is203 - Social and Organizational Issues of Information

More on the ‘Productivity Paradox’

January 24th, 2008 judd

A short follow-up to today’s great discussion. If you’re interested in learning a bit more about the so-called Productivity Paradox, check out this from the Communications of the ACM or this from the American Economic Review. Both, in their ways, point out how complex these issues are and how they are not nearly as unprecedented or surprising as we might think.

Also, one particularly interesting (IMHO) explanation for the paradox. Some of you may have heard of Edward Tufte, who wrote a couple of really great books on information vizualization. Tufte is on a mission against Powerpoint - I mean, the man hates it. Check out this Wired Mag. piece from a few years ago with the unambiguous title Powerpoint is Evil. He makes the point that practices around Powerpoint have evolved in ways that obscure information while giving it a sense of credibility because it adheres to a certain form. So, here we have an example of a piece of technology that might have increased productivity, but does not necessarily do so because its uses have evolved to suit other goals: status, power, authority. (i.e. people suck) But it’s an interesting example of the importance of social processes.

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