WANTED:A NORMATIVE SURVEY TOWARDS GENERIC SCHEMA OF - TopicsExpress

WANTED:A NORMATIVE SURVEY TOWARDS GENERIC SCHEMA OF CLASSIFICATION OF FILES IN COMPUTERS [A topic most suitable for prospective research scholars in Library Science/ M.C.A.and English] I am facing since last night the possibility of massive and precious data loss due to a possible break down of my computer[yes, this very computer through which I am making the inputs to this column right now!] . Hurriedly I went out last night and purchased a 16GB Transcend Pen Drive to store all the files and thus prevent data loss. I wasnt sure a 16 GB Pen Drive would be adequate. I know for certain there is multiple duplication in the storage of most of the files repeatedly in multiple locations sometimes purposely and most of the times inadvertently and in an apprehension of in case. I had also already [about 2 or 3 years ago] opened an email account exclusively for storage of important files. Somehow I have not been able to keep it up to date meticulously consistently. Even this safe-store-in-a-special mail box , if it is haphazard, will soon land one in the Haystack Syndrome. . I dont know for certain whether there are ready made GENERIC schema of classification of files. Of course, a single schema of classification cannot fit the wide range of types of people who use computers. I have been wondering how other people deal with the problem of classification, storage, quick retrieval and discarding of files I recall posing this question vis-a-vis letters that pile up in our table drawers to a senior colleague when I had been in service. Pat came the reply: It is very simple,Dr.Ganesan: just close your eyes and push and push all those piles and piles of paper into the dust begin! I am sure some professionally trained computer users who are also temperamentally cool, reflective and have the patience develop or evolve their own schema of classification and wont resort to this simple but radical solution.. I hasten to add my surmise that it is not a matter of professional or amateur use but of temperament. I recall reading the tribute Collins and laPierre, the authors of Freedom at Midnight pay in the preface to their secretary:: they had instituted some 15,000 files and she never took more than a few minutes to retrieve and bring a file and never misplaced a file. Remember it was pre-computer days-- [I read the book immediately after it was published in 1975 or 76 because they make an explicit reference to the recent proclamation of emergency by Indira Gahdhi and the proclamation was vivid and green in my memory when I read the book.. Of course, there is always ready made but blank My Documents folder in every computer. to segregate and store personal files. Again, we have the built-in classification in terms of the type of file--Word, Access, PowerPoint, Excel etc., Beyond that we need schema of classification of the soft e-contents of these various types of files. That is where the problem begins. This is a type of research that is best undertaken by scholars who have a natural aptitude for classification of phenomena/ entities. Discipline-wise, Library Science and M.C.A scholars would have a premium because they will be beginning with a grounding in the generic methodology of classification and the types of e-content respectively . One of the theses I guided was on job market analysis through job advertisements. The candidate made use of ready made schema of classification of industries already developed by the GoI. She went further into functional domains like General Management, HR/Personnel,Marketing, Finance, Accounting and developed further subcategories by means of classification. Another worked on passenger complaints in the Railways. The official schema of classification that was already available had about 22 categories with Miscellaneous as a catch all. Since a sizable number of complaints in his data fell under this category and the categories in the official schema were purely descriptive he developed a normative schema of classification each with a pointer of the direction for resolution. His schema reduced the per centage of items falling under miscellaneous. Yes, an unforgettable one is the schema of classification for the degree of culpability of the perpetrators of emergency[1975-1977] excesses Justice Shah who inquired into it eveloped : those who merely and mechanically carried out unlawful orders from above because they were afraid of losing their jobs or being punished themselves; those evinced an ingratiating enthusiasim in carrying out unlawful orders and those who made use of the opportunity to settle personal scores and gain undue advantage. Yet another worked on validating a fairly elaborate and ready-made schema of questions for research. evolved by Dr.J.T.Dillon, then Professor, School of Education, University of California. She modified--rather, complemented-- the schema through her work. A third adopted a ready made of schema of classification of dream content and found the schema she used appropriate. An ubiquitous schema of classification --it is more than a simple schema of classification, but a taxonomy consisting of three distinct domains and many layers under each --of instructional objectives Again, I saw a reference to an article on Classification itself in the Encyclopaedia of Britannica. Such an article and certainly a birds view of how the schema of classification in .Botany and Zoology evolved is a promising starting point . The scholar who undertakes such a survey-- it must be a normative survey in that the outcome should yield dividends for developing a compact range of schema for a wide range of users--must first set up criteria for assessing schema of classification.. To begin with: lay and amateur users like me are the best starting point-- not because they will be the easiest sample but because it is they who are most likely to be in need of inputs extracted from such survey to orient them. Almost everyone of them would have evolved by trial and error a schema of classification. Some of them, for sure,may not be able to explain its rationale though intuitively they might have arrived at the best schema. The next stage is ranking themgenerically. Further they must be classified in terms of the type of user. It is here that the aptitude for classification comes into play. Yes, it requires semantic capability by means of which one will be able to choose or invent an appropriate label--as is required in labelling the small number of factors into which statistical factor analysis reduces a larger number of heterogeneous variables. Let me close this post with an episode of humour that attests to the court jester Tenali Ramans semantic versatility: A Sanskrit Pandit, puffed up with pride, came to King Krishna Deva Rayas court and threw a challenge: you show whatever object you choose and I will name it. The king cast a glance at Tenali Raman. Raman understood, went in side and came back with eight gingelee seeds, and a rope used for tying buffaloes to posts in cattle sheds and asked the pandit to name it. The pandit was non-plussed. After fumbling for a while he challenged Raman to name it. Pat came the answer: Thilakashta Mahisha Bandanam Well, the researcher may have to invent new labels by hybridising the separate semantic roots of different roots which, however, have been thrown together in a folder in the computer of a sample subject: letters to his wife and letters to his chinna veedu concubine At the risk of provoking protests from admirers of Rabindranath Tagore, I must cite two different letters he wrote-one to his wife and the other to a friend who was his host in Brazil. Together they were the subject matter of an article in the weekly column of a newspaper. The letter to his wfie was very matter of cact and the other one was overflowing with abundant emotions. Now, a challenge for the readers of this column: What name label you would coin for a folder that contained letters disparate in tone like the ones in the above illustration?!