Nardi and O'Day

My original thought about ecology's were the obvious choice, science related.  When I started reading this chapter, I realized that information ecology's are a completely different animal.  An information ecology is described as a system of people, practices, values and technologies in a particular local environment.  When it is explained that way, an information ecology actually makes perfect sense.  An ecology is defined as the environment as it relates to living organisms.  The people are the living organisms and the environment is the society run on information that we live in today.  This type of ecology is not necessarily about technology but our activities that are served by technology.  Examples of these types of ecology’s are libraries, hospital intensive care units and copy shops.  These ecologies have many interrelationships which rely on each other.  These ecologies also have niches required to run them.  People work in them together at different aspects of them.  These niches are all connected so if one fails, it is felt throughout the entire system.  There is also diversity in these which is a necessary element.  This element allows the ecology to survive change.  Like normal ecology’s, co evolution also exists in information ecology’s.  New technology develops and is offered newer, faster and different repeatedly.  This causes the ecology to evolve as new ideas, tools, activities and expertise forms come to be in them.  Keystone species are species that are crucial to the survival of an ecology.  Information ecology’s keystone species are people who work in them and run the ecology.  Without them, the technology would not be used in an effective manner.  The final important aspect is locality.  This habitation dictates the location within a network of relationships.  WikiTravel is an example of an information ecology.

WikiTravel is a system used by people all over the world who are looking for information about places they may be traveling to.  People use technology to access this and that technology is given information by people who post on the website.  Human activity is the only way that information could be shared on this site.  Furthermore, people all over the world are able to add to the information on the site.  These people are working together, editing and in some cases making information posted more in depth and an overall better product for the audience.  New information constantly travels through this, as new ideas come into play.  The site is monitored so any information is backed by a reliable source. 

Another example of an information ecology is my place of work.  I work at a flooring center which is full of different aspects.  To run the store successfully, people are needed to install floors, clean floors, measure, order floors and run the store internally etc.  Each aspect of the store is needed for the others to survive.  My niche is running the store internally dealing with sales and scheduling.  Also, new things are always coming into the store such as new products which need to be dealt with and absorbed by the company.  Employees are always either coming or going so they need to be trained to run the ecology effectively.