Review: Information Ecology

October 1997

In this book, author Tom Davenport applies the now-fashionable concept of "business ecology" to the field of knowledge management. Based on the concept of interacting biological systems, "business ecology" is concerned with the interactions of a business, its customers and suppliers, and the business environment. The book, co-authored by an I.T. professor and a librarian, provides a unique interdisciplinary perspective on the obstacles and opportunities that arise when companies try to leverage their intellectual capital.

This book applies the now fashionable concept of "business ecology" to the field of knowledge management. Unique in combining the worlds of information technology with library science, its focus on "nuts and bolts" makes it popular with practitioners. The information technology perspective comes from Davenport, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, former Ernst and Young consultant, and columnist for CIO magazine. The library science perspective comes from Larry Prusak, a librarian who worked with Davenport at Ernst and now consults with IBM. Original material in the book comes from interviews and surveys with information managers in approximately 50 large U. S. companies.

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