Mooers' Law
Encyclopedia
Mooers' Law is an empirical observation of behavior made by American computer scientist
Calvin Mooers
in 1959. The observation is made in relation to information retrieval
and the interpretation of the observation is used commonly throughout the information profession both within and outside its original context.
first stated by George Kingsley Zipf. This interpretation focuses on the amount of effort that will be expended to use and understand a particular information retrieval system before the information seeker 'gives up', and the Law is often paraphrased to increase the focus on the retrieval system:
In this interpretation, "painful and troublesome" comes from using the retrieval system.
Computer scientist
A computer scientist is a scientist who has acquired knowledge of computer science, the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and their application in computer systems....
Calvin Mooers
Calvin Mooers
Calvin Northrup Mooers , was an American computer scientist known for his work in information retrieval and for the programming language TRAC....
in 1959. The observation is made in relation to information retrieval
Information retrieval
Information retrieval is the area of study concerned with searching for documents, for information within documents, and for metadata about documents, as well as that of searching structured storage, relational databases, and the World Wide Web...
and the interpretation of the observation is used commonly throughout the information profession both within and outside its original context.
Original interpretation
Mooers argued that information is at risk of languishing unused due not only on the effort required to assimilate it but also to any fallout that could arise from the discovery of information that conflicts with the users personal, academic or corporate interests. In interacting with new information, a user runs the risk of proving their work incorrect or even irrelevant. Instead, Mooers argued, users prefer to remain in a state of safety in which new arguments are ignored in an attempt to save potential embarrassment or reprisal from supervisorsOut-of-context interpretation
The more commonly used interpretation of Mooers' Law is considered to be a derivation of the principle of least effortPrinciple of least effort
The principle of least effort is a broad theory that covers diverse fields from evolutionary biology to webpage design. It postulates that animals, people, even well designed machines will naturally choose the path of least resistance or "effort". It is closely related to many other similar...
first stated by George Kingsley Zipf. This interpretation focuses on the amount of effort that will be expended to use and understand a particular information retrieval system before the information seeker 'gives up', and the Law is often paraphrased to increase the focus on the retrieval system:
In this interpretation, "painful and troublesome" comes from using the retrieval system.
External links
- Calvin N. Mooers Papers, 1930-1992 at the Charles Babbage InstituteCharles Babbage InstituteThe Charles Babbage Institute is a research center at the University of Minnesota specializing in the history of information technology, particularly the history since 1935 of digital computing, programming/software, and computer networking....
, University of Minnesota. - Oral history interview with Calvin N. Mooers and Charlotte D. Mooers at the Charles Babbage InstituteCharles Babbage InstituteThe Charles Babbage Institute is a research center at the University of Minnesota specializing in the history of information technology, particularly the history since 1935 of digital computing, programming/software, and computer networking....
. Interview discusses information retrieval and programming language research from World War II through the early 1990s.