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Discoverability

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Discoverability is the ability of something, especially a piece of content or information, to be found. Discoverability is a concern in library and information science, many aspects of digital media, software and web development, and in marketing, since something (e.g., a website, product, service, etc.) cannot be used if people cannot find it or do not understand what it can be used for. Metadata, or "information about information," such as a book's title, a product's description, or a website's keywords, affects how discoverable something is on a database or online. In the 2010s, adding metadata to a product that is available online can make it easier for end users to find the product. For example, if a song file is made available online, making the title, name of the band, genre, year of release, and other pertinent information available in connection with this song file will make it easier for users to find this song file. Organizing information by putting it into alphabetical order or including it in a search engine is an example of how to improve discoverability. Discoverability is related to, but different from, accessibility and usability, other qualities that affect the usefulness of a piece of information.

Etymology

The concept of "discoverability" in an information science and online context is a loose borrowing from the concept of the similar name in the legal profession. In law, "discovery" is a pre-trial procedure in a lawsuit in which each party, through the law of civil procedure, can obtain evidence from the other party or parties by means of discovery devices such as a request for answers to interrogatories, request for production of documents, request for admissions and depositions.[1] Discovery can be obtained from non-parties using subpoenas. When a discovery request is objected to, the requesting party may seek the assistance of the court by filing a motion to compel discovery.[2]

Purpose

The usability of any piece of information directly relates to how discoverable it is, either in a "walled garden" database or on the open Internet. The quality of information available on this database or on the Internet depends upon the quality of the meta-information about each item, product, or service. In the case of a service, because of the emphasis placed on service reusability, opportunities should exist for reuse of this service. However, reuse is only possible if information is discoverable in the first place. To make items, products, and services discoverable, the following set of activities need to be performed:

  1. Document the information about the item, product or service (the metadata) in a consistent manner.
  2. Store the documented information (metadata) in a searchable repository.
  3. Enable yourself and others to search for the documented information in an efficient manner.

Regarding number 2, storing the information in a searchable repository: while technically a human-searchable repository, such as a printed paper list would qualify, in the 2010s, "searchable repository" is usually taken to mean a computer-searchable repository, such as a database that a human user can search using some type of search engine or "find" feature. Number 3 further supports this analysis of number 2, because while reading through a printed paper list by hand might be feasible in a theoretical sense, it is not time and cost-efficient in comparison with computer-based searching.

Apart from increasing the reuse potential of the services, discoverability is also required to avoid development of solution logic that is already contained in an existing service. To design services that are not only discoverable but also provide interpretable information about their capabilities, the service discoverability principle provides guidelines that could be applied during the service-oriented analysis phase of the service delivery process.

Specific to digital media

In relation to audiovisual content, according to the meaning given by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) for the purpose of its 2016 Discoverability Summit, discoverability can be summed up to the intrinsic ability of given content to "stand out of the lot", or to position itself so as to be easily found and discovered.[3] A piece of audiovisual content can be a movie, a TV series, music, a book (eBook), an audio book or podcast. When audiovisual content such as a digital file for a TV show, movie, or song, is made available online, if the content is "tagged" with identifying information such as the names of the key artists (e.g., actors, directors and screenwriters for TV shows and movies; singers, musicians and record producers for songs) and the genres (e.g., for movies genres such as action, drama or comedy; for songs, genres such as heavy metal music, hip hop music, etc.), this makes it easier for end users to find the content they are interested in.

In the 2010s, when users interact with online content, algorithms typically determine what types of content the user is interested in, and then a computer program suggests "more like this", which is other content that the user may be interested in. Different websites and systems have different algorithms, but one approach, used by Amazon for its online store, is to indicate to a user, once the user searches for or looks at content/product x that "other users who purchased x also purchased the following items". This example is oriented around online purchasing behaviour, but an algorithm could also be programmed to provide suggestions based on other factors.

In the 2010s, discoverability is typically referred to in connection with search engines. A highly "discoverable" piece of content (e.g., a certain movie) would be a movie that appears at the top, or near the top of a user's search results. A related concept is the role of "recommendation engines", which are computer programs which give a user recommendations based on his/her online activity. In the 2010s, "discoverabilty" applies to desktop and laptop computers and do the increasingly widening range of devices that can access the Internet, including various console video game systems and mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones. When organizations make an effort to promote certain content (e.g., a TV show, film, song, or video game), they can use "traditional marketing" (billboards, TV ads, radio ads) and digital ads (pop-up ads, pre-roll ads, etc.), or a mix of traditional and digital marketing.

Even before the user’s intervention by searching for a certain content or type of content, discoverability is the prime factor which contributes to whether a piece of audiovisual content will be likely to be found in the various digital modes of content consumption. As of 2017, modes of searching include looking on Netflix for movies, Spotify for music, Audible for audio books, etc., although the concept can also more generally be applied to content found on Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram and other websites. It involves more than a content’s mere presence on a given platform; it can involve associating this content with "keywords" (tags), search algorithms, positioning within different categories, metadata, etc. Thus, discoverability enables as much as it promotes. For audiovisual content broadcast or streamed on digital media using the Internet, discoverability includes the underlying concepts of information science and programming architecture, which are at the very foundation of the search for a specific product, information or content.

