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{From 2004}

Just reading a recent issue of Infoworld, an article by Jon Udell caught my attention with a tagline of something like “If Google Ran Your Desktop”.

I tend to find articles all the time in IT periodicals that scream out “someone is using more than common sense here”, showing insight into real life problems. Not programming or engineering problems, mind you, but problems realted to the way humans actually need and use computers.

This particular topic was more concerned about the rational implementation of a dynamic taxonomy to describable data and the social implications both from and onto actions within a networked system.

In other words, how a large number of people categorize things (such as letters, photos, programs, whatever) is both determinable by group dynamics and determines the efficiency of the organizational system. The fact that this is all about using computer networks is almost incidental.

In fact, information technology is nothing more than a useless toy without people who understand psychology enough to make it work for a human being, sociology to make it work for large numbers of human beings, and philosophy to be able to consolidate all of these issues in a way that is both technically possible AND desirable. And if it isn’t possible, it is THIS and not the technology itself that will drive the necessary innovation.

So, YES, I AM using my Philosophy degree in what I do for a living.

😛