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a shy one too. Hotels are easy. Staff rarely say more than hello. But Airbnb is different. I'm stay-
ing in a home with my host. It's like crashing with a friend you don't know.
Of course, Sophie comes highly recommended. She has a 5-star rating and dozens of glowing re-
views. I'm not at all worried about safety or security. And while I'm not sure I'd want our
daughters being Airbnb hosts, I'm not a complete stranger to Sophie. She's seen my profile, ref-
erences, and Facebook account. She knows I have a verified ID. Airbnb has my home address,
phone number, credit card, and driver's license. I'm about as far from anonymity as can be. And
her property is protected by a one million dollar host guarantee. Airbnb has invested in an archi-
tecture of trust that helps them scale up safely to serve millions of guests around the world.
Figure 1-9. Airbnb's architecture of trust.
But like Uber they do have problems. In New York, Airbnb has been declared illegal, and land-
lords given big fines. In Paris, hosts unwittingly rented to prostitutes who used their home as a
brothel. All around the world, neighbors are disturbed by the presence of strangers in what they
thought were single-family homes. And, of course, hotels are furious. They're losing business.
So they insist on enforcing the laws.
All innovations have unintended consequences, and the system always kicks back. These are les-
sons we must heed as we take information to the next level. Mobile apps aren't products. They
are service avatars that link users into business ecosystems. Websites aren't products either.
They are systems within systems. That's why content management is messier than garbage col-
lection, and why information architects must be systems thinkers. When strategy and structure
meet people and process, our maps must be subject to change, because things rarely go accord-
ing to plan.
Intervention
In recent years, I've had the honor and privilege of working with the Library of Congress, our
nation's oldest cultural institution. As a library school graduate, an opportunity to advise the
world's largest library is about as good as it gets. But our relationship got off to a rocky start.
I was invited to evaluate the Library's web presence. So I conducted a holistic study that in-
cluded user research, stakeholder interviews, and expert review. I learned that the Library had
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