United States and you expressly consent to that transfer and consent to be governed by California law for these purposes.

After reading all this here are some things i found weird about the terms and policies. I thought that all my data send is private and no third party can access my information but it not true. WhatApp also can access our contacts to registering some of the services;now that is something i not got!! why they need to access our contacts for registering some of their services? WhatsApp isn't for everybody. Specifically, the company forbids the use of its app by anyone under the age of 16, unless you are “an emancipated minor, or possess legal parental or guardian consent.” Oh, and you can’t use the app if you are “located in a country that is subject to a U.S. Government embargo, or that has been designated by the U.S. Government as a ‘terrorist-supporting’ country.” Hear that, terrorists? No Whats App for you! 

Web 3.0 :

After done some researches about Web 3.0 or Semantic Web, I am really excited what Semantic web can do,  beyond that worry just appear on my mind. Firstly, People can do anything on website on smartphone as they do on computers. With Web 3.0, Tasks will be easier for user. For an instance, instead of multi searches, user might type a sentence or two like they write in formal on Web 3.0 browser,  In this way, I think Web 3.0 will be come our virtual assistant. We just simple give Web 3.0 questions and it will analyse, search and organize the results. On the other hand negative thing can be where the information is stored? and who is controlling it? 

Thanks for reading.. i would appreciate any comments, questions and tips for the future.