Application

The application of this principle requires collecting information about the service during the service analysis phase as during this phase; maximum information is available about the service’s functional context[4] and the capabilities of the service. At this stage, the domain knowledge of the business experts could also be enlisted to document meta-data about the service. In the service-oriented design phase, the already gathered meta-data could be made part of the service contract.[5] The OASIS SOA-RM standard specifies service description as an artifact that represents service meta-data.[6]

To make the service meta-data accessible to interested parties, it must be centrally accessible. This could either be done by publishing the service-meta to a dedicated 'service registry'[7] or by simply placing this information in a 'shared directory'.[8] In case of a 'service registry', the repository can also be used to include QoS, SLA and the current state of a service.[9]

Meta-data types

Functional

This is the basic type of meta-information that expresses the functional context of the service and the details about the service’s capabilities. The application of the standardized service contract principle helps to create the basic functional meta-data in a consistent manner. The same standardization should be applied when the same meta-information is being outside the technical contract[10] of the service e.g. when publishing information to a service registry.[11]

Quality of service

To know about the service behavior and its limitations,[12] all of this information needs to be documented within the service registry so that the potential consumers can use this meta-information by comparing it against their performance requirements.

Considerations

The effective application of this design principle requires that the meta-information recorded against each service needs to be consistent and meaningful. This is only possible if organization-wide standards exist that enforce service developers to record the required meta-data in a consistent way. The information recorded as the meta-data for the service needs to be presented in a way so that both technical and non-technical IT experts can understand the purpose and the capabilities of the service, as an evaluation of the service may be required by the business people before the service is authorized to be used.

This principle is best applied during the service-oriented analysis phase as during this time, all the details about the service’s purpose and functionality are available. Although most of the service design principles support each other in a positive manner, however, in case of service abstraction and service discoverability principle, there exists an inversely proportional relationship. This is because as more and more details about the service are hidden away from the service consumers, less discoverable information is available for discovering the service. This could be addressed by carefully recording the service meta-information so that the inner workings of the service are not documented within this meta-information.

In the online economy, sophisticated computer programs called algorithms analyse the ways that end users search for, access and use different content or products online. Thus, not only is metadata created regarding the content or product (e.g., the author and genre of an e-book), but also data is generated about specific human users' interaction with this content. If an organization such as a social media website has a user profile for a given person, indicating demographic information (e.g., age, gender, location of residence, employment status, education, etc.), then this social media website can collect and analyse information about tendencies of a given user or a given subcategory of users. When social media websites are collecting data about human users' online activities and preferences, this may raise potential privacy concerns.

In the 2010s, one concern raised with the increasing role of algorithms on search engines and databases, is that once a specific person indicates a preference for a certain type of content or product, the computer algorithm may increasingly focus on making recommendations in this type of content. To give a practical example, if a person searches for comedy movies online, a search engine algorithm may start mainly recommending comedies to this user, and not showing him or her the range of other films (e.g., drama, documentary, etc.). On the positive side, if this person only likes comedy films, then this restricted "filter" will reduce the information load of scanning through vast numbers of films. However, various cultural stakeholders have raised concerns about how these filter algorithms may restrict the diversity of material that is discoverable to users. Concerns about the dangers of "filter bubbles" have been raised in regards to online news services, which provide types of news, news sources, or topics to a user based on his/her previous online activities. Thus a person who has previously searched for Fox TV content will mainly be shown more Fox TV content and a person who has previously searched for PBS content will be shown more PBS search results, and so on. This could lead to news readers becoming only aware of a certain news source's viewpoints.

The search behaviour of video content viewers has changed a great deal since the widespread popularity of video sharing websites and video streaming. Whereas a typical TV show consumer of the 1980s would read a print edition of TV Guide to find out what shows were on, or click from channel to channel ("channel surfing") to see if any shows appealed to them, in the 2010s, video content consumers are increasingly watching on screens (either smart TVs, tablet computer screens or smartphones) that have a computerized search function and often automated algorithm-created suggestions for the viewer. With this search function, a user can enter the name of a TV show, producer, actor, or screenwriter to help them find content of interest to them. If the user is searching on a search engine on a device (laptop, tablet computer, smartphone) they own, the device may transmit information about the user's preferences and/or previous online searches to the website.

See also

References

  1. ^ Larson, Aaron (18 August 2016). "Conducting Discovery in a Civil Lawsuit". ExpertLaw. Retrieved 30 September 2017.
  2. ^ Schwarzner, William W. (1988). "The Federal Rules, the Adversary Process, and Discovery Reform". University of Pittsburgh Law Review. 50: 703. Retrieved 30 September 2017.
  3. ^ "Discoverability Summit". Discoverability Summit. Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. Retrieved 18 February 2016.
  4. ^ The overall purpose of the service
  5. ^ Service Contract
  6. ^ Michael Poulin. Evolution of principles of Service Orientation: Service Composability and Discoverability, part 7. Date accessed: 20 April 2010.
  7. ^ Reddy, et al. Evaluating legacy assets in the context of migration to SOA. pp 58. Date accessed: 20 April 2010.
  8. ^ Dennis Wisnosky.Principles and Patterns at the U.S. Department of Defense. Date Accessed: 20 April 2010.
  9. ^ .Vinod Sarma, Srinivas Rao Bhagavatula. Freeway patterns for SOA systems. Date accessed: 28 April 2010.
  10. ^ technical contract
  11. ^ A repository that contains meta-data about services in a specific format e.g. classification of service, its location, etc.
  12. ^ Jim Murphy. Essential Components of an SOA Quality Foundation. Date accessed: 20 April 2010.

Further reading

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