Clear-headed analysis of how people share information through, or sometimes despite, new technologies.

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Product Description

To see the future we can build with information technology, we must look beyond mere information to the social context that creates and gives meaning to it.

For years pundits have predicted that information technology will obliterate the need for almost everything--from travel to supermarkets to business organizations to social life itself. Individual users, however, tend to be more skeptical. Beaten down by info-glut and exasperated by computer systems fraught with software crashes, viruses, and unintelligible error messages, they find it hard to get a fix on the true potential of the digital revolution.

John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid help us to see through frenzied visions of the future to the real forces for change in society. They argue that the gap between digerati hype and end-user gloom is largely due to the "tunnel vision" that information-driven technologies breed. We've become so focused on where we think we ought to be--a place where technology empowers individuals and obliterates social organizations--that we often fail to see where we're really going and what's helping us get there. We need, they argue, to look beyond our obsession with information and individuals to include the critical social networks of which these are always a part.

Drawing from rich learning experiences at Xerox PARC, from examples such as IBM, Chiat/Day Advertising, and California's "Virtual University," and from historical, social, and cultural research, the authors sharply challenge the futurists' sweeping predictions. They explain how many of the tools, jobs, and organizations seemingly targeted for future extinction in fact provide useful social resources that people will fight to keep. Rather than aiming technological bullets at these "relics," we should instead look for ways that the new world of bits can learn from and complement them.

Arguing elegantly for the important role that human sociability plays, even--perhaps especially--in the world of bits, The Social Life of Information gives us an optimistic look beyond the simplicities of information and individuals. It shows how a better understanding of the contribution that communities, organizations, and institutions make to learning, working and innovating can lead to the richest possible use of technology in our work and everyday lives.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #344308 in Books
• Published on: 2000-03-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 336 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Information must have some social life; nothing gets around as fast. Many observers actually believe that society's technical zeal is moving too quickly, that we are ignoring human experience in the quest for automation. In The Social Life of Information John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid attempt to moderate the high-tech medium with a human message.

No strangers to technology themselves, they argue that society is split between the entrenched positions of the technophiles and the technophobes: "Those with tunnel vision condemn the foolishness of humanity for clinging to the past. Those exasperated by tunnel design tend to cheer the downfall of new technology as if it were never likely to come to any good." Resolving this conflict is the aim of the book.

Eight distinct essays navigate the outer reaches of cyberspace from infopunditry to the limits of management theory. Intriguing case studies bolster the arguments, from the neglect of the hinge ("written out of every futuristic movie in favour of the sliding door") to comparisons between the interplay of human minds and improvisational jazz.

The Social Life of Information is a diverting addition to cyberculture's growing bookshelf and recommended reading for all who cling to the coat tails of the online world's fastest globe-trotting star. --Iain Campbell

Amazon.co.uk Review
Information must have some social life; nothing gets around as fast. Many observers actually believe that society's technical zeal is moving too quickly, that we are ignoring human experience in the quest for automation. In The Social Life of Information John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid attempt to moderate the high-tech medium with a human message.

No strangers to technology themselves, they argue that society is split between the entrenched positions of the technophiles and the technophobes: "Those with tunnel vision condemn the foolishness of humanity for clinging to the past. Those exasperated by tunnel design tend to cheer the downfall of new technology as if it were never likely to come to any good." Resolving this conflict is the aim of the book.

Eight distinct essays navigate the outer reaches of cyberspace from infopunditry to the limits of management theory. Intriguing case studies bolster the arguments, from the neglect of the hinge ("written out of every futuristic movie in favour of the sliding door") to comparisons between the interplay of human minds and improvisational jazz.

The Social Life of Information is a diverting addition to cyberculture's growing bookshelf and recommended reading for all who cling to the coat tails of the online world's fastest globe-trotting star. --Iain Campbell

From the Publisher
Deserves to be one of the best books of the internet age.
Is ther anyone, in any office with computers, who does not feel an overwhelming desire to leap on the desk, punch the air and shriek "that's us!" when they read the following passage? "Users often look to the next [technology] upgrade with much the same relish with which they greet the annual visit of the winter flu. They know it will precipitate crises and shortages, increase the burdens of those who are still up and running, and take weeks for headaches to pass."

