[Sigia-l] morality in IA
Christina Wodtke
cwodtke at eleganthack.com
Thu Nov 14 17:03:16 EST 2002
I'd like to talk about our responsibility as designers... I wrote earlier..
> "Each categorizer brings his or her life knowledge and prejudices to
> the process. The Dewey decimal system's Religion category has nine
> subsections, seven of which are on Christianity. The rest of the world's
> religions are lumped into one subsection: Other. Language has nine
> subsections; seven of them cover European languages. Looking at the Dewey
> decimal system will tell you in which part of the world John Dewey grew
up.
>
> On an investment site, a special section for women can be interpreted
> to mean the institution thinks women are not good with money. Or that
> section can be welcomed as helping equalize a male-driven domain. You
aren't
> just organizing; you are sending a message."
And I am more and more haunted by this idea. Ever since I read
Classification and It's Consequences (A book I can't really recommend,
except for the chapter on apartheid, but that chapter makes up for the rest,
so I dunno...) I've been really haunted by the responsibility we carry as
organizer of knowledge. The stereotypes and predujudices we bring to our
work, the new thinking excellent organization can offer, the opportunity to
help folks make connections that weren't immediately obvious-- or hide
critical information.
Talking to Yahoo! Sufers (the folks who make the directory) I find they
grabble with moral questions all the time-- such as should they list Bin
Ladin's guide to bomb making page?
Do anyone else feel like what we do isn't just mucking around in the dotpop
land anymore? that we have obligations?
Designers have been thinking aobut this for some time. Maybe we, as
structural designers, need to incoporate this into our work..
http://ess.ntu.ac.uk/miller/dstuds/resp.htm
http://www.undesign.org/
there is a proto-conversation here
http://www.iawiki.net/EthicsForIAs
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