LINMO

Associative Organization

An associative, or relational, organization of information is one in which information is accessed via its relationship with other information and is not arranged in any particular order.

This contrasts with a linear organization of information, which is one in which information is arranged in some particular order and is by default accessed sequentially.

Examples of a linear organization include the content in a conventional hard copy (i.e., printed on paper) book, movie and musical performance. Examples of an associative arrangement of information include the data in a computer, a relational database (which is the dominant type of modern, large-scale database), the Internet and the human mind.

In the case of the Internet, the associative organization of information is made possible through the use of hyperlinks. A hyperlink is a text string (i.e., sequence of characters) or an image in an electronic document that serves as a user-activated switch that causes another, predetermined location in the same page or document or in an entirely different page or document to appear on an electronic display screen in place of the original page or document. Links can also be used to initiate other activities, particularly the downloading of files from the Internet.

There can be advantages to the linear arrangement of information. One is that the user is relieved of any decision with regard to the order in which to access the information. It can be very relaxing to leave the ordering to an accomplished author, composer, etc.

Major advantages of an associative arrangement of information are that it is more flexible in that it can be easier and quicker to locate specific pieces of information and that it can be easier for users to arrange information as desired. This is particularly important when large volumes of information are involved, and it is the reason that human brains (as well as those of all other living organisms) organize information in an associative manner.

Another advantage is that it is more scalable. Scalable refers to refers to the situation in which the throughput changes roughly in proportion to the change in the number of units of or size of the inputs. Scalability can also be looked at as the cost per unit of output remaining relatively constant with proportional changes in the number of units of or size of the inputs. Throughput is the amount of work that can be performed or the amount of output that be produced by a system or component in a given period of time.

These two forms of arrangement of information are not absolute, and it is typically the case that information will have have some characteristics of both. For example, each hard copy book might in itself be a linear arrangement but a bookshelf or library would be an associative arrangement. Likewise, the contents of a document on the Internet might be linear even though the relationship with each other would be associative.

A major trend in information technology has been to change the organization of information from linear to associative; that is, it has been to reduce the degree of granularity of data. This has made it practical for societies to cope with ever-increasing volumes of information.

For example, the development of tables of contents and indexes for hard copy books helped make the contents somewhat less linear and more associative. However, the usefulness of the increased convenience of accessing portions of it in an order other than its default sequence would depend on how it was written. This could be very useful for a collection of short articles about different topics, whereas it might not be as useful for a novel in which it is necessary to read it sequentially in order to understand the plot and character development.

Particularly important in the dramatic gains in the ability to organize data in an associative arrangement was the rapid progress in electronics technology and computer science that began around the middle of the twentieth century. The advances in computers that facilitated this associative arrangement include efficient filesystems and relational databases for organizing on data on individual computers. They also include networks (including the Internet) for greatly expanding the potential for this arrangement of information by allowing various parts of it to be stored, used and modified irrespective of physical location.