|
"Tis True: there's magic in the web... A sibyl ... in her prophetic fury sewed the work." -- William Shakespeare
|
Settle in. Stretch your mind. Search is so much more than tossing words at a search box.
This is the work of famed search skills theorist and information revolutionary David Novak, the innovator of many of the most significant advances in search skills from the context search to searching for certainty, from link companions to trust assessment, the Spire Project Framework and Information Collaboration Theory. David has a long history in this field including authoring the book Internet Informed and the Information Research FAQ, two of the most significant documents in this field.
How do we search better?
You are probably here for my book or advanced knowledge on Let's Kill Fake News, my talk soon to be arranged in Canberra.
Perhaps you are interested in SPF/ICT?
The Spire Project Framework (SPF) redefines the terms quality, strength, certainty and trust in a way that reveals much about how we are to search. This reworking is very foreign to the computer-science dominated approach of considering search as fetch. Information Collaboration Theory (ICT) is an actual theory, likely our first, that explains how we are to draw meaning from messages. Taken together, SPF/ICT fundamentally changes what search means, and offers
Yes, this nearly unstudied and forgotten field has suddenly become very impressive and worth your time.
Unfortunately ... I can't tell you more. There's an embargo on this content until I speak in Canberra. The reason is simple. A solution to fake news is valuable but as an independent scholar (neither librarian nor professor) I've not been paid. Further, to truly impact the world, this needs promotion, not just to people like you hungry for search skills but to those affected by fake news and conspiracy thinking or living under a cloud of disinformation. This will eventually be in high school curriculums, newspaper stories and likely your local library but if this is to happen in less than a decade, it will take a collective collaborative effort. Leaking this too soon would destroy the impact of its sudden arrival and hobble any cohesive planned release.
We don't fix smoking by publishing a few papers. We won't kill fake news with a theory and a website. Not this decade at least.
And yet, search skills have outgrown me. So I must shift from being a leading search skills theorist to becoming an active information revolutionary promoting search skills for the benefit of humanity. If only an institution or three sees it this way too. Your patience is appreciated.
Let's Kill Fake News is coming.
Other archived items include an early census of internet publishing in Western Australia and published scholarly articles on Manipulating forms to improve research and search as a field without a discipline. Other articles, like this one on deep url interpretation, previously on this website, can be retrieved from Archive.org.
If the Creative Commons licence does not work for you, request a different licence but approach early and expect to pay.
The earth is covered with people
1: Understand the limitations of how we search now. Reliance on prominence and reasonableness is rather pathetic.
2: Learn some new search skills, some just arriving.
3: Appreciate searching better as a journey, worthy of our time and effort.
Welcome to: 
Internet Informed: Guidance for the Dedicated Searcher is fully online. Published in 2007, it covers my work prior to SPF/ICT. The book is important for its originality. Chapter headings alone indicate my unusual approach to search. It contains still-valuable descriptions of context searching and Q4 quality assessment - original concepts everyone should know. It also has historical importance as one of the most significant publications in this forgotten field of study, setting the stage for SPF/ICT.
I strongly urge everyone read or listen to the introductory chapters on precision and prominence. Quality is good too but has been superceded by SPF/ICT.
Internet Informed
by David Novak of 
The Spire Project.
Prologue
chapter 1 Precision
chapter 2 Prominence
chapter 3 Quality
chapter 4 Identity
chapter 5 Haste
chapter 6 Structure
chapter 7 Attention
chapter 8 Utopia
chapter 9 Pursuit
chapter 10 Choreography
chapter 11 Epilogue
Audio endnote
[Download all audio files.]
Internet Informed by David Novak, in both pdf and mp3, are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
just those who use it.
SPF corrects our vocabulary
so we can find our way.
After more than a decade, David has resurfaced with a new original work in the form of SPF/ICT.
* a way to kill fake news and neuter conspiracy thinking,
* a dose of philosophy about the nature of truth,
* an explanation why something is true that goes beyond, "because experience says so"
* and a meaningful approach to boost productivity, increase societal resiliency against misinformation, improve respect for government and science, and perhaps trigger the next step of the information revolution.
Others seek a strong and trusted conclusion.
The best searchers seek certainty.
I am currently practicing. My first performance will be in Canberra; Wellington soon after. Three hours long, AUD$250*. I'll put a commercial here shortly.
Most of us are awfully amateur at it.
-- David Novak
Don't forget The Information Research FAQ
(with images or as text)
Published between 1994 and 2001, this FAQ was phenomenally famous. I stopped counting years ago after 10 million downloads. It's old now, explains a structured format-based search style no longer fashionable, yet reads well. It was the first big significant internet document on internet search skills and the origin of the Spire Project.
Help us help you
Much of this material is released under a restrictive Creative Commons license that invites archiving and reposting but requires attribution and forbids remixing or profiting from its content. To be clear, never obscure the author's identity. Clearly reference David Novak as the origin of these ideas. This project runs as much on recognition as passion and money.
Like what you see? Lend us a hand. Talk about us. Recognize our contribution. I speak publicly on this topic, so contact me directly with leads and requests. (See end of page.)
can only be defined as endless choice.
And I only listened
to the logic of the loudest voice.
-- Lyrics to Whisper by Slovo
in the ocean,
do not blame the ocean
for being too deep.
Teach them to swim."
-- David Novak
Keep in Touch
ne meritent pas qu'on leur parle."
-- Voltaire
not worth talking to.
Francois-Marie Arouet (Voltaire)
French Author and Philosopher 1694-1778
This form will send David Novak an email:
