The Social Life of Information.

TITLE: The Social Life of Information

AUTHORS: John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid

PUBLISHER: Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA

ISBN: 0-87584-762-5

PUBLICATION DATE: 2000

LENGTH: 320 pages

PRICE: $25.95

SOURCE: Any bookstore; www.slofi.com

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." (Thomas Watson, Sr., one-time president of IBM). "There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home." (Ken Olsen, then-President of Digital Equipment Corporation). These observations seem humorous today, but they are just two of many technology predictions made by experts that have proven wrong. As the authors of The Social Life of Information conclude, "Futurology is littered with the obituaries of tools that nonetheless continue a robust ... life."

The topic of futuristic predictions about information and information technology that were off the mark is just one of several that are engagingly and informatively discussed in this book, which, as a whole, focuses on the context (i.e., the "social life") of information and why this context is so important. Co-authors John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid make the case that information gains value in a social context. It is not merely an absolute commodity to be captured and sold, as in e-commerce, or to be thought about only in terms of how much we have and how fast we can move it around.

This premise is all the more intriguing because the authors have worked at the center of the technological maelstrom for many years. Brown was, until recently, the director of Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) -- birthplace of the computer mouse, the graphical user interface, and the Ethernet -- and Duguid is Brown's colleague at PARC and is a social theorist and historian at the University of California, Berkeley.

This book succeeds in debunking conventional wisdom about technology's impact. The authors explain why tunnel vision predictions such as the paperless office haven't materialized: "Attending too closely to information [per se] overlooks the social context that helps people understand what that information might mean and why it matters." Paper, for example, continues to thrive because it is so flexible, does not need electricity, can be carried and used anywhere, and has significantly better resolution than any computer monitor.

The authors provide many fascinating examples of information's contextual "social life." One account involves Duguid's researching 250-year-old business letters that were covered in dust, which triggered an asthma attack for him. He said he would have preferred that the letters had been scanned so he could have avoided the dust and dirt.

By contrast, a fellow researcher -- a medical historian -- picks up each letter, places his nose close to each page and -- much to Duguid's alarm -- inhales deeply. The medical historian is searching for a telltale trace of vinegar which, he explains, was used to disinfect letters and prevent the spread of cholera. Thus, a trace of vinegar remaining on a document would provide this researcher with evidence of a cholera outbreak. Duguid realizes that, although the information in the letters may be useful in his research, the larger context in which the letters were written is also valuable. The context of the record, as we have all been taught, is critical to the authenticity, understanding, and significance of the record.

Each of this books' eight chapters describes either an institution that the technology pundits have doom-said into extinction, a resource which they have pronounced obsolete, or a management theory which has failed to match the inflated promise.

This work is a considerable undertaking, and each of the large and complex topics could easily form the basis for an entire book. Thus, ideas such as the "the death of distance" -- in which some would argue that we no longer need to travel to work or to school for learning -- are not treated in great depth. However, the authors state that theirs is more "a book of questions than answers" and that they have started a conversation by establishing a Web site to continue the discussion of the issues raised in the book. Visit www.slofi.com to join in a discussion of topics such as the digital university and knowledge management. As keepers of both the content and context, records and information managers can rejoice in the publication of this book. Every information professional should read it.

Barbara E. Nye, CRM, is a principal of Ictus Consulting, LLC, a records and information management consulting services firm located in Sierra Madre, California. Nye can be contacted at [e-mail].