Welcome to my life in information. The first ten years of my professional career, after graduating from the department of Sociology and Anthropology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, were mostly spent in various academic settings. As a researcher and manager of social science research projects, I collected and analyzed information.
But during those years, first at a supermarket chain, managing the deployment and operations of Israel’s first barcode scanning system, and then at NORC, participating in the first large-scale Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviewing project, I twice got a glimpse of what’s to come later in my career: The similarities in how effective managers and good scientists process information; the difficulties of changing people’s responsibilities and habits when their work is integrated with new technology; the waste of not using technology to its full potential; the new business insights and improved decision-making brought about by information technology.
Twenty years ago, the only job I was lucky to get after graduating from business school, brought me right to the source of these challenges and opportunities. I started working at DEC, in what was then called “the computer industry.” But a more accurate name, then and (certainly) now would be “the digital information slice of life.” True to my initial training, I’ve regarded myself as one of the cultural anthropologists recording and, sometimes creating, the thrilling record of this increasingly significant part of our lives.
And for the last fifteen years, I have been fortunate to work for a company, EMC Corporation, which has made “where information lives” its tagline. In my ten-plus jobs at EMC, I have helped craft and communicate EMC’s “maniacal focus” on digital information: Its safe and secure storage, its reliable and speedy availability, its efficient and effective management.
A few of the (public) highlights of this work can be found in…
The first study to estimate the amount of new information created in the world
Consider this blog as the accumulated and future notes from my field research into our lives in information. If you would share experiences and ideas from your lives in information, I’m sure the record will improve greatly.
Gil Press
Disclaimer: This is my personal blog. The opinions expressed are my own and have not been screened by EMC. Content of this blog does not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of EMC.
