Information Ecologies. Using Technology with Heart

The common rhetoric about technology falls into two extreme categories: uncritical acceptance or blanket rejection. These two positions leave us with poor choices for action. They encourage us to accept as inevitable whatever technological changes come along. Claiming a middle ground, Bonnie Nardi and Vicki O'Day call for responsible, informed engagement with technology in local settings, which they call "information ecologies." Their goal is to change the way people look at information technology.

An information ecology is a system of people, practices, technologies, and values in a local environment. Like their biological counterparts, information ecologies are diverse, continually evolving, and complex. Nardi and O'Day encourage the reader to become more aware of the ways people and technology are interrelated. A key to thoughtful action, they say, is to ask more "know-why" questions, before jumping to the more straightforward "know-how" questions. They talk about practical ways to have more "know-why" conversations, to dig deeper and reflect more about how we use technology.

Nardi and O'Day draw on their empirical research in offices, libraries, schools, and hospitals to show how people can engage their own values and commitments while using technology. These case studies show new and fruitful avenues for participation and engagement with technology.

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Bonnie A. Nardi, a researcher at AT&T Research Labs, is the author of A Small Matter of Programming (MIT Press, 1993) and editor of Context and Consciousness (MIT Press, 1996). Vicki O'Day, formerly a researcher at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, is a graduate student of anthropology at the University of California at Santa Cruz.