At the bottom of page 51 of Nardi and O’day’s Information Technologies, there is a quote that I found insightful.
“In an information ecology there are different kinds of people and different kinds of tools. In a healthy information ecology, they work together in a complementary way. In a library information ecology, for example, we find that librarians fill niches such as handling rare books, telling stories to children, answering reference questions, and publishing World Wide Web materials. All of these different roles of librarians help make the library work well for its community, providing different resources for varied audiences and their needs. the set of technological resources in a library is also diverse. There are computers that provide electronic catalogs and internet access, paper and pencils for writing down call numbers, and labels on shelves so you know which section of books you’re looking at.”
I thought this paragraph demonstrated a good example of the diversity aspect of information technologies. These technologies and services are very specific to the library. It would be strange to see some of these elements in other information ecologies. Each one is unique in its own way. Can you think of an example of another place that incorporates a specific, diverse set of writing resources?
The Creators' Conscience 