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Jeanette Lehn
Dr. Yancey
ENC 5933 Dig Revolution & Convergence Culture
9/7/15
The Social Life of InformationAn Apt Prediction
Brown and Duguid start off The Social Life of Information by noting that
we are in an age of design and we should be wary of tunnel design or
design that does not attend to peripheral effects. The authors also respond
to the notion that we are in an age of informationso much information that
we are unsure of what to do with it all. One way that this glut of information
is being managed is through the use of agents or bots, technological
representatives that perform tasks on our behalf. Another key change
regarding information management is is that technology is not location
specific so individuals are capable of managing information without the
support of a traditional office or organization. Despite the autonomy afforded
to individuals through technology, Brown and Duguid argue that the social
bonds of individuals in a collaborative working environment are invaluable
and the design of technologies should be attentive to social systems and
patterns.
In workplaces, increasing attention has been paid to processes and the
streamlining of those processes. The authors note that process is an exterior
view to the function of a workplace, and that an interior view shows us how
smaller sub-groups engage in the sharing of practices. When those smaller
communities come together, they engage in collaboration, narrate
experiences, and encourage improvisation. The sharing of practice related
knowledge is integral to the success of individual community members.
Brown and Duguid later refer to these smaller groups using Lave and
Wengners term communities of practice (pg. 141). In chapter 5, the
authors point out that it is in those communities of practice that know-how
as opposed to know that is shared, meaning that communities share
knowledge related to experiences and not just information.
How does know how get transferred? Brown and Duguid look at the
movement of knowledge of know how in chapter 6. The authors note that
even through there may be divisions in perspective between similar groups
or communities of practice, groups can collaborate and form complimentary
networks. When groups pool knowledge in this way, the authors refer to
these clusters of knowledge as ecologies of knowledge. Brown and Duguid
also argue that these ecologies fly in the face of fears that technology will
bring about the death of place or that it will bring the death of locally
based knowledge because these ecologies occur when communities of
practice are in proximity to one another.
In the last two chapters of the book, the authors discuss how modes
might change in light of technology. They use paper documents as an
example and discuss how even though our society is increasingly paper-less,

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the paper document holds strong because it offers unique affordances,
partially due to our cultural associations with the value of documents.
Culturally, documents are given increased credibility, but the fluid aspects
of changing information will make our chosen modes multiply rather than
eliminate modes like paper documents. The authors shift their focus to
changing cultural attitudes towards education in the final chapter wherein
they note that brick and mortar institutions have been seen in the past as
evaluators of knowledge and distributors of credentials. There is pressure for
universities to go online, but any online education will have to take into
account the importance of cohort learning and how social distance may
make issues of access and success in online education more complicated.
The authors restate that the benefits of the university are access to
communities of practice, resources provided for research, and finally
culturally accepted frameworks for knowledge. In the afterword, the authors
urge us to be aware our how constraints and resources (which are often the
same thing) will shape our view of knowledge going forward.
Much of what Brown and Duguid write in The Social Life of Information
has been realized, affirmed and continued in the world of business, in the
world of technology, and in the world of education. While efforts to
streamline process in business have not ceased (for example, UPS drivers are
equipped with state of the art trucks that measure how many right turns
drivers make or how many times they open and close their doors), efforts to
share practice related knowledge are all over the internet. Social medias
bread and butter is practice related knowledge. DIY blogs, wikis devoted to
very specific topics, and narratives on blogs about personal experiences are
a few examples. Information related to practices is not only all over the
internet, its very profitable and drives websites like Pinterest and LifeHacker.
Brown and Duguids musings on the future of education are still
particularly prescient as we have not come up with answers to problems like
social distance for minority groups and the underserved. We have also not
come up with best practices for how to teach online. Topics like MOOCs and
flipped classrooms are still hotly debated at conferences. We are
increasingly paperless as the authors predicted, and we also have more
modes of communication rather than an end to any of them (even the
typewriter is kept alive by antiquarians and hipsters).
One clarifying question that I have in response to reading The Social
Life of Information is what is the difference between a community of
practice and a discourse community? I think that the answer might be
that communities of practice can be discussed on a smaller scale and that
communities of practice share physical practices and narratives, while the
term discourse community may refer more exclusively to language. A little
part of me read the term communities of practice and asked myself, Why
do we need another term for this? I heard the term communities of
practice in reading group the week before and I wondered Why am I just
hearing about this now? So that could mean I have questions about how

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knowledge and information moves in an academic setting. Did the term take
a long time to get to me or did I take a long time to get to the term?