Social Life of Information, The Book

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 CampbellRead More