{"id":811,"date":"2009-08-11T09:51:02","date_gmt":"2009-08-11T09:51:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.slj.com\/neverendingsearch\/2009\/08\/11\/what-wereare-they-reading-about-infloox\/"},"modified":"2009-08-11T09:51:02","modified_gmt":"2009-08-11T09:51:02","slug":"what-wereare-they-reading-about-infloox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.slj.com\/neverendingsearch\/2009\/08\/11\/what-wereare-they-reading-about-infloox\/","title":{"rendered":"What were\/are they reading? (about infloox)"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote>\n<p><em><q>What are famous people&#8217;s favourite books&#8230;<\/q><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><q>.. today and throughout history<\/q><\/em>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>And, what if we outsourced some of our readers&#8217; advisory work to the great writers and thinkers themselves?<\/p>\n<p>And, what if we demonstrated the notion of the personal learning network by demonstrating the notion of the classic (and perhaps a more modern) <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Great_Conversation\"><em>great conversation<\/em><\/a>?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/infloox.com\">infloox<\/a> is an unusual and fascinating little networking tool for the curious (and likely more serious) reader. (I discovered it via our <a href=\"http:\/\/groups.diigo.com\/groups\/teacher_librarians\">Teacher-Librarians Diigo Group,<\/a> thanks to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.diigo.com\/profile\/caitlinb\">Caitlin Bailey)<\/a>.&nbsp; I can see this site generating wonderful discussions with my teens and beginning bookclubs about the reading interests of their heroes and about what personal learning networks used to look like.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.infloox.com\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"210\" height=\"210\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/msi.dynamicdatainc.com\/sljblogposts\/articles\/blog\/1340000334\/20090811\/infloox.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.infloox.com\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"346\" height=\"346\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/msi.dynamicdatainc.com\/sljblogposts\/articles\/blog\/1340000334\/20090811\/infloox2.jpg\" \/><\/a><em><br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.infloox.com\/\">infloox<\/a> calls itself <em>the website on influential people&#8217;s influential books<\/em>.&nbsp; <\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.infloox.com\/hiaw\">How it All Works<\/a> page explains:<em><br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>Let&#8217;s say you are interested in Agatha Christie! <a href=\"http:\/\/www.infloox.com\/\">infloox<\/a> allows you to find:<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<ul>\n<li><em>her favourite books or authors;<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>the most famous readers of all her books, and why they liked them;<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>whether one of her books served as an inspiration for some other book.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>But that&#8217;s not all! You can also search this website, to find the favourite readings of entire countries, regions, job types, cultural movements or groups in general. Do this through our &quot;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.infloox.com\/search\/collective\">collective search<\/a>&quot; feature!<br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>This example centered around Agatha Christie and, by extension, around one of her favourite authors: Charles Dickens. Of course, both happen to be writers of books; but this is just one example! You can find similar pages for any other types of famous persons: not only writers, but also politicians, movie actors, scientists, tycoons, jazz musicians, astronauts, impressionist painters, etc. &mdash; anyone who enjoyed reading, or who might have been deeply impressed, influenced by one or more books in particular. That makes <em>lots<\/em> of famous people!<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>And if you want to find directly the influence of a book, or of an author, on a famous person, or on another book, simply type both names or titles in the search box, for example: &quot;bill clinton macbeth shakespeare&quot;.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The site promises to serve three functions:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>a search-engine book guide. It is available, and will continue to expand, in five languages <\/em>\n<div id=\"languages\">\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.infloox.com\/home?lang=de\">deutsch<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.infloox.com\/home?lang=es\">espa&ntilde;ol<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.infloox.com\/home?lang=fr\">fran&ccedil;ais<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.infloox.com\/home?lang=it\">italiano<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li><em>a new kind of encyclopedia, onto which everyone can add new data and vote;<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>the first artificial generator of aggregate statistics (by country, group, or historical period) on the popularity  of any book.