A recent review of this book in a computer practitioners journal made me want to read it. My curiosity was aroused because I sensed a resentment that any real information systems (IS) practitioner would consider a philosopical interpretation relevant. It has to be admitted that most systems developers have little time for reviewing the philosophical implications of their work, they are more concerned with a deadline and the status of their work.
That, however, is no reason not to think about such aspects. This book, if it does little else, has at least projected a thought to all those systems designers and software writers that their work may, after all, have a deeper meaning that may be worth discussing. System writers have always been accused of having little interest in the application and implementation of their contribution to the development of a system. Philosophical interpretations come from a mind that is perceptive and, most of all, sufficiently interested to care. For many, the design of an information system is simply a means to an end ‐ obtain information, process it and provide, perhaps, a studied analysis. No further questions are asked about it, this text suggests some. Although difficult to follow in part, with some authors lost in their own rhetoric it does have the merit of directing the “hardnosed” systems writer to think of other things
