Living Bibliography

The Social Life of Information

John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid

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.