The Social Life of Information

Understand the human place in a digital world.

"Should be read by anyone interested in understanding the future," The Times Literary Supplement raved about the original edition of The Social Life of Information. We're now living in that future, and one of the seminal books of the Internet Age is more relevant than ever.

The future was a place where technology was supposed to empower individuals and obliterate social organizations. Pundits predicted that information technology would spell the end of almost everything--from mass media to bureaucracies, universities, politics, and governments. Clearly, we are not living in that future. The Social Life of Information explains why.

John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid show us how to look beyond mere information to the social context that creates and gives meaning to it. Arguing elegantly for the important role that human sociability plays, even--perhaps especially--in the digital world, The Social Life of Information gives us an optimistic look beyond the simplicities of information and individuals. It shows how a better understanding of the contribution that communities, organizations, and institutions make to learning, working, and innovating can lead to the richest possible use of technology in our work and everyday lives.

John Seely Brown ( JSB) was the Chief Scientist of Xerox Corporation, as well as the director of the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center. He is currently a visiting scholar and adviser to the provost at the University of Southern California and the Independent Co-Chairman for Deloitte's Center for the Edge. His personal research interests include new approaches to learning, digital youth culture, digital media, and the application of technology to accelerate deep learning within and across organizational boundaries.

Paul Duguid is an adjunct full professor in the School of Information at the University of California, Berkeley. He was formerly Professorial Research Fellow at Queen Mary, University of London. Earlier, he was affiliated with the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center and the Institute for Research on Learning. Duguid has sought to investigate problems that arise from reducing the complexities and richness of human insight and communication to the mere appropriation and exchange of information.