Datacloud: Toward a New Theory of Online Work

by Johndan Johnson-Eilola

This text examines information work from a broad range of viewpoints to construct a better understanding of how and why we use computer technology as we do. Constructing a post-disciplinary theoretical framework from disciplines including rhetoric, techical communication, cultural studies, architecture, and more, Datacloud interprets how people work in a variety of contexts, both computer-supported and analog.

161 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2005

Reviews

[Chris Friend · Rating 2 out of 5]

First, this publisher needs better editors. Repeated paragraphs, repeated figures (with different titles), typos in figure captions, and more than the normal smattering of missing/extra words made the text feel amateurish, despite any insights offered by the author.

Sorry…the distracting presentation makes it more difficult than it should be to focus on the content.

Johnson-Eilola presents views on the nature and need of modern (or, more accurately, postmodern) work by exploring computer interfaces (Ch 5), computer applications (Ch 7), and physical workspaces (Ch 4). His useful history of computers and their interfaces (Ch 3) establishes one of his key distinctions: modern computers present surface interfaces with vast collections of practical tools that necessarily hide and obfuscate the deeper field-specific learning one needs to use the interface effectively. Original computers required deep understanding due to their significant lack of interface—the hard work happened outside the machine, in terms of coding and wiring.

His starting premise, that we exist among information, rather than in front of it (Ch 1), is presented in a style reminiscent of Manovich's The Language of New Media: various stills from several films are used to illustrate popular views of information immersion as compared with views of mechanization following the Industrial Revolution. He then introduces (in Ch 2) the key terms of "tendential forces", "articulation", and "symbolic-analytic work", the last of these being fairly synonymous with knowledge work or postmodern creative production. Here, he also establishes the standards upon which symbolic-analytic work is built: collaboration, experimentation, abstraction, and system thinking.

In keeping with the overall goal of showing today's work as postmodern and existing within a Datacloud (loosely defined in the first half of the text as simply the massive amount of data which constantly surrounds us in our current society), he provides two disparate examples of work to illustrate his theories (Ch 6). Johnson-Eilola uses music, specifically turntablism, and architecture, specifically the deconstructive school of design, to show principles of symbolic-analytic work in action in non-text-focused fields. The emphasis here is on the deconstruction/recombination tendencies of postmodern work. A similar discussion (Ch 5) highlights postmodern conversation styles in the form of instant messaging.

Johnson-Eilola's theories of interfaces seem to run counter to those of Donald A. Norman (The Design of Everyday Things). Whereas Norman argues that an interface should be as obvious and self-evident as possible, Johnson-Eilola questions in what contexts that obviousness exists. (The "crop" tool in image-manipulation software uses a common symbol that holds no meaning to users who never worked with the non-digital tool, yet it is now ubiquitous.) However, both authors agree that the intended user should play a direct role in the development stages of interface designs.

Overall, the wording of this volume's subtitle is telling: "Toward a New Theory of Online Work." We aren't there yet. Johnson-Eilola gathers a few examples to send us on our way, points in a general direction, and wiggles his finger in a vague, postmodern suggestion of where it is he thinks we should be going.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Datacloud (2005), Johndan Johnson-Eilola explores work and play in an age in which we don't "merely use information," we instead "inhabit it" (3). Johnson-Eilola employs articulation theory in order to understand possibilities for "resistance to dominant cultural formations" and symbolic-analytic work theory to understand how workers manipulate symbols (18). Noting that our culture is increasingly networked (9), and that our attention has shifted from time toward space (15), Johnson-Eilola investigates interfaces, which he sees as "cultural constructions responding to, engendering, and being constantly modified by numerous, often contradictory, cultural forces" (20). One key change he notes is how interfraces now have "suggestions and hints about how to work" embedded within them (or more accurately, on their surface) (45). Work becomes about the manipulation of information, the experimentation of information, and involves learning while working. He particularly pays attention to workspace architecture, arguing that we work within this architecture, navigating and moving within it, and he outlines five points of how to work productively in the datacloud: 1) we are not producing "original texts" but rearranging and constructing; 2) we work with information in new ways, and we read interfaces and learn through interfaces for how to deal with information; 3) we need to understand that information always has political and cultural meanings; 4) current spaces need to transformed into workspaces for symbolic-analytic work; and 5) we cannot build our workspaces on the traditional approach to information architecture; we need new designs for architecture for symbolic-analytic work (134).

[Tony · Rating 2 out of 5]

First off, this book is not about what I expected it to be about. The title would seem to indicate something about cloud computing and maybe some interesting ways in which we can work with that. This book has nothing to do with cloud computing.

It has plenty to do with postmodernism. WTF? Basically, in postmodernism, you are no longer creating new, original works. You're taking stuff which has already been creating and remixing, rearranging, reorganizing it. A DJ, which takes existing records or samples and streams them together to come up with something new, is engaging in postmodernism. The blogger, who is tracking all these other blogs, linking stuff together from various sources, adding their comments and analysis on top of it all, is engaging in postmodernism. The person who is creating reports from existing data, organizing and analyzing it all such that others can come up with useful analysis, is engaging in postmodernism. Such instances of postmodernism are only growing in our society and in our job market. There are certain skills you need for each of these, and you would be well-advised to get busy developing such skills if you do not possess them already.

What kind of workspaces do you need to do such things? I really didn't find the author's descriptions of them that compelling. A musician who uses a Mac with multiple screens, a computer keyboard and multiple musical keyboards. An academic who uses, of all things, a whiteboard, a chalkboard and a desk covered with notecards, in addition to a computer. Wow; that's really cutting edge. If the author was trying to show diversity in how workspaces can be setup, he succeeded. Other than that, I wasn't impressed.

I have a one-file wiki (search for TiddlyWiki, if you're interested) where I store my ideas. Like the academic, writing ideas on his whiteboard, I put my ideas in the wiki and store it on a USB drive. Occasionally, I delve in there, look at stuff, maybe expand on the ideas, ponder whether they're still relevant. My workspace for this is any modern web browser on any modern computer. I don't need some defined, physical space for this.

This book is not an easy read. The author likes to use lots of complex language and seems to delight in referencing others who do the same. There are plenty of mixed metaphors, which the author (and the sources) probably found clever. I found them to be a severe case of intellectual masturbation. The author probably enjoyed it a lot more than I did.

I'm at a loss for who I could recommend to read this book. There are some useful things in here, but they could probably be summed up in 20 pages. Not the 100+ that this book consumes.