Information Ecologies: Using Technology with Heart

Anyone who has ever seen Fritz Lang's movie Metropolis - even the version rocking the Pat Benatar/Adam Ant/Queen soundtrack - knows that as technology becomes evermore present, society will continue to fear the "inevitable" destruction of humanity at the cold, logical hands of our cyborg overlords (see: Terminator, Battlestar Galactica, Blade Runner). Even in our cinematic visions of a futuristic utopia, technology is still the oppressor of human goodness, like in THX-1138 or the even more horrifying Logan's Run (with my 30th birthday approaching, my fear of "the Carousel" is growing exponentially). It is within the cinematic view of technology - specifically, Metropolis - that authors Bonnie A. Nardi and Vicki L. O'Day introduce their book Information Ecologies: Using Technology with Heart. The authors lay out the plot of Metropolis to introduce a central concept linking humans with technology: a mediator. Here's a quick rundown of the plot: Beautiful futuristic city is run on the blood, sweat, and tears of the worker class whose bodies are broken underground as cogs in the machine that allow the upper class to live lives of leisure and comfort. Then, a scientist builds a robot that looks like a lady and the Master of the city tells the scientist to make the robot look like Maria, a leader of the revolutionists underground. The goal of the Master is to incite violence so the workers can be killed off and replaced with robots. Robot Maria does the job and chaos ensues and things get totally out of hand as the workers destroy the machinery that runs the city above. As both worlds are now literally collapsing, the movie's protagonist - who is the son of the Master and who is also empathetic to the workers' plight and in love with the real Maria to boot - becomes the mediator between the two worlds. The Master's son stands between his father (the world of technology) and the foreman of the workers (the world of the people), and he holds his hands out to both men, bridging the worlds. Nardi and O'Day set this scene to express their belief that we must also have a mediator between ourselves and technology, and this mediator is the heart. Information Ecologies has a clear twofold purpose. First, the book is a call to action regarding the ways in which we interact with technology. And second, the book argues that we have to rearticulate the way we define ourselves and our relationships with the devices we use. Before the authors go into any significant detail about their call to action - their claim about the human heart as mediator - they create a framework within which to view our interactions with technology, and this is where the idea of information ecologies comes into play. Nardi and O'Day break down the metaphors that we often use to explain how we process the idea of technology, such as "technology is a tool" or "technology is a text" or even "technology is a system." In their analysis, the authors deconstruct these commonly h

I was fortunate enough to know Bonnie Nardi when I worked for AT & T. I read her book and enjoyed it. She is an anthropologist and this book explains how humans deal with technology. Might be a little advanced for some, but give it a try.

In Information Ecologies, Nardi and O'DAy offer their perspectives on how technology is affecting our society in both an anthropological as well as a sociological view. This is a unique book because it is written, firstly, by two people who have spent time working in the technology industry, as well as studying it intensively. The case studies they offer in the second half of the book are fascinating and objective.For a reader who may be looking for objective facts and the technical aspects of technology, this book may not prove useful. However, for a reader interested in different opinions and willing to read with an open mind, knowing that Nardi and O'DAy offer their opinions based on their experiences and beliefs, this is a wonderful book. It not only gives enough concrete knowledge of how technology evolved, became important to humankind, and how it is affecting our society today, it offers it in a anthropological manner, which I enjoyed very much. Although I realise that the examples they used seem exaggerated at times in order to punctuate their argument, I believe that they succeeded in their objective with this book. They both clearly have great experience and knowledge in the world of technology, and they have both attempted to take a step back from that world to look at how it is affecting us as people. I especially found their case studies to be fascinating and very relevant to their argument and style. They made the book stand out as a very informational book which has set my mind to thinking in different ways. It has made me more reflective on simple things we now take for granted, such as email. How is email as my form of communication affecting the quality of my communication, I have asked myself recently. Books such as these can engage many controversial conversations which are necessary. We must realise that our actions have consequences, no matter how insignificant they may seem. I believe that this is one of the things they were stressing in terms of technological advancement.As an admirer of anthropology, and a student of technology, I found the mixture of the two in this book to be a perfect informational and educational read.

This book is a great read for you to explore the different info ecologies, I found the library ecologies as well as the online communities and the Digital Photography case scenarios to be most interesting and relevant. Each case study examines how new technologies are being used (for example the WWW as a searching tool in the librarires, digital photography and programs such as PhotoShop for photo editing)If you are curious about Digital Convergence and you want to read a positive outlook of it and how technology and computers are a growing part of everyone's everyday lives, you should check this book out.

I work with the Web, while my husband is a Luddite who can barely manage an ATM card; this wonderful book speaks equally to both of us. Most of us assume that technology, whether we like it or not, is inevitable. Nardi and O'Day point out that this assumption is both unfortunate and preventable. We need to WAKE UP from our passive acceptance of the tide that overwhelms us with everything from cell-phones to cloning, and question WHY we use the technologies that have come to inhabit our everyday lives. We must also closely observe the technology-supported human encounters that we take for granted. For example, I use e-mail to serve the public; the e-mail makes my service much faster, but without thoughtful, compassionate, human-written responses, the swiftness of e-mail is pointless. By closely observing our habits with a questioning mind, we can then actively shape our use of technology, and even politely decline some of these fabulous new bells and whistles that do not serve us so well. In an information ecology, people engage in an interdependent manner with their local technology. The authors explain this concept at length, with plenty of historical references, and cite fascinating examples, such as invisible services performed by corporate librarians, and a virtual world within an elementary school that has jumpstarted reading, writing, and social skill levels for at-risk students. O'Day's and Nardi's careful writing makes this a breeze to read, even for those completely unfamiliar with technological terms. I finished this book with a new sense of power over my own environment, equipped with keener observation and the reminder to always ask "Why?"