Applications suggesting other possibilities

Strategic Correspondences: computer-aided insight scaffolding (Part #4)

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(a) Strategic responses to complex systems

Major international conferences are frequently convened in response to complex systems of problems. The intention is often to develop a strategic plan to coordinate collective response. Such initiatives are severely handicapped by the preferred output format, namely a checklist of strategic categories and sub-categories, which usually ignore the systemic links between theissues on which action is planned. The best example is Agenda 21, resulting from the UN Conference on Environment and Development (Rio de Janeiro, 1992) which clusters some 2,000 strategies into a strategic framework lacking any systemic linkages and constituted a special challenge to concept organization (5).

The conceptual organization of such initiatives is of course severely affected by political pressures and compromises. Fashionable flavour-of-the-month categories are stressed, and media-challenged, politically controversial, or minority-interest topics are suppressed. The result is a macro-organization of the strategic framework into 'chapters' (Agenda 21), 'baskets' (Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe), 'initiatives' or 'points'. There is often little systemic basis for the pattern of macro-organization.

Because of the manner in which the items are debated, even within 'chapters', with a line-by-line examination of items that must often be temporarily 'bracketed', links between items within or between chapters is beyond the scope of the conference discussion. It could be argued that this is in large part due to the linear nature of the presentation of the information and the lack of any conceptual scaffolding for a non-linear relationship between items. Political debate is considered complex enough without having to worry about the systemic links between the areas under discussion. Unfortunately it is precisely this attitude which renders the resulting strategies unsustainable and leads to unforeseen consequences when they are implemented. Despite the much-acclaimed need for new approaches to governance, especially at the world level, little attention has been given to the forms of knowledge organization that might be needed to support it. A tragic example recently, highlighted in the media, is the inability of the European Union to distinguish between a 'tin of beans' and a 'pig' as a living entity -- both being categorized as 'agricultural products'. The OECD Macrothesaurus was long challenged by inability to distinguish the environmental role of fish from the economic activity of fishing.

With the kind of software advocated here, there is an opportunity to handle and display complex systemic linkages without the difficulties of information overload. Consider a situation in which a complex strategic situation is under discussion. Tentatively seven (say) main areas are identified. These are then used as subdivisions of a circle around an empty centre. There is now a need to check the completeness of this set. Database information on previous approaches using such categories can be drawn upon. What is required is computer feedback on instances where the seven were completed by one or more further categories. These would be instances which would see the 7-fold division as incomplete. This allows for debate on the significance of any omitted categories. A similar approach can be taken to instances where six or fewer categories were used, because it was considered appropriate to merge one or more of the seven identified. This procedure tests the goodness of fit of the pattern of knowledge organization chosen. It builds on the experience of the past whilst allowing for creativity in the present.

In either of the above cases, the alternatives can be displayed as extra concentric circles. The advantage of this is that clicking on any of the category subdivisions displayed provides information on what was included under that category label. Thus 'health' in one system may be restricted to human physical health, whereas in another it may include psychological dimensions of health. Elsewhere it may even include non-human health.

This process of firming up the set of categories can be assisted by other facilities. From a systemic perspective, the problems perceptible through any category can be seen as linked together in chains and loops making up problem webs. These links can also be held in a database. Considering only the 7 (say) major categories of the envisaged strategic initiative, those links between problems across the boundaries of these categories could then be displayed as an overlay of coloured straight lines across the circles. Features such as thickness of line could be related to the number of such links in each case. Users could then click on any line to view a list of problem pairs (say) systemically linked between any two categories. Moving any problem (or the corresponding strategic response) from one category subdivision to another, then effectively changes the definition of both sub-categories. It will also adjust the pattern (or thickness) of lines between the sub-categories. This facility may also be used to test alternative (or past) approaches.

It is worth noting that each government, with its pattern of ministries and portfolios, can be represented and compared using such software. In each case a government aspires to deal with the whole of society. In one case this may be done with a handful of ministries. In another these concerns may be articulated through dozens. 'Environment' in one case may be very different from 'environment' in another. It may even be appropriate to use concentric circles to display a historical sequence of patterns of ministerial organization, as a way of understanding systemic pressures on governance and the consequences for official knowledge organization. It is also worth noting that communication links between ministries can usefully be designed to reflect the systemic linkages between the problems with which they are concerned -- and where such communications are weak or absent, strategic action by government is bound to fail.

Whilst the points above focus on the macro-organization of a strategic approach, similar questions must necessarily be raised regarding the micro-organization within any of the categories in a circle. The software may be used to explore this by moving any particular category to the 0-circle level in the tabular list and forcing its own sub-categories to be presented as subdivisions of the 1-level circle. Again the systemic links between categories can be overlaid. And again items can be moved from one subdivision to another if this seems to be appropriate.

