Weaving Information into Our Lives

Information has long been understood as a separate world, whether the parallel realm of Platonic ideals or the sovereign nation of cyberspace. Computer technology itself has reinforced this understanding of information by compelling us to interact with it while sitting still in front of a glass screen. But this is changing. Computing is rapidly becoming portable, wearable, and generally woven into the activities, relationships, and institutions that organize our lives. How can we understand this complicated new "interface", and how can we design for it? I will present several concepts that may help. In particular, I will argue that this new realm of information systems design cannot be dissociated with the much larger process of redesigning, or at least evolving, the most basic workings of society for a networked world.