Customer Reviews

The Social Life of Information

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

If you would like proof of the authors' thesis in the Social Life of Information, all you have to do is read all the reviews for the book. Take a moment and do that, then come back here...

Finished? Any thoughts?

Okay, here's their basic thesis: most interesting information is socially situated, socially constructed, or otherwise impossible to tear from its human roots and package into transferrable units of "knowledge". This has major implications for the viability of certain kinds of information systems, educational programs, and the evolution of an "information society". Yet, most information workers and information products appear to be oblivious to these implications.

The proof? Ask yourself how you feel when you read a book review on-line. How do you feel when one review raves about the book and another review lambasts it? How do you feel when a reviewer gives you instructions that he expects you to follow, as I just gave? Do you follow them? What point is there to my asking "any thoughts?" when obviously you can't answer?

You don't know me. You can't trust me. I'm not a part of your social system. The only way I can participate in your learning at all is if you see in these words something that touches you... and if so, that is little more than a happy coincidence: neither of us could have planned it.

My point is that these reviews offer an illusion of a social system, but there's nothing much behind that illusion. It's cool write one, yes, in the way that scratching my name on a tree used to feel cool. But I find it very difficult to put these reviews to any practical use. I can't know who to trust. Isn't that how you feel, too? Consequently, these reviews are not capsules of knowledge pouring into your thirsty head. This review system is an example of the sort of shallow informationism that the authors complain about in their fascinating book.

So why am I writing a review if I don't think it's likely that you'll find what I say useful? Well, I'm really writing to my students and colleagues, with each of whom I already have a connection. You know who you are. I teach software quality assurance and testing. This is a wonderful book that I recommend as a tool for making sense of how a process specialist's place in the social order influences his prospects for getting anything useful done.

This book drove the final nail in the coffin of my hope that if I could only write a good enough process document, someone would follow the processes I prescribe. Now I know better. Not because Brown and Duguid say so (I don't know them, either) but because what they say rings so true to my *own* experience. People learn primarily by doing and experiencing in a system that includes other people. We are not merely information consumers. Process standardization, in the knowledge world, is therefore a fruitless or dangerous pursuit without considering the social context of practices.

Thanks for reading. (why am I thanking you? I'm stuck in this illusion of online society!)

For more on this, see my review of Cognition in the Wild. I can't promise that will help, but you might get lucky.

-- James

This is one of the few indispensible books of the new information age, one that tempers the misleading fantasies of cyberutopians and rebuffs those who fear technology. By putting technology into its social context, the authors clear away the tunnel vision of so many people involved in the development of new technologies. By bringing together case studies from Xerox and other companies, they show why some technologies catch on and others don't, why imposing technology on workers is counterproductive and how people use technology to reinforce their social webs. Far from undermining our social, human world, technology ends up bending to it. They show why the Internet will not destroy universities, cities, nations and other institutions in the way so many people predict. This is a lucid, well-written book, mercifully free from technobluster and dreary jargon. A really excellent read.

The book is an excellent study of the limitations of information technology and should be read especially by those technocrats who believe that any organizational problem can be solved by stuffing more and more information into a computer database. The authors remind us that these technologies should be tools, the means to an end ... but not the ends in themselves.

Advances in technology have, in many ways, been wonderful. Taken to an extreme however, the mindless application of technology for the sake of technology does not nothing but reduce productivity and raise tension levels in organizations. The Authors rightly point out that information is best when it is the servant, enhancing the abilities of people rather than forcing them into narrow constraints.

I would recommend this book highly to anyone who must deal with the increasing deluge of information in any organization. After all, any technology is best when it incorporates the humanity of its creators and users.

I enjoyed reading this thoughtful book, which evaluates and analyzes the role of technology in a balanced social context. I learned to appreciate a different perspective - a perspective where information technologies are placed in a balanced contextual relationship to social values, and to human needs and relationships. Other books I have read survey technology from the standpoint of technological determinism, or as the book says, from the standpoint of the "blinkered euphoria of the infoenthusiast." This book is a good reading and it seeds deeper discussion and thought.

