Designing a Better Tomorrow: How design is informed by metaphors, images and associations of social progress

Mirko Tobias Schaefer
http://www.mtschaefer.net
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Making the world a better place has been a powerful engine of ingenuity and has driven technological development from Claude Chappe’s signalling system to Samuel Morse’s telegraph, from Paul Otlet’s information indexes to Ted Nelson’s hyperspace. Information technology in general and the World Wide Web and its label Web 2.0 in particular tell a legend of empowering users and enabling participation.