Assignment 4B

Classification is important because it is not only a way to organize information, but it is a way to narrow down more complex and broad information.  Classification helps in gathering the most specific and relevant information that is being sought.  There are many topics that fall underneath a general topic and classification makes it simpler for people to access something specific more easily.  In Jessica Dye’s article about folksonomy, she discusses how it is becoming commonplace for users of the internet to tag different sources of digital information so they can find the same information later on. Classification can shape a user’s experience online because the things they are interested in will be at their fingertips, especially if they want to revisit something of interest.  With classification, they can get straight to the source.  Dye suggests that classification systems like tagging helps connect people in online communities because people get to see what each other are exploring.    Classification can be used for research.  Badke discusses how research entails many steps such as coming up with a viable topic and conducting a thesis statement.  Classification becomes important here because in order to come up with a topic when researching, one has to take a broad topic and come up with a specific question from that topic that can be answered.  Classification has always been an integral way to manage information as Wright reiterates when he says humans have been sharing information, collecting it, and organizing it for over 100,000 years and coming up with tools along the way to contain that information in creative systems.