What then are the consequences for the formulation of global strategic plans?:

Questions as to whether particular issue categories should be included or excluded then become clearer, whatever games are played with labelling categories to seek short-term political advantage. There is even merit in allowing for an extra 'shadow' category in any circular display to hold implicitly or explicitly excluded items. The user may have the option of hiding this shadow subdivision or having it displayed as a reminder of unresolved issues. Displaying it may be especially interesting if there are significant systemic links to it.

If used as a real time display to track the course of a conference debate, the software can be used to reflect categories opened up by speakers and relationships made between those categories (with the further possibility of holding commentary in corresponding database records). The question of whether a contribution is 'to the point' or 'on track' then has graphical consequences. New tracks opened up (perhaps as new circles) may be declared out of order. Such displays then serve as time-binding devices in that they provide graphic bridges between the contributions of a succession of speakers covering a range of points. In a real sense they provide conceptual scaffolding for conferences vulnerable to destabilizing contributions and speakers.

Debate on issues is sensitized by the presence of information on systemic links between issues. Distinctions can be made between collectively acknowledged links and those deemed questionable. The debate on any such distinctions can be conducted with greater conceptual discipline. However the software can be used to selectively suppress information where it may cause overload and may be counter-productive to the momentum of the debate.

Text (and graphics) on strategic initiatives at any level are held in a systemic framework. Such information may be accessed and amended (possibly only following a formal collective decision) at any time. Alternative proposals and wordings may also be held in such a way that their systemic implications are apparent. The product of the conference is therefore far more than a linear text. It is effectively an annotated systemic framework which can be explored according to the user's tolerance for complexity. Because the systemic links are present, and items of detail can be held without confusing the text at a more general level, such a product is effectively configured for implementation. Legal, management, educational and public relations text variants can be held in relation to the same framework.

Because comparison with alternative or past strategies may be readily made, the strengths of the strategy may be readily seen. The definitional challenges and possibilities of misinterpretation can be specifically addressed.

In a multi-lingual or multi-cultural environment, such software facilitates management of alternative wordings. This can be especially important when category subdivisions possible in one language are not meaningfully distinguished in another (whether because for a given issue more subcategory distinctions are usually made, or fewer, due to a lack of equivalent terms). Clarifying differences in category breakdowns may then be conducted in a more conceptually disciplined manner rather than in the current ad hoc manner that disguises confusion that emerges only on implementation.

Conventional listings of themes easily disguise the fact that they may well contain features that are strategically incommensurable or constitute strategic dilemmas (e.g. simultaneously striving to promote industrial growth and environmental conservation). Identifying and working with such dilemmas is the responsibility of any conference of wider significance. The software may then be used to juxtaposition the subcategories that are strategically 'incommensurable' -- configuring them so that debate is not trapped into unfruitful polarized discussion of complex questions of checks and balances. The software may be used to give graphical representation to such checks and balances.

The software effectively provides for the management of future amendments and the comparison between a strategy at different stages in its evolution. One example is the manner in which the UN Environment Programme was forced to reconfigure the pattern of its environmental concerns over time, changing the number of sectors into which 'environment' was subdivided.

(b) Comparison between complementary systems of categories

The software could also be used to hold information of different types. This is valuable where these have some relationship to each other. Examples include:

Use of concentric rings to hold information on world problems, action strategies, human values, international organizations, international meetings, and understandings of human development. This is the challenge of the data currently published by the Union of International Associations in the Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential (7), its companion Yearbook of International Organizations (8) and the International Congress Calendar. Each circle could be subdivided into categories selected as equivalent. 'Zooming' features could be envisaged to equivalent displays at the subcategory level.

Concentric rings could be used to hold different types of qualifiers on a set of concerns represented by subdivisions of an inner circle. Separate circles could thus be used for geographical, chronological, urgency/priority, cost/resource, feasibility, or other qualifiers relevant to strategic initiatives. As a retrieval device, for example,linking one subdivision from each circle to a particular issue would fruitfully focus a search profile. As before, it is a way of formulating a database search request through 'dialling' a profile. The request could possibly be passed through to an Internet search engine.

