MIT Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science
"As We May Think" --
A Celebration of Vannevar Bush's 1945 Vision,
An Examination of What Has Been Accomplished,
and What Remains to Be Done
Friday, October 13, 1995
11:30 AM - 12:30 PM
Information Is Not Enough: Computer Support for Productive Work
Lee Sproull
Any vision of a new technology implies a vision of human beings and their
behavior. In this talk I describe the vision of human behavior associated
with the most influential technology visions of personal computing,
epitomized by Vannevar Bush's Memex--the vision of the solitary thinker and
problem solver. I contrast this vision with an alternative view of how
human productive behavior actually occurs--in interdependent social
relationships. I review the current state of computer support for social
actors and propose an alternative view in which information processing is
subordinated to relationship managing.
To the symposium Agenda.
To MIT EECS home page.
Your comments are welcome.
Rev. PP Oct 2, 1995.