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Registered users are invited to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.infloox.com\/new\/person\">add famous people<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.infloox.com\/new\/person\">authors<\/a>, or <a href=\"http:\/\/www.infloox.com\/new\/book\">books<\/a> and to create and edit&nbsp; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.infloox.com\/new\/influence\">influence pages<\/a> <em><br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>where you and subsequent viewers  can specifically discuss the influence between, say, a famous person and a book, or an author.<\/em>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>While my <a href=\"http:\/\/www.infloox.com\/person?id=6402481a\">test search on Karl Marx<\/a> offered rich links, <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.infloox.com\/person?id=6402481a\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"196\" height=\"160\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/msi.dynamicdatainc.com\/sljblogposts\/articles\/blog\/1340000334\/20090811\/marx.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>my test searches on Winston Churchill, Sylvia Plath, and David Beckham were far less satisfying, revealing&nbsp; little other than biographical information.<\/p>\n<p>Nevertheless, I see great potential here and I am hopeful that the wisdom of the crowd will populate the site with content and provocative connections.<\/p>\n<p>As for that <em>crowd<\/em>, I love the idea of having history, science, and literature classes add to the content and connections.&nbsp; (Perhaps as an AP Lit project?)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.infloox.com\/new\/influence\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"329\" height=\"296\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/msi.dynamicdatainc.com\/sljblogposts\/articles\/blog\/1340000334\/20090811\/infloox3.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Word clouds offer alternate navigation strategies and the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.infloox.com\/glossary\">buzzwords<\/a> page offers a site glossary, explaining <a href=\"http:\/\/infloox.com\">infloox&#8217;s<\/a> terms and icons:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<dl>\n<dt><em>Acquaintances<\/em><\/dt>\n<dd>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.infloox.com\/images\/acquaintance_on.jpg\" \/>An exploration of the influences or relationships between an author and a famous person cannot be completely objective and unbiased if we ignore the possibility  that, in many cases, the two persons under examination personally knew each other well. Consequently,  we systematically identify all of those famous people who had any personal contact  &mdash; perhaps because they were married, were lovers, roommates at university, or close friends &mdash; or perhaps because they simply exchanged long series of letters and correspondence &mdash; as was often the case, in remote epochs, among intellectuals and writers.<\/p>\n<p>Under the label <em>acquaintances<\/em>, we exclude those cases where two famous people only met once or twice, especially if circumstantially and tangentially. We deem that such short, infrequent, coincidental meetings are not sufficient either to allow them to influence one other, or (more crucially) to induce necessarily someone to read the other person&#8217;s works.<\/p>\n<\/dd>\n<dd>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.infloox.com\/images\/bestseller.gif\" \/>Many books were bestsellers at the time of their original publication and then perhaps fell into oblivion. Some others were totally ignored at the time of their publication but later became, suddenly, very popular. We therefore choose to use the term <em>bestseller<\/em> in a broad sense, allowing for the occasional anachronism, especially with books written before the invention of the press or of the so-called &ldquo;publishing market.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>We at Infloox are interested, among other things, in identifying those books that were great successes at any time in their history &mdash; especially at first publication or at the time of their first appearance into the world. We hope that many of the <em>bestsellers<\/em> of the old days or of past eras will at some point be re-discovered by us, citizens of the 21st century.<\/p>\n<\/dd>\n<dt><em><a name=\"bestseller\"><\/a><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.infloox.com\/images\/bestseller_small.gif\" \/>Bestseller Groups<\/em><\/dt>\n<dd>By <em>groups<\/em>, we may refer to cultural associations (such as PEN International), literary circles (such as the Bloomsbury Group), categories of merit (such as Nobel Prize winners), or cultural movements (such as Existentialism). All of these groups have one element in common, and that is why we include them: they shaped, defined, hence influenced a particular famous person. This additional method of classification ultimately gives additional power and scope to our search engine.