Computer "upgrades" invariable come with the assurance that they will correct all the problems caused by the previous upgrade. This time, salvation is only a mouse click away. "Battered by such hype, it's easy to believe that everyone except you knows how to use this stuff," the authors of this wonderfully stimulating book say.

Not only does the new technology - the software, the internet, the e-mail system - frequently crash but many of the bombastic claims made for the new, wired world are also demonstrably false.

Take the prediction that the rise of the internet signals the end of the large office, that incrasing numbers of employees will work at home. In fact, in 1998, the US office vacancy rate dropped to single digits for the first time since 1981, in spite of a vast increase in the number of new offices built. What of the "death of distance", the assertion that instant access to information, via the internet, means it no longer makes any difference where the companies base themselves? wrong again. High technology enterprises are as attached to their geographical "clusters" as any smokestack throwback. Think of California's Silicon Glen and the grouping of racing car designers outside London. And who as the photocopier clunks (and jams) and the laser printer whirrs, talks any longer of the "paperless office"? Business Week hailed the coming of the peperless office as long ago as 1975, much as the New York Times in 1938 predicted the death of the pencil. Yet, since 1975, per capita paper consumption in US offices has doubled. During the past decade, sales of laser printers have increased 12 fold.

All this might lead one to suppose thet this book is the work of a pair of luddites, exulting in the failure of the web and all its works. Far from it. John Seely Brown chief scientist at Xerox's Palo Alto Research Centre, and Paul Duguid, an academic at the University of California at Berkeley, accept that microchips have made "phones easier to use, cars safer to drive, appliances more reliable, utilities more predictable, toys and games more enjoyable, and the trains run on time". (note to publisher: delete last item from UK edition.)

The problem with predictions of a weird nirvana is that they fail to take account of our predominant human characteristics: sociability. Why do high tech start ups base themselves in the same neighbourhood, when they could communicate online from miles away? Because communication is more than just text messages, the authors say. It is about the trust that comes from dealing with people face-to-face, from observing the gestures, body movements and facial expressions that accompany speech. Would you employ someone on the basis of an interview conducted by e-mail, or finance a start-up without meeting its principals? And what makes the technology "upgrade" bearable if not the presence of colleagues, bemoaning the incompetence of the management and the manufacturers, and together finding a way to make these perverse machines work? The technology vendors might be at loss, the company's support staff might be barely coping with the collapsing computers, but spread around the office is "enough collective knowledge to keep them up and running".

The authors also contest the idea that the internet can provide everyone with instant acess to education - that putting the poor online will help close the gap with their more priviledged fellow citizens. Access to information is only half an education - and it is the less important half. More significant is interaction with others who are learning. "The mor isolated learners are whether physically or socially, the more they need access to peers."

Learning is a social activity. Few fof us for example, can fathom our video cassette recorders. But most adults in the developed world can operate a far more complicated machine - the car. Why the difference? Because we attempt to programme our VCRs in isolation. Driving is a social activity. We interact with other drivers, learning from their mistakes and our own.

The authors conclude by saying they have no conclusions to offer. They are too modest. This deserves to be one of the best read books of the internet age. It offers something far more valuable than a concluding soundbite: a common language for discussing the impact of technology on our workplaces, our communities and our lives.

FINANCIAL TIMES - March 2000

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Customer Reviews

putting information in context
Very readable. Highlights the importance of knowledge as opposed to information and clearly identifies why knowledge is inextricably intertwined with people. Identifies reasons why information has been put on a pedestal and attempts to shift the focus towards its useful application. (ben hyde, multimedia researcher)

Psst! . . . Pass It Along!
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.

It's all about context
The book has some excellent points even though it at times feels a little old (It's only 6 years old). I would recommend it to anyone interested in how we should approach implementing (into a social context) new technology and how we shouldn't get to cut up in the hype that new technology often brings :)