Since I work in the field of distance learning, I found Chapter 5, "Learning - in Theory and in Practice," Chapter 6, "Innovating Organization, Husbanding Knowledge," Chapter 7 - "Reading the Background," and Chapter 8, "Re-education," particularly interesting and relevant. The authors identify three differences between information and knowledge: 1) knowledge usually entails a knower (the person who knows), 2) knowledge appears harder to detach (than information), and 3) knowledge requires assimilation. So these days, with all the talk about hot distance education trends and increasing on-line and other technology-mediated educational programming, we need to remain mindful of the need for technology-mediated programming to empower folks to learn, i.e., acquire and assimilate knowledge.

I also appreciated Brown and Duguid's insightful discussion regarding changes in higher education. It is true that an opportunity exists to provide greater access to higher education through the expanding use of information technologies. But, it is important to distinguish the current hype about distance learning from the reality of what really is currently available and accessible. The authors also draw distinctions between social distance and geographical distance and the dangers of polarization. I also agree that the goal should be access to higher education.

I really wanted to like this book. I like the authors. I like their prior work. I think it's just that I'm just the wrong reader. Well, not exactly that either. The book seems to have two parts. Chapters 1-3 are very gentle, lay introductions to some of the rhetoric of the information / commuication age. These chapters also offer an interesting view of the history of the naiscent information age. Chapters 4 - 8 are much more compelling, discussing knowledge and education and organizations, with liberal use of real world organizations and experiences as illustrations. From chapter 6 on, it's fairly brilliant, offering a new ways of thinking about KM and intellectual property (sticky and leaky knowledge), and education as an enterprise. (The sections on the future and role of higher ed. are must reading, and I'm not going to give it away here.) It does remain very readable, however, and that should count for a lot.

As I read this book, I realized I was again engaged in one form of what the authors refer to as "the social life of information": They shared their own ideas with me; I then correlated them with what my mind already possessed. One result was, that my curiosity about this complicated subject was stimulated to learn more about it even as, meanwhile, I now share information with those who read this review. There has been a "social life of information" since the first time one human being communicated with another. Over time, man has devised all manner of ways to overcome various barriers to effective communication (barriers which include distance and cost) with inventions such as the printing press, telegraph, telephone, radio, television, and computer. Never before has there been more information available than there is now; moreover, never before has there been more and better ways by which to share it. In this volume, Brown and Duguid examine major technological achievements in terms of the gap between what each has contributed to society thus far, and, what each could yet contribute.

Of special interest to me is the as yet unfulfilled potential of telecommunications convergence For example, consider my situation. Atop a large table in my study, I have a computer, a printer, a facsimile machine, a DSL modem, and an adjustable lamp as well as a cordless telephone housed within a unit which records messages. Beneath this same table, there are more than 200,000 wires and cables. In the living room nearby, I have a television set; on top of it, a VCR, a DVD player, and some kind of box which AT&T Broadband installed. We need to have four different remote control devices near at hand. Only my wife knows which one to use when. Behind the television set, approximately 53,000 wires and cables. Oh sure, if I wished to spend the money, I could have someone come in and achieve in both areas the convergence to which I referred. Having read this book, I now view the current communications situation as being anti-social while conceding that at least I do not need a separate television set for each channel I wish to view.

Brown and Duguid know exactly what I am talking about. With uncommon precision as well as eloquence, they urge their reader to consider quite carefully what information is, how it can be exchanged, and why the nature and extent of that exchange are among the defining characteristics of any society. They observe, "Technology design often takes aim at the surface of life. There it undoubtedly scores lots of worthwhile hits. But such successes can make designers blind to the difficulty of more serious challenges--primarily the resourcefulness that helps embed certain ways of doing things deep in our lives." This is precisely what James O'Toole has in mind when, in Leading Change, he refers to what he calls "the ideology of comfort and the tyranny of custom."

Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to check out Albert Borgmann's Holding On to Reality: The Nature of Information at the Turn of the Millennium, Douglas S. Robertson's The New Renaissance: Computers and the Next Level of Civilization, and Carl Shapiro and Hal R. Varian's Information Rules: A Strategic Guide to the New Economy.

If you are trying to assemble a comprehensive view of electronic marketing, this book contains critical pieces. Other than Moore's Law, few recent predictions have actually foretold events in this field. Alongside books about the possibilities of e-marketing--exploiting our ability to collect, sort and distribute information--this book highlights the limits of pure information, and points to contrary social forces. Especially for people with a layman's background in technology, I think this book is a must-read.

This book offers a counterargument to the claim that more information (and more Information Technology) will magically make life easier. It is not an argument against technology, but it is a call for more realistic expectations when it comes to things like telecommuting, the "paperless office", and the virtual university.

The authors' engaging tone helps to overcome the dryness of some of the material. As someone who has spent a good deal of time in online communities, however, I felt that the book (and its authors) might have benefitted from a closer look at some of the more social online communities.

Like any book on technology, of course, this book faces the problem of quickly becoming dated, particularly when the authors look into the (possible) future, but it serves as an excellent introduction to the topic. It also includes a bibliography, for readers wishing to delve more deeply into the history and studies behind the book.

This book is a thought-provoking look at the limits of information. I liked the book because it focused on many things that I don't normally think about, and raised important questions about my own use of information. For example, how can a software program find my preferences on the Web when I'm not sure what I'm looking for? How should I compare offers when I know very little about the people making the offers?

Many aggressive pundits who favor the development of electronic communication and information tend to project that certain products and services will be totally replaced. For example, I have read forcasts that predict the end of printed books, universities, and various kinds of retail outlets in the next few years.

The authors point out that many solutions and institutions will continue because they offer a social context that makes information more valuable. A historical analogy of the telephone is described in the book. Bell first put telephones in hotel rooms so people could call the front desk, a convenience over walking to the front desk to have the conversation. Later, he put telephones next to the counter in diners so that people could watch others using the telephone to learn how and why people were using it.

Many people who see distance learning as replacing the university are forgetting that much education takes place outside of lectures, writing papers and taking tests. The university's social context will continue to be helpful with these other types of learning. How can that context to added to distance learning?

One of the most interesting ideas in the book was the way that structure and structurelessness in information and uses of information can complement each other in creating bodies of perspective and experimentation. Normally, each of use thinks that only by adding more and more structure can more be achieved. This book makes the case for a more balanced approach is a persuasive way.

The issues and examples are compelling, interesting, and thought-provoking.

If you want to examine how you should adapt your own actions and those of your organization to the Internet, this book is essential reading! After you finish enjoying this book, I suggest you consider how you can structure the way you communicate to be more accessible to others. In doing so, be sure to consider how to make things looser to encourage imagination, as well as tighter to ensure understanding.

I liked this book, because it focused on many things that I don't normally think about, and raised important questions about my own use of information. For example, how can a software program find my preferences on the Web when I'm not sure what I'm looking for? How can I compare offers when I know very little about the people making the offers?

Many aggressive pundits who favor the development of electronic communication and information tend to project that certain products and services will be totally replaced. For example, I have read forcasts that predict the end of printed books, universities, and various kinds of retail outlets in the next few years. The authors point out that many solutions and institutions will continue because they offer a social context that makes information more valuable. A historical analogy of the telephone is described in the book. Bell first put telephones in hotel rooms so people could call the front desk, a convenience over walking to the front desk to have the conversation. Later, he put telephones next to the counter in diners so that people could watch others using the telephone to learn how and why people were using it. Many people who see distance learning as replacing the university are forgetting that much education takes place outside of lectures, writing papers and taking tests. The university's social context will continue to be helpful with these other types of learning.

One of the most interesting concepts in the book was the way that structure and structurelessness in information and uses of information can complement each other in creating bodies of perspective and experimentation.

The issues and examples are compelling, interesting, and thought-provoking.

If you want to examine how you should adapt your own actions and those of your organization to the Internet, this book is essential reading!