<\/dd>\n<dt><em><a name=\"infloox\"><\/a><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.infloox.com\/images\/infloox_header_small.jpg\" class=\"larger\" \/>Infloox&trade;<\/em><\/dt>\n<dd>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.infloox.com\/images\/infloox_arrows.jpg\" \/>This term refers to the books and authors that are a favourite for a specific famous person or influential in this person&#8217;s life. Books that were simply read or studied by that person are often (and whenever data permits) also mentioned. Within this  context, the term <em>infloox<\/em>&trade; also refers to the list of all such books and authors; this list is presented in decreasing order of influence weight &mdash; or of  intensity of the liking of a book or author.<\/p>\n<p>The meaning extends to <em>collective influences<\/em> &mdash; that is, to influences over  groups of persons, types of activities, countries, or ranges of years. In this case, <em>infloox<\/em> refers to the books and authors that were favourites or influential for the group as a whole.<\/p>\n<\/dd>\n<dt><em><a name=\"negative\"><\/a><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.infloox.com\/images\/negative_on_small2.jpg\" \/>Negative influence<\/em><\/dt>\n<dd><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.infloox.com\/images\/negative_on.jpg\" \/>A <em>negative influence<\/em> refers to a book or author that influenced a famous person in a negative, repulsive way. An example could be that of a liberal politician who had read a book written by a dictator: the ideas of the latter, expressed in the book, could have left a very negative impression on her, but this reading could nonetheless have been a landmark in her life (negatively), as she may have permanently convinced herself of important political principles.<\/dd>\n<dd><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.infloox.com\/images\/outfloox_arrows.jpg\" \/>This is the mirror image of the term <em>infloox<\/em>. It refers to the list of the most prominent readers of a specific book or author, or to the list of books inspired by a specific book.<\/dd>\n<dt><em><a name=\"outfloox\"><\/a><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.infloox.com\/images\/outfloox_header_small.jpg\" class=\"larger\" \/>Outfloox&trade;Sources<\/em><\/dt>\n<dd>\n<p>We collect information through a wide variety of sources: books (monographs and series), newspapers, magazines, academic journals, encyclopedias, documentaries and radio broadcasts. We may use combinations and overlaps of different, sometimes contradicting sources. Sources may also include direct feedbacks from specific famous persons, in which case a note stating that such feedback actually took place appears on the relevant pages. This last case, however, is not the norm, as we relied only on publicly-available external sources in the overwhelming majority of cases.<\/p>\n<p>Sources may mention the influential or favourite books of famous persons and comment on how strong each of these was as an influence. But they almost never provide any ranking or indications of relative importance for a specific famous person. Consequently, all rankings and parameters of relative strengths originate from editorial decisions made by Infloox, not from the sources themselves. This means that any underestimation (or overestimation) of the influence of a book on a famous person should not, therefore, be attributed to a source, but rather to Infloox.<\/p>\n<\/dd>\n<dt><em><a name=\"children\"><\/a><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.infloox.com\/images\/children_small.gif\" \/>Suitable for children<\/em><\/dt>\n<dd>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.infloox.com\/images\/children.gif\" \/>This is a way of qualifying specific books. By <em>children<\/em>, we refer to young people roughly between the ages of 5 and 12. By <em>suitable<\/em>, we do not mean that a particular book is &ldquo;for children only.&rdquo; We recognize that some children&#8217;s books are read or re-read by adults, and that conversely some books normally written for adults are widely read by children (possibly making them classics of children literature in their own rights). By <em>suitable<\/em>, therefore, we mean a book that can be read by (or at least appear in the library of) a person younger than a teenager.<\/p>\n<p>Infloox exercised summary precautions to ensure that books labeled in such a way indeed reflect suitability for children between roughly the ages of 5 and 12. Unfortunately, errors and omissions in the research,  in the editorial decisions, and in data inputting may happen. Infloox does not accept any responsibility as to the appropriateness of a specific book for a specific child. The final decision to give a book to one&#8217;s child should rest solely on the discretion of this child&#8217;s parents or legal guardians.