[iDC] information managerialism

[Richard Coyne]

Well I can certainly identify with the Yochai Benkler quote (picked  
almost at random):

"Information overload.
A basic problem created when everyone can speak is that there will be  
too many
statements, or too much information. Too many observations and too  
many points
of view make the problem of sifting through them extremely difficult,  
leading
to an unmanageable din. This overall concern, a variant of the Babel  
objection,
underlies three more specific arguments: that money will end up  
dominating
anyway, that there will be fragmentation of discourse, and that  
fragmentation
of discourse will lead to its polarization." (p.233)

I guess the reference is to information in general on the Internet  
and elsewhere. Perhaps there is a third outcome evident in the  
particularities of certain informational contexts: a rise in  
information managerialism. I see this in my own institution, where  
there is a move to parcel everything into "information resources,"  
"learning objects" and tag it with meta-data. The interesting area is  
the negotiation and agonistics in the space between the move to hyper- 
organise and the quest for the freely-formed.

Anyway, I'm Richard Coyne. I hope I'm following the instructions  
correctly. I research and teach in digital media and architecture.  
I'm currently trying to catch up on research into the human voice and  
space. I like thinking about Serres' observation: "Noise is the basic  
element of the software of all our logic, or it is to the logos what  
matter used to be to form. Noise is the background of information,  
the material of that form." Serres, Michel. 1995. Genesis. Trans. G.  
James, and J. Nielson. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, p.7.

- Richard
------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
---
Richard Coyne
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Architecture
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The University of Edinburgh
Professor of Architectural Computing
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email: Richard.Coyne at ed.ac.uk
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