Making Sense of Sensemaking'

The juxtaposition of information technologies for homeland security in M. Mitchell Waldrop's article ("Can Sensemaking Keep Us Safe?" TR March 2003) reveals a conceptual flaw. On the one hand, Waldrop argues for the need to integrate information from many sources without centralizing control over it. This would imply that no single agency would have access to the whole collection of data. On the other hand, the article also proposes making sense of the information via a prior step of taxonomy building-a step that would be possible only if an entire body of information were centrally amassed. In other words, a taxonomy-building approach conflicts with decentralization.

Raul Valdes-Perez
Pittsburgh