Dimensions of the information society

Reflections on Associative Constraints and Possibilities in an Information society (Part #4)

---

[Parts: First | Prev | Next | Last | All] [Links: To-K | From-K | From-Kx | Refs ]

---

The concept of an 'information society' can be approached in a number of ways. Unfortunately perhaps, it is the intense discussion of several aspects of the phenomenon which almost completely obscures other aspects of potentially greater significance, at least for international associations. Partly for this reason, it is not easy to separate the commonly discussed aspects from those which merit greater attention. In an effort to to clarify this situation, the approach taken here has been to produce Table 3 in which '9 Debate Arenas' concerning the information society are distinguished and interrelated. As with the previous tables, Table 3 is intended to be indicative rather than definitive.

The table emerged from reflection on the merit of distinguishing:

• - communication hardware from the modes of communication which it required or rendered possible;
• - information programming from the social organization which it required or rendered possible;
• - information content from the conceptual organization which it required or rendered possible.
• 
  

The 9 Arenas result from the interaction between the dimensions so distinguished. The arenas are discussed individually below the table. The approach is applied to the information initiatives of the Union of International Associations, as a concrete example. The result is presented in Table 4, with details given below the table.

4.1 Comment on dimensions

Some brief comment on the dimensions is called for:

• Hardware: includes both the equipment and the telecommunication networks by which it is linked.
• Mode: refers to the manner in which the information is organized in the communication process, especially in terms of the technical implications of exchanging the information in that form.
• Software: refers to the logical instructions for handling, interrelating and processing information, expressed in a form which can be used to operate a machine (e.g. computer programs), an organization (e.g. policies, plans, rules and procedures) or an intellectual discipline (e.g. a methodology and its associated procedures).
• Groupware: refers to the range of possible group and social structures, especially when conceived in terms of the kind of information exchanges they sustain or by which such structures are rendered viable (4).
• Content: refers to the hard data (e.g. facts) and soft data (e.g. opinions, values) actually exchanged in any communication process, irrespective of the mode used or the logical procedures rendering the exchange possible.
• Conceptware: refers to the conceptual tools, patterns of concepts, models or paradigms through which the information is ordered. It is to be distinguished from isolated concepts that may be communicated as content and from any methodology or software through which they may be given operational form.

In the following discussion of the 9 Arenas, it has been found useful to distinguish three levels of significance in relation to the theme of this paper.

4.2 Nine information society arenas

4.2.1 Adaptive Group (Arenas I to V): These are the arenas in which most discussion concerning the information society occurs. They relate in most cases to the pre-conditions, practicalities and infrastructure without which the information society cannot emerge. For the purpose of this report, their significance is relatively low, because concentration by associations on these arenas will only result in patterns of action that reproduce, in the new context, those which have prevailed to date in the pre-information society era. To the extent that associations rate their performance to date as appropriate to the challenge, or have no desire to envisage patterns other than those which have 'stood the test of time'. it is certainly on these arenas that their attention should be focussed. There are indeed real practical problems which need to be confronted at this level in order to be able to function effectiveyv in the information society.

4.2.2 Innovative Group (Arenas Vl to V111): Whereas the above group of five arenas is concerned in different ways with the infrastructure of the information society and the various checks and balances appropriate to its continued viability, this second group may be considered as concerned with its development. The distinction should however be made between quantitative development, based on existing patterns, as characterized by the preceding group, and its qualitative development, which is the characteristic of this group. The preceding group is associated with the 'adaptive' or 'maintenance' learning of the Club of Rome report cited earlier (3), whereas this group is associated with innovative learning in response to new situations. The major danger in the previous group is of simply replicating existing patterns, with their many inherent defects, in a new environment reinforced by a new technology - and then claiming significant social transformation. Discussions in the arenas of this group therefore tend to be sensitive to uncomfortable issues which are fundamentally incompatible with those of the previous group, because they call their premises into question - a necessary basis for any significant innovation.

4.2.3 Transformative Group (Arena IX): Whereas the previous group of arenas is characterized by discussions which are critical of the appropriateness of modes of organization inherited from the past as 'tried and true', such discussions tend to reject any critical reflection on the innovations which they themselves favour as 'positive'. Such questioning tends to be perceived as counter-productive and 'negative'. By contrast discussions in this group introduce an essentially self-reflective and self-critical dimension.

---

[Parts: First | Prev | Next | Last | All] [Links: To-K | From-K | From-Kx | Refs ]