Timo is involved in various (international) projects as an expert focussing on knowledge structuring, information retrieval, collaborative workplaces and interface design. He has years worth of experience in storage and retrieval of content, including audio/visual content.

Timo is involved in various (international) projects as an expert focusing on knowledge structuring, information retrieval, collaborative workplaces and interface design. He has years worth of experience in storage and retrieval of content, including audio/visual content.

Timo's clients include: Sellafield, the European Commission, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, EUROCONTROL, European Carbon Capture & Storage Demonstration Plant Knowledge Network, the Dutch Institute for Sound and Vision, Shell, Netherlands Police Agency, Netherlands Police Academy and the National Crime Squad.

Books top 3

1. Ambient findability
   What we find changes who we become, Morville P., O'Reilly Media, Inc.; 1 edition (September 26, 2005), ISBN: 0596007655.
   Sometimes you trip over a book that comprehensively covers the exact message that you communicate yourself and makes you jealous since you did not write it yourself. Well, this book is such a book for me. Why structure and organise the vast amount of information in an organisation if you can simply google it when you need it? Morville discusses why this sometimes can be true, but mostly is not. From a distance Google seems magic, but upon closer inspection this marvel of modern technology seems to have a number of flaws and the need for organising and structuring remains of imperative. Morville elaborates on findability from several perspectives and includes the idea of being findable. Not just documents and books, but also objects and ultimately you.

2. Understanding search engines
   Mathematical Modeling and Text Retrieval, Berry M.W. Browne M., SIAM, 1999, ISBN: 0898714370.
   This tiny book is a heavyweight due to the fact that it explains a difficult mechanism in a simple way. Search engines are often misunderstood and seen as a commodity. Just crank it up and your information mess will become clean and tidy again. This book is a reality check against all marketing hooha on the subject matter. Even without being able to master the mathematical part of the book, it remains a must read for people who want to be able to take well balanced decisions regarding search engines. Obviously a book dated 1999 does not cover the latest state of the art, but it is a thorough basis for further reading.

3. Things that make us smart
   Defending human attributes in the age of the machine, Norman D.A., Perseus Books, 1993, ISBN 0201626950
   When deciding on the number three, Donald Norman’s book beat, Neil Gerschenfelds ‘When things start to think’ , though not by much. I prefer Norman over Nielsen (the two kings of usability design), since Nielsen principally dislikes search engines and Norman does not. After the bestseller The Design of Everyday Things Norman wrote this book, which I like best. Especially the chapter called: a place for everything and everything in its place, discussing information organisation back in 1880 until today, nothing has changed really, the problems remain the same, only bigger since the amount of available information has increased. The book discusses the design of technology that fits our minds, rather than our minds that must conform to technology. One of my key footholds when assessing technology for alleviating problems for a client.

< Timo's colleagues