This is  a paper that I wrote in the Fall of 2008 for an Information Architecture and Knowledge Management graduate course at Kent State University.

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“The People cannot be safe without information.
When the press is free, and every man is able to read, all is safe.”
–Thomas Jefferson

“Information is power,” goes the mantra among librarians and other knowledge-centered professionals. Those with the skills, resources and understanding necessary to access high-quality information are empowered in their decision-making. They get ahead in their personal and professional lives while those who lack these assets are at a significant disadvantage. The implication is that the shift to an information-based economy in recent decades has accentuated the gap between information haves and have-nots.    More…

I’ve learned that I don’t know all that much about how endusers think.

I think I do.  Everyone does.  Every person out there thinks they know how the “average” person will react to specific situations, but the fact is that human beings are very complicated animals and in reality there is no average person.  This notion is a myth.    More…