The Social Life of Information

Book reviews / Journal of Government Information 29 (2002) 43–80 63 understanding of the complex and multifaceted relationship between the president and Congress (p. 131).’’ Shull uses the Epilogue to offer some highly educated speculation concerning the Clinton years to a date closer to publication, and then he points out directions for additional research. Statistics lovers will appreciate the inclusion of coding schemes and data dictionaries in the two appendixes. This paperback is a reprinting of the 1997 hardbound edition and was released shortly after one of Shull’s other publications on the same general topic (Shull & Shaw, 1999). In the 1999 work, Shull and Thomas C. Shaw cover similar territory but go on to address budget agreement and presidents’ propensity to veto legislation; the authors also employ a greater diversity of variables, sources of information and methods of analysis. Although there is indeed overlap between the two books, the publication under review is more focused in addressing policy and time approaches only and apparently utilizing fewer data sets. While this volume will not find its way into reference sections, it is a fine political science addition to any medium to large academic library. A quick web search reveals that the book and some of its individual chapters are already being assigned as required reading at several universities. Notes Mayhew, D. R. (1992). Divided We Govern. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Ragsdale, L. (1996). Vital Statistics on the Presidency. Washington: Congressional Quarterly. Shull, S. A. & Shaw, T. C. (1999). Explaining Congressional – Presidential Relations: A Multiple Perspective Approach. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. Cassandra Hartnett University of Washington Libraries Seattle, WA 98295-2900 USA doi:10.1016/S1352-0237(03)00013-3 The Social Life of Information John Seely Brown & Paul Duguid. (2000). Boston: Harvard Business School Press. 336 pp. 0875847625 (cloth) US$25.95 The Social Life of Information is a ‘‘must read’’ for anyone interested in more than just a technological viewpoint of information. Written by John Seely Brown, Chief Scientist of Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center), and Paul Duguid, Research Specialist at the University of California, Berkeley, the book introduces human sociability into the information equation — and comes to some startling revelations. In a collection of standalone, yet related essays, the authors debunk some of the myths propagated by futurists and offer a new perspective on the home office, the paperless society, online education, knowledge management, business process re-engineering, and software agents. 64 Book reviews / Journal of Government Information 29 (2002) 43–80 Admitted admirers of intelligent agent technology, Brown and Duguid examine some of the social implications of the rising use of agents on the Internet. While the authors acknowledge that some agents are useful in practical ways — for example, those agents that classify millions of Web pages — Brown and Duguid examine agent technology in light of its ‘‘social life’’ rather than its ‘‘information space.’’ They do this by comparing how people behave in transactions — how people negotiate, shop, and impose rules — to the shortcomings of agent technology in handling the same activities. Without the nuances and sensitivities that people bring to their interactions with others, agents fail miserably. Brown and Duguid go on to argue that if agents become autonomous without accountability, then their owners face accountability without control. They address some of the social and moral issues associated with agents that misrepresent information, blindly obey rules without discretion and judgment, and even go as far as to engage in price wars. They cite the experiences of some government agencies that became saddled with the costly implications of poor service, cost overruns, and start-up firms going bankrupt all because agencies awarded contracts based on the lowest bid. Brown and Duguid suggest that agent technology without controls would only aggravate such situations and make matters worse. Drawing upon the valuable learning experiences of Xerox PARC and the Institute for Research on Learning, Brown and Duguid go on to address the social aspects of information in business communities. They describe how communities with complementary practices tend to link to each other, both inside and outside an organization. It is this very phenomenon that led to the flow of knowledge from Xerox PARC to Apple in the case of the graphical user interface (GUI). Once it became clear that Xerox was not ready to develop the GUI, its advocates moved down the street to Apple where that community was highly receptive to the concept. Brown and Duguid observe that geographic proximity plays a role in this type of knowledge flow — in this case, allowing the scientists from Xerox PARC to meet and share with the scientists at Apple easily. Learning is a central theme running throughout the essays. Brown and Duguid argue that learning is central to knowledge management because learning involves the acquisition of knowledge. They therefore promote the development of learning communities, where individuals can ‘‘learn their craft in the company of professional mentors and generate, share, and deploy highly esoteric knowledge.’’ The result is more like a watercolor, where the contributing parts are indistinguishable from the final effect than like discrete bits of information. Brown and Duguid also affirm the role of story telling in organizations. In their view, it is fundamental to learning and education. It is also a critical way of transferring valuable knowledge from person to person. For it is in sharing stories that communities build a common framework and shared perspective, which often leads to collaboration and innovation. The authors submit that learning is a remarkably social act. Indeed, they differentiate learning into two categories: ‘‘learning about’’ and ‘‘learning to be’’ — and stress the importance of practice in the latter. While many people learn about a wide variety of topics, it takes practice to translate theoretical knowledge into competency. Unlike some organizations that provide little opportunity for learners to interact with the subject, Brown and Duguid assert that practice both shapes and supports learning. It is a necessary ingredient. Book reviews / Journal of Government Information 29 (2002) 43–80 65 While the information age has brought about predictions that technology will soon spell the end of intermediaries, universities, politics, governments, cities and regions, and the nation-state, Brown and Duguid disagree with the notion that these are no longer needed in society. They agree that many may come under pressure and some will not survive, but they argue that people provide a social context for information and often influence the development of technology, rather than the other way around. Brown and Duguid condemn the ‘‘infoenthusiast’’ who looks at information solely from the perspective of technology and neglects to take into account how people think, interrelate, learn, and operate on a daily basis. Brown and Duguid contend that while some paper documents (like the Rolodex and the library catalogue) are losing ground to their digital counterparts, futurists who predicted the paperless office and the end of all paper documents failed to take into account that many people find useful a number of paper documents, like the fax. Brown and Duguid often sound like the voice of reason when they assert that the pendulum has swung too far in the direction of blind belief in the power of technology to repair the ills of society. Instead, they advocate a more balanced view of how technology fits into critical social networks and claim that it is up to individuals to interpret the sense, importance, and significance of information in their existing communities, organizations, and institutions. Michelle Hutchinson Synaptix Solutions Inc. Markham, Ontario, Canada doi:10.1016/S1352-0237(03)00014-5 The Diminishing Divide: Religion’s Changing Role in American Politics Andrew Kohut, John C. Green, Scott Keeter, & Robert C. Toth. (2000). Washington: Brookings Institute Press. 178 pp. ISBN 0-8157-5018-8 (cloth), US$36.95. ISBN 0-81575017-X (pbk) US$15.95 The Diminishing Divide intends to delineate the current effect of religion on politics in the United States and to illuminate the way that effect has changed over time. The authors’ contention is that religion does, indeed, play a part in US politics and always has in spite of the apparent changes of the last three decades of the 20th century. ‘‘It is the level and type of activism of the churches and their partisan mobilization that are new, not the reality that people of similar faiths have similar values and often vote alike’’ (p. 2). The authors examine a variety of questions. These include whether the American public is more or less religious, what is the nature of the link between religious affiliation and political beliefs, how the level of religious commitment affects opinions, and how members of the clergy use their positions in support of a given political stance. The book has seven chapters, including the introduction, which are arranged to give a historically comparative view of each topic covered. Chapter 1 is the introduction where the