<\/p>\n<\/dd>\n<dt><em><a name=\"technical\"><\/a><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.infloox.com\/images\/technical_on_small.jpg\" \/>Technical influence<\/em><\/dt>\n<dd><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.infloox.com\/images\/technical_on.jpg\" \/>We call <em>technical influence<\/em> an influence by a book that normally presupposes a certain specific technical knowledge (such as applied sciences, mathematics, philosophy, etc.). Conversely, influences that do not have this qualifier are of general interest; they are accessible, and comparatively more interesting, to a typical user and general reader; these books, of general interest, represent the vast majority of book titles contained in this website and would  typically include novels and history books.<\/dd>\n<dt><em><a name=\"translation\"><\/a>Translated by Infloox<\/em><\/dt>\n<dd>This note, found next to the translation of a book title, indicates that the research team of Infloox took the liberty to <em>translate freely<\/em> the title of a book originally published in another language. This note is inserted only in those instances when a reasonable amount of research is not enough to locate &ldquo;official,&rdquo; &ldquo;established&rdquo; or commonly-used translations of the title. When such translations are not available, we assume that having <em>some<\/em> translation (although sometimes vague or excessively free) is better than having none &mdash; especially in the case of a title in a difficult foreign language, say Latin or Old French, that one does not understand and whose presence on the web-page would be unusable or simply pass unobserved.<\/dd>\n<dt><em><a name=\"reader\"><\/a><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.infloox.com\/images\/great_reader_small.gif\" \/>Voracious reader<\/em><\/dt>\n<dd>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.infloox.com\/images\/great_reader.gif\" \/>This indicates whether or not a particular famous person is an avid reader.<\/p>\n<p>For some people, books are a way of life. They read continually and attribute to books generally a great part of their personal development: social, intellectual, spiritual, even worldly and commercial. Other people, equally  intellectually intense, do not have an equally special relationship with books: their way of learning is more empirical, they function by trial-and-error  and are influenced by real-world events, instead of ideas expressed in books. This second category of people nonetheless <em>have<\/em> &ldquo;<em>favourite<\/em>&rdquo; books, which is why their reading preferences can (and should) be integrated and harmonized with the rest of the other famous people contained in this website.<\/p>\n<p>It seems to us that such different attitudes with respect to books is important. These determine the impact that a book or an author has on an individual. Therefore, we chose to highlight whether each person contained in our website is a voracious reader or not. This extra parameter not only improves the characterization of the famous persons but also increases the depth and precision of the search options offered on this website.<\/p>\n<\/dd>\n<dt><em><a name=\"weight\"><\/a><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.infloox.com\/images\/scale0_small.jpg\" \/>Weight of the influence<\/em><\/dt>\n<\/dl>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Don&#8217;t miss <a href=\"http:\/\/infloox.wordpress.com\/\">infloox&#8217;s new blog<\/a> which promises to discuss influences and affinities relating to books and literature. <\/p>\n<p>Note to the developers: An embeddable search box would be a cool addition to many of our reading pages. I didn&#8217;t see one available.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What are famous people&#8217;s favourite books&#8230; .. today and throughout history And, what if we outsourced some of our readers&#8217; advisory work to the great writers and thinkers themselves? And, what if we demonstrated the notion of the personal learning network by demonstrating the notion of the classic (and perhaps a more modern) great conversation? [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-811","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Joyce Valenza","author_link":"https:\/\/blogs.slj.com\/neverendingsearch\/author\/joycevalenza\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.slj.com\/neverendingsearch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.slj.com\/neverendingsearch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.slj.com\/neverendingsearch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.slj.com\/neverendingsearch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.slj.com\/neverendingsearch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.slj.com\/neverendingsearch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.slj.com\/neverendingsearch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.slj.com\/neverendingsearch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.slj.com\/neverendingsearch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}