(c) Self-organization and self-coordination of groups

There have been occasional creative attempts to use centro-symmetric organization charts. A sophisticated software package (Netmap) uses a centro-symmetric display to interactively reconfigure displays of large numbers of transactions between clusters of organizations, departments or individuals (notably as a means of identifying fraud). The cybernetician Stafford Beer has also moved a long way in exploring the possibility of centro-symmetric team building supported by appropriate electronic communication protocols (9). Idea mapping tools, such as the Mind Mapping package (10), can be viewed as centro-symmetric, as can some exercises in mapping hypertext (11). However the software proposed here suggests other possibilities in support of the process by which groupings of individuals (or organizational units) emerge and collaborate at an appropriate level of integration (especially across incommensurable issue divides):

Consider the case of non-interacting individuals (or groups), whether represented at a (large) meeting or in a conference on Internet. Using software of this kind, each can develop (for themselves on their own display) a profile of interests as category subdivisions around one or more circles through which they wish to order their communications. This provides a more sophisticated framework for a frequent requirement that participants profile their interests ('with a few keywords') for a participant directory -- an exercise often experienced as simplistic, if not insulting, to those with a complex pattern of interests. Using the database resources for comparative purposes, the software can now be used to negotiate labels for categories amongst those using equivalent terms. The negotiation process may simply result in the ability to display in a circle the range of variant usages of a given term in the light of the subcategories it subsumes for a particular user. A further step might be to harmonize understanding to some degree. In some contexts this may result in agreement (or imposition by a central authority) of a particular understanding. This could be a dynamic process throughout the period of interaction of the individuals, with the significance of categories constantly subject to challenge.

The above process, having clarified terms, allows for a degree of matching between those with particular combinations of profiles. Such matching is a basis for the emergence of groups and communities of discourse. These can be essential in order to select in and filter out messages to avoid overload. The process may also be vital as a means of unpacking the significance variously attached to portmanteau terms like 'peace', 'sustainability', 'development', 'family values' and the like, as a prelude to meaningful action.

Consider the situation with a collaborating cluster of individuals (or groups). In contrast to the conventional approach of 'groupware' packages, the proposed software does not focus on management of commitments and schedules of group members. Rather the focus is maintaining an overview of configurations of often incommensurable concerns, and the ability of those involved to respond to them. The challenge of the software is to provide conceptual scaffolding to facilitate the emergence of coalitions of actors that would be completely unstable, or impossible, under other circumstances -- the strategic challenge is no longer single-issue programmes, but incompatible-issue programmes. The software is therefore used to configure the pattern of these issues around one or more circles. But those participating will each tend to have particular interests or responsibilities. Clicking on a given category and moving it to the centre then allows for the presentation of a reconfigured display corresponding to the more active or immediate interests of certain participants. For multi-level organizations with 'global' concerns, this may be repeated to capture and reflect more sharply particular 'local' concerns. Note how the software facilitates movement ('zooming') between different strategic levels -- offering access to the perspective of each so as to honour its priorities, whilst integrating it within a broader conceptual framework. Any such grouping is therefore held together by the software facility -- to the extent that this provides pathways through which transformations of perspective between the local and global clusterings of categories with which participants are concerned in different ways.

The facilities offered by such groupware packages as GroupSystems (developed at the University of Arizona) offer 'categorizer' facilities which allow users working through different workstations to create a variety of lists and put the results into 'category buckets'. Another decision support package, COPE (developed by the University of Strathclyde), allows ideas (termed concepts) and links formulated during a meeting to be captured and structured in map form so they can be manipulated, explored and analyzed. It can be used to handle hundreds of concepts.

(d) Relationships between physical, chemical or other variables

It is usual to treat combinations of categories as potential keywords for information retrieval. In the sciences, but also in culture (see below), categories often have relationships to each other of major significance. This is especially the case with physical and chemical equations.

Consider, as an example, the 'pressure', 'volume' and 'temperature' of gases. Using the software, the user could position each of these in subdivisions around a circle. The user could then use a facility to query for any relationship. The response could be given in the centre of the circle in the form of the standard equation relating them. Multiple responses could be positioned in subdivisions in an outer circle.

In the case of chemistry, reactants could be positioned in subdivisions around one circle. The user could then query for the consequences of their reaction and have the results positioned in one or more outer circles.

(e) Exploration of cultural and religious symbolism

Much cultural and religious symbolism is concerned with sets of symbols. Each set provides the context for the emergence of a larger or subtler insight -- which may often require lengthy study, experience or meditation to grasp. Whether this is considered as classical education, psychotherapeutic integration or spiritual development, during this process users may want recourse to graphic, textual and even an anecdotal or aphoristic information. There is therefore a strong case for using the software to position the symbols in subdivisions around a circle so that appropriate forms of information can be required -- and so that particular sets of symbols may be compared with others.

Such concentric circular displays were in fact a characteristic of the renaissance period, whether used to hold arrays of Christian saints, principles, or other symbols. They were often used in exploring 'correspondences' in the light of the hermetic principle 'as above, so below'.

Eastern religious and philosophical systems have made extensive use of concentric displays, notably in the form of various types of mandala. Very complex displays were, and are, used for geomantic mapping purposes. It is probable that Asian countries with powerful computer skills will devote resources to displays of this kind, irrespective of Western views on their relevance.

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