Context is something we take it for granted until it’s not there. And when it’s not there its absence is apparent.
The word context is defined as “the circumstances in which an event occurs; a setting.” A setting.
On the web where content is (over)abundant, context is king.
In the flat world of the current web the setting is critical. Getting the right content is important, but getting the right content in the right setting is crucial.
A quick example: my good friend Greg emailed me a number of awesome songs a few weeks ago. The problem is that I didn’t listen to them. Know why? He emailed them to me. I was in the read/write email mode, not the discover new music mode.
How do I know that the songs were great? While poking around last.fm, seeking out new music, my memory was tripped by familiar sounding song names.
The content was great and bubbled up through the noise. The problem was that it was the wrong setting. The wrong context.
As data creation continues to accelerate on the web the challenge is not only filtering for quality, it’s also necessary to filter for context.
