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Welcome to findability.org: the next generation. In case you haven't noticed, it's a borg. I mean, it's a blog. Yes, after years of quiet resistance, I've succumbed to the call of the blogosphere. I've been assimilated.

In blogging, my most transparent and prosaic goal is to promote my new book, Ambient Findability. I've poured blood, sweat, and tears into this strange text, so I won't be shy about inviting folks to read it.

That said, I'm hoping this blog will go beyond the book. As my classification scheme hints, I'll be writing about authority, business, culture, design, search, ubicomp, etc. And let's not forget the oft-maligned category of miscellaneous. I very much reserve the right to write about seemingly random topics.

So, if you want the original findability, it's there but not here. And if you like this new place, please come again, or better yet, leave a piece of yourself behind.

Congratulations on the book Peter! I look forward to you being more findable now that it's finished.

I've been thinking about findability in the wake of Katrina and the myriad peoplefinder services that have sprung up on every possible bulletin board and news service.

Congrats Peter.
The book is on my to-read list.

Hi Peter, the blog looks great, and I'm looking forward to getting hold of the new book!

Just some constructive feedback on the blog:

* It'd be great to have the RSS feeds explicitly listed somewhere (maybe I just missed them).

* You should feature yourself prominently, with a photo, name, contact details, etc.

Cheers, James :-)

Peter, I've read the book cover to cover and enjoyed it immensely. I finished it yesterday, and have already used a lot of your thoughts in communicating to my staff and clients. Thank you for all your work.

I lead a design consultancy in Traverse City, MI dedicated to "findability." This book clarified much of what we've been trying to communicate in recent years, and I'd love to have an offline conversation with you sometime. I have thoughts and ideas about how we feel people move through physical environments that I'd like to share.

Mark VanderKlipp
(BFA, UMich 1987)

Hi Peter,

I am catching the train very late but just finished reading both of your books and have produced my first embarrassing IA draft for a client.

I am that audience you mentioned on the book... Designers who have being doing some IA but did not know we were... Taxonomies and controled vocabularies are still over my head for now but I'll get there.

After your books I feel like I cannot start a project before I create some of that on paper... I don’t have the big clients you have of course and cannot practice a lot of the great techniques you presented. I now work remotely for U.S. clients since I moved to Sydney from San Fran, but I do my best.

So to show off the beginning of my IA path and hopefully you will be somewhat proud (or not and jump off the window) here it is:
http://www.mocaloca.com/NASFM/NASFMSiteMap_v1.pdf

To rework the current site:
http://www.nasfm.org

Thank you so much for the fantastic read and opening my eyes to so much. I have since then recommended your book to so many people.

Moca,

Congratulations on completing your first site map, which looks great by the way :-) I'm pleased to have played a role in starting you down the IA path. Best of luck!

Peter,

I feel somewhat relived with your "approval"!

On another note, you mentioned something quickly on the book about your Shopping Mall experience...

My husband works as a regional manager for a big chain in Sydney and he is very interested in new ideas to make the Mall shopping experience better for men (and even more for women)

It would be very interesting to see a topic in more depth about it. I always have my crazy ideas but they seem so unreachable. I really can’t stand those directories tht lately have actually been taken over by ads.

I would love to see a GPS map loaded into your phone when you step into a mall, you know the one with the funky 3D graphics that would guide you to the store that has the black pair of shoes size 7 in stock :P

Anyway, I'll keep trying to have him allocate some budget to bring you down under for an industry analysis and I tag along as a groupie to pick your brains ;)

Congrats Peter.
The book is on my to-read list.