The paper presents the hypothesis that creation of information is only one side of inquiry. The creation of exformation as the context. the history. and the process behind the creation of the end-product of inquiry -information -must be paid just as much attention. The paper goes on to examine the signs for the need for exformation systems in exploring the possibilities for an ethical global information society. It challenges the design effort and design processes in designing information systems and pleads for new approaches to the design of exformation systems. Finally it attempts to sketch three possible approaches for the design and exploration of exformation systems.