The Media Equation: How People Treat Computers, Television, and New Media Like Real People and Places

The books I am reviewing this month are interrelated because they both focus on information technology and our changing world, with the two volumes looking at different levels of the picture. The broader, and to me more intriguing, view is presented by Nardi and O'Day in their wonderful book Information Ecologies. Although it is not clear from the capsule biographies of the dust jacket, Nardi and O'Day are anthropologists who study the world of technology in a number of locales, and they here report the findings from their field work. Among the case studies they discuss are an examination of the activities of reference librarians at two corporations and a look at a virtual world created for and by elementary school students. But they do much more than simply present case studies, although these alone make the book a worthwhile read. In addition, they argue that the most useful way to look at information technology is through the metaphor of "information ecologies," "system[s] of people, practices, values, and technologies in ... particular local environment[s]." They adopt this biological metaphor after carefully considering the most commonly employed information technology metaphors: technology as tool, text, or system . In turn, they find each of these metaphors wanting. It is particularly important to choose carefully the metaphorical lenses through which technological developments are viewed. Each particular metaphor has consequences for how sanguinely we view a technology, and it is often worthwhile to use multiple metaphors to enhance our world view. The information ecology metaphor is particularly appropriate for an anthropological view of local "habitats" and their inhabitants and artifacts . In turn, an anthropological view is particularly apt for capturing the human side of technology (thus the subtitle: Using Technology With Heart). This is a side of things that can be overlooked in other metaphorical views, particularly since it requires that the sticky issue of values be considered. Unfortunately for all of us, there is a reluctance to talk of human values when considering technology. As Nardi and O'Day note, there is a tendency to either enthusiastically applaud new technology without regard to its effects, or to condemn all new technology as inherently debasing to humanity, or to simply resign oneself pessimistically to the inevitable development of technology and our lack of control over it. Nardi and O'Day tend to be cautious optimists, claiming that we can control technology, and the way to exercise that control is through our own local encounters with information ecologies. Thus, rather than bemoaning the dehumanizing effects of the Internet, Information Ecologies explores the successful use of Internet technologies to set up a virtual world for students and the elderly in Phoenix, Arizona. Instead of thinking or acting globally, exploit the technology locally, but do so in a way that makes sense in terms of human values. On the taxonomic scale of technology views, ranging from gloom and doom (e.g., the views of Clifford