A big part of most of our lives is tied up in the minutiae of hardware and software details, and it seems useful to step back occasionally and think about whether what we do, day in and day out, has value beyond helping us make a living and take care of loved ones. There’s no doubt in my mind that information systems can have many beneficial effects. They can help us find meaning in overwhelming masses of data, as with scientific, statistical, engineering, and business analysis systems. They can improve the operations of fundamental services that can save lives and improve quality of life. They can reduce the amount of mindless “busy work” that makes a mockery of human intellectual capabilities. They can help open the political process to more individuals, and they can help people connect with each other in both business and personal life. Thinking back on 2008, it’s also clear that information systems cannot make up for poor judgment, lack of understanding, and plain old negligence. There may be no sector that is more highly automated than the financial sector, and yet it has imploded with astounding thoroughness. It appears that not enough people were looking at the right information, not because the information wasn’t there, but for reasons having to do with economics, politics, psychology, philosophy, and even culture. (You know, all those “soft” subjects that we technical types occasionally made fun of in high school and college.) All of which reinforces my long-held belief that information systems are, in and of themselves, neutral. They can help clarify, or they can help obscure. They don’t automatically make things better, nor do they automatically make things worse. That’s up to the people who plan them and use them. I think it’s good to remember that from time to time as we sweat the myriad details of implementation and administration that can dominate our working lives. Recent posts Longhorn Service Pack 2
Year-End Musings
Analysis
Dec 27